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Craziest thing you've done for a customer...?

thesignexpert

thesignexpert

New Member
Here's mine... A couple of months ago we finished up a vehicle wrap for a good client. The truck leaves the shop and heads off to Chicago for an important event. The next day I receive a panicked call letting me know that the installers had failed to complete the window perf and now there was a huge gaping hole right in the center of the logo where it went over a window... oh crud.

I had to solve this problem as fast as humanly possible. How do I get this fixed from 350 miles away when no one I contacted was able to print, laminate and install this any earlier than the next day?

Answer,... Stage one, tube the graphics, pack a bare minimum install kit and hop the next flight from Columbus to Chicago. Stage two, grab a cab to the downtown location. Stage three, locate and setup a ladder literally in traffic with a considerate security guard watching to keep the cars from knocking me to my death. Stage four, install window perf, trim & seal the edges and get out of the street within 30 minutes. Stage five, grab one of the previously mentioned cabs to get back to the airport for the flight home.

Crazy? YES.

Result... an absolutely thrilled customer who had their faith renewed in our commitment to total customer satisfaction.

Alright, let's hear some good ones!

Tim Evans

The Sign Expert .com
Free Forms for Sign Professionals

Pro Sign and Graphics
"A Pro Sign Made Easy"
 
E

econolinesigns

New Member
Painted a full size Mallard Duck boat and a Tabasco Bottle boat. Both were working boat that were displayed at the San Francisco Sports and Boat show several years ago.
 
iSign

iSign

New Member
let's see... maybe the time I had to slice a sheet of 1/2" gator foam in 4 panels, contour cut to a custom panel shape by hand, mount edge prints, hand cut dimensional foam letters (w/ prints) to mount to main panel with spacers at jobsite, figure out how to mount concealed rope light to back of script font raised lettering, looping through holes to back of panel &, out again to hide lighting between letters...

...and then, when all this was figured out, build a crate, get the crate on one plane & me on another, after lining up the rarest of the rare commodities among rent-a-car companies... a pick-up truck... to meet the air cargo, take to the hotel, & get my tools & crate into the lobby for the final assembly & installation...

As it was, I started designing the crate about 3 hours before the last flight of the day for the only chance to get the sign to another island on time... I had a cut list & bribed a Lowe's employee to cut my order, because I didn't own a panel saw yet & it would have taken way to long otherwise... and I miraculously got the crate built, the sign loaded & dropped of with less than half an hour to spare, before the whole complex project would have become a crisis...

And the timing to get from the airport, to get the pickup truck, & then get the air cargo before they closed was also down to the wire with only a slim margin for error...

...and at the hotel, trying to actually build this thing & install it, with site conditions I never had prior access too, & only the minimum of tools & had thrown in a crate for the trip...

I think I was not under the gun for the actual install deadline, but to fly home that evening and avoid a night in a hotel which would eat all the profit, I had to make some desperate last minute phone call, & managed to switch to a different airline as my lucky last minute solution to get me home.

I think the day I made the sign & the crate, plus the next day when I flew over to finish the job & fly back were probably 2 of the most amazing feats of efficiency & no-room-for-error logistics that I have ever endured... although in my mind, they also seem to sum up many of the jobs I built my business reputation on.

I never told this story here, but I did take a bunch of pics... I'll see if i can dig up a few!
 
Farmboy

Farmboy

New Member
Hmm..my crazy is not in the same league as other folks crazy. Last week we cut vinyl letters for a birthday cake. Made sure the customer knew that they should not eat them. Sorry...thats alls I gots.
 
vinylbarry

vinylbarry

New Member
We have done mega phones for cheerleaders, mail boxes , them little scooters , a wagon done in pink with black pin stripes we have done alot of crazy things we have built a rep on getting crazy things done.
 
TheSnowman

TheSnowman

New Member
We do a lot of auction signs for a real estate/auction company in town. I was leaving town for a week to take off and spend some time with the family on vacation. Since I'm a one man shop, I had let them know to tell me earlier in the week if they needed anything before I left.

I got a call the day before I was leaving for I believe 27 4' X 4' auction signs. They just needed updated, which involved removing the old vinyl, and printing new, and laying it down w/ the big squeegee. I remember starting early that morning, and had my wife come in with me, and we knocked them all out, and still had time to pack that night and head out the next morning.

Nothing like flying anywhere to do a job, but that was a big job for a one man shop. I was just glad I had enough vinyl around, because they were all two sided.
 
Pat Whatley

Pat Whatley

New Member
Had a friend of mine call me at 6:00 one night. The company he worked for was opening a new location about 3 hours from here. They decided to order all of their Grand Opening signs and banners from a Signs Now located in the same strip mall because "they're local so we can run to them if something comes up at the last minute!"

Well...the last minute arrived and the Signs Now called them to tell them they were too busy and wouldn't be able to get to their order.

This was in the "all vinyl" days. I did 4 - 3'x10' banners, 25 18"x24" yard signs, and 10-12 other small signs for them, finished it up around 3:00 in the morning, drove the 3 hours, installed the banners as the sun came up, left the rest of the signs leaning against the door, drove to the first hotel I found and crashed.

The best part? When the purchasing lady got the invoice she called to complain that my price was double what the Signs Now had quoted. A very quick phone call to the guy whose ass I'd saved got that, and the hotel room, taken care of.
 
Pat Whatley

Pat Whatley

New Member
There's also a guy on this site who won't tell the story, I'm sure, but his "going the extra mile" for a customer story involves a Batman costume & penicillin. :thumb::ROFLMAO:
 
Nuagedesigns

Nuagedesigns

New Member
Story starts Thursday night at around 7:30pm, our late night finishing up an install at a customers location. Cell phone rings and a different customer needs Scion wrapped by Monday morning to be placed in a shopping mall by 7:00am, but is unsure when they can get us the car and we have never spoke about designs or color schemes. I agree, and tell him that we will have to charge accordingly due to time constraints and that we will have to work through the weekend.

Friday we start working on designs and emailing back and forth layouts and can't seem to please the multiple people viewing these layouts on other end of email so we put are foot down and talked them into just leaving the design up to us and that they would have to trust us. Design ended up with complete coverage of vehicle minus front and rear bumpers scion was whit we so we blended sides and back into white which ended up working out well and saving us some time to guarantee that we would have enough time to complete install.

We received delivery of vehicle Sat afternoon at about 1:00pm. Printed all day sat and laminated Sunday morning and completed install around 2:00 am. Dropped off vehicle at 6:00am with time to spare.
 
J

Just Another Sign Guy

New Member
hmmm...let's see.

craziest job i have ever done. etch company logo onto amazingly expensive glass 'sex toys' that ended up being photographed by playboy magazine and published... for the same client i had to airbrush models for the adult entertainment expo in vegas before they 'took the floor'.

oddest job i had a client who had me letter the inside of his medicine cabinet that had a camera in it as well so that if ppl 'snooped' at his parties they were caught...myself i just crack my medicine cabinet open a hair and slowly insert marbles so taht if anyone snoops all the marbles fall out.

craziest expense(s)...i have had to fly an employee cross country to install one color cut vinyl door lettering for a high end makeup company that insisted an employee from our company installed the vinyl...and yes they paid for all of it decal was $225 installation with transportation was nearly 5X's that amount.

on dec 24th one year i received a frantic phone call from a high end retailer we serviced that had failed to place their order for their new years day sale (which is always a huge shopping fashion event for this company) all window graphics, vinettes, pop signs, and misc odds and ends for 110 stores needed to be shipped to their distribution center no later than 5pm dec 26th...we could not even obtain the materials necessary to complete the project locally and had to fly in, bus in and train in, materials from multiple states as not even the manufacturers had enough material on hand to do completely do the project. i worked all night christmas eve organizing files, preparing etc. sent employees to pick up materials on christmas eve and christmas day at airport, bus terminals, train depot...sent everyone else who we could spare home to enjoy christmas eve with their families...and gave everyone the option of working christmas day (every employee took that opportunity without telling them what their total compensation would be because i didnt know yet)

worked a broken up long christmas day letting employees take a 4 hour period if they wanted to at their discression to do a christmas morning (most employees chose not to) as well as they could take a 2hour evening break (only one person chose to do that) and we worked as long as we possibly could (many of us worked all night).

we fulfilled the order and had it delivered a couple hours before our deadline. our client was more than happy to pay any and all charges (they had sent us a signed blank purchase order for the project prior to production). on top of employee pay of 2.5 X's their regular pay for working that horrible shift the smallest employee 'bonus' was $2,250 and the highest for one employee who took a few sleep breaks in an extra office and stayed the entire time with me never leaving the shop until our truck delivered the project earned a $5,000 bonus.

Everyone was happy including the client.
 
iSign

iSign

New Member
iSign said:
let's see... maybe the time I had to slice a sheet of 1/2" gator foam in 4 panels, contour cut to a custom panel shape by hand, mount edge prints, hand cut dimensional foam letters (w/ prints) to mount to main panel with spacers at jobsite, figure out how to mount concealed rope light to back of script font raised lettering, looping through holes to back of panel &, out again to hide lighting between letters...

...and then, when all this was figured out, build a crate, get the crate on one plane & me on another, after lining up the rarest of the rare commodities among rent-a-car companies... a pick-up truck... to meet the air cargo, take to the hotel, & get my tools & crate into the lobby for the final assembly & installation...

As it was, I started designing the crate about 3 hours before the last flight of the day for the only chance to get the sign to another island on time... I had a cut list & bribed a Lowe's employee to cut my order, because I didn't own a panel saw yet & it would have taken way to long otherwise... and I miraculously got the crate built, the sign loaded & dropped of with less than half an hour to spare, before the whole complex project would have become a crisis...

And the timing to get from the airport, to get the pickup truck, & then get the air cargo before they closed was also down to the wire with only a slim margin for error...

...and at the hotel, trying to actually build this thing & install it, with site conditions I never had prior access too, & only the minimum of tools & had thrown in a crate for the trip...

I think I was not under the gun for the actual install deadline, but to fly home that evening and avoid a night in a hotel which would eat all the profit, I had to make some desperate last minute phone call, & managed to switch to a different airline as my lucky last minute solution to get me home.

I think the day I made the sign & the crate, plus the next day when I flew over to finish the job & fly back were probably 2 of the most amazing feats of efficiency & no-room-for-error logistics that I have ever endured... although in my mind, they also seem to sum up many of the jobs I built my business reputation on.

I never told this story here, but I did take a bunch of pics... I'll see if i can dig up a few!
Click to expand...

OK, sorry for the bandwidth drain, but I'm quoting my story to connect it with the photos. I decided to make a blog post out of it later, so I spent over an hour on the photos for the blog, but I just made a collage of them for here. It's hard to tell a story with all the memories it still holds for the storyteller, but these photos really bring back the adventurous spirit of that weekend for me, so I'll post them in case it helps tell my story.

ameriquest9.jpg


(click HERE to see the larger version on my web server)
 
astro8

astro8

New Member
Few years back drove 4,200 mile round trip across the Nullabor to hang 2 signs for a video store franchise in a town way, way out in the Outback and got paid for it every inch of the way.

What a trip...saw overturned trucks with squashed helicopters on the back...overturned caravans, Roadtrains, even found a piece of Skylab. I thought that was great until I got to the next fuel stop which was a couple hundred miles on and he had a whole heap of Skylab.
 
W

wes70

New Member
On more than one occasion, I've had to apply vinyl lettering on lobster boats by leaning off one boat and apply to the other boat's bow. Not dry docked! Open choppy water, end of November, flurries and temperature around the freezing mark!
 
3dsignco

3dsignco

New Member
Lettering the Aerial Tram at The Royal Gorge. Had to do the splits to straddle the landing Skids/Dock (Whatever they're called) so I could letter outside with nothing between me and the river 1000 feet below me.

Lettered a 400 ft concrete tower off a swingstage.. I will never do that again.
 
Bradster941

Bradster941

New Member
.


Flew to Huston to change the location of a wire for the pylon sign from one contacter to the contacter it should have been landed on to come on with the wall packs instead of the can sign.

2 minute job, turned around and flew back home.
Was late for dinner but 'O well, bet the electrician
didn't feel much like eating dinner for a week when
he got the bill.


.
 
D

dortonracing

New Member
I had to put fire flames on a casket, and we were trying to get it open to tuck the vinyl in but it was lock. Thank god, cuz the guy was in it.
 
RebeckaR

RebeckaR

New Member
I painted scenes from the four seasons on the sides of an old wooden outhouse. Fortunately it was no longer in use so not a hazardous undertaking.
 
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