• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

customer complaining about stencils he asked me to make

gabagoo

New Member
I made 3 stencils for a long time customer for his dumpsters. I had them routered out of aluminum and they looked great.

I told him I had done this before for other companies with happy results.

Now when we discussed this I told him the other company that had recently done this used heavy duty magnets to hold the stencil not only in place but to force it down onto the metal bins.

he called today furious and told me the stencils suck and he had overspray everywhere.

I asked if he had used the magnets and he said he did not have time to source them so instead used tape around the perimeter of the aluminum.
I told him that it is no wonder the paint is ghosting and overspraying and that he had to try using magnets to seal the aluminum to the steel as we had discussed.

I now have to go out and find these heavy duty magnets just so that I have a chance of getting paid.

On top of that he tells me now that they are older bins and pretty knocked up with dents and not very smooth surfaces. What the hell does he expect?

I told him that the stencils are an inexpensive way to mark the bins but they would never look as good as vinyl and he accepted that at the time...funny how everything changes.
 

Letterbox Mike

New Member
Maybe I'm having a bad day, but I'd tell him to eat a d!ck. I'd consider not getting paid by him the cost of getting rid of a nuisance customer and cut him loose.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Yaha....... here's one I think I would fire. No frickin' chit !!

He wants perfectly flat rigid stencils to go onto a bumpity old dumpster and has some overspray ??

They're old, in bad shape and he wants a perfect paint job with a rattle can ?? I'd tell him to run fast before the can hits on him the backside of his head.
 

Jillbeans

New Member
If he hasn't even paid you he has no right to complain.
It's for a frigging dumpster for crying out loud not a Corvette.
I'd tell him unless he paid me I wouldn't deal with him.
Then when he pays you tell him to f off.
Maybe throw a few old refrigerator magnets at him.
Love....Jill
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
Have you tried making a paint stencil out of good quality magnetic sheet?
I've gotten pretty good results with this when used on some oil drums used for recycling bins. Not a durable as routed metal but they are easy to set up.

wayne k
guam usa
 

iSign

New Member
Have you tried making a paint stencil out of good quality magnetic sheet?
I've gotten pretty good results with this when used on some oil drums used for recycling bins. Not a durable as routed metal but they are easy to set up.

wayne k
guam usa
+1

...by the way, if you didn't get paid yet... um, who's fault is that?
that never happens to me anymore...
 

Craig Sjoquist

New Member
Magnetic sheet works well even on non steel metal it lays flat. Alum. ? does not make sense like stated above.

Then you say un-paid for small job geez
 

Fitch

New Member
Thats why we cut them out of Polyethylene sheet - it flexes with the surface.

Nothing personal but your bad - you should have asked the condition of the surface.

Lesson learnt.

Cheers - G
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
No, gaba did nothing wrong.

He told the customer what he was going to make and that others have had success with it. The customer was too lazy to pick up a few magnets to make it easy on hm. Sure, if you think gaba was wrong for not asking every question under the sun for a set of simple stencils... why didn't the rattle can master offer up the condition of his dumpsters up front ??

Granted, we almost always make ours out of styrene, too.... but there's nothing wrong with aluminum. However, I don't know how the magnets were supposed to work....... :rolleyes:
 

Mainframe

New Member
All special orders (anything outsourced) must be pre paid in full before ordering!!!
All other jobs half down minimum


period!
 

gabagoo

New Member
Have you tried making a paint stencil out of good quality magnetic sheet?
I've gotten pretty good results with this when used on some oil drums used for recycling bins. Not a durable as routed metal but they are easy to set up.

wayne k
guam usa

I have done this in the past using my edge, but the complaint is that the paint really builds up and the magnetic stencil falls apart. These ones I did are pretty big too. One is almost 48" x 48" . I found a company online that sells earth magnets so I will buya dozen or so and sell them to him to hold the sucker down
 

gabagoo

New Member
+1

...by the way, if you didn't get paid yet... um, who's fault is that?
that never happens to me anymore...

This is a regular client who orders many temp signs for construction jobs and I have never had payment issues. I am sure he will pay. I think he just got frustrated and called me the moment he threw the spray bomb at the wall lol
 

gabagoo

New Member
No, gaba did nothing wrong.

He told the customer what he was going to make and that others have had success with it. The customer was too lazy to pick up a few magnets to make it easy on hm. Sure, if you think gaba was wrong for not asking every question under the sun for a set of simple stencils... why didn't the rattle can master offer up the condition of his dumpsters up front ??

Granted, we almost always make ours out of styrene, too.... but there's nothing wrong with aluminum. However, I don't know how the magnets were supposed to work....... :rolleyes:


earth magnets are very powerful and will hold even through the aluminum..c'mon Gino I'm not that dumb...or maybe I am lol:banghead:
 

Custom_Grafx

New Member
I have done stencils for a customer who had 53 (if i remember correctly) skip bins. After going through the process and what's involved, he actually opted for using paint mask vinyl, had me cut them. yes, only one use per bin, but they all came out perfect, and no typical "stencil lettering".

The only problem we did have, was when applying the vinyl mask, some of the bins were in such bad shape, it was hard to get them to stick, even though we used low tack mask.
 

CanuckSigns

Active Member
Hey Barry, Lee Valley sells rare earth magnets, not sure what kind of pricing you are gettin online, but lee valley may be closer.

I would also tell your customer to eat a d!ck by the way.
 
Top