Customer Humor

[Firefox]

Did a sign once with 1 arrow pointing up and 1 down... but it was a church!

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Speaking of "elevators", I did some etching for a guy working for an elevator company.
I asked him "how's business?". He replied "oooh, you know, up and down".

I was doing door fleet graphics (simple el cheapo/I'm on a budget ones) for a local materials supplier who just wanted his name and number on the doors of his trucks with a one colour version of his logo. There were around 10 vehicles.

His sales manager walked up to me on my 5th or 6th truck, and although I've had this said before, and stopped falling for it a while ago, I fell for it again coz it had been a while "you spelt Sydney wrong".

I laughed, and said oh crap you got me, I hate that... we both lol'd and enjoyed...

I left his brand new pick up till last (all the rest were crappy trucks, his was a new shiny thing).

I finished the job, walked up to the sales manager with a semi concerned look on my face, and put on a serious tone...

"What's up? he asked..."

"You know that black pencil I've been using to mark the location for the graphics? turns out I picked up the wrong pencil and it's a permanent one, not the one that rubs off. "

Before giving him a chance to say anything to that, I quickly interrupted saying "look look I know... it's not as bad as it sounds... a few washes and 3-6 months later it'll all fade away naturally... it doesn't look so bad when you stand a little back does it?"

I let his blood hit about 1 degree below boiling point then told him he fell for the most popular sign customer trick in the book...

It felt good to finally get back at someone with that old spelling prank.

 

[Sticky Signs]

This one time, shortly after getting hired, I got sent to a location to put graphics in an elevator. I got to the location and called the foreman who happened to be standing next to the boss. Here's how it went.

Me - Hey Pete, I can't find the elevator. What floor is it suppose to be on?

Pete - You can't find the elevator because you don't know what floor it's on? Hmmmm, let me check my notes.

Me - bitting my lip trying not to laugh as I hear the boss in the background bursting out in laughter.

Pete - Awww damnit, CLICK.


I know, not quite a customer joke but I still laugh about that one till this day.

 

[Mosh]

Why is it so hard for customers to get the "arrow" thing? I once drove 30 miles to turn a realty (20x28) sign around for a customer....She still didn't get it. Once I had a customer pick up some signs that the arrow needed to point west, in the shop they were sitting there facing east, they had a freak out when I told them it would be extra to fix them. The look on their face when I just turned the sign around...

 

[visual800]

not funny but I had a customer call on a monday and say they were having ribbon cutting on fri and needed channel letters.....UHHHHH DUMBASS!

 

[PromoGuyTy]

I had a wholesale customer send me a PDF file to print... and then asked me to send them back a proof.

Huh?

I sent him back his own PDF file, but changed the name to proof.pdf and he was happy.

This happens AT LEAST once a week here.

 

[fmg]

Actually had a customer I sent over a final proof for their review and they asked me if I would send them over a final proof after receiving it?????????????????????????????????? Oh the pain the pain!

 

[Custom_Grafx]

The other day a client asked me for a proof. I sent it... 3 weeks later, he clicks on forward, with the exact same file, sends it back to me... with this in the body "Hi, can you please go ahead with this, send me draft before proceeding"...

 

[RalphGS]

I had a client this week that asked for a different file-extension than that strange PDF-proof..... Because MS Paint didnt recognise this type of files!

 

[RobbyMac]

We had a raceteam that we sell some sort of "helicopter tape" type material (54" or 48" wide rolls of thick laminate) to protect areas of the car from dings. They complained about the price on a panic order they placed for 6 custom cut panels (to fit a specific area of the car) needed the same day. A week or so later, one of our install guys was chatting with the guy from the team, who was all happy because he looked up the 'part #' (on the last batch of panels we sold him) online and found the roll material for ALOT cheaper than what were were charging him apparantly... He explained to our install guy that he was just trying to save some money and would handcut the panels themselves from now on.
Unfortunately, the 'part #' he had found (and the roll he had ordered) was SCPM-3.

 

[weaselboogie]

not funny but I had a customer call on a monday and say they were having ribbon cutting on fri and needed channel letters.....UHHHHH DUMBASS!

This happened to me too, but their request was for channel letters on a 3 day turn around... installed.

 

[TheSnowman]

I had a guy come in last year sometime, they were building a fire station, and they wanted me to order letters from Gemini for it. I said no problem, let me see what you need me to quote, he hands me the papers, and takes off out the door cause he's got important things to do apparently instead of explaining. How it was laid out it looked like they weren't sure which they were going to do, 6" letters, or 12" letters, so I showed a quote for each, but only included installation for one set, one set of templates, etc.

This guy comes in a day later, says OVERNIGHT EVERYTHING, you were cheaper by half than the other company and we have to do this THIS WEEK. I said, waaiiiittt...really? Then he proceeds to tell me how the contractor thought someone else was doing it, then the local dept had to find someone, and they weren't really sure who was paying for it, etc. I said, look, I'm glad to move it as quick as I can, but no way is Gemini gonna have these here tomorrow.

I asked him if they were doing the 6" or the 12", and he said BOTH. I was like...waaaaittt...you gotta be kiddin' me, I didn't figure installation or templates, shipping, or anything for TWO sets. I said, well, that makes sense that I was 50% lower, I'm only doing half the job!

So I decided I was glad to match the other company's quote, and I'd get on it as quick as I could. I remembered him saying he wasn't sure who was paying, and I clearly had FULL PAYMENT UPON ORDERING because I didn't trust this guy at all. I said, I'll get it ordered, how would you like to take care of payment? He said that he couldn't pay anything up front, and it would be a while till I got paid...then said, "is that gonna be a problem?" I said, ya, that's gonna be a problem. He said, "OK!" and stormed out the door. I hope he never comes back. Glad I didn't gamble it, I'm done losing money on deadbeats.

 

[binki]

Wholesale customer in a big hurry with bad artwork. I don't want to do the job, he just wants it done and doesn't care what it looks like.

Get it done and he comes in with a check. After he leaves i notice it is post dated. I go to his place and get him to change the date and then I go to his bank and it is NSF.

I call his boss and leave a message about payment due by 5pm or a lawsuit is coming.

They come in and pay with dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. $192 almost all in change. At least it is in cash.

 

[Malkin]

We had a raceteam that we sell some sort of "helicopter tape" type material (54" or 48" wide rolls of thick laminate) to protect areas of the car from dings. They complained about the price on a panic order they placed for 6 custom cut panels (to fit a specific area of the car) needed the same day. A week or so later, one of our install guys was chatting with the guy from the team, who was all happy because he looked up the 'part #' (on the last batch of panels we sold him) online and found the roll material for ALOT cheaper than what were were charging him apparantly... He explained to our install guy that he was just trying to save some money and would handcut the panels themselves from now on.
Unfortunately, the 'part #' he had found (and the roll he had ordered) was SCPM-3.

hahahahahaha that's awesome!

 

[HaroldDesign]

I had a wholesale customer send me a PDF file to print... and then asked me to send them back a proof.

Huh?

I sent him back his own PDF file, but changed the name to proof.pdf and he was happy.

I do this on a daily basis for numerous customers. I do, however, take a look at the art to see if it will actually work.

 

[oldgoatroper]

I have a customer who made an A-frames with arrows (both pointing the same way).
The end user calls up to say the arrows point the wrong way.
No amount of conversation on the phone would convince the client that the arrows were ok.
He had to physically go to the location and flip the sign around 180 to point the arrows to the clients business to satisfy the client, which apparently only angered the client.

hahaha... yes, what is sooooo hard about that, eh?


Down the street where I live and walk my dog... I noticed one day a realtor's Open House sandwich board with arrows both sides... nothing out of the ordinary, right?

So, one day I'm walking by this sign and I notice that it is a reversible sandwich board and there are graphics on the inside surface.. I bend down a little to take a peek at what I thought might be something like a double duty graphic like "New Listing" or something...

but....
it was identical to the graphics displayed on the outside ------ except for the arrows were pointing the opposite direction...

so.... I've always wondered since then... did the customer insist upon it done this way? or did some slick, scumball sign person sell them the goods... ?

Anyway... I had a good laugh about it... (I should have taken a picture... darnit)