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Customer turned "competitor"

ProWraps

ProWraps

New Member
everybody i hire, then fire, becomes my competition. EVERYBODY.

seems to be part of the trade.

one of the idiots called me today and asked me how much to print for him. he couldnt understand why i said dont ever call me again and hung up on him.

but then again, that could be from the constant drugged up text messages i STILL get from him regularly. gotta love it.
 
GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
ProWraps said:
everybody i hire, then fire, becomes my competition. EVERYBODY.

seems to be part of the trade.

one of the idiots called me today and asked me how much to print for him. he couldnt understand why i said dont ever call me again and hung up on him.

but then again, that could be from the constant drugged up text messages i STILL get from him regularly. gotta love it.
Click to expand...

So how long did 3M work for you before you had to let him go?....

wayne k
guam usa
 
Jillbeans

Jillbeans

New Member
It's not as ugly as some of the hacks around here.
(I mean their corosigns plastered everywhere and the one guy's truck that you can't read)
I have never had a "friend" do this but a family friend has started cutting vynull.
She didn't realize how badly I wanted to c*nt punch her when we were all at some get together and she asked me which plotter would be best for her to run from Corel.
What housewife just randomly owns Corel?
I techno-babbled her into submission but she still ended up getting a plotter.
It's sad to see a once-proud profession be an "easy" job for some people who can't even spell yet alone design something.
Love....Jill
 
TheSnowman

TheSnowman

New Member
I always send the customers I can't stand to the "new lowballing guy" who has been around probably 4 years or so now. He seems to want to be the cheapest guy in town, and he attracts the cheapest people, so that's a win win for me. I keep all my good customers that come to me anyway, and if they're jerks, I just tell them "No, I can't do that coro for you, sorry, but check out this guy over here!"
 
A

acothran

New Member
Kerning 101 - Always remember, ampersands on the top row get two "space bar taps" on each side. Ampersands on the bottom row only get one "space bar tap" on each side. Oh, and the dots aren't text so just take a wild guess.

Allen
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
At least he did come to you and warn you he was going to be competition.

Honestly, I would do whatever you could for him, he'll be in your debt constantly. I wouldn't do any projects for him other than wide-format printing and stuff, but don't give him a break on price. Keep the same pricing you had when he was a regular customer, with one minor adjustment. Make sure he knows up front he has to pay for anything before he takes it out of your place.

You don't want him mad or angry at you..... it could backfire on you.


Remember what my old Godfather told me...... Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. :pops_blinking:​











Oh yeah, he won't last long, judging by that sign. :covereyes:
 
W

WestbankKurt

New Member
"Blue Dog"

Gee, I thought we had the ORIGINAL "Blue Dog" here in Louisiana, just go to the gallery on Royal Street in the French Quarter and see for yourself!
 
S

Salmoneye

New Member
I started my shop here in town and had to have the same conversation with a friend of mine here that had a shop. He was super helpful and even gave me pricing, vendor info... I never undercut him, at least not on purpose. When I asked him about pricing it was actually so that I wouldn't be too cheap. I now refer him work when it is something that I don't have time to do or need help with. He became ill at one point and I told him that I would do whatever jobs he needed me to and split them with him so that he wouldn't loose his customers; Another time his printer went down for two weeks and I told him to come over at closing, bring his own material and print as much as he wanted just kick in a bit for ink. In other ways he has helped me just as much, I like to think that we haven't taken any work from one another.
 
J

john1

Guest
Just googled that guy, His website doesn't even work and his FB has nothing on it either. Oh the internet lol
 
ironchef

ironchef

New Member
Same here i still keep in touch with the guy who sold me wholesale prints. The other day his grays were coming out greenish. Told him to try a hexis profile that i used and it worked for him. Gray was perfect afterwards. He has an old jv3. I send him jobs that i cant handle such as prints/banners over 54in. Cnc router stuff, led / channel letters. So moral of the story, not everyone who starts out in this field is an *******. But then again i know a local guy who left our shop and less then a year later, opened a mile away. Our local lowballer.. Lol oh nevermind our local lowballer is the guy driving around doing signs out of their van.
 
kstompaint

kstompaint

New Member
Again, I'm not mad. Just frustrated. I worked for two other shops before I went out on my own too but one is 1200 miles away. The other is local and Im still ok with the guy. I worked for him for almost 10 years on and off. It's the low baller thig that kills me. Too many backyard shops taking the value out of it for those of us who actually have overhead and spent 20 years learning the trade. They've been in and out of your shop for years and see how 'easy' it is and find out how 'cheap' the vinyl is and suddenly they're a sign guy.

I have great relationships with almost every shop in my market. Their printer breaks, they need 3 feet of red vinyl or a sheet of coro.... I'm there and visa-versa. We refer and sub eachother all the time. But those aren't fly by nighters.

Not mad, frustrated.
 
S

SD&F

New Member
It is OK, let him have all the cheap work he wants. He will either not survive or get tired of working sooo hard for sooo little. He will be the one trying to collect money for jobs that he thinks are easy to do.
 
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