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Customers that get too involved

visual800

Active Member
Last Oct 2010 a Dr. called me and wanted a sign in a neighboring town. i designed something, he liked it, it was a go. He said HE would handle permits and asked how he should do this. The town this was going in was damn near bankrupt and the city and employees were all on pins and needles. I told him "Just put the sign up and avoid all the confusion" Sure it wasnt professional but lets be honest none of us get permits for EVERY sign install

For the next few months I'm getting email after email about where its going, how far off the curb it needs to be, do i know how to check for underground utilities, blah , blah, blah. Well it now Dec 2010 no sign is up and he is getting mad as hell cause no one at the city will help him and they are giving him the runaround, He calls me and asked "how do you tolerate all of this?"...my reply, "I told you 2 months ago to put the damn sign up!"

Ill be damned if about Feb 2011 he emails again and says that town does not have a business license on me. I said "No they don't, I havn't done any wrk in the past year in that town" Now he says I have to get one to install the sign. DAMN! Ok so I get the damn license email copy to him and send all paperwork into the city. This was Feb, LOL. He also emailed over all the paperwork for the permit and needed me to provide dimensions and specs on sign. I once again provided him with this and once again reminded him that sign could have been installed last Oct.

April, he emails me and asks if I have copies of all he emailed me and I need to send to city they didnt get any paperwork. OMG!:banghead:

I once again told him he is dealing with a broke ass city that has the attention span of a tick. This sign could have been done. HE drug this out and made this worse than it had to be. That was the last contact I had with him. I drove by his office the other day and saw "my sign" was up, LOL. Design and everything.

Who's gonna get a bill for art design fees I just haven't thought of a price yet. For someone that "goes by the books" I shocked he did this. Lesson dont let your clients take reigns on things, he is just a control freak and wanted to handle himself:doh:
 

ddarlak

Go Bills!
I would have to disagree with you "going by the book" on this one.

he meant the client was going by the book....

as far as charging him for the design, you should take it on the chin and get permits next time, you could have done the permit work much faster than him, got your license updated and included all this in your original quote. he would have accepted it or not, but at least you wouldn't have had all this drama and waste of time....
 

Locals Find!

New Member
I had a client similar to this one years ago. At a sign shop I was working for. We went round and round. After 2 months we told him we really weren't interested in doing the install. (We were subbing out install work anyway) so we told him to just buy the sign from us and we would give him the contact information for our installer and they could work it out themselves. He did just that and he hassled the installer for months instead of us. Never did see that installer or that client again. Last I heard both of them closed their doors.

Sometimes you got to just cut your losses take what profit you can get and walk away.
 

visual800

Active Member
I don't get deposits unless job is huge and please no bashing about that. im the ONLY SIGNGUY that doesnt get desposits, lol wtf ever. This job wasn't huge and YES I do realize it might not have been professional to mention the no permit thing but lets face it, that damn sign would have been up since October lol

I don't get permits on every freaking sign I do. I don't know anyone that does get it on every sign. I think he went somewhere else cause I wouldnt hold his hand any longer.
Thanks for the comments
 

sbtdover

New Member
If the project requires a sign permit, and we are installing it, we ALWAYS get the permit. Never even a consideration to not get one.
same here. if the customer suggests that we don't bother getting one then we don't even bother putting the sign up. around here it is a $300 fine for putting up a sign without having a permit.
 

visual800

Active Member
ahh we dont have fines around here for it they just make you go down and get permit, if you act as though you thought the contractor or the customer had gotten it. Playing ignorant if you will.

If we monuments, pylons sure I have no problem getting them. Letters on a wall or a pan face change out no, im not gonna waste my gas going to city hall for that. Permits are nothing but another BS fee for the city for doing nothing.

and in Montgomery, since they jacked up our business licenses they way they did they can really suck it now
 
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