Design fees and payment upfront

[Scotchbrite]

I once had a customer that called and complained that there was a separate line item on his estimate for a design/setup fee. He said he didn't mind if we increased the price of the sign to cover the design fee, but he was really against having it as a separate line item!?!?

That sounds like me. Although for me it's usually the items under $10 on a several hundred dollar invoice that bug me.

 

[McDonald Signs]

I'm getting more and more customer's who use some app to design their sign or vehicle graphics and send me the file... Then they think they have done most all of the work.
but it's usually not a vector or high enough resolution file to use. I ask for the vector file (after explaining how to send it) and if they can't do it, I charge a set-up fee to re-design their artwork in a file I can use.
Most of the customers are fine with the fee.