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Food Trailer Wrap Question

Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
I have a new customer that has 5 food trailers she needs wrapped. She had a gal down the road do 3 of her other ones. 2 turned out great, one was very pixly and she requested the lady re-wrap them. She asked me what I thought about them. I said the two looked great and the other did seem a bit pixly but I was careful not to make much of it. Anyway, the gal offered her 1/2 the money back then agreed to re-wrap, then refused. Now this lady is suing her.

This is a food truck so they are viewed close up. I think the right thing to do would have been to stop printing and have the customer stop in at the shop to sign off on this before printing the entire thing since it's quite pixly. I'm wondering now if maybe she does not print in-house and that's why this step was missed. I calculated this to be about $900 in materials and if she ordered it from say Signs365 it would be much more than that.

At any rate, I think this lady is in the right and so far has been very nice to work with. I've done quite a bit of printing for her menu boards, etc. and she's been very happy with my quality.

I think this would be a nice gig to pick up. Do you think this lady is being too picky on the pixels? I think it's bad but food trucks is a new area for me.
 

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Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Stacey K said:
I have a new customer that has 5 food trailers she needs wrapped. She had a gal down the road do 3 of her other ones. 2 turned out great, one was very pixly and she requested the lady re-wrap them. She asked me what I thought about them. I said the two looked great and the other did seem a bit pixly but I was careful not to make much of it. Anyway, the gal offered her 1/2 the money back then agreed to re-wrap, then refused. Now this lady is suing her.

This is a food truck so they are viewed close up. I think the right thing to do would have been to stop printing and have the customer stop in at the shop to sign off on this before printing the entire thing since it's quite pixly. I'm wondering now if maybe she does not print in-house and that's why this step was missed. I calculated this to be about $900 in materials and if she ordered it from say Signs365 it would be much more than that.

At any rate, I think this lady is in the right and so far has been very nice to work with. I've done quite a bit of printing for her menu boards, etc. and she's been very happy with my quality.

I think this would be a nice gig to pick up. Do you think this lady is being too picky on the pixels? I think it's bad but food trucks is a new area for me.
Click to expand...
considering viewing distance.... and the fact that people are standing right next to it - yah, it's pretty bad. You can get good quality images, and in the grand scheme of things, they really aren't that expensive.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Are the 3 so far all different files ?? Different themes ??
Why would some look great and another really bad ??
Who supplied the graphics ??
Wasn't anything discussed up front ??
So, this lady just gave the other shop lousy artwork ??

Perhaps, the other shop thought if she supplied it, it had already met with her satisfaction.

Tough place to be in. Tread carefully and charge accordingly.
 
S

signheremd

New Member
My first thought was to wonder what is the resolution of the original files... Pixilation usually has more to do with the quality of the original files than the print settings. I would agree that the wrap in the pictures is poor resolution - but is that because a small file was stretched?

You can use one of the AI photo software brands to improve, somewhat, pixilated files, but don't expect the miracles they advertise. One of my favorites is Let's Enhance:
letsenhance.io

LetsEnhance: Image quality AI - make photos HD/4k & more online

AI to enhance, upscale and generate pictures. Increase resolution and quality. Fix blurry, pixelated, low res images. Make every photo sharp and clear. Start for free.
letsenhance.io letsenhance.io

I would strongly suggest some samples at full size before printing and rewrapping
 
B

bgraphix

New Member
I don’t think she’s being too picky. That is really bad for a vehicle wrap. I personally would not even start printing that. I usually look at the file full scale before sending to RIP and if pixelated, I send the customer screenshots to show the pixels and to confirm they are aware it will print as such.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
Did the customer supply the artwork, or did the other shop do the design? It doesn't excuse it but it might shed some light on if it's worth working with this client or not.

I have an unwritten rule, if a client comes into the shop and starts complaining about another shop I take it as a huge red flag, 9 times out of 10 they were fired by the other shop because they were a PITA. Her story about suing the other shop would tip me over the edge and I would not take them on, suddenly my schedule would fill up for the next 8 months.
 
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
CanuckSigns said:
Did the customer supply the artwork, or did the other shop do the design? It doesn't excuse it but it might shed some light on if it's worth working with this client or not.

I have an unwritten rule, if a client comes into the shop and starts complaining about another shop I take it as a huge red flag, 9 times out of 10 they were fired by the other shop because they were a PITA. Her story about suing the other shop would tip me over the edge and I would not take them on, suddenly my schedule would fill up for the next 8 months.
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I agree, and I was going to mention this, but Stacy has already worked with the gal. So far so good. But wrapping a food truck is a much bigger investment.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Dont fool with anyone that complains and says they are suing someone over it.
We all know how customer supplied art can be and maybe she insisted on printing it.
Either way, if someone can't amicably deal with an issue with a competitor, don't take them as a customer. Doesn't matter what the reasoning is but you will be the next to get run over.
Meeting someone halfway over an issue is fair and respectful and if one side reneged it is usually because the complainer is demanding more than is due.
 
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Notarealsignguy said:
Dont fool with anyone that complains and says they are suing someone over it.
We all know how customer supplied art can be and maybe she insisted on printing it.
Either way, if someone can't amicably deal with an issue with a competitor, don't take them as a customer. Doesn't matter what the reasoning is but you will be the next to get run over.
Meeting someone halfway over an issue is fair and respectful and if one side reneged it is usually because the complainer is demanding more than is due.
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Or they went to the cricut lady, who's trying to take the dance team banner business away. I totally agree that a litigious happy "client" is a giant red flag, and run, fast. It's difficult for us to know... But Stacy lives in a small town. So, she can know better than we could.
 
ToneCustomSigns

ToneCustomSigns

New Member
I don't think the lady is being picky. I've done my fair share of food/coffee trucks. That's real poor quality. I think you can handle this. I do the same as you. If I get a low res file from the customer, I tell them. I'll print out a piece and have them sign off or offer to recreate the art for a fee. I get everything in writing.
 
Precision

Precision

New Member
We try and educate our clients on the difference in quality between vector and raster based files. At first hint that the client wants pictures on their wrap, we have a rather lengthy conversation about picture size and minimum resolution before we even consider designing.

For someone to print the whole food truck and not stop after seeing the quality in the first 3 feet of printing, says a lot about that guy.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
I dunno. The install looks clean. Skin cuts are straight, screws removed, decent straight overlaps, panels lined up. It doesnt look like hack work. I think there are 2 sides to this.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Gino said:
Are the 3 so far all different files ?? Different themes ??
Why would some look great and another really bad ??
Who supplied the graphics ??
Wasn't anything discussed up front ??
So, this lady just gave the other shop lousy artwork ??

Perhaps, the other shop thought if she supplied it, it had already met with her satisfaction.

Tough place to be in. Tread carefully and charge accordingly.
Click to expand...
Yes - all from the same trailer. I attached a further back photo of the back side.

The wrap girl, who is a graphic artist, supplied the art. The flames are from Shutterstock or Istock, can't remember which. When she discussed this, the wrap girl stated the flames looked good until she added the grill overlay, that's when they became pixelated. So - the issue did not seem to be with the flame artwork. Out of curiosity, I should look for the flames.

The wrap job itself looked good. All her other trailers look good also.

I would assume there was some kind of proof...probably similar to the photo I attached.

She paid around $5,000 for the art and the wrap.
 

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Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Gosh it's hard to remember exactly but she said she has another truck with the same flames. SHE did the artwork and got the flames from Shutterstock (she actually designed a couple of her own trucks and supplied the artwork). She said after she thought about it she looked on Shutterstock and the same flames were used on this new truck so that really boggled her mind. Why would they be good for one truck and not the other.

Hmm I wonder if she supplied the flames and the girl just did the rest...at any rate, if they are available on Shutterstock why wouldn't you pay $10 and grab them?

She did offer her 1/2 her money back but she wanted a new wrap and the gal refused.
 
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