As said many times here and on other threads similar to this one....... this happens to everyone. The results however, will vary according to how you react or what guide lines you have set up in your business.
In almost every case, we will not be responsible for color shift if we don't have a hard copy from which to work.
All the PMS color books, percentages and other misguided color analysis will not amount to a hill of beans for anyone unless you're both on the same page.
You could tell me it's PMS 286. You see it one way on your screen, the customer another way and your printer prints it out at 288... which is close enough for you, but maybe not for the customer.
If someone is expecting a particular color, they must convey that to you..... somehow without using cute little words like taupie-tan or sky blue.
We just had a client give us his file and when we printed it.... it didn't look anything like his drawing. This chuckle-head gave it to us in a format that we could not do any color correction for him. He said he wanted his background more tan and the green copy a little lighter. So we said..... get your designer to do that and we'll print another small test. He said his designer would charge him extra.... could we do it ?? Nope, we can't alter your files. It's either what you see... or pay your guy. He settled for what we printed in the colors he's gonna learn to like.
Rush turnarounds, dippy color names, irresponsible customers will not dictate to me we did something wrong. If the customer is going to be unrealistic, then they must expect the results to be unrealistic. Main difference is.... we tell people this right up front. We don't expect these people to know this without our telling them we need hard copy and workable files.
Had this guy given us a real file, we could've helped him in 10 minutes. His problem, not mine.
In regards to your e-mail letter. I write that kind all the time. Have been for a long time. In fact, I have a tape recorder and I dictate these things in my spare time while driving somewhere, now. I will read it over and over, make corrections, change wording until I'm perfectly content that I'm getting my point across. Did I insult enough ?? Did I get my 34 points across ?? Is this guy gonna come kick my ass ?? THEN, I put it in a little folder and hit delete.
No one should send crap like that to anyone.... especially customers that are paying customers. She had the color part wrong.... that e-mail was wrong on your end.
Just writing it out and reading over it is enough. Don't hit the 'send' button.
I honestly believe, too many people here are firing customers far too much and the ideas come from this place. I never thought of firing a customer before I started coming here. I always worked things out. There have been some that I walked away from, but I never really burnt a bridge behind me by insulting and talking in a condescending manner to a customer. People here are always bragging about this and the frenzy seems to be getting out of control.
Next time you guys want to fire a customer.... e-mail their information to me and I'll take care of them and send you a thank you afterward.
