thewvsignguy
New Member
Customers asks for prices on a few outdoor banners. Nothing fancy a 2' X 6' and two 18" X 4'. I did not do any artwork for them as they were to send that to me but I did do a written estimate for them.
A few weeks went buy and then one of the owners walked through the door and she had a box. In that box were 4 banners, she went on to explain on how tight times were and trying to open the addition to their business they were looking for a "cheaper" price then what I quoted. She went on to explain that they got a great deal, buy two get one free and 20% off the forth banner or something like that. So I took the banners out of the box and unrolled them on the table and asked "who did these for you" she replied "Vistaprint!".
Well not that they looked bad but they were printed on a very lightweight (10oz I'm guessing) banner material with a UV curable ink. But the best part is that they were not hemmed nor did they have grommets.
I told her that it's no problem hemming the banners and adding the grommets, I charged per grommet and per liner foot for the hemming. Then she tells me that she will need them installed in 3 days before the big Memorial day weekend. No problem, I can handle that but told her that I will have to charge more then the 3 week old estimate due to shuffling jobs around and making the time to do this.
I get on the phone with fellers and order two sets of the pole banner brackets, they will be delivered the next day (Tuesday) so that leave the employees Wednesday to hem and grommet the banners. And so we went out on Thursday and spent and hour and a half (including the round trip) and installed the banners.
I don't know what they paid for the banners (and never asked). All and all we made a pretty good penny for a few hours of work. They learned a very valuable lesson, you get what you pay for from vistaprint.
A few weeks went buy and then one of the owners walked through the door and she had a box. In that box were 4 banners, she went on to explain on how tight times were and trying to open the addition to their business they were looking for a "cheaper" price then what I quoted. She went on to explain that they got a great deal, buy two get one free and 20% off the forth banner or something like that. So I took the banners out of the box and unrolled them on the table and asked "who did these for you" she replied "Vistaprint!".
Well not that they looked bad but they were printed on a very lightweight (10oz I'm guessing) banner material with a UV curable ink. But the best part is that they were not hemmed nor did they have grommets.
I told her that it's no problem hemming the banners and adding the grommets, I charged per grommet and per liner foot for the hemming. Then she tells me that she will need them installed in 3 days before the big Memorial day weekend. No problem, I can handle that but told her that I will have to charge more then the 3 week old estimate due to shuffling jobs around and making the time to do this.
I get on the phone with fellers and order two sets of the pole banner brackets, they will be delivered the next day (Tuesday) so that leave the employees Wednesday to hem and grommet the banners. And so we went out on Thursday and spent and hour and a half (including the round trip) and installed the banners.
I don't know what they paid for the banners (and never asked). All and all we made a pretty good penny for a few hours of work. They learned a very valuable lesson, you get what you pay for from vistaprint.
I know that VISTA Print does offer the reseller pricing option, (for a fee) but their quality is lacking...along with service. If it helps, we recently started using a great company called ZOO PRINTING. (In our experience,) They have offered fantastic service, quality product, an easy to use website and of course reseller pricing.
