I. Am. Furious.

[Bigdawg]

I'd put this in NHB cuz' I'm spitting nails mad at this point.

Sent my router guy files on 3/18. Properly setup (been doing set up a while... I know how to set it up).. for shipping on 3/30. Vendor set the ship date.

Come in this morning to an email:

"From: "VENDOR
Date: Wed, March 30, 2011 9:55 am
To: "Cornerstone Signs & Graphics

Max, our router guy has been trying to reach you by e-mail for a couple of days. He has some issues with artwork that he needs your help with.

Please feel free to call him on xxxxxxxx to follow up.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Helllooooo... you guys have had the files almost 2 weeks!!!!! So I get hold of router guy and he starts telling me all the things wrong with the file. It quickly becomes evident that the pdf we had sent for a quote (not set up for routing - lots of gradients and such) was being used for production. The sign would have been totally wrong.

That was Problem #2 (after problem #1... not looking at the file until yesterday - there were no emails from router guy)... problem #3 is the fact that now my supposed-to-be-shipping-today project "might" ship Monday or Tuesday... was needed for an event Saturday...

So now I look like a schmuck to my customer... I'm furious wih the vendor... and I need to find a new routing person around the Florida area.

Any suggestion???

 

[HulkSmash]

When all else failed, i called the local wood working shops. They all have CNC's and handle them pretty well. Good luck!!

 

[Bigdawg]

This job involved hdu routing, sandblasting and metallic laminates. Not many woodworking shops have all that capacity

 

[Typestries]

I have a good source in Marathon. Retired sign guy w 30 years of shop experience. He can rout and build anything the right way. PM me if it would help.

 

[Techman]

Why you furious at the router guy because someone sent him the wrong file?

He didn't run it. That in itself should be worthy of at least one atta boy.

 

[Bigdawg]

I didn't send the wrong file. Their salesperson that I sent manufacture file to did.

Totally their fault. And the only reason it wasn't run was that it was not physically possible. If there hadn't been gradients that segmented into so many lines he couldn't use it, they would have produced the wrong sign.

 

[SignManiac]

I hate to outsource anything anymore. The only way I can ensure peace of mind is to do as much in house as possible. I feel your pain.

 

[Gino]

Wow....... I feel for ya.

I had a sign, some time ago, where I sent the files to my CNC guy and he did the whole job and I even sent a hard copy with all the measurements on it. We had discussed everything and he looked at the file while we talked on the phone.

We got the sign back and it was all the wrong proportions. It wasn't centered on the substrate anymore and we had to do quite a bit of fudging and explaining to the customer, because this piece had to fit a particular set of dimensions. I kept asking him how he could screw it up so badly and he said they did nothing wrong. I asked him if the drawing looked like the finished product..... YEP... came his reply. Then I started getting angry.

After a while we figured out that his version of Flexi would change parameters automatically without anyone knowing it. Don't ask me how or why, but it did. He started finding a particular sequence would not translate properly. We fixed the technical problem on his end, he didn't charge us and we had to make some corrections to the sign and in the end.... everyone was happy.

The only thing I can say is explain to your customer that something beyond your control has taken place and see if you can make some kind of substitute sign.​

Like SignM.... I try to do everything in-house as much as possible, these days.

 

[iSign]

I'm thinking it may still be possible, so if you really "need" it tomorrow... keep believing... and keep trying to find a miracle... I know you pull them out of thin air for your clients, I know I do.. tons of us here will make miracles happen if someone comes in with a need, and by digging deep, we find that we have the means to fill that need...

also, I'd suggest you be open to the "right" CNC guy not being in FL.. like this case, where there was a 2 week lead time wasted on some loser who chose not to look at files for 2 weeks... using the right shop, even 2 days freight away might be worth the extra freight cost..

before i got my CNC, I subbed over a dozen signs to Blueridge Fabrication, back when they were a vendor here

 

[Bigdawg]

Well just got a note... they are going to bust butt and try to ship tomorrow. While I appreciate that I am still very aggravated - but it tells me they want to work to keep our business.

These guys do nice work and now that I have a direct connection with actual router guy over salesman router guy... it may be a salvageable relationship. We'll see when the sign gets here

 

[Bigdawg]

Well... I am going to eat my words (damn they taste bad)...

My vendor drove down and delivered the finished product Friday afternoon. It was BEAUTIFUL... I'll post a pix when i get into work next week. Their guys basically produced this sign in 24 hours... sandblasting, painting, routed laminate and then assembly. They really bent over backwards for us to get it done when we thought it was an impossibility... and the quality did not suffer at all because they did. Thanks Tom (his real name - not Max) for coming in at 6 am Friday to make sure this got finished.

Vendor is Sign Solutions of Tampa bay and I really have to give an attaboy to Tom and Ron for making this happen. I was (and am) totally impressed that they pulled it off.

 

[skyhigh]

Glad things worked out for you Stacy.....still, waiting till the last day wouldn't sit well with me. If one of my vendors has a problem and can't deliver on time, that is one thing....but not communicating with me until the last minute, possibly wasting away the chance of making other arrangments is unaccecptable in my book.

I'm thinking it may still be possible, so if you really "need" it tomorrow... keep believing... and keep trying to find a miracle... I know you pull them out of thin air for your clients, I know I do.. tons of us here will make miracles happen if someone comes in with a need, and by digging deep, we find that we have the means to fill that need...

LOL....I kept reading.....waiting for you to get to the part where she clicks the heels on her ruby slippers while chanting, I do believe in miracles...I do, I do, I do. :ROFLMAO:

 

[iSign]

LOL....I kept reading.....waiting for you to get to the part where she clicks the heels on her ruby slippers while chanting, I do believe in miracles...I do, I do, I do. :ROFLMAO:

LOL :ROFLMAO:

god I hate typing LOL...
but I did have to laugh when I read that...
I have to admit it sounded more fairy tale then simple optimism... :Big Laugh

I'm glad it worked out Stacy!!
(partly 'cause it redeemed me & my sugar coated happy face carebear dance)

 

[skyhigh]

my sugar coated happy face carebear dance

Well, thanks for the laugh on this end. :Big Laugh

Any chance you can post that on youtube? I'd pay to see that.

Wow, we are old....haven't heard of carebears in years. I remember getting one for my daughter when she was like 5. She's 30 now.

 

[iSign]

I'm 52. My daughter turned 31 five weeks ago... and she is the reason I remember them too... and "My Little Pony" ...and "Hello Kitty"...

...the "dance' simply referred to my post, so no youtube version currently available.. but if I decide to drop acid & sing a musical version on video... you'll be the first to know!

 

[Bigdawg]

Glad things worked out for you Stacy.....still, waiting till the last day wouldn't sit well with me. If one of my vendors has a problem and can't deliver on time, that is one thing....but not communicating with me until the last minute, possibly wasting away the chance of making other arrangments is unaccecptable in my book.

I'm really not anymore now that I understand fully what happened. What it did was expose a flaw in their system that has now been fixed. That is a good thing. I have always been all about the answer - not the problem. These guys made it happen and ultimately they earned the right to keep our business.

LOL....I kept reading.....waiting for you to get to the part where she clicks the heels on her ruby slippers while chanting, I do believe in miracles...I do, I do, I do. :ROFLMAO:

I damn near was... now here is the funny part of the story. I was having trouble getting hold of customer so he didn't know it would be late, so I kept expecting him just to walk in at any time. When he finally did call me I told him I would have it for him Monday - that we needed it to be right, rather than rushed. He agreed, but wasn't particularly happy about it. So when I called him to tell him I was looking at the finished product and it was beautiful, I knew I had won a new loyal customer.

I'm 52. My daughter turned 31 five weeks ago... and she is the reason I remember them too... and "My Little Pony" ...and "Hello Kitty"...

yep, 31 and 28 year old daughters still have some of theirs

 

[Malkin]

I'm 52. My daughter turned 31 five weeks ago... and she is the reason I remember them too... and "My Little Pony" ...and "Hello Kitty"...

May wife and I are both 31, and our 5 year old daughter plays with some of her original 80's toys including care bears & my little pony...

 

[SignosaurusRex]

...(another)....Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Glad it all worked out Stacy