CES020
New Member
I just had the most enjoyable lunch! I went to Arbys and once placing my order, I turned around and noticed a guy installing vinyl lettering on a building across the street. He was installing their building number over the door with white vinyl lettering, looked to be about 10-12" tall. When I tune into him, he's got the numbers up there, measuring the location to try and get it straight. I can see from across 6 lanes of traffic, it's crooked. Very crooked.
I watch him make an adjustment, eyeballing, then measure again. Wrong again, still crooked. He adjusts it again. He keeps putting his tape measure away, then sliding it around, and then measuring it again. This goes on for about 10 minutes. At this point, I realized he's smartly dressed and is probably not a qualified sign professional
Finally, he seems to get it right, by this time, I've picked a seat that allows me to eat and watch the show
I missed the point when he removed the backing paper, but I was confused on all the measuring he did because then he took it completely down to remove the release liner, I guess.
So he goes back up with it, I look, he's squeegeeing it and I notice his hand placement, and I think to myself "he's using a rubber squeegee on a handle, not a flat squeegee like we use". So he goes over the entire thing a few times, he tries to get the transfer tape off and one number is lifting. He keeps going back over it with his hand. I look away, look back, all the numbers are gone completely. Hummm, I wonder what happened, as I missed that part. Rats. Good planning to the rescue. He reaches out and grabs another one. Apparently he planned ahead and got 2.
He's following the same process and it's killing me to watch. At this point, I'm thinking "I'm going to walk over and help the guy out, I can't watch this train wreck any longer". Turns out, I was wrong, I could watch a little longer
Finally gets it where it wants it, again, measured the entire thing, got it in the place he wanted and then pulled it down to remove the release liner. Then he puts it back up, sticks it, then measures it and starts moving it around. I don't know how he's moving it, as it's not a wet installation, but I could see the big blue bottle of windex sitting next to his 4 foot ladder, so I guess he cleaned it with silicone before applying
So he goes to move it one last time after measuring and the last number comes up, but the 3rd number stays stuck to the glass. So now it's crooked and one number has stuck. So he goes to the other side, tries to peel it from that side. 2 of the numbers come up and it's back to that magic 3rd number that's stuck to the glass. Then, he goes back to the other side, tries to get that 3rd number to come back up. It won't. He grabs the transfer tape and rips it off the window, pulling 3 numbers and leaving the remaining stuck number. He then grabs that number, rips it off the glass, balls it all up into a ball and throws it on the ground. Comes off his ladder, packs his stuff up, storms into the office. I can see him walking around in the office, apparently pissed. Someone else comes over to talk to him and he's pointing at the glass, just going off about it.
I thought about it for about 10 seconds, thinking I'd go over, in the office, and save the day for them. Then I realized they were so cheap they wanted to do it themselves, so I decided let the cheap bastards sit and stay pissed for the rest of the day.
That's what you get when your cheap ass buys ready to apply vinyl because it's "so" easy and you're "so" smart
It was probably one of the most enjoyable lunches I've had in a while. Very entertaining to watch
I watch him make an adjustment, eyeballing, then measure again. Wrong again, still crooked. He adjusts it again. He keeps putting his tape measure away, then sliding it around, and then measuring it again. This goes on for about 10 minutes. At this point, I realized he's smartly dressed and is probably not a qualified sign professional
Finally, he seems to get it right, by this time, I've picked a seat that allows me to eat and watch the show
I missed the point when he removed the backing paper, but I was confused on all the measuring he did because then he took it completely down to remove the release liner, I guess.
So he goes back up with it, I look, he's squeegeeing it and I notice his hand placement, and I think to myself "he's using a rubber squeegee on a handle, not a flat squeegee like we use". So he goes over the entire thing a few times, he tries to get the transfer tape off and one number is lifting. He keeps going back over it with his hand. I look away, look back, all the numbers are gone completely. Hummm, I wonder what happened, as I missed that part. Rats. Good planning to the rescue. He reaches out and grabs another one. Apparently he planned ahead and got 2.
He's following the same process and it's killing me to watch. At this point, I'm thinking "I'm going to walk over and help the guy out, I can't watch this train wreck any longer". Turns out, I was wrong, I could watch a little longer
Finally gets it where it wants it, again, measured the entire thing, got it in the place he wanted and then pulled it down to remove the release liner. Then he puts it back up, sticks it, then measures it and starts moving it around. I don't know how he's moving it, as it's not a wet installation, but I could see the big blue bottle of windex sitting next to his 4 foot ladder, so I guess he cleaned it with silicone before applying
So he goes to move it one last time after measuring and the last number comes up, but the 3rd number stays stuck to the glass. So now it's crooked and one number has stuck. So he goes to the other side, tries to peel it from that side. 2 of the numbers come up and it's back to that magic 3rd number that's stuck to the glass. Then, he goes back to the other side, tries to get that 3rd number to come back up. It won't. He grabs the transfer tape and rips it off the window, pulling 3 numbers and leaving the remaining stuck number. He then grabs that number, rips it off the glass, balls it all up into a ball and throws it on the ground. Comes off his ladder, packs his stuff up, storms into the office. I can see him walking around in the office, apparently pissed. Someone else comes over to talk to him and he's pointing at the glass, just going off about it.
I thought about it for about 10 seconds, thinking I'd go over, in the office, and save the day for them. Then I realized they were so cheap they wanted to do it themselves, so I decided let the cheap bastards sit and stay pissed for the rest of the day.
That's what you get when your cheap ass buys ready to apply vinyl because it's "so" easy and you're "so" smart
It was probably one of the most enjoyable lunches I've had in a while. Very entertaining to watch
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