Install company screwed me, What can i do?

[skyhigh]

hang in there John.
I don't mean to kick you when you're down, but if it looked terrible when you were done, I can only assume you F'd it up. Sure there are better material choices, but the 651 is a doable deed. I'm thinking you may be spoiled with the air release vinyls. Like Gino, when I started they didn't have these products.

I can remember the first time I use an air release vinyl......I kept saying, "so easy a caveman could do it".

Don't waste any time fretting about the $150. Move on to the next project.

 

[UFB Fabrication]

I have sad it a 1000 times but lets go for 1001. Rule number 1: If you have never done work for them pay up front or COD before it leaves your door. Rule number 2: see rule number 1. Weather its 5 miles or 5000 miles away. Are you a bank or a sign company?
BTW 150 bucks is a cheap lesson. Tack the unpaid invoice up by you phone and desk so you can look at it as a reminder.

 

[HulkSmash]

I have sad it a 1000 times but lets go for 1001. Rule number 1: If you have never done work for them pay up front or COD before it leaves your door. Rule number 2: see rule number 1. Weather its 5 miles or 5000 miles away. Are you a bank or a sign company?
BTW 150 bucks is a cheap lesson. Tack the unpaid invoice up by you phone and desk so you can look at it as a reminder.

You won't get a deposit on national accounts, Never.
Nature of playing with the big boys.

 

[Bigdawg]

You won't get a deposit on national accounts, Never.
Nature of playing with the big boys.

I don't think I ever have either - so price the job accordingly. We take into account that it will take time to get paid.

As far as the install... we've worked with some crappy provided materials - from unlaminated black prints on the cheapest vinyl you can buy to cut vinyl that looked like someone cut it with a jig saw. We put it up or on as requested doing the best job we can with the material provided. But we always finish the job - that's what's expected. If you were my contractor, I probably wouldn't have paid either.

When you quoted the job - what information did you have? What did you base your quote on? We always ask about materials - only get an answer half the time - but we always ask and quote accordingly. Did the spec you quoted from say it was air release?

 

[skyhigh]

You won't get a deposit on national accounts, Never.
Nature of playing with the big boys.

depends on how bad they need you or how desparate they are to get it done NOW.

I saw one of the largest national sign companies deliver materials / banners with CASH in hand. They had 8 banners to install @ 8 different locations. Their delivery guy peeled off $200 immediately after each banner was up.

 

[qmr55]

You won't get a deposit on national accounts, Never.
Nature of playing with the big boys.

+1

Dude, its a cheap $150 lesson to learn. I'm with you on the not wanting bad jobs to leave the shop, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and get the job done and get paid. Striping with 651 sucks but I mean, I have done it and I'm sure I'll have to do it again. Oh well. Good lesson learned.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

You won't get a deposit on national accounts, Never.
Nature of playing with the big boys.

WRONG! The biggest of the big understand greasing the wheels of progress as well or better than any. Don't be a puss.

 

[HulkSmash]

WRONG! The biggest of the big understand greasing the wheels of progress as well or better than any. Don't be a puss.

Feel free to do things the way you want. The companies i work with, 1 being the biggest printers in the entire world; Do not give a deposit. Most will find other companies that are willing to work on 30-60 days.

Yeah, i'm a puss, you caught me.

 

[john1]

are whatcha eat! haha

*used a Edna word i think in that one*

 

[Border]

John I remember you posting a thread about this job about a month ago or so, if I am correct.
You were asking how to go about installing this piece of vinyl and it didn't seem that complicated or large but it would seem that if tat is the. case that you were clearly not prepared to handle this job with confidence. That said again I would say you should call this a very cheap a lesson to learn. Not trying to bust your balls I just don't care for the tone that you express that somehow this large company screwed you when the real problem appears to be that they called an inexperienced company for this install.

You would have been further ahead to have passed on this job because now you can bet that this company will never call you again, even 5 years down the road when you are more experienced. I would also venture to speculate that you probably told the end customer something along the lines that the large print company sent you the wrong materials, thereby sort of throwing them under the bus in an attempt to make yourself not look bad, that is only a guess though and not an accusation but it's a huge no no if you did do that as a subcontractor.

Reverse the situation and put yourself on the paying end of this scenario and you would still be here asking how much you should or shouldn't pay the installer who screwed up this job for you and pissed off your customer.

Hopefully you're listening to some of the great advice you're getting here and not take taking it too personally.

 

[john1]

Funny thing is, The new stripe that was installed totally missed all the problem areas that were on the transit i was talking about originally. If it had missed those even with the 651, I would have completed it no problem.

It had some door stopper black round this that originally wasn't supposed to be there and went into a few concave channels, The new stripe is about 3" above all that and on a cast material. It's up the street and i pass it everyday so i was able to look at it.

No biggie.

 

[UFB Fabrication]

You won't get a deposit on national accounts, Never.
Nature of playing with the big boys.

I have gotten a check fed ex'd or pay by CC every time up front. Its funny that they are able to pay when they need to. BTW I am in St. Louis not out in the sticks with no other sign shop around.

 

[ddarlak]

i hardly ever do national installs, but the last time i did, i told them i wanted $ up front. they said no,BUT called back later to say on second thought they would.

then they wanted to pay with a CC, and i told them i no longer take them, too many fee's, i made them paypal me.

$1200 to install 4 banners, using a provided lift and hardware. took about 1.5 hours, and i was half the other quote....

saying no is mostly a good thing...