Never thought it would happen......................

[Gino]

Long time ago, an old friend of mine told me a story of how he did all this guys, invoices, business cards, letterheads, signs and some other things. The guy was starting a new business from scratch and my friend was doing all his work.

He called his client to tell him everything was ready as far as stationery and things, the sign was almost finished, just some finishing touches and that will be going up tomorrow.... a sandblasted sign.... 2 -sided.

His client said, fine... that's good...... but.... I.... have.... to.... ask..... you......... why did you call me on this number ??

​

Why, that's the number you gave me for all of your information. That's what was on all the proofs and you signed off on it weeks ago and I've been calling you on this number the whole time. Bear in mind, this was BC [before computers], so there were no cell phones, websites or other confusing numbers.... except, he gave him his home number and not his new work number.



Well, today, we were doing a layout for a truck and I had just sent Jeremy the information and he had it set up and on the screen. The girl dropped the truck off and came back in to get her phone out of the truck and while walking by Jeremy's work station, noticed the layout on the screen. She asked why we had that website ??

I showed her the owner had sent it to me in an e-mail and I just copied and pasted it and then set our specs to it. She said, well, unless she changed it in the last 20 minutes, it's wrong.

Just got an e-mail apologizing for sending me the wrong information. I said that girls deserves a nice dinner for two on you guys. She just saved you about $125.


There's no way I would've known it was wrong. How many people do stoopid things like that and if it does go through... try to blame you and make you pay for their dumbness ??

 

[Patentagosse]

It happened to me last year... even if the business owner signed the approuval, he told me I should know how to write all the texts properly (he meant by that correcting his own typo errors). The PDF I sent him had a big warning in capital letters saying I'm not responsible for any mistakes left behind after you sign-up the copy... I delivered all the stationaries / invoices and someone from his family later noticed there was a minor mistake so the guy called me and talked me aggressively 'bout "my" error, trying to blame me for not having reviewed the approuval sheet or make it double-checked by someone else.

I f*****g hate when that kinda s**t happens... (please don't shoot the piano player!)

 

[showcase 66]

Just did 500 koozies with a clients logo and then phone number under it. I copied and pasted the number in. The guy came in last Thursday and picked them up. Today I get a call from him saying the phone number is wrong. The last digit is an 8 and was supposed to be a 3. Looked it up in his email and he had an 8 on it.

He came down all pissed off saying I lied to him about the email and he wanted to see it. I had the email up, his signed proofs and the 2 other proofs that he made changes to but not the phone number.

Turns out he gave out about 420 of them this weekend and someone called him this morning saying they were trying to get a hold of him but the number on the koozie didnt work.

He cooled down after a bit until I joked around about buying the number and forwarding it. I think that struck a nerve.

Oh well. haha

 

[GmanDesign]

I lettered a guys trailers about 4 years ago. He came into the shop about a year ago and said he just noticed the phone number was wrong. He wasent pissed cause he said "I know I signed all the proofs". In good faith I fixed it for FREE.

 

[a77]

Oh yes I love this...
When I tell them that they signed off on the proof, they still find a way to say to me (straight-faced) that I should have noticed the fax number was wrong as I could have looked it up on their website.
Makes me want to put in my proof approval form, something to the effect:

"I don't care what your fax number is, or how you spell your name, or where you business is - BUT YOU PROBABLY DO, SO LOOK OVER THE PROOF!"

I'm a small-format printer and usually just redo the job no charge.. unless they demand I do it! (which they 50% of the time it seems).

 

[Pat Whatley]

The response I usually get is "Yeah, well I can't use these so I'm not paying for them. Either you reprint them for free or give me my money back and I'll get somebody else to do them."

 

[401Graphics]

The response I usually get is "Yeah, well I can't use these so I'm not paying for them. Either you reprint them for free or give me my money back and I'll get somebody else to do them."

HA! I would tell them to take a hike if they thought they were getting their deposit back. If there is a mistake on their part and they approved it, i at least make them pay wholesale price (which is usually 50%)

 

[Marlene]

on the sheet that I put the layout for approval, there is a proof reading line item. it says that once approved, it is ready for production and we will not be responsible for any errors. they have to sign and date that. there is no way to spell check phone numbers or websites. also we get those who spell things wrong like "Kevin's Kwik Stop" or just plain odd spellings of names. also it covers me screwing up and missing a word. we did have a guy a few years back who signed off on some business cards and it wasn't his phone number. he did want us to eat the entire job and we didn't as he signed off on it as correct so they still will try to weasel out on it, but at least you've covered yourself for errors.

PS, on the same sheet I also make them sign off as to the owenership of the artwork and sign off on printer/computer colors vs the real thing.

 

[FatCat]

OK, I've got one for you.

Several years ago a new medical center was opening and the company I worked for got the whole package for their printing. Letterhead, note pads, prescription pads, post cards, business cards and several other items that all totaled around $5,000. (All of this was printed about 2 weeks before their grand opening.) So, Monday morning when they opened things seemed very quiet, in fact they didn't receive a single call all morning. So, the manager decides to call their own number just to verify the phones are working.

You can probably guess what happened...

The phone company had given them the wrong phone number! A day later she called us looking for a refund. Boss said "no not our fault" but we can certainly offer a courtesy discount to reprint. We had already been paid, and they never came back to us to reprint. Last I heard they were suing the phone company for compensation. (Yah, good luck with that.)

 

[SignManiac]

Happened just this week. On a carved sign no less. Luckily I discovered it an hour before it hit the router table. Full color proof looked at by no less than four people in their organization. They apologized profusely. But...had it been done wrong, this group of people would have taken responsibility and paid to have it corrected. This is not normally the case.

 

[Fanaticus]

I sell window tint that is precut to customer specs. Either by size, for residential/commercial applications, or for specific vehicles.

Every single day several people will order film for their vehicles and have no clue what they drive. They'll buy it for a standard cab but have a crew cab, buy it for a coupe but have a sedan, buy it for a 2005 model year but have a 2011, etc etc. Even though it's stated in about 10 different areas what they are buying they just don't read it.

We're nice guys, who want to avoid negative publicity, so we usually allow them to return it for the kit they should have ordered. At our expense (everybody pays for it actually). When we try to get the customer to understand their mistake it just pisses them off and they rant about us all over the internet. If we don't do what they want, at our expense, they'll just do a charge back on their cards and of course they get their money back.

People are too busy to read anything these days. They just buy it and hope it's what they want. Then complain about it when it's not.

 

[CanuckSigns]

People are too busy to read anything these days. They just buy it and hope it's what they want. Then complain about it when it's not.

This along with everyone getting their emails on their blackberry or iphone while they are busy doing something else, and trying to proof something on a 3" screen is the biggest problem.

i hate having to ask a customer a question via email, only to have them reply with a single word or something because they are on their phone and far too busy to spend 2 minutes answering my question.

 

[ucmj22]

I once printed 300 calendars with Ocbober. no idea how it happened, the "t" isnt even close to the "b" but I had 3 people in the shop review it, it was signed off by the client and nobody caught it. I really hate that.

this is the disclaimer at the bottom of all of our proofs outlined with a red box.

PLEASE review the artwork carefully for accurate spelling, artwork detail, colors, location, size and product. We need an approval before proceeding with production. Please contact either the Graphic Designer or your Sales Associate with approval or corrections for the artwork. Once an approval is obtained, we will proceed with your order. PLEASE CHECK ALL INFORMATION CAREFULLY as ***** reserves the right to refuse replacement of goods once an approval of the order is obtained from the customer. Colors shown are approximate to the final product. All artwork contained in this proof is property of ***** unless specifically stated in writing, and may not be transferred or reproduced in any way. Please inquire about purchasing or licensing artwork for further use. Thank you.

 

[Gino]

Well, I must say, if I made the mistake and transposed some letters, numbers or anything from their original, I will take full responsibility..... even with a signed proof by them. Afterall, it was my fault.

However, with this one..... they sent me a file with the vectorized logo, the copy, the phone number and website. How am I at all to know they sent me something wrong ?? Nope, they never would've gotten their truck back without paying me to fix it had we finished it with their wrong information on it.

 

[SD&F]

It happens to all of us.....thank goodness for approvals on proofs prior to going into production. I have acutally had one of our regualr customers do it three times. I don't get it.

 

[MikeH]

We were the collateral damage in a typo years ago. A travel agent sent a mailing to every employee at Kodak offering a great price on a cruise. He printed our 800 # on it. Monday morning the phone started ringing off the hook. I got the first calls and had one of them fax me the flyer. I tract down the real phone # and gave the guy a friendly heads up call. His attitude was it was not his problem. This forced me to a more aggressive economic stance. I told him we were paying for the calls, our people were spending time correcting his mistake, and our customers were having trouble calling in because the lines were tied up. His attitude remained the same, it was our problem, just have your staff explain the problem and direct them to the correct #.
I was not a happy camper at the end of the call, so I told the front desk to send all his calls to me.
In 30 minutes I had booked 3 cruises getting all the information, I thought was required, Credit card #s, Sicutity #s, Passport #s, Socual sicurity #s, addresses, phone #, Etc.... At the end of each call I asked "Now did that sound like you booked a cruise?" Bewildered all seed yes. I told them the story and asked them to call this guy and tell him they thought they booked a trip.
Then I called the guy back and made it his problem. I told him on Thursday we would start booking trips or to be more exact letting his customers think they had booked a trip. We would tell them to "Drop by the office the day before departure to pick up the tickets." A long pause . "You wouldn't." Want to take that risk? The way I see it you have two days to reprint and mail Your flyer, correcting YOUR problem.

And this time check the copy for errors.

 

[DazzaBling]

My fiancee had a high school friend bring us some very expensive Columbia shirts. We advised him several times we could give him a better price printed and purchased through our sources. He figured he would save money and went and bought them anyway.

His designs needed to be sublimated and came out quite nicely. At the last minute, he wanted his name put on the shirt. I quickly made him a proof in an email and he approved it.

He came and picked up the shirts, inspected each one carefully for a good 20 minutes since the design picked up the colors of the shirts he was excited because each shirt looked
different. He examined everything and left.

6 hours later, we receive a call that we spelled his name wrong. I emailed him the proof he approved of and the signed receipt that he received. Now, its bad he was a long time friend of my fiancee but its worse that he didn't realize he didn't recognize his name was spelt wrong 3 times plus the 10 shirts he brought it.

We felt bad but we advised him several times of the situation with bringing in your own shirts, approving the proofs and our responsibility to the matter.

 

[Gino]

My fiancee had a high school friend bring us some very expensive Columbia shirts. We advised him several times we could give him a better price printed and purchased through our sources. He figured he would save money and went and bought them anyway.

His designs needed to be sublimated and came out quite nicely. At the last minute, he wanted his name put on the shirt. I quickly made him a proof in an email and he approved it.

He came and picked up the shirts, inspected each one carefully for a good 20 minutes since the design picked up the colors of the shirts he was excited because each shirt looked
different. He examined everything and left.

6 hours later, we receive a call that we spelled his name wrong. I emailed him the proof he approved of and the signed receipt that he received. Now, its bad he was a long time friend of my fiancee but its worse that he didn't realize he didn't recognize his name was spelt wrong 3 times plus the 10 shirts he brought it.

We felt bad but we advised him several times of the situation with bringing in your own shirts, approving the proofs and our responsibility to the matter.

My question to you.... ignoring the proof for a moment.... who spelled the name wrong first ?? He or you ?? Did he provide it to you wrong or did you spell it wrong ??

I usually don't accept spelling over the phone.... only in writing, especially if it's a name.

 

[signswi]

Once a proof is signed it's on the customer, no soup for you, come back one year.