Opinion Not A Real Problem, Just Wondering........................

[Gino]

if this happens to others ??

This is one of the first times this has happened to me in about 44 years.

At our shop, most of our time is precious, so scheduling things takes priority most of the time. However, I try to leave a window of 4 to 6 hours a week for mishaps or emergencies. With the unexpected snowstorm last week, 3 trucks from a company had to cancel. Understandable. That jammed us a bit becasue we already had 4 trucks scheduled for this week, so now we have 7 vehicles to do this week. We're knocking them out and the truck scheduled yesterday to come in at 4, so we could prep it and have it ready for first thing this morning, canceled at 4pm. They just e-mailed and said they couldn't make it. But, I have a spot for them and we've been busting our nuts to get all of these trucks..... and other signs finished on schedule. Without any concern, they said, we'll bring it in April 14th. Oh, you will, will you ??

I guess, I just think this was inconsiderate and wrong on them to cancel right as we expected them here. I know what happened. They didn't feel like giving up the truck, said the guy was running late and April 14th is gonna be a day, someone has off and can do without the truck.

So, does anyone here, do like doctors, dentists and other professionals..... and charge if they aren't given a 24 hour notice ?? I had talked with them around 1 o'clock in the afternoon and they said everything was right on schedule.

 

[Johnny Best]

Somebody was on here the other day talking about appointments in the sign industry. Well Gino, you have first hand experience with that topic now. Yea, try to collect on the breaking appointment dealings. They will tell you they did not know and it should be in writing somewhere. So now that you have time you can put a notice about appointments right under your "all others pay cash" sign.

 

[ChaseO]

I understand your irritation with this customer, but they called or emailed to cancel instead of not showing up, so if it were me, I would move on to the next thing. No charge, hopefully we charged enough for the truck not to worry about it. As for the April 14th part... My first instinct is to say no, purely out of spite, but after 30 seconds thought, I would at least try to see if that will work for you. If it does, awesome, if not, you call them and schedule a time that works for you and them. The last thing going through my head about your scenario is if I have three similar or identical trucks to letter, I want to do them all back to back for saving measurements, bunching up vinyl, prints etc. Since you are not able to do that, is that worth making this truck cost marginally more since they are loosing the "quantity discount?"

 

[Gino]

I understand your irritation with this customer, but they called or emailed to cancel instead of not showing up, so if it were me, I would move on to the next thing. No charge, hopefully we charged enough for the truck not to worry about it. As for the April 14th part... My first instinct is to say no, purely out of spite, but after 30 seconds thought, I would at least try to see if that will work for you. If it does, awesome, if not, you call them and schedule a time that works for you and them. The last thing going through my head about your scenario is if I have three similar or identical trucks to letter, I want to do them all back to back for saving measurements, bunching up vinyl, prints etc. Since you are not able to do that, is that worth making this truck cost marginally more since they are loosing the "quantity discount?"

Well, maybe I explained it wrong. One truck was left over from Friday, as we couldn't finish it on time, due to wrong vinyl and UPS messed up and didn't bring our vinyl on time, due to the storm. So, in reality, we had 7-1/2 trucks to do this week. We finished the one on Monday. That afternoon the next three came in for Tuesday morning and we finished them up by Wednesday noon. Now, we're ready for a solo truck coming in for lettering, which was only gonna take 2 or 3 hours. The next three come in sometime today and we'll finish them by tomorrow end of day.

So, no, no fleet discount for that one truck. I did do all the stuff you mentioned and I did think of not doing it on that day, but that wouldn't be very business-like of me to pull the same stunt they did, besides..... money is money.

This was Monday afternoon............

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I must be in the minority, then. It is absolutely unprofessional to cancel on someone that late- particularly via email. Screw that. At least a call displays that the customer at least valued your time enough to pick up the phone.
Bump the price of their next job up to compensate from the aggravation.

 

[Solventinkjet]

If you do that to the dentist, they charge you for it.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

So, does anyone here, do like doctors, dentists and other professionals..... and charge if they aren't given a 24 hour notice ?? I had talked with them around 1 o'clock in the afternoon and they said everything was right on schedule.

Absolutely no excuse on their part.

Now, if there is nothing in writing, not much you can do about it except complain. I would have the policy in writing for the next time. May even want to have it as a separate line that they initial so that way they can't complain that they didn't see it/read it etc (which is bunk excuse anyway, shouldn't have signed a contract that they didn't read fully).

Collecting it may be a different story. May be easier to just up their rate under the PITA heading.

 

[ExecuPrintGS]

Funny we were just having this conversation this morning...
I had a customer call last week, urgently needing 2 trucks done by this Friday. We scheduled them in, moved another customer around to next week.
Came in this morning and the trucks aren't here, I called and no answer and no call back... I think we are going to start writing out appointment cards with the day and time of the appointment and have something on it with a charge for cancellation/ no show if we don't get some sort of notice.

It throws my whole day off when this happens and its happening more and more, I'm just 1 guy - design, produce and install - for a small company that does a lot. For me to set aside the 4-5 hours of a day to rush and get someone in, move another customer out of that spot, and have them no show/ no call, it really gets under my skin.

 

[printhog]

a client of mine is a hairdresser, she had so many cancels and no shows that she started charging $25 for them. When they call she'd tell them its $25 to reschedule, and amazingly - only one left. the others came in for the second appointment and paid..

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

Funny thing is, we are not professionals (in a lot of people's eyes). That's why we are the industry that has to deal with last minute jobs (like they didn't know they were opening a business and need a sign by tomorrow)...

So if we are not important enough to get a call to cancel an appointment, we won't be be able to collect cancellation fees. A lot of people would just look at us like we grew a 2nd head.

 

[jfiscus]

At least they called, most of the time when a vehicle doesn't show up as scheduled it just does not show up. A lot of the time we have enough for our installers to divert them to another project, but sometimes we have large projects scheduled with multiple installers and THAT vehicle doesn't show up... bad day!

The other day we had 3 installers travelling out of town to install 3 semi trailers (supposed to be a two-day project). After they drove the 3 hours there in snow & hail, the customer had forgotten they were coming and didn't have a bay available or any trucks inside...

 

[vincesigns]

I believe that if this is an issue that you may want to inform your clients that there will be a cancellation fee if they cancel an appointment within a certain time before the appointment or don't show up at all. That would be fair and proper. However, if this is a repeat customer try to take into account any time that you may have been late as they may hold that against you and demand a discount it you are late. What goes around comes around...

 

[boxerbay]

I have a client that is a chronic appt breaker. The install carpets and use the vehicles daily. I just tell them drop the vehicle off when you can and we'll get to it when we can. If you cant give me a solid answer it makes it hard for me to do the same for you. Hard to say what jobs I will have on hand on the day you show up. I will remain optimistic but it is what it is.

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

Funny thing is, we are not professionals (in a lot of people's eyes). That's why we are the industry that has to deal with last minute jobs (like they didn't know they were opening a business and need a sign by tomorrow)...

So if we are not important enough to get a call to cancel an appointment, we won't be be able to collect cancellation fees. A lot of people would just look at us like we grew a 2nd head.

This is, unfortunately, a sad truth.

That being said, charge cancellations, rush fees, print minimums, and so on. Customers will never stop being customers, but you can at least be compensated.

 

[TimToad]

At least they called, most of the time when a vehicle doesn't show up as scheduled it just does not show up. A lot of the time we have enough for our installers to divert them to another project, but sometimes we have large projects scheduled with multiple installers and THAT vehicle doesn't show up... bad day!

The other day we had 3 installers travelling out of town to install 3 semi trailers (supposed to be a two-day project). After they drove the 3 hours there in snow & hail, the customer had forgotten they were coming and didn't have a bay available or any trucks inside...

In a case like that, for a big ticket job with so many employees involved, the general or office manager should be picking up the phone and calling to confirm that morning BEFORE three employees embarked on a three hour, one way drive.

 

[Gino]

Even for this truck, we called the day before to confirm and early afternoon the same day and all was still honky-dory.

I make it a habit to make sure others that neglect their jobs are given a courtesy reminder call.

 

[shoresigns]

Get over it and add a "cancellation fee" note to your quotes going forward. In the line item, not in the fine print. Make sure you say "will be charged" not "may be charged"

Then, when it happens, just politely reschedule and tack your $75 charge onto the invoice. You don't have to have an uncomfortable discussion about it unless they bring it up, and I doubt most people will. If they do, have an explanation ready as to why you have to charge it (i.e. you have to pay your installers for showing up).

 

[signed off]

Get over it and add a "cancellation fee" note to your quotes going forward. In the line item, not in the fine print. Make sure you say "will be charged" not "may be charged"

Then, when it happens, just politely reschedule and tack your $75 charge onto the invoice. You don't have to have an uncomfortable discussion about it unless they bring it up, and I doubt most people will. If they do, have an explanation ready as to why you have to charge it (i.e. you have to pay your installers for showing up).

if this happens to others ??

This is one of the first times this has happened to me in about 44 years.

At our shop, most of our time is precious, so scheduling things takes priority most of the time. However, I try to leave a window of 4 to 6 hours a week for mishaps or emergencies. With the unexpected snowstorm last week, 3 trucks from a company had to cancel. Understandable. That jammed us a bit becasue we already had 4 trucks scheduled for this week, so now we have 7 vehicles to do this week. We're knocking them out and the truck scheduled yesterday to come in at 4, so we could prep it and have it ready for first thing this morning, canceled at 4pm. They just e-mailed and said they couldn't make it. But, I have a spot for them and we've been busting our nuts to get all of these trucks..... and other signs finished on schedule. Without any concern, they said, we'll bring it in April 14th. Oh, you will, will you ??

I guess, I just think this was inconsiderate and wrong on them to cancel right as we expected them here. I know what happened. They didn't feel like giving up the truck, said the guy was running late and April 14th is gonna be a day, someone has off and can do without the truck.

So, does anyone here, do like doctors, dentists and other professionals..... and charge if they aren't given a 24 hour notice ?? I had talked with them around 1 o'clock in the afternoon and they said everything was right on schedule.

Of course they have someone off on April 14th is good friday, charge double if you are staying open

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

At least they called, most of the time when a vehicle doesn't show up as scheduled it just does not show up. A lot of the time we have enough for our installers to divert them to another project, but sometimes we have large projects scheduled with multiple installers and THAT vehicle doesn't show up... bad day!

The other day we had 3 installers travelling out of town to install 3 semi trailers (supposed to be a two-day project). After they drove the 3 hours there in snow & hail, the customer had forgotten they were coming and didn't have a bay available or any trucks inside...

Why no courtesy call to verify the appointment? With three installers on the road for a 3 hour trip, calling the customer beforehand would have saved you a lot of headache.

 

[Gino]

Got another e-mail, late yesterday afternoon, from the same person who said they were gonna hafta cancel. She apologized the other day for having to do so and they asked about the 14th. Yesterday's e-mail said she was so sorry. She JUST found out Bill canceled. She apologized up and down and said, I knew you even stayed late for him. She goes on to say, I thought he was coming to get it lettered. So sorry. Can we do the 14th ??

Yep, sure, sh!t happens. Be here on the 13th with it washed and we'll finish it up by lunchtime the 14th, since Friday is a holiday and we'll be letting out at noon. Can't keep it in the shop over the weekend, so it MUST be picked up. We'll see how this pans out.