Odd question for time & material

[Notarealsignguy]

Never tell your customer you will do something for "your cost" because it gives them ammunition next time to question your pricing, just tell them you will give them a one time deal.

I have a bunch of products that cost me pennies in materials that I sell for $20-30, if I told them I was giving it to them for cost and gave them a bill for $0.70 in material and $5 in labour, they would think I'm ripping them off next time I bill them $20 for it.

When it gets down to pay me what it cost and we will call it a deal, there wont be a next time.

 

[GAC05]

I do banners for the school and I didn't realize when the gal sent me the names with the pictures she was simply guessing on the spelling. Good thing I had only printed a few of them...of which 2 were wrong. Since it is a large, on-going job, I reprinted at no cost. However, going forward I told them they need to make sure the names are spelled correctly. That first batch I had my friends daughter sit next to me and look up all the kids on FB or Instagram and we went through the rest of them to make sure they were right. Obviously I don't have time to double check them all on each batch so after batch 1 I made it clear they need to make sure the names are spelled correctly. Since - it's been good!

One of the big advantages of printing in-house.

 

[VizualVoice]

Maybe charge them a reasonable fee for the removal, like double whatever you charge for the gilded lettering, but also make it clear to them that this was a one-time deal of a price and future issues (that are their fault) will be billed at the standard shop rate. IE: it's only gonna cost you 60 bucks this time, but if we have to do this again it's going to be 300 for example. That just might put them on notice to be a little more careful at their proofreading, but still not cost you the future work. Just my 2 cents worth (of materials?)

 

[CanuckSigns]

Maybe charge them a reasonable fee for the removal, like double whatever you charge for the gilded lettering, but also make it clear to them that this was a one-time deal of a price and future issues (that are their fault) will be billed at the standard shop rate. IE: it's only gonna cost you 60 bucks this time, but if we have to do this again it's going to be 300 for example. That just might put them on notice to be a little more careful at their proofreading, but still not cost you the future work. Just my 2 cents worth (of materials?)

I agree honesty is the best policy here, be upfront with them, tell them that when a mistake is caught within x number of days it's much easier to fix because the materials haven't fully cured yet, after that is becomes much more difficult and time consuming. Let them know you will do this one time at a discount because they didn't know, but in future they will be billed at your standard hourly rate.

 

[Gino]

Not pertraining to this particular incident, but anytime you're gonna introduce a new policy, especially one like this, you can't expect one warning to do the job. You'll need to slowly bring this to their attention and every one of your other customers. You need to make it fair across the board to each and every one of your customers.

 

[caribmike]

If I see the customer's copy that is spelled incorrectly it certainly IS my job to point it out. And get the correction signed off. But maybe that's just me because I'm a spelling freak and don't want anything I put out to be incorrect.

I don't necessarily disagree with you because I like to do a good job. But, I don't really have the time to inspect every sentence of every job to ensure the client has spelled everything correctly. I thought this was why we make customers sign off on proofs in the first place. To shift the liability from us to them for mistakes.

 

[letterman7]

Don't you have the client "proof" the copy before you spend all that time working on the project? A simple proof sheet or proof email with the usual industry standard proof wording would easily transfer the liability for errors from you to them. As a commercial printer and sign shop, I wouldn't print anything unless the client signs off on it. I've seen situations where I knew something was spelled incorrectly but the client still signed off on it. But, its not my job to point out their mistakes, is it!

Getting back to this thread late: I don't typically have customers proof a list of names twice (i.e., they send me the names, I send the proof right back with those name) because they're personal names - names are spelled differently depending on culture. I have no idea if a person's name is correct since I don't know those individuals. It's up to the club to proof the names - not me.

 

[letterman7]

I agree honesty is the best policy here, be upfront with them, tell them that when a mistake is caught within x number of days it's much easier to fix because the materials haven't fully cured yet, after that is becomes much more difficult and time consuming. Let them know you will do this one time at a discount because they didn't know, but in future they will be billed at your standard hourly rate.

For this particular client I did just that. And when I dropped it off I reiterated that they need to check their lists before they send them out for future updates.