Potentially being sued

[sinclairgraphics1]

Just curious if you hang a lot of wallpaper? My grandparents owned a decorating business, I've always used paste even if it claims it's pre-pasted - you really have to use paste. I've removed plenty of wallpaper in my life and many times it's more than one layer. It's not uncommon. Can you salvage the fallen wallpaper and use paste to reapply? Sorry, I think most professional decorators would use paste even on pre-pasted.

This was not pre-pasted. My guys do install about 25-30 wall paper jobs a year, not a ton as most people want vinyl. The old wall paper has already been thrown away so no chance of saving it.

 

[Gino]

We use customer supplied material all the time. Never have had issues like this. We did get payment for the first time around. The other times we went back no, we did not. I try to be fair with everyone I do business with and I understand it was our fault for going over the existing material. So we have agreed to remove the wallpaper and patch the wall area and refund them. I will not pay for their material. I'll provide my own to them at cost. They didn't want to do that so I'm done.

Alright. However, the question wasn't about any other customer or any other installation. It was only about THIS job. The one which went bad, twice. I think you're being very fair, but you still messed up twice. It's only fair for you to put the wall back to it's original state, but whether they use your material or insist on the other company's stuff, someone must pay for it.

Think about it, the customer paid for the initial stuff. It went bad. Not their fault. The printing company paid for it a second time. Not their fault, either. Who should pay for the third set ?? I get it. Yopu are doing a lot already and not getting paid a cent, but why should they pay two and three times ??

Sometimes, ya just can't polish a turd, so it's better to just get it all outta the way and move on. I doubt they're gonna sue you, but it sure doesn't look good on your part.​

 

[Johnny Best]

You deserve to get sued. Screwed up two shipped from England wallpaper rolls that the guy bought. And got his wall messed up to boot.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Perhaps you are trying to be a jerk behind your computer because that's what weak people do. We are removing all of the wall paper and patching the wall. I'm refunding them as well.

Not at all. You applied the replacement material over the first failed installation because you didnt want to put more time in the job and then blame everyone else because youre mad at yourself. But Im the jerk? I feel bad for your customer, hes the one losing here.

 

[bob]

Everyone makes mistakes.
I guess I made one once. It was way back.

So have I. One time I thought I was mistaken.

 

[MikePro]

I've never installed wallpaper over old wallpaper... recipe for disaster.

 

[CanuckSigns]

We are fixing the problem. We're removing all of it for them and patching the wall. You man up and read the whole post before you talk.

From the customers point of view, before they hired you they had a empty wall and a bunch of wall paper, now they have an empty wall and no wall paper, so they are out the $ paid for the wallpaper, you owe them that $.

If the product was as bad as you claim, the correct thing to do would be to let the client know as soon as the installers realized the product was sub-par and let the client make the call on how to proceed.

As for offering to reprint on your own media, at this point you have failed at 2 installs, so the client no longer trusts that you know what you are doing, I can't say that it's an unreasonable response to be fair.

How much did the wallpaper cost? I guarantee it is less than the cost of a lawyer to defend yourself. Write it off as a lesson, update your procedures and move on

 

[Stacey K]

Seems odd it wouldn't stick. Maybe it's the paste/wall combination. Who knows. Seems to me you will have to pay for the wallpaper and just let it go. Perhaps implement a new procedure that you need to supply the wallpaper or it needs to be a certain brand of paper if the customer buys it so you can have some control over the product.

You should make it right even though I'm a hypocrite in my own certain situations when I get mad LOL. For your own knowledge I would ask a professional painter/decorator what might have gone wrong. Maybe this brand of paper is a joke in the decorating world and you can at least feel a little good about walking away. This is something that would keep me up at night...wondering...why did this fail? I would have to find out, you should too for future installs.

 

[player]

You should rent an apartment near the job site, as you will be at it for months.

 

[SeeEmWhyKay]

The mistake was using material that wasn't yours to begin with.

This all must be prefaced with the known reasonableness of your customer and established expectations for the project. I admonish you to make a million percent sure beforehand that your customer is crystal clear about your shops' capacities versus what they are requesting of you.

I would expound on this to say that I would not want to install or work with/ print to a material that I cannot easily replace myself. If my customer walks in the door with a 2x4' piece of 3/16 acrylic that they simply want to add some SAV to- great, easy peasy. Even on these jobs I add an addendum to the project agreement clearly stating that we are not responsible for any incidental damages that may be incurred in the process of applying graphics to customer supplied materials, and make sure they agree. In the rare instance that I have to, I have them replace the material at cost plus 15%. Most reasonable customers understand this perfectly and will take zero issue with it.

However for instance, I get people walking in the door that want to send fragile, frayed original art pieces through my rolling scanner. I do not have a large enough flatbed scanner to handle this sort of request. I tell them reach out to a photographer who can work with them in getting a digital image sized and corrected to their liking, or to travel to the Bay Area to find someone with this type of scanner (lol) and then reach back out to me for their intended output. I also get customers wanting to have laser engraving done on priceless glass or wood items for customization, and I politely decline due to the not impossible chance that it may be destroyed or damaged in the process.

The overarching lesson is this; Manage expectations or get ****ing sued. I highly doubt this person has a case, but it is still a major PITA. Leave no ambiguity about what may occur. CYA.