Hi all, I'm sure similar things have popped up plenty of times but I'd love any feedback on this, it's fairly complicated but I'll try to keep it short. Recently I was asked to quote on replacing signs at three offices, one is two doors from me, the others are 30 and 50 minutes away in opposite directions.
The company had just been taken over by another with a completely different logo and colours. I asked if they wanted the same again or a different design and was told to 'see what you can come up with'. I see the people at the local office regularly and assumed I was the only business they were approaching when they said I had to measure up all three offices and work on designs. Being the only signwriter in town most businesses go straight to me and don't get a second quote. I asked whether I was to install the signs and remove the existing signs and they said 'yes definitely, everything has to come down and be done again from scratch'. Therefore extra labour and equipment hire was added.
They also needed the logo on the front doors of 20 vehicles, for this I quoted $130 per vehicle. Another thing, it all had to be changed over within ten working days. After a week I called to find out if anything was happening, knowing I had a lot of material to order if I had the work, they made out they had no idea and said it was up to another office on the other side of the state. Three weeks later I noticed some of their vehicles were done so I called again reminding them they hadn't got back to me as promised. They pretended to not know anything about the vehicles until I pointed out they were already done, then said 'oh I think they went to so and so because he'd done a couple in the past and thought it'd be easier for him'. This tells me I was never in the hunt for the job, I then learnt the offices in the other two towns were also done.
The person they went to replaced everything as it had been, logo where the logo was and stripes where the stripes were, no new designs or layouts were required. One office was 25m long and had two thick vinyl stripes all the way along. I had quoted on removing and replacing the panels, the person they went to applied new vinyl stripes over the old. The signs at the local office were installed by the owner of their building, a builder with his own equipment. I could go on and on about little things like this where they had me quoting on something completely different.
further to this, the guy who initially rung me and said to call in and see the receptionist, has pretended to have had no involvement or knowledge what's going on but has since gone around town slandering my business, saying how expensive I am, and trying to get the other guy in on other work at sporting clubs he's involved with around town (which I sponsor).
Wondering what others would do in this situation, my thoughts are to send an email asking for the name and number of the person supposedly making the decisions and charging them for my wasted time if decent answers can't be provided. I'd also love to give the two people I dealt with an earful but not sure if that'd help things. Sorry, this didn't end up being so short!
The company had just been taken over by another with a completely different logo and colours. I asked if they wanted the same again or a different design and was told to 'see what you can come up with'. I see the people at the local office regularly and assumed I was the only business they were approaching when they said I had to measure up all three offices and work on designs. Being the only signwriter in town most businesses go straight to me and don't get a second quote. I asked whether I was to install the signs and remove the existing signs and they said 'yes definitely, everything has to come down and be done again from scratch'. Therefore extra labour and equipment hire was added.
They also needed the logo on the front doors of 20 vehicles, for this I quoted $130 per vehicle. Another thing, it all had to be changed over within ten working days. After a week I called to find out if anything was happening, knowing I had a lot of material to order if I had the work, they made out they had no idea and said it was up to another office on the other side of the state. Three weeks later I noticed some of their vehicles were done so I called again reminding them they hadn't got back to me as promised. They pretended to not know anything about the vehicles until I pointed out they were already done, then said 'oh I think they went to so and so because he'd done a couple in the past and thought it'd be easier for him'. This tells me I was never in the hunt for the job, I then learnt the offices in the other two towns were also done.
The person they went to replaced everything as it had been, logo where the logo was and stripes where the stripes were, no new designs or layouts were required. One office was 25m long and had two thick vinyl stripes all the way along. I had quoted on removing and replacing the panels, the person they went to applied new vinyl stripes over the old. The signs at the local office were installed by the owner of their building, a builder with his own equipment. I could go on and on about little things like this where they had me quoting on something completely different.
further to this, the guy who initially rung me and said to call in and see the receptionist, has pretended to have had no involvement or knowledge what's going on but has since gone around town slandering my business, saying how expensive I am, and trying to get the other guy in on other work at sporting clubs he's involved with around town (which I sponsor).
Wondering what others would do in this situation, my thoughts are to send an email asking for the name and number of the person supposedly making the decisions and charging them for my wasted time if decent answers can't be provided. I'd also love to give the two people I dealt with an earful but not sure if that'd help things. Sorry, this didn't end up being so short!
