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Small rant

G

GVP

New Member
Guy comes in for small vinyl lettering job (to go)
Provides images (on his phone of course) of the lettering face he wants to use.
Ask him for the name of the font.
Find font is not one we have, and inform him we can get it at a cost, but offer some alternatives.
Gets angry - can't understand why we would charge extra - "as a sign shop, you should have all the fonts"
Says he got a quote from another sign place at about a quarter of our price.
Oh, and the last job he got from us wasn't right - although he used it and didn't ask for a replacement
Wish him luck and goodbye

/end rant
 
B

bannertime

Active Member
Seems like the right thing to do! When someone is so blatantly ignorant to how it really is and won't accept your response; cut 'em loose. It's not worth it. If someone wants something same day like that, they either need print/cut ready art or willing to choose from a paper of like 30 pre-picked fonts and colors.
 
HulkSmash

HulkSmash

New Member
Your first mistake is doing jobs "to go".

and it doesn't sound like a guy you want as a client, in the end its a win for you
 
O

Oroscoe

New Member
While the other shop is having to deal with all of his bickering and complaining, you can focus on other things, like making money!
 
B

bannertime

Active Member
Coloradosigns said:
Your first mistake is doing jobs "to go".
Click to expand...

I do some jobs that I won't accept unless the person waits. I'm not going to drag out a little door hours job for 3-4 days. Right then and there, $50. 10 minutes from walk-in to walk-out. Weather and time permitting I'll install DOT jobs on the spot for $150. Takes like 20 minutes. Don't have to wait on art approval, payment, missed appointments. I'd do that all day if I could.
 
2B

2B

Active Member
got to love the font game.

we have the OLD school 3 Ring BIG binder filled with pages of fonts, the one where there are dozens of fonts per page.
it is VERY satisfying to drop this on the counter and have THEM pick the font they want to be used.
 
HulkSmash

HulkSmash

New Member
bannertime said:
I do some jobs that I won't accept unless the person waits. I'm not going to drag out a little door hours job for 3-4 days. Right then and there, $50. 10 minutes from walk-in to walk-out. Weather and time permitting I'll install DOT jobs on the spot for $150. Takes like 20 minutes. Don't have to wait on art approval, payment, missed appointments. I'd do that all day if I could.
Click to expand...

not stopping 5k+ job tickets for a 80 dollar DOT to do instantly. It'll go into que
 
C

Category5

New Member
I have a 24x18 board hanging in the shop with 30 font examples on it. If someone comes in and wants simple lettering, I tell them to pick one of those. If they decide they don’t like those, there’s one of my old PCs in the corner with around 2,800 fonts and a freeware font manager program installed. They are more than welcome to sit and scroll through fonts until they are cross eyed. They usually don’t make it through more than a couple of hundred before they either give up and tell me to just pick something that looks similar to whatever they wanted or pick one of the original 30. I bought just about every font collection on the market 25 years ago, most of which are garbage, but the ability to overwhelm a picky customer with the sheer number of them has finally made them worth their cost.
 
HulkSmash

HulkSmash

New Member
bannertime said:
I don't stop any orders. I've almost always got my 30in cutter open since it's cut vinyl only. Obviously, you're catering to a different clientele anyway. Nothing wrong with that.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, we will still do it, but it goes into a que. Even if a cutter is open. It's just a bad habit to do thing while clients wait.
 
E

equippaint

Active Member
If the customer is normal Ill throw in the nonsense job for a little cash but never while they wait. Nice to have some beer money that the wife doesnt see.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
My rant...

I'm supposed to take down a set of channel letters and black out a pylon sign for a bank closing that cant begin till 5pm.

At 2pm, a tornado rips through the town I'm in, no power, almost all major roads are blocked, traffic is at a standstill all over the city, there are continuous sounds of sirens from police and fire trucks and ambulances racing up and down the roads, sounds of exploding transformers and it continues to pour rain and my client insists it HAS to be done tonight. Get there and no power at the bank, there are actually THREE 20' channel letter sets, a pylon and two monuments that I have to do while it on and off pours rain. My helper barely made it to the jobsite to help me. Thankfully I'm now safe and sound, all dry at my hotel.

Ok that's my small rant I have to get off my chest. Got another one to do tomorrow, hope its nicer!
 
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