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Some customers...

I

IsItFasst

New Member
In my 20 years in business this may be the oddest customer I have dealt with. I made some custom wheel center cap decals for a customer. Circular in shape and printed on brushed aluminum material. Turned out great looking. Customer had asked a few questions before placing the order in which I answered them. Nothing odd in those emails.

I get a response a week later complaining that my decals were cheap stickers made of paper and the lamination was coming off almost instantly after the installed them. "Totally disappointed and had to take few days to respond because I was so angry with the results" the customer stated. I stated I was confused about the paper statement because the brushed aluminum material was the furthest thing from any material we offer that looks like paper (we actually don't offer any paper material). We do use clear application tape so I thought that may be the problem with the "lamination" coming off right after they installed it. I explained that the instructions explain that the application tape comes off after the install thinking that would be the biggest issue they had. Nope...

The response from the wife was "the instructions were too complicated so her husband refused to read them". He decided just to hand cut the square background/app tape into a circle and then GLUE, yes glue the paper backing, decal and application tape to the wheel. 8| That was a tough email to respond to.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
I take it, this was a once and done kinda customer. I'd like to see him line some shelves at home for his wife. She can send the e-mail directly to him.................
 
I

IsItFasst

New Member
And I should add their original thought to fix their mistake was just make them slightly bigger to cover up the mess. o_O
 
I

ikarasu

Premium Subscriber
2B said:
Years ago 3M had a step - by - step instructions with pictures on how to install.it was GREAT to print off to give to customers, for the DIY crowd
I'm sure it is still on their site, unsure where though

https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/9620O/5-5-application-dry-method.pdf
Click to expand...

I cant imagine even 1 of my customers would read that length of a pdf :)

We have a small 1 page PDF we made inhouse - We dont hand it out much because we usually do all our own installs. It's something like this - (I just googled it now, ours looks nicer / built to our company)

m3IGHUNoGHbvxcWhcu9tnhl_ZhSYgxPvMq8_1niTnbmdfX0L8JFFq-4J5HIBZDtt2vBX7y36AfJWgFAgcnozpJyP

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p...3tXkmm9JubYv3RwHPUnlNQMeFDg5NZqcrmKXc55avr5Mk
But it's a short 4-5 step page with photos showing them how to do it. On the back has some "Do's and don'ts" that we've collected over the years... such as a dont apply a small vinyl decal to a window soaked in windex, etc.

No matter how your instructions are, you'll always run across someone who doesnt read it, then shows up wanting a replacement decal because the last one was defective though.
 
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I

IsItFasst

New Member
We have one page installation instructions on the back of our the receipts we print and send to our customers. But it also states how to find more detailed instructions in the help section on our site. We show both top hinge and center hinge installation methods with step by step pictures of an install. We use a lot of standard clear app tape so that is the biggest mistake by customers is not knowing it needs to come off. But luckily most customers "get it".

As for the customer I'm talking about, I just agreed to resend them since they now understand how these work (though I'm really not 100% sure they will get it right next time).
 
GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
IsItFasst said:
In my 20 years in business this may be the oddest customer I have dealt with. I made some custom wheel center cap decals for a customer. Circular in shape and printed on brushed aluminum material. Turned out great looking. Customer had asked a few questions before placing the order in which I answered them. Nothing odd in those emails.

I get a response a week later complaining that my decals were cheap stickers made of paper and the lamination was coming off almost instantly after the installed them. "Totally disappointed and had to take few days to respond because I was so angry with the results" the customer stated. I stated I was confused about the paper statement because the brushed aluminum material was the furthest thing from any material we offer that looks like paper (we actually don't offer any paper material). We do use clear application tape so I thought that may be the problem with the "lamination" coming off right after they installed it. I explained that the instructions explain that the application tape comes off after the install thinking that would be the biggest issue they had. Nope...

The response from the wife was "the instructions were too complicated so her husband refused to read them". He decided just to hand cut the square background/app tape into a circle and then GLUE, yes glue the paper backing, decal and application tape to the wheel. 8| That was a tough email to respond to.
Click to expand...
I guess you won't be trying to sell to any more members of Congress after this.
 
J

Joe House

Sign Equipment Technician
No matter how simple your instructions are, you'll eventually run into someone even more simple than the instructions. Sometimes you just can't win.
 
J

jimbug72

New Member
I wonder what kind of glue he used... Those types of customers do sometimes make me want to smack my head against the wall, but my wife genuinely does enjoy hearing my stories about them in the evenings.
 
Geneva Olson

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
IsItFasst said:
In my 20 years in business this may be the oddest customer I have dealt with. I made some custom wheel center cap decals for a customer. Circular in shape and printed on brushed aluminum material. Turned out great looking. Customer had asked a few questions before placing the order in which I answered them. Nothing odd in those emails.

I get a response a week later complaining that my decals were cheap stickers made of paper and the lamination was coming off almost instantly after the installed them. "Totally disappointed and had to take few days to respond because I was so angry with the results" the customer stated. I stated I was confused about the paper statement because the brushed aluminum material was the furthest thing from any material we offer that looks like paper (we actually don't offer any paper material). We do use clear application tape so I thought that may be the problem with the "lamination" coming off right after they installed it. I explained that the instructions explain that the application tape comes off after the install thinking that would be the biggest issue they had. Nope...

The response from the wife was "the instructions were too complicated so her husband refused to read them". He decided just to hand cut the square background/app tape into a circle and then GLUE, yes glue the paper backing, decal and application tape to the wheel. 8| That was a tough email to respond to.
Click to expand...

"The instructions were too complicated so her husband refused to read them". Way to hold accountability.
 
ChicagoGraphics

ChicagoGraphics

New Member
Some years ago I installed a bunch of white vinyl with clear transfer tape on some beauty salons windows, I told my customer that I'd be back later that afternoon to remove the transfer tape, because the transfer tape started to fall off by it's self the customer thought It was wrong, so she scraped most of It off the windows and when I went back that afternoon It was shocking to see what she had done, after telling her It was fine that the transfer tape was falling off, now I have to charge her double If she wanted me to redo it.
 
2B

2B

Active Member
ChicagoGraphics said:
Some years ago I installed a bunch of white vinyl with clear transfer tape on some beauty salons windows, I told my customer that I'd be back later that afternoon to remove the transfer tape, because the transfer tape started to fall off by it's self the customer thought It was wrong, so she scraped most of It off the windows and when I went back that afternoon It was shocking to see what she had done, after telling her It was fine that the transfer tape was falling off, now I have to charge her double If she wanted me to redo it.
Click to expand...

Only double..........
this definitely sounds like a 3x (or more) than the original price to fix


on a side note, when we know we have to come back to complete the project.
we have created decals that we stick to the project. UNDER CONSTRUCTION - DO NOT TOUCH
 
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