substrates from customers

[Geneva Olson]

10 mil coro would be a good sub. Or just 4 mil coro if he really want's to save money.

Yea, he was thinking it was "free" because he already had it. It's his mentality.

 

[KC1990]

I can think of one circumstance.
We reface double sided 4' x 4' ACM sheets for a local auction company. Good repeat customer though.
I don't even laminate the prints, or peel the old ones, just laminate overtop.
They're dropped into a frame and put up on the highway, typically only up for a month at a time.

Typically they end up damaging the board after 3 or so re-faces, then we sell them new ones.
Not worth damaging your laminator saving your customer a few dollars.

 

[DL Signs]

In the case below...I demanded a new substrate

This just upped the "now I've seen it all" to a whole new level

 

[Bxtr]

They can bring us a substrate but it is not completely flat and clean. I'm not interested.
If we use their substrate, we have a table charge, we used to charge time only but it wasn't worth it.
Now we have a sqft charge that pays for us to setup the files not just print/route them.

 

[Pauly]

Never.
You dont know if it's good or not. if it has any issues etc. if something goes wrong with it, who's fault is it.

Easier to use your own, if something goes wrong, it's on you.

 

[Rmurray321]

Yes, sometimes I will. Before I agree, I need to see it and make sure the vinyl stick. Most times it's not a big deal. In the case below...I demanded a new substrate (I actually think this is pretty cool looking)

View attachment 171402

To be fair, this has a few more years of life in the old girl!

 

[guillermo]

Typically no. There have been occasions where we have done it, but usually the boss says no, that it would be better to start fresh. One of those occasions is the large wooden A-Frame boards, we will reskin those.
In other occasions, we will produce the skin for them, and they can apply it.

I do accept the old/used substrate from customer, but I make him pay for the entire sign, I increase the price about 250% of real price and offer him a new sign for about 1/3 of that price and I explain why the increase compared to a new one, time for cleaning and chances of ruin their material, because he want to save money, they will take a new sign.

 

[VizualVoice]

Today I learned that cut vinyl doesn't stick for crap to dry-erase laminate.
But at least I'll get a good burger or wings and some excellent fries out of it tomorrow when I drop the panels for his sign-a-cade back off to him.
This is a temporary solution while he's redoing his menu boards anyway and I'll be getting all of those plus more coro signs, so I agreed to go ahead with it this one time to save a few bucks.

 

[Pat Whatley]

We do it all the time. If our cost on the material if we supplied it is $100 we will take $75 off the price of the sign. We make more profit, the customer gets the illusion that they saved money, everybody wins.

 

[gnubler]

We do it all the time. If our cost on the material if we supplied it is $100 we will take $75 off the price of the sign. We make more profit, the customer gets the illusion that they saved money, everybody wins.

How so? The few times I did agree to use a customer's substrate it ended up biting me every single time, either through time spent cleaning or removing old vinyl. Not even worth it.

I had a customer once who insisted I reface an ACM sign on the backside. When I went to pick up the panel it was grimy and had permanent water stains, he told me to use it anyway. Allrighty then. A sign is the first thing a potential customer sees at a business - why would you want something that looks like sh!t hanging on your building?