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Weird quirky story

Geneva Olson

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
I keep seeing people comment about realtors and how "cheap" they are. I have a real estate broker customer. I've had him as a customer since I opened up my shop. He's in my home town. I mainly deal with him but his wife is the broker. He's the husband that puts the signs out and puts the frames together. He likes to save his old substrates and bring them in for my to "reskin" them. He always seems to think he's getting a deal. He reminds me of my hoarding father so I have been letting him do it. This time around, I gently directed him over to me supplying the substrate. He seemed fine with it. Then he got the invoice. I broke down the printing/installation separate from the substrate so he could see the cost of each. I do that every time but this time the substrate was added. HE was fine with it until he saw the printing. FOR SOME REASON, he thinks that the substrate is more expensive than the printing. He called me and questioned the printing price. We played phone tag a couple of days and then finally we were on the phone together looking at the same invoice from 2021. He wanted to go line by line. (it was only 3 lines). when he read line one and it said, "per side" and not "per sign" and realized he had 8 double sided signs and 1 single sided sign for a total of 9 sides. He stumbled over a bunch of words and hung up. The cost difference between 2021 and today? a whopping $16 per side for a total of $64 difference on this invoice. I understand he's a boomer and he likes to pinch pennies, but good lord, we are living in a time period where i have to get a loan to go to the grocery store...He's making plenty of money in the real estate game right now.

why are realtors like this?
 
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Had some gal order some riders (hangers actually). 24x6", coro, 2-sided. Wanted 20 of them originally. Apparently she thought it was too much, so she cut it down to five, which put her below our minimum. So she thought she was saving money, but actually ended up paying more per sign. They are not only cheap, they don't do math that well. :roflmao:
 
petepaz

petepaz

New Member
not sure that is specific to realtors just the way some people are. i have a few customers that question every little thing. they order something years ago and expect it to be the same price or they order a higher qty like 100 or 500 and then order 25 or 50 and expect to have the same pricing. welcome to the real world customer, that's not how things work.
here's a real good one, years ago when all vendors were adding fuel surcharges because of the high gas prices the owner would get pissed but thought it was ok for him to add fuel surcharges to our invoices...:rolleyes::roflmao:
 
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gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Notarealsignguy said:
Oh boy, you want a list?
Click to expand...
I'll start: GREED.

Yeah, they are the absolute cheapest customers I deal with, probably on par with political candidates. I had an agent get angry with me once after I quoted a two panel 8x4 ft corner sign, produced and installed in one week. "What can you do for $500?" she asked. I said a one sided vinyl banner, so that's what she got.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
petepaz said:
not sure that is specific to realtors just the way some people are. i have a few customers that question every little thing. they order something years ago and expect it to be the same price or they order a higher qty like 100 or 500 and then order 25 or 50 and expect to have the same pricing. welcome to the real world customer, that's not how things work.
here's a real good one, years ago when all vendors were adding fuel surcharges because of the high gas prices the owner would get pissed but thought it was ok for him to add fuel surcharges to our invoices...:rolleyes::roflmao:
Click to expand...


Like you said about all the vendors adding fuel surcharges....... I made up some dandy wording and added it to many of my invoices. You would not believe the calls I got about it. Many said, why should I pay your charges ?? You didn't quote that. I said several times to various customers, it's because of the product I got just for you. Otherwise I wouldn't have to pay it, so I'm just passing it along to you. They said they wouldn't pay it. When the check came in, it was on there.
 
B

BigNate

New Member
John Miller said:
It's funny that people always seem to understand why they have to charge more to keep up with inflation but can't grasp your need to do the same:banghead:
Click to expand...
... now for a mind-trip: If no one ever raised their prices, would there be any inflation? (and the Govt reducing the value of money by printing more is a way to force a counter to raising prices - for the Govt only as we all have to earn the lower valued money as well....)
 
Boudica

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
BigNate said:
... now for a mind-trip: If no one ever raised their prices, would there be any inflation? (and the Govt reducing the value of money by printing more is a way to force a counter to raising prices - for the Govt only as we all have to earn the lower valued money as well....)
Click to expand...
Prices can and will always increase because of supply and demand.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Years ago, I could letter a billboard in 2 or 3 days with some brushes and a few gallons of paint. Today, ya hafta get designers involved, salespeople, big-ass printers, materials and installers and replace ratchets and follow the law for everything. Which do you think cost more ?? A 3 million dollar printer and all the workings or my brushes, paint and grid ??
 
B

BigNate

New Member
Boudica said:
Prices can and will always increase because of supply and demand.
Click to expand...
but that was not the question.... and yes, supply and demand do help drive price increases - but also drops. inflation causes your moneys to be worth less while making the government's moneys worth more (relatively speaking...)

YOU would not need to raise prices because of inflation if the government maintained the value of the money. Think of how much you could buy in 1970 with $100 - you can barely take a family of 4 to McDonalds for $100 today. One real world impact of inflation in to falsely reduce the actual value owed by the government to its creditors.... make the money worth less and you do not need to do as much actual work to pay your bills - and to make things work, the population has to pay the same amount of work translated to money, not the reverse.... hense until a raise goes through the citizen is paying a higher percentage of his work as taxes.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
Tell him going forward, you'll price it with the same inflation as his industry. So take that invoice from 2021 and add 50% to it. People are stupid.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
I want to know how small business with employees are staying afloat or even competing. Now anyone can get a McJob for $18-20/hr with zero experience, yet I recently saw a help wanted ad in my local paper for an experienced prepress technician for $15/hr. Prepress is a skilled position warranting at least $25, maybe more like $30/hour. I'm not seeing these lower tier skilled or blue collar jobs increasing wages in hyperdrive like the fast food places have, who would even waste their time working for that little? Fast food wages have always been the lowest common denominator, you really couldn't do worse than that. Now they pay more than some "real" jobs.
 
N

netsol

Active Member
gnubler said:
I want to know how small business with employees are staying afloat or even competing. Now anyone can get a McJob for $18-20/hr with zero experience, yet I recently saw a help wanted ad in my local paper for an experienced prepress technician for $15/hr. Prepress is a skilled position warranting at least $25, maybe more like $30/hour. I'm not seeing these lower tier skilled or blue collar jobs increasing wages in hyperdrive like the fast food places have, who would even waste their time working for that little? Fast food wages have always been the lowest common denominator, you really couldn't do worse than that. Now they pay more than some "real" jobs.
Click to expand...
 
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