I agreed to a race car sponsorship deal for a group of three people.
The first complaint on the first shirt was a misspelled word. She did approve the proof(emailed photoshop example) before printing and she and i missed the word.
2nd complaint on shirt 2 was the font on the back is "to hard to read". Again, she approved the proof.
3rd complaint on 3rd shirt. She said the red is more of a brick red than a flag red. Flag red ink is what color was used on a sport grey shirt. I did not put down a white underlay just cause of the discount given and i did not believe it would be a big deal. Again proof approved beforehand.
I'm a fairly new business and am trying to get a good rep and so far i have passed with flying colors till this.
I don't think i should have to and probably will not rerun the flag red shirt as a specific red color was not agreed upon.
The other 2 shirt designs...What do you all think i should do about those?
Even with the rerun i would still make $70 (-minus time/materials) and maybe, just maybe, who knows a pleased customer.
Tough one. Cause they could bring you a lot of business just through word of mouth. On the other hand they approved the artwork(not your fault) Some people like to have slang and such printed. So just going ahead and fixing spelling mistakes could actually be a mistake. It is not up to me to dis approve of a customers approval. Also if customers want specific pantone colour matching(the red) their are a lot of us that charge extra for that anyway. I would probably suck it up and just redo the shirts and tell her to make sure that it is the way she wants it this time. For sure!!!!
When our company sends out artwork for approval we have a disclaimer at the bottom that lets the customer know our rules. It tells the customer to look over the artwork because once we have their ok, the design belongs to them. We are not responsible for any spelling or graphic errors. If you make a point to tell all first time customers to look over the design because that is exactly what they are going to get. Any errors they see need to be fixed before they approve the design for production.
This happened to me today I did names on the back of a shirt and the customer spelled a name as "wright" come to find out it was suppose to be "wight" Our company copied and pasted the list of names from the customers email. We laid out the design and emailed it for final approval, which they approved. We did not eat the prints because my customer read the disclaimer and knew about it. To keep this customer happy I did offer them a small discount on the round of prints we redid. If you don't have rules and stick to them, then you will end up "eating" alot of transfers since we are all human and people do make mistakes.
Having said that if it is ever your mistake you should always do whatever possible to make good on the transaction. Good luck and I feel for you! It has happened to us all. It is a horrible feeling that leaves you sick to your stomach no matter who's fault it was
i would replace the shirt with the misspelled word with profound apologies - whether she proofed it or not - the burden is on you as a professional to be sure it's right.
the one with the font....i'd probably replace at cost. reason being: looking at a sample of a print on a computer screen in front of your face is a LOT different than moving around in real life and not really up close and personal! as a consumer, she wouldn't have any reason to know about distance readability of a given font and size. you as the pro should. even when a customer insists on a font that i KNOW will not work for their purposes, i will generally print out a life-size sample of their choice on a desktop printer, tape it to a wall and make the customer back off 10 ft. and look at it. i'll do the same thing with a font choice of my own recommendation. i've never had one come back for that reason
as far as the 'flag red'......was it in fact the red in the flag?? sorry to say it, but if it was...i'd reprint that one as well. if not, i'd discuss with her the need to undercoat in white required to achieve a true red and the fact that the exact shade of red wasn't discussed. but again, for future reference, be aware when you're sending proofs to a prospective client that the colors you are representing on their screens may not necessarily be reflected in the finished product!
the small investment in making this customer happy will go a long way in 'advertising'. they might never say anything to anyone about a good experience with a service provider, but you can bet your bottom dollar they'll tell everybody they see about a bad one!
__________________
it's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!
Thanks guys. Everything said above i would agree with ('cept for reprinting the red ones). Funny thing is, i was literally just discussing with my wife the day before that i'm going to put a disclaimer on the proofs i send out saying not responsible for mispells/art etc problems once proof approved. Lesson learned.
Looks like i'm rerunning some shirts. Ugghh.
When our company sends out artwork for approval we have a disclaimer at the bottom that lets the customer know our rules. It tells the customer to look over the artwork because once we have their ok, the design belongs to them. We are not responsible for any spelling or graphic errors. If you make a point to tell all first time customers to look over the design because that is exactly what they are going to get. Any errors they see need to be fixed before they approve the design for production.
This happened to me today I did names on the back of a shirt and the customer spelled a name as "wright" come to find out it was suppose to be "wight" Our company copied and pasted the list of names from the customers email. We laid out the design and emailed it for final approval, which they approved. We did not eat the prints because my customer read the disclaimer and knew about it. To keep this customer happy I did offer them a small discount on the round of prints we redid. If you don't have rules and stick to them, then you will end up "eating" alot of transfers since we are all human and people do make mistakes.
Having said that if it is ever your mistake you should always do whatever possible to make good on the transaction. Good luck and I feel for you! It has happened to us all. It is a horrible feeling that leaves you sick to your stomach no matter who's fault it was
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We also have the same policy. And honestly if it was a big run and the customer approved the art work, we would not redo it. We would redo another order if they want to pay for it. As a professional you are only obligated to make sure that the customer makes sure that they are approving the correct art work. In the case of the 3 shirts I would prbably do it for them. If it was a large order I wouldnot take a hit because of the customers mistake.
Sorry WE HAVE ALL BEEN THERE!! Live and learn. The disclaimer will help because honestly you really never know if some things are spelled correctly. We did shirts one time and the customer asked that "Reprezenting" be huge on the front of the shirt. My partner and I argued about it. I told him that "Reprezenting" was correct because that is what the customer wanted. My partner demanded I call the customer and let them know it was spelled incorrectly. I didn't want to do this because I didn't want the customer to feel like I was on spell patrol and calling them ignorant. My partner INSISTED so I let him call the customer haha Come to find out "Reprezenting" was correct and thank goodness the customer didn't mind that we called and asked but trust me some would. I called a customer one time and he told me "isn't that how I spelled it?" I said, "yes it is but I am just double checking." The customer said, "I don't pay you to double check I pay you to print my design. That is what I sent. That is what I want." hahahaha Oh the stories I could tell. Live and learn live and learn
The job was 3 different designs. Luckily it is only a one color job and only 22 shirts per design. Just sucks cause i'm backed up as it is, then to do a rerun.... Oh well. Live and learn. LOL.
The job was 3 different designs. Luckily it is only a one color job and only 22 shirts per design. Just sucks cause i'm backed up as it is, then to do a rerun.... Oh well. Live and learn. LOL.
22 shirts per design. Buddy I would maybe tell her I would re print, but make her pay for the cost of the all the shirts again. It WAS HER faultnot yours. SHE approved it.
i would replace the shirt with the misspelled word with profound apologies - whether she proofed it or not - the burden is on you as a professional to be sure it's right.
the one with the font....i'd probably replace at cost. reason being: looking at a sample of a print on a computer screen in front of your face is a LOT different than moving around in real life and not really up close and personal! as a consumer, she wouldn't have any reason to know about distance readability of a given font and size. you as the pro should. even when a customer insists on a font that i KNOW will not work for their purposes, i will generally print out a life-size sample of their choice on a desktop printer, tape it to a wall and make the customer back off 10 ft. and look at it. i'll do the same thing with a font choice of my own recommendation. i've never had one come back for that reason
as far as the 'flag red'......was it in fact the red in the flag?? sorry to say it, but if it was...i'd reprint that one as well. if not, i'd discuss with her the need to undercoat in white required to achieve a true red and the fact that the exact shade of red wasn't discussed. but again, for future reference, be aware when you're sending proofs to a prospective client that the colors you are representing on their screens may not necessarily be reflected in the finished product!
the small investment in making this customer happy will go a long way in 'advertising'. they might never say anything to anyone about a good experience with a service provider, but you can bet your bottom dollar they'll tell everybody they see about a bad one!
I agree.
I would venture a guess that this customer has the potential to be either a good reference, or a bad reference. You have to make the decision as to whether or not you want to take the monetary risk to try to make this customer into a good reference instead of thinking in the short term.
I'm not a racing ran, but it's my understanding they have more than one race a year, shirts wear out and need to be replaced, and people want to buy cool shirts other people wear.
3rd complaint on 3rd shirt. She said the red is more of a brick red than a flag red. Flag red ink is what color was used on a sport grey shirt. I did not put down a white underlay just cause of the discount given and i did not believe it would be a big deal. Again proof approved beforehand.
It clearly was a big deal to her.
She approved of the color you sent her, NOT the color that turned out because YOU choose not to do the white underlay. It doesn't matter if you choose not to do the underlay because of the "discount".
Talked to the lady and i'm going to rerun her shirts and her son's shirts. The shirt with the red, the driver loved hers, so all good on that one. Besides, i gave the proof a darker appearance to simulate the lack of an underlay so there shouldnt' have been much of a surprise. I'll add in the disclaimer about monitors colors not matching exact and what not. Probably set up a "proof fee" if they want to see an actual shirt done before i run it as well.
She said they will defianately be ordering more of these shirts so while yes i'm taking a bit of a hit now, the long run will pay off, not only money wise but pleased customer wise. That said, believe me, any future work all the "loose" ends will be tied and i will be very,very clear about what she will be getting.
For what its worth here's my 2 cents
Customer approved artwork Both your mistake and theirs you should eat the labor and they should eat the cost of the shirts. We just had this discussion last week and the outcome seemed to be Please the customer today and they'll come back tomorror.
Bad Customers will tell everyone how you screwed up their shirts and now wont make it right, regardless of who's right or wrong.
Keep your customers comming back
and they'll keep paying your bills
One thing you might want to try is making some swatches of the colors you intend to use on some scrap material from bad shirts or somewhere and then the coloring won't be left up to a poor monitor or video card setting. If a customer can't wait for the swatches, just explain that color differences between what they see on the monitor and what they actually receive may be slightly different. By the way, if it were me, I'ld have done the white underlay to start with. Poor colors on the transfers are the reason I don't try to sell anything other that white T-shirts unless I use heat press vinyl. Good luck.
Terry
What would you do about this problem? 
Oh well. Live and learn. LOL.
