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Contract Screen Printing Pricing
For anyone who is curious about how contract print pricing is different from standard pricing I decided to write it down here. First off let me say that the following information is the same information that I took with me as a Print Broker when interviewing potential new contract printers I was interested in hiring to do my work before I owned my own equipment. I still to this day find printers who don’t have any real understanding why there is and should be different pricing for both.
NON qualifying customers are customers who cannot or will not follow these guidelines. I have several who want better pricing but are simply to careless or lazy to follow them and so we use standard pricing with them.
First off a contract print buyer should have to quality as a business, authorized to buy printing tax free by the state for the legal purpose of reselling it to his customers. (they should have a tax exempt number and that earns them one browny point) If they don’t your selling to an end user like it or not as far as the state is concerned.
Secondly a contract print buyer should be purchasing their own garments for you to print on, and should be delivering them to you at least 24 hours before your scheduled to print them.
If they dont, they arent allowing you time to count them and allert you to any shortages that the distributor may have caused. If your print price is based on a quantity and the order is short of that quantity becuse the distributor shorted them and you now don’t have time to rectify it because of short print turn times its really the customers fault and pricing should be re-addressed based on actual quantity. If your contract customer on the other hand delivers the goods two or more days in advance and has all ready counted the goods and provides you with accurate written documentation to boot your contract customer gets one browny point.
Thirdly If the custmer gives you excellent, clean art and in some cases clean registered film to boot that actually works like its supposed to 99 percent of the time they get one browny point. Contract print customers should not be bringing you napkin sketches made with lipstick or one inch by one inch jpgs for a large full front print without expecting an art bill of some note.
Fourth a contract customer should provide written documentation detailing all pertinent aspects of the print job to allow you to do it correctly the first time and if there is a potential for confusion, be on the premisses to provide guidance during the strike off approval stage. If they do this and do it on time and don’t hold up production they get another browny point. No printer likes a contract customer who expects miracles, and mind reading and refuses to pay for mistakes they clearly could have prevented by simply doing a better job of communicating. (Thats the Brokers Job)
Fifth Always be clear on your PO to the printer what you expect to pay for the job. Clear up any confusion about pricing BEFORE the job is printed. If your contract print customer has an understanding of your pricing and is accurate on their PO's 99 percent of the time-another browny point. If a contract print customer has issues over a bill after the job is done no one is going to be pleased regardless of the quality of work or turn around time. The Printer is responsible for addressing pricing if the PO is wrong otherwise they should be prepared to conceed to the PO.
Sixth (and Lastly) I get asked this a LOT from other printers.If a Contract print job has misprints should the printer pay for those goods? The answer is a printer should on their price list show a misprint allowance (standard is 3 or 4%) that is allowed as misprints and the printer should not charge for printing those misprints as long as they are within that allowance and should not have to replace them either.(if they exceed the allowance then they should replace the goods or creit the cost back to the buyer as time allows. A contract print broker should ALWAYS buy a few extras if the quantity is critical and ask the printer to replace misprints from thos extras if needed if the quantaties must be precise. Blank unused goods can always be returned for a refund so there is no excuse not to do this. In addition if the broker is shorted for failing to provide extras then a re-run of the job to fill in shortages should be billed as a separate job at a price relative to the quantity being re-run. Thats fair.
I hope this was helpful to anyone who may be contract printing. If you follow these 6 basic guides you will likely find a pleasant experience dealing with your printer assuming they are professionals.
If anyone wishes to know more about the littel billing issues that cause friction and how to avoid them feel free to send me a message or call me and i’ll freely give my opinions.
thanks
Dave Robison
For anyone who is curious about how contract print pricing is different from standard pricing I decided to write it down here. First off let me say that the following information is the same information that I took with me as a Print Broker when interviewing potential new contract printers I was interested in hiring to do my work before I owned my own equipment. I still to this day find printers who don’t have any real understanding why there is and should be different pricing for both.
NON qualifying customers are customers who cannot or will not follow these guidelines. I have several who want better pricing but are simply to careless or lazy to follow them and so we use standard pricing with them.
First off a contract print buyer should have to quality as a business, authorized to buy printing tax free by the state for the legal purpose of reselling it to his customers. (they should have a tax exempt number and that earns them one browny point) If they don’t your selling to an end user like it or not as far as the state is concerned.
Secondly a contract print buyer should be purchasing their own garments for you to print on, and should be delivering them to you at least 24 hours before your scheduled to print them.
If they dont, they arent allowing you time to count them and allert you to any shortages that the distributor may have caused. If your print price is based on a quantity and the order is short of that quantity becuse the distributor shorted them and you now don’t have time to rectify it because of short print turn times its really the customers fault and pricing should be re-addressed based on actual quantity. If your contract customer on the other hand delivers the goods two or more days in advance and has all ready counted the goods and provides you with accurate written documentation to boot your contract customer gets one browny point.
Thirdly If the custmer gives you excellent, clean art and in some cases clean registered film to boot that actually works like its supposed to 99 percent of the time they get one browny point. Contract print customers should not be bringing you napkin sketches made with lipstick or one inch by one inch jpgs for a large full front print without expecting an art bill of some note.
Fourth a contract customer should provide written documentation detailing all pertinent aspects of the print job to allow you to do it correctly the first time and if there is a potential for confusion, be on the premisses to provide guidance during the strike off approval stage. If they do this and do it on time and don’t hold up production they get another browny point. No printer likes a contract customer who expects miracles, and mind reading and refuses to pay for mistakes they clearly could have prevented by simply doing a better job of communicating. (Thats the Brokers Job)
Fifth Always be clear on your PO to the printer what you expect to pay for the job. Clear up any confusion about pricing BEFORE the job is printed. If your contract print customer has an understanding of your pricing and is accurate on their PO's 99 percent of the time-another browny point. If a contract print customer has issues over a bill after the job is done no one is going to be pleased regardless of the quality of work or turn around time. The Printer is responsible for addressing pricing if the PO is wrong otherwise they should be prepared to conceed to the PO.
Sixth (and Lastly) I get asked this a LOT from other printers.If a Contract print job has misprints should the printer pay for those goods? The answer is a printer should on their price list show a misprint allowance (standard is 3 or 4%) that is allowed as misprints and the printer should not charge for printing those misprints as long as they are within that allowance and should not have to replace them either.(if they exceed the allowance then they should replace the goods or creit the cost back to the buyer as time allows. A contract print broker should ALWAYS buy a few extras if the quantity is critical and ask the printer to replace misprints from thos extras if needed if the quantaties must be precise. Blank unused goods can always be returned for a refund so there is no excuse not to do this. In addition if the broker is shorted for failing to provide extras then a re-run of the job to fill in shortages should be billed as a separate job at a price relative to the quantity being re-run. Thats fair.
I hope this was helpful to anyone who may be contract printing. If you follow these 6 basic guides you will likely find a pleasant experience dealing with your printer assuming they are professionals.
If anyone wishes to know more about the littel billing issues that cause friction and how to avoid them feel free to send me a message or call me and i’ll freely give my opinions.
thanks
Dave Robison