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Need help explaining this to a customer

1241 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  SunEmbroidery, 
S
So I am doing 475 front and back comfort color shirts. The client requested Monterrey Sage color. I received the shirts from Alpha Broder and started pressing the smalls. Once I finished those I moved on to the mediums and noticed they were a good bit darker. So I went through the rest of the boxes and discovered that almost exactly down the middle number wise, the shirts were lighter and darker. So about 230 appeared to be Monterrey Sage, and the rest appeared to be regular Sage. I called Alpha Broder and they agreed to resend me 230 Monterrey Sage shirts. They have arrived and they are just as dark as the last one. Nothing in the comfort color swatch book looks like the light color version I have, so Alpha Broder is saying it is a dye lot discrepancy. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this and what I should tell my client?

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smaycumber said:
So I am doing 475 front and back comfort color shirts. The client requested Monterrey Sage color. I received the shirts from Alpha Broder and started pressing the smalls. Once I finished those I moved on to the mediums and noticed they were a good bit darker. So I went through the rest of the boxes and discovered that almost exactly down the middle number wise, the shirts were lighter and darker. So about 230 appeared to be Monterrey Sage, and the rest appeared to be regular Sage. I called Alpha Broder and they agreed to resend me 230 Monterrey Sage shirts. They have arrived and they are just as dark as the last one. Nothing in the comfort color swatch book looks like the light color version I have, so Alpha Broder is saying it is a dye lot discrepancy. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this and what I should tell my client?
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copy this text and send it to your customer. Then go from there with your customer.
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C
Do you have an account rep assigned to you? Have you met with the outside rep?
Contact them and see if they can help you out.
Get a new shipment and keep the ones that match best.
I've done this.
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S
chuckh said:
Do you have an account rep assigned to you? Have you met with the outside rep?
Contact them and see if they can help you out.
Get a new shipment and keep the ones that match best.
I've done this.
Click to expand...
So I don’t do enough business for an account rep with Alpha Broder yet, but I have been working with a very friendly customer Service rep who has tried to do everything she can for me. She did resend out another order but they were all very dark. None were lighter like the ones I had already pressed. At this point the order is supposed to be delivered to the client Friday and I still have to press 200 front and back. I’ll probably have to just go with the darker ones.

Has anyone ever heard of Comfort Color/Dyehouse offering a credit for dye lot discrepancies?
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B
The two most important questions are what is your customer expecting and will they accept the darker colour?

I'd explain the situation to them (with photos) and see if they will accept the darker versions or even a mixed order since you've already printed some light versions.

I now plan to always check the stock of an entire order before starting to make sure the colours match so thank you for sharing as it may save me grief in the future.
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S
So just to tie up the loose end on the outcome, using advice from here, I took one of each shade to my client and let her know this happens with different lots from Comfort Color. As luck would have it, she had a student in her office at that very moment who said, “oh, yea, that has happened to me. I have 2 comfort color shirts that are the same color, but different shades.” So the principal said, “yea, they are in the same family so it should be ok.” Time will tell if they are frustrated once they see 475 students in 2 different shades, but they will at least for now accept the shirts. I may offer a slight discount just for reputational risk avoidance. Thanks to those who stepped in with suggestions.
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J
I think you handled it well and you did what you could to try and get shirts that match. I always go through all the shirts before every order and count and make sure I have the correct number before I start going, so would find this kind of issue early on hopefully.
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That was a good outcome and you handled it gracefully.

However, you did have an option that was not mentioned. Since you did receive a large quantity of replacement T's you could have elected to eliminate the shade of least quantity. They would not be the preferred shade but they would have matched.

Now we all know 475 in large numbers comes with unexpected surprises none of us need.
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J
I’ve had the same problem with Comfort Colors. One thing you can also do in the future is have the supplier whether Alpha, Sanmar, or another verify and make sure the entire order is the same color prior to shipping, especially if it’s a large order so you don’t have mixed dye issues.
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SunEmbroidery
I don't deal with Comfort Colors but I know some times there isn't anything that can be done about shade differences when different sizes are manufactured in different countries. Sometimes just the difference in water will effect the appearance of a color.
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