Customer complaint - Pressure Marks

[ericheartsu]

We just had a client order 400pcs of a 6 color discharge print, where the print goes off the edge of the tee. This is for a well known artist in Houston and internationally that we've worked with in the past, and is always finding something wrong.

Prints came out perfectly, and we were so stoked on them. We matched all pantones perfectly, placement on all tees was awesome, and the discharge prints made the tees soft. softer than he was expecting. While inspecting them at the shop, he was so blown away.

4 days later he writes complaining that the pressure marks on the garment are causing him to lose sales. He is selling his shirts in galleries, and they cannot have this issue, so on and so forth.

This will be our last job with this artist, as these shirts came out amazing. We were so proud of them, and for this to be a knit picky issue drives me crazy.

BUT! i'm wondering what we could have done to avoid this. Before, during, and after the print.

any ideas?

[mimosatexas]

You can work those out with those handheld steamers if it is just the edge mark from the platen.  Could sand the edge of your platens (assuming they are rubber) as well.  I've never had someone complain about them, but it does happen and sometimes on the more glaring ones I will "fix" them before giving to the client.

[Gilligan]

Isn't this the same guy that blamed you before for a lack of sales?

Joke man... joke.

[ericheartsu]

Isn't this the same guy that blamed you before for a lack of sales?

Joke man... joke.

haha someone else posted that. Last time we printed for this guy, he asked us to recommend a shirt, which we did, then he said they were to big and made us reprint them. This order he went with the same shirt we recommended last time.

[Gilligan]

Time to move on... let him become someone else's problem.

Got any competitors that you don't like?

[ericheartsu]

this is the print in question.

[ebscreen]

Nice print. I don't see the sides where the marks would be.

"We can steam them out at $0.50 a piece or you can wait a week/first wash and fuggedaboutit"


I'm guessing his real issue is the timeliness of the subject and resulting sales. New week, new dead celebrity.

[ericheartsu]

he has actually made this art for several years, alot of it was actually for david bowie's camp.

timeline isn't an issue, but i just don't think there is anything that can be done.

[mimosatexas]

what marks?  I don't see anything...

[ericheartsu]

this is a production sample that we kept for future ink matching purposes, and there aren't any on here. i don't know what he is seeing on his side though.

[DannyGruninger]

BUT! i'm wondering what we could have done to avoid this. Before, during, and after the print.

any ideas?

I'm sure you know this but I'll throw it out anyway.

Make sure squeegee edges are rounded
Make sure squeegee is not hanging over the edge of the pallet
If squeegee pressure is excessive on press most likely the mesh is not open enough - try a more open mesh

If you do get the marks in the shirt on a waterbase job due to trying to saturate the fibers, have a spray bottle with water that you can mist over the pallet marks prior to going through the dryer(make certain your fully curing your ink as if you spray water over the printed image area you can run into issues). But for us here pallet marks are big no, if we run into a job that has them we will spray the marks with water, use a felt brush to relocate the fibers(sometimes not needed), then run back through the dryer. We try to setup the job to avoid any pallet marks but there's certain jobs that I have found which its the nature of the beast so we will use the above method which works for us.

[ericheartsu]

BUT! i'm wondering what we could have done to avoid this. Before, during, and after the print.

any ideas?

I'm sure you know this but I'll throw it out anyway.

Make sure squeegee edges are rounded
Make sure squeegee is not hanging over the edge of the pallet
If squeegee pressure is excessive on press most likely the mesh is not open enough - try a more open mesh

If you do get the marks in the shirt on a waterbase job due to trying to saturate the fibers, have a spray bottle with water that you can mist over the pallet marks prior to going through the dryer(make certain your fully curing your ink as if you spray water over the printed image area you can run into issues). But for us here pallet marks are big no, if we run into a job that has them we will spray the marks with water, use a felt brush to relocate the fibers(sometimes not needed), then run back through the dryer. We try to setup the job to avoid any pallet marks but there's certain jobs that I have found which its the nature of the beast so we will use the above method which works for us.

Thanks Danny! We used smiling jacks for this job, so all the corners were rounded, but i'll double check.

is the spray water bottle method something that you all do after they are cured?

[UnderPressureSP]

I know that guy.  Got a few of his prints..... Print looks great.  If you wash the shirts the marks should disappear....   We have some clients that pay the extra fees to get the shirts washed so the discharge feels super soft and no pressure marks.  One has to understand that a t-shirt is not like paper....   I also think print is awesome for this job.   I think you have it right to pass on clients like this....

[beanie357]

We retired two direct to the artist relationships.
Still have several. Some need to be retired and don't worry about it. It all depends on how
You retire them

[UnderPressureSP]

I am also very impressed on the thread redye switch on the over print black layer?  And I right?  Did yall add that in the art or is does that thread not discharge.