Misprint and no one noticed-until now

[Rockers]

Generally I have no issues re-pinting jobs where we made a mistake, but this time I feel like -"screw this".
Here is how it goes. A band ordered tees in December, we printed them, delivered on time and everyone was happy. They sent me an email in February saying the tees were great, they sold them all and they were so happy about the product as it helped them to finance they first studio CD. And they asked  us to print more of the same plus hoodies too. We do that , again ship well before due date. Last night I get an email of them saying there was something wrong, where there should have been only an outline we must have created a fill too. They go on about it how it makes the artwork look bad and they had to sell things at a discounted rate after they spotted the mistake. They mentioned as well that this was as well wrong on the first print run in December but they noticed it now only after receiving the new shirts last week.
Of course I feel like we should re-do them, at the same time though they missed our 72 hrs we give clients to make a claim, plus they asked for a re-run of what was printed the first time round, which we did, and last but not least they have sold the shirts already, apparently at a discounted rate.
Well what a bummer this all is. By the way we are talking here about 22 garments.

[ffokazak]

I feel ya!

We did 200 mouse pads that we added the clients website to...

wwww.whatever...

My staff missed it, I missed it, the client approved the mock up...

Just a disaster haha

[Frog]

When I worked at a place that did mostly car and car event shirts, we printed and delivered hundreds (and never heard a complaint) for an event in "CALIFONIA". Thank you to all of the guys who were apparently only interested in Auto Shop in high school. LOL!

[Flash Ink]

This comes up for us more times than it should. Our proofing process is two steps and customers still dont want to look at their art. We always ask ourself is this a customer that is worth keeping? If the answer is yes, then bite the bullet and reprint the job. If they are a problem and are hard to deal with then put your foot down and stick to your policies. Make them someone else's problem. I go both ways on this, we had a customer miss approve their invoice just recently but we are sucking it up and reprinting 16 hoodies because I see the value in having them as a customer.

[screenxpress]

By the way we are talking here about 22 garments.

Are you kidding me?  22 prints and they're making making a fuss...now?  For all the reasons you listed, tell them no and to come back when they make it BIG and you'll give them a real discount on 500 impressions, lol!

[Homer]

We will happily send you replacement garments upon the return of all shirts with errors. They must be in unworn and unwashed condition. If you can not meet these requirements, a discounted rate may be applied to your next order, the discount percentage is based on yearly purchased volume.

You already know the shirts are gone, so that option is out. The only way for him to get any reimbursement is to spend more money with you. Based on the volume, his "discount percentage" will be almost nothing. 
 
The shirts were good enough to sell the first time but NOW you want me to replace them all? Piss up a rope.

[GraphicDisorder]

22 garments = a certain kind of customer.

[GKitson]

My record is 2 years 7 quarterly re-orders for a Mfg. facility Safety award satin jackets, 1980's.

safety spelled SAFTEY. oops

[1964GN]

My favorite was FOOTBALL spelled FOOTALL for a current NFL head coach. Contract job, not our art or art approval process (although we have been there, done that). The artist misspelled it, the contract client looked at it, the coach looked at it, I SEPed it and printed the film, the screen dept burned the film, the press op set the job up and started printing, our lowest paid employee who was catching caught it after about 25 shirts.

[Sbrem]

Years and years ago we printed Universary of Cincinnati, at least I think it was Cincinnati, not that it mattered. We also did a FORTH ANNUAL, 800 shirts for a road race, and never, ever, heard a word about it. In fact, I noticed when looking for a test shirt with some room on it, go figure...

Steve

[Prince Art]

We will happily send you replacement garments upon the return of all shirts with errors. They must be in unworn and unwashed condition. If you can not meet these requirements, a discounted rate may be applied to your next order, the discount percentage is based on yearly purchased volume.

You already know the shirts are gone, so that option is out. The only way for him to get any reimbursement is to spend more money with you. Based on the volume, his "discount percentage" will be almost nothing. 
 
The shirts were good enough to sell the first time but NOW you want me to replace them all? Piss up a rope.

This is pretty much what we'd do, too.  SMH @ the idea that they chose to sell them at [an alleged] discount prior to notifying you of the problem, and then expect you to give them free merch AFTER there's nothing left to return. (Surely they didn't sell them for less than they paid for the order, so it's not like they're actually out money. If they reorder again & you give a discount, they'll be money ahead of where they were originally.)

Bands! 

[Sbrem]

We almost never do band work, and I've been playing in them since 1966. And how the hell does selling 22 shirts finance studio time?

Steve

[BP]

back in the 90's I had 2 artist the had some many spelling errors getting printed and to the customer. So I told everyone in the shop if you see it before it prints you get 10 bucks on the spot! It helped.

[DragonflyGraphics]

Awesome post! "Swimmming" in some crazy script is one I think about from time to time. There have been plenty more though.

[balloonguy]

Years ago I had a customer supply art with a typo. We delivered on time and 2 weeks or so later an hour before the event they called to tell me about my mistake and that I needed to get it fixed within the hour.  I spoke to the accounting office and explained my end and sent the email chain showing the supplied art and signed print approval form. I did loose the customer but I did not feel like I should give in on that one. I'll admit when I am wrong and do anything to fix it but this was on them in my opinion.