missing shirts?

[Screened Gear]

I just did about 500 American apparel shirts for a client. I work with this client about 4 times a year. This time was with a new contact. They order 5 designs and about eight colors including hoodies. I got a call that they are missing 10 shirts some are hoodies. We count the shirts before printing and before boxing so I have the numbers that went in the box. I know they were all there. I am not mad I don.t even care about reprinting them being out the money. I just don't want it to happen again.

How wound you handle this? What do you do so clients don't just call and say they are missing shirts.

[Frog]

I have this problem every now and then, and can almost be sure that their own employees, or kids, or players, etc are the culprits. I have sucked it up in the past with either a partial refund, credit, or replacement.
I rarely ship, so, though a little awkward, I suggest that the next time the same people pick up from me, they count 'em.

[Chadwick]

It's annoying, isn't it.
We have a quantity on the order, which gets transferred to the production order.
( * supplied garments, contract stuff )
If we've got several hundred pieces,sizes, and such for the order, I count em after they're printed.
I find though, if I count them prior to printing, the numbers unsually don't jive.
Then I've stopped production and am playing phone-tag for awhile.
Usually, I then find out that, 'oh, yeah..we changed this or that'...
But, if I didn't call..

Did you ask them ( nicely ) to recount?
After a long run, I've come up with a couple different counts on occasion  , and they may have just miscounted.

[Homer]

this happens when a school picks up the order and have students count them in- little Johnny ordered a large but instead took a medium and all of a sudden the count is off. . .we include a packing list with the packers signature on it next to the item and quantity. I tell the customer I have to trust my guy so please recount. 9 out of 10 times, they were off and gladly pay for the reprint -but it's that 1 time that really drives me nuts. whos' right? i have proof that I gave you what you ordered and you are saying no. . to keep the peace, we usually suck it up anyway and just run it. . but this is an area we struggled with about 6-8 months ago. . .it's usually the customers we don't see often, or are first timers taking advantage of our good will. . .

[Screened Gear]

It's for a school and they sort the shirts into a ton of small orders. So I am sure the mistake of sorting will never be found. AA shirts and about 3 hoodies about $200 after shipping.

[Chadwick]

Those ones really bite.
No proper way to keep track, since they ( likely ) didn't count their receiving goods
( which they should have if you go with 'standard' shipping/receiving practices ),
before doing their breakdown.

Before reprinting, maybe inquire about any extras they may need, as, in the end, you're doing them a favor.
Just be diplomatic ( something I'm not so good at, haha ).

[Screened Gear]

I think this is the one problem with what we do. My embroidery had a client pick up a order the a few days latter say they didn't get it and still need it.

[Donnie]

I had this happen with a fire department. I made it right but I know damn well they were all there. I was informed this summer that one member seemed to always have a some fresh tees.  It was the one who picked them up too.

[squeegee]

This happens all the time to us, like mentioned, if you have a steady customer that does this all the time, we ask them to count the shirts before they leave.  We had a customer over the summer that claimed they were missing 35 XXL from their order, all of that size that they had ordered.  It was a shipped order so we went to our records of the weights of the boxes, everything checked out.  We told them that the boxes were confirmed by weight with UPS and if 35 xxl were missing then the weight would have been off by about 18lbs.  We offered to open a claim with UPS for them and never heard back from them.  My feeling is they either under ordered or someone got their hands into the shirts before they were fully inventoried.

Yep, it's definately a downside to this business.  I think a lot of people would buy a drill at Home Depot to use it today just to return it tomorrow, but it's the liberal return policies of big retail stores that drives this behavior.

First line in the fine print of my invoices..."Customized products are non-returnable"

[Screened Gear]

Squeegee,

Good call with the shipped weight. I may have to show them the ordered shirts and at least show them the shirts did exist??? I have to go over the shirts that they ordered still. I just ordered the missing ones and I’m going to print them and be over it. They are a good customer its just a new contact person handling the order so I am sure they will not let this happen again. $200 Bye bye.

[Homer]

200.00 gone -for now- but over the lifetime of this customer, you'll make it back no problem. sometimes, we toss a extra hour of design time on the next order or two, just to make up that lost 200.00, if you know what I mean. . .

[Screened Gear]

200.00 gone -for now- but over the lifetime of this customer, you'll make it back no problem. sometimes, we toss a extra hour of design time on the next order or two, just to make up that lost 200.00, if you know what I mean. . .

Thats not honest but I guess they started that game. I could never do that but I made enough on the job that $200 is not that big of a deal.

[squeegee]

We ask our clients to report any discrepancies within 48 hrs.  It is stated in big bold text on every packing slip in every box that leaves our shop.  We started this a few yrs ago and it has helped with this problem.  We also put a disclaimer in our invoices to the same but further state that warranty claims past 5 days will not be honored.  Of course clients that matter may be excepted but chronic problems can be stopped without any worries.

[Shawn (EIP)]

Had this happen with a cheerleading squad , turns out the coach let the girls go through the box to get what they ordered. They ended up short 3 sets of pants/long sleeve shirts/and hoodies. I ended up splitting the cost with the coach but also lost the customer.

And again from a local pizza shop that orders from me 3 times a year. I now tape the crap out of their box and sharpie ONLY TO BE OPENED BY (insert owner name).

[Screened Gear]

In 3 years this maybe the second time this has happened. It's not the money, its having to print the shirts again knowing I did mess up.