What are your re-order minimums or do you have any?

[alan802]

This happens to us almost daily.  I've told the sales people once the job is off the press it's another job, if we haven't reclaimed the screens then I tell them to give the customer a break on that, but they can't charge the same amount that they charged for the original job if the quantities aren't the same.  Our sales staff does a terrible job educating the customer on ordering extra for exact counts and how the whole system works in general.  We have one salesperson who is the only one that always has to have exact quantities and if a shirt has a hole in it, we have to set the job up again for one piece, and she simply doesn't get how that completely kills the shop's profits, she still gets her full commission though.  I wish I could do something about that but I don't have any say on dumb sales people, I suggest things but that's about it.  She lets her customers walk all over her and us.  We did a 1100 piece job for her and we had one misprint and one shirt with a hole in it, we had to order those shirts and reprint the next day...how ridiculous is that?  Luckily that was only a one color, one location print.  It's pure ignorance and no matter how many times I've explained to her that she is the only one we have this problem with, she doesn't get it. 

Sorry for the thread derail but my little problem is along the lines of the discussion and is good for some to see what not to do.  Every setup is a time consumer, no matter the scenario, a 4 color setup is always a 4 color setup.

[Frog]

This happens to us almost daily.  I've told the sales people once the job is off the press it's another job, if we haven't reclaimed the screens then I tell them to give the customer a break on that, but they can't charge the same amount that they charged for the original job if the quantities aren't the same.  Our sales staff does a terrible job educating the customer on ordering extra for exact counts and how the whole system works in general.  We have one salesperson who is the only one that always has to have exact quantities and if a shirt has a hole in it, we have to set the job up again for one piece, and she simply doesn't get how that completely kills the shop's profits, she still gets her full commission though. I wish I could do something about that but I don't have any say on dumb sales people, I suggest things but that's about it.  She lets her customers walk all over her and us.  We did a 1100 piece job for her and we had one misprint and one shirt with a hole in it, we had to order those shirts and reprint the next day...how ridiculous is that?  Luckily that was only a one color, one location print.  It's pure ignorance and no matter how many times I've explained to her that she is the only one we have this problem with, she doesn't get it. 

Sorry for the thread derail but my little problem is along the lines of the discussion and is good for some to see what not to do.  Every setup is a time consumer, no matter the scenario, a 4 color setup is always a 4 color setup.

I will contribute to the derail, or threadjack, or tangent.

Unless you guys have a strict policy on how short an order can be, how is that on your sales person? Who orders? It's their job to order extras which become part of your expense, or you decide to roll the dice and pray for no defects.
It shouldn't be on the customer either unless you spell out that they may get shorted. Good luck on that when there is a hole in one of the two pieces of XXXL they ordered!

[alan802]

Our purchasing employee orders what is hand written on the work order that the sales person fills out.  She doesn't ask questions or order extras because we have never had this issue with "exact quantities".  Every once in a while on a small quantity job there will be a defect and we have to reprint, but EVERY job she sells she specifies in the notes section of Shopworks that she needs exact quantities and if we have a defect she orders a shirt from sanmar or broder and it shows up the next day and we have to print the damn thing.  She should do what all the other sales people do.  For example, my wife sells a 1000 piece job, there are two shirts with holes in them, we won't have to print two shirts.  So how does 4 out of the 5 sales staff manage to handle the issue of a misprint or shirt defect?  If I were running the entire show, this wouldn't be happening, as far as I'm concerned it's her problem that she needs to fix.

[royster13]

Sounds like you need to run off a sales person.......

[Frog]

Like I said. If there is a policy, it needs to be spelled out to the sales person and the clients.

In my market, more than half of the jobs I do need to be exact quantity, especially when the potentially missing shirt is that one XXXXL .

Like your typical runs, when my orders are over 144, it's not as much of an issue, (except for that damn XXXL  !)

[alan802]

There is room for a policy to follow but this wasn't a problem in the past, so one doesn't exist.  There could be a whole new thread on how each shop deals with this problem that no doubt happens in every shop in some capacity or another.  I know it's technically very simple, there is a spoilage rate and we all know how it works.  We could do things like the ASI companies do, but I don't think that works too well on the garment side of things.

[Frog]

I have never thought that it works in the garment side of the industry. $20 sweat shirts are not business cards, even expensive die stamped or embossed like I was doing before returning to screen printing.

On my typical orders of 144 and less, that usually involved folks pre-ordering and paying the person with whom I am now dealing, I either roll the dice and hope for the best, or I invest in a few extras.

Never fails though, I order an extra in the size that needed 74, and one of the only two in another size has the defect!

[royster13]

We could do things like the ASI companies do, but I don't think that works too well on the garment side of things.

Not sure what you mean by this......My best suppliers ship exact quantities all the time......I choose not to deal with suppliers that try to do otherwise....

[Dottonedan]

We could do things like the ASI companies do, but I don't think that works too well on the garment side of things.

Not sure what you mean by this......My best suppliers ship exact quantities all the time......I choose not to deal with suppliers that try to do otherwise....

Coffe mug Co's do this. Order 144 and you can be under or over by 5% or 7 mugs. You can also opt out and require no overs/but must accept being under by up to 7 or 5%.  This is due to the firing process of the mugs. You always get a few that "break" after being fired and you won't know until it's printed and fired. I used to love hearing the pingers at the end of the kilns/heaters. union workers sit at the end of the kilns for $7.85 per hour at that time and used a stick with a ball on the end and ping each mug on the side as it comes out. You will know right away if it's no good.

[royster13]

Well you need to find a better mug company.....I use ETS Express....I just looked at the last 20 invoices from them and only 1 was not exact and that was only missing 1 piece.....

[Inkworks]

Small-town shop here, we ship/deliver the exact qty. ordered 99.9% of the time, if we have extras we'll ask them if they'd like to buy them at the normal unit price, 80%+ of the time they'll take them.

For pad-printing we keep the plate indefinitely, so set-up is almost 1/2 of a first-run set-up, and they can pick a new colour if they want. (first run $45, includes film and plate, re-run is $25)

As for screens and re-set-up, if we still have the screens we'll give them a break on re-set, but it isn't free as it takes time. Per-piece price is usually at the main order pricing.