Is it freaking absurd in your state too? I got an IFB from one of our agencies and the spec reads: Fruit of the Loom shirt, Ash Grey, 2 color image on front heart in Gold and Black and then has the crappiest jpeg of a metallic gold and black print yet says they do not want "glitter" and a list of last years order qty.
So I request the missing details- single delivery or multiple orders? image file? which FOL shirt? This should be easy to bid out with actual job spec, but the reply is even more absurd:
Me: Fruit of the Loom offers a number of Ts, in various fabric weights and of various composition in Ash Grey. You can view their offering here. Which spec would you like to be quoted for?
Them: It is 50% polyester and 50% cotton. We will be evaluating the grade of tee shirt, the print you put on it and the cost.
Me: Where may we download or can you send us a vector or high resolution raster file (think: .ai, .pdf, .eps, .tiff, .psd file types) of the requested image? Without actual art copy we cannot provide a printed sample.
Them: We are asking for a sample to be printed on the tee shirt you would be supplying.
Me: The colors listed for the imprint are Black and Gold. The image shows a metallic or shimmer gold print yet there is a note indicating "no glitter". Glitter is a larger flake ink while a shimmer/metallic is like in the picture. Specifically which pantone color of gold are you requesting? And, should the ink be metallic or not?
Them: We would like a solid color, no metallic or glitter.
Me: this bid is for single delivery correct? i.e., *** will place one annual order at the estimated levels.
Them: As it states on the bid proposal, the amount we gave you is only an estimate on what we have ordered in the past and there is not a guarantee of order quantity. So we may order once a year or we may need to order several times in a year.
This is nutz, just had to share a snippet. Maybe it's just a serious under performer on staff there. The "gold" is actually a metallic brown in the pic. Oh, and did I mention I'll be providing a free sample for them to "grade" even though they are selecting the shirt and cannot provide any art or spec for the print they want? I started laughing out loud at that point.
They probably get screwed on pricing every year (or maybe some poor printer gets screwed) because of this sort of ignorant lack of care to provide specifications for their order. I could reach out to them with a really low price on this but based on their behavior may not even bid or will bid very high.
