"You don't understand..."

[brandon]

So we all get this and our business is almost at twice a week now. The good old "You don't understand, we are gonna' be huge" line.

Ok, yeah, whatever. Of course they can't cough up money for even 100 t's. Sad. Must not really have that confidence in their "designer" friend.

But this one takes the cake. I was told today over the phone that I didn't understand how big and huge he was gonna be because he is a "Rapper" from out of this world. That I should be honored to print his shirts. Wow, can I really, pretty pretty please print your XXXXXLG shirts?

No thanks. And thank you Kanye West for making the world a much dumber and ruder place!

[Screened Gear]

Twice a week that has to suck. I get it about once or twice a month. I have never had one of these guy even do a reorder. I think it’s funny how they are all exactly the same. Is there some book or website out there that tells these want to be clothing line moguls to act this way. There is a big independent clothing line movement but they are usually well educated about the industry. Great guys to work with and they do sell shirts. The guys that tell you how big they will be are always the same. Want top of the line, ton of colors and everything, mens womens, kids, babies, dogs, cats and even blowup doll shirts in the same 100 shirt start out order, Did I mention its 30 different designs. Then after doing the quote they order 24 white shirts with black ink on the front only. That is if they order at all.

[beanie357]

We usually stop responding after 2 such rfq's from this type of customer. Real deals usually send a line sheet.

[screenprintguy]

Bahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[cleveprint]

haha. its funny how every screen printer gets these calls. i do have one customer, a pair of brothers starting a clothing line, who actually get it though. they order small runs, usually multiple designs, multiple colors per design. they pay a lot for the stuff too. but they understand they have to start somewhere. their orders are getting larger though the more we print. they get that nothing in life is free and you have to start from the bottom.

[balloonguy]

I know they can be a pain but try to be explain how things work and you may be surprised. I have 2 clients that started this way that are pretty good and 1 that spends about 10k a month. The 10k guys went to many shops and nobody wanted to deal with them. Now they get calls and emails every day from other printers. These guys are sticking with me because I was the only 1 who gave them the time of day in the beginning.
Matt

[kingscreen]

Only twice a week!? We get this almost daily. The best is when someone refers to themselves as the "CEO" of their clothing line. Ironically, their "huge" idea is always pretty much exactly the same thing we've been hearing from the last 10 CEOs. Let me guess, all the designs have something to do with you being rich. 

Matt is right though. There have been some clothing lines that with a bit of time spent on our part have turned out to be great clients. However, most are one hit wonders if that. It comes with the territory I suppose.

[jesterapparel]

1000 pieces order - The ScreenPrinters - Episode 13

[Sbrem]

We print a few modestly successful lines, and these customers never said any of that stuff. The ones that did were all one-shot deals. You can't tell some people.

Steve

[ZooCity]

We've been in/out of retail for awhile and I never shy away from clothing line folks,  the key is to make sure they understand the rules just like any other client.   If they are waaaay of course and clearly have no understanding of the production side or no overall plan I offer my expertise to them at $35/hr and schedule one on one time to consult but rarely does anyone take us up on this.  To this day, I think there are only a small handful of modestly successful retail lines that I saw start with us.  None of them made any of the above comments, they all listened carefully and planned their orders accordingly, like any serious client would.

I've been on the other end of this too and had U.S. cap mfg's in particular treat us like crap even when we were placing orders well above their minimum for stock product styles, b/c we were "retail".  I would give these people specs right down to the fabric/material skus from their supplier, cash up front and they still would cancel POs and literally tell me what a "favor" they were doing me by running the order...which always takes 7weeks and costs up to 9x more than overseas made products which are, ironically, often of better quality.  The only reason I ever tolerated any of it was due to our commitment to U.S. manufacturing but just saying I know how it feels to be a legit buyer and get undeserved treatment like this.  So weed out the chaff but be careful not to make anyone guilty by association. 

[screenxpress]

I need to get some t-shirts made

[brandon]

Hey Guys,
I should explain I was just venting to others that understand. I and everyone at work treat all clients, vendors, each other, and everybody with mutual respect. Even the rude clients. Yes, we do print for several large clothing lines that I see around in stores and such. And we have a couple that started out with doing 24 t-shirts and now do several thousand so I have helped some people that actually put their money and time where there mouth is. I was just releasing pressure so my head wouldn't pop. I read somewhere once where there is a website forum thing such as this where waitstaff go to complain about their non tipping customers!

It is Friday! Have a good weekend everybody! I will be at work training new people.

[Inkworks]

The trick is you just never know which flake is going to make it work. I have one guy who sets off all the alarms as a scam artist/flake, but he's come through, paid no problems and we've done 5 digits(before the decimal) worth of printing for him so far in the last 5 months.

If they want 5000pc pricing but are ordering 100pcs, I'll tell them that if they come through with the other 4900 shirts, we'll credit them the difference in price on the first 100 they actually bought, that often satisfies them.