Customer nerve...

[Fresh Baked Printing]

So several months ago a guy asks me if I would "sponsor" his basketball team by providing 15 free numbered team t-shirts. Sure. No big deal, Glad to help out occasionally and of course he tells me that he'll use me to print a real paying order in the future. He even sends me a team picture with team outfitted in my printed shirts.

The guy calls me today for a paid order and I'm thinking, hey that sponsorship will finally lead to an order!

He asks me if I can beat printer X's price, which was about .10 cheaper than my quote (50 tees). I reminded him that I had printed for his team for free and that he should take his request for free shirts this season and business elsewhere.

I expect to never hear from these "sponsor" people again but I never expected to have to win the business from someone who scored free product from me.

[MrBreeze]

No good deed ever goes unpunished.  I wish I had the guts some of these people have.  I'm guessing that this guy now has thought about what he did and feels like the jerk that he is.  He may even come back a apologize.

[mk162]

I had a customer call up and ask if i would like to buy an ad in their roster book or whatever.  I said, since the state bid system no longer allows you guys to buy from me, thus costing me $50,000 a year in lost sales, I don't think I can donate to your group.  And then he has the nerve to ask what size I would like.

[jason-23]

So several months ago a guy asks me if I would "sponsor" his basketball team by providing 15 free numbered team t-shirts. Sure. No big deal, Glad to help out occasionally and of course he tells me that he'll use me to print a real paying order in the future. He even sends me a team picture with team outfitted in my printed shirts.

The guy calls me today for a paid order and I'm thinking, hey that sponsorship will finally lead to an order!

He asks me if I can beat printer X's price, which was about .10 cheaper than my quote (50 tees). I reminded him that I had printed for his team for free and that he should take his request for free shirts this season and business elsewhere.

I expect to never hear from these "sponsor" people again but I never expected to have to win the business from someone who scored free product from me.

You did the right thing...

[stitches4815]

It feels so good to fire a customer.  Oh wait, he didn't buy anything.  It feels so good to fire a freeloader.   

[brandon]

Yeah, we just got screwed by one of our large clients that has a bottomless wallet. Which is even more annoying. Printed a few hundred American Apparel hoodies one color front and sleeve. They loved them. A couple of days later one of the higher ups decided he didn't like it anymore. After they signed off on it! They wanted to return the hoodies and have us eat the cost. "Do you know who we are?" All that crap. I am serious, no joke. So after informing them they signed off on it and we can't return printed hoodies we have to figure something out. So they are going to keep the hoodies with the sleeve print on it but we are going to do some embroidery/patch thing over the top of the chest print. Luckily it is a small print. But they don't want to pay for the printing. Just makes me want to kill them. But they are bigger than god or at least that is what they think. Trust me, everyone knows their video game. But I had a talk with the guy and said after this situation anymore situations like this where someone up the ladder doesn't like it after they signed off on it is NOT our problem.

Makes me want to change our name to "Nice Guy Screen Printing."

[stitches4815]

Yeah, we just got screwed by one of our large clients that has a bottomless wallet. Which is even more annoying. Printed a few hundred American Apparel hoodies one color front and sleeve. They loved them. A couple of days later one of the higher ups decided he didn't like it anymore. After they signed off on it! They wanted to return the hoodies and have us eat the cost. "Do you know who we are?" All that crap. I am serious, no joke. So after informing them they signed off on it and we can't return printed hoodies we have to figure something out. So they are going to keep the hoodies with the sleeve print on it but we are going to do some embroidery/patch thing over the top of the chest print. Luckily it is a small print. But they don't want to pay for the printing. Just makes me want to kill them. But they are bigger than god or at least that is what they think. Trust me, everyone knows their video game. But I had a talk with the guy and said after this situation anymore situations like this where someone up the ladder doesn't like it after they signed off on it is NOT our problem.

Makes me want to change our name to "Nice Guy Screen Printing."

Too bad, so sad.  You signed off on this, we did the work.  You don't like it now, I am sorry.  It will cost you $XXX to cover the chest print.

[mk162]

It's black and white unless you want to keep the customer happy.  That is what stinks.  this is why I ran like heck from Coke.

[brandon]

It's black and white unless you want to keep the customer happy.  That is what stinks.  this is why I ran like heck from Coke.

Wow. Coca Cola? Would absolutely looooove to hear that story! Please tell. If not may I pm you? Thanks!

[Ripcord]

I got a call from a college student asking me to donate printed shirts for his club. He said it would be a tax write off, so it wouldn't cost me anything. I told him that I hoped he wasn't an accounting major.

[blue moon]

next time tell him that they can write them off too so it will not cost them any money!

pierre

[mooseman]

we would have told him just like you did right after we reminded him we gave him a 100% discount on his last "order"
i can't believe this guy was working you for $5.00 freaking dollars on 50 shirts......this is exactly the kind of customer i want to run to my competitors and I know he will come back ANY TIME I WANT HIM BACK because all i have to do is cut my $$ by $.15 .  SCREW HIM...............

mooseman

[Parker 1]

This is the world we live in now.  My father calls it the "Wal-Mart" mentality.  Customers point of view is, " Why should I pay .10 more for a pound of Potatos here when I can get them for less."  Unfortunatly custom Apparel is veiwed, by many, as any other commodity.

[tonypep]

It's black and white unless you want to keep the customer happy.  That is what stinks.  this is why I ran like heck from Coke.

Wow. Coca Cola? Would absolutely looooove to hear that story! Please tell. If not may I pm you? Thanks!

Coca-Cola is one of those 800 lb Gorillas you love to hate. It's a one sided relationship. Expect to pay for and fail a compliance audit to get started. Lot of sampling and revisions. Once production hits then the real fun starts.

[Ripcord]

next time tell him that they can write them off too so it will not cost them any money!

pierre

I thought it was funny two different ways. First, he didn't know what a tax write off is. (He thinks it's the same as a tax credit...) Second, every business writes off all their materials and supplies, whether the job is for a non profit or not. You don't get to write off the retail price of the finished shirts. If you could, I'd donate jobs all the time (even if the company didn't ask me for anything....Let's see, 50 shirts printed and donated to the Salvation Army...Retail value $25 each for a $1250 tax write off LOL)