The one thing that truly drives me nuts...

[Ripcord]

...is the customer tactic of saying "Let me know if I need to go elsewhere..." when they aren't pleased with the speed at which their order is progressing.

I've been in printing for almost 30 years (both offset and screen) and I have heard this so many times! Am I supposed to start crying and beg them not to go elsewhere? Promise to do better if they will just give me one more chance? Give me a break.

Either tell me what you aren't pleased about so I can address it, or go elsewhere. Stop it with the passive-aggresive threatening.

[Shawn (EIP)]

...is the customer tactic of saying "Let me know if I need to go elsewhere..." when they aren't pleased with the speed at which their order is progressing.

I've been in printing for almost 30 years (both offset and screen) and I have heard this so many times! Am I supposed to start crying and beg them not to go elsewhere? Promise to do better if they will just give me one more chance? Give me a break.

Either tell me what you aren't pleased about so I can address it, or go elsewhere. Stop it with the passive-aggresive threatening.

the self important a-hole customer, gotta love em

[ebscreen]

Never heard that one.


Did have a client call to ask how much UPS shipping was for his (completed weeks before) order of 50 shirts
because he was now ordering DVD's from this place and they wanted $30 for shipping and that
seemed a bit high. Blew my mind. People are nuts.

[sweetts]

Sometimes people suck

[mk162]

I can understand the shipping one.  Strange, but still.  Sometimes I get super high shipping quotes and I abandon the shopping cart.  When shipping is triple what I should be paying, I wonder how much of their profits come from that.

[ebscreen]

I understand the concept as well, people that make money off shipping are just hiding their
profit elsewhere in the price.

What I don't get is calling the shop that printed your shirts as a reference point for the issue.

[Sbrem]

Sometimes people suck

Sometimes?

Steve

If you think you have threaten me, then yes, you definitely have to go somewhere else. Guess where?

[Prosperi-Tees]

had a guy last week bring in a shirt that had a 5 color back, 3 color front and two 1 colors on each sleeve. Gildan Black long sleeve 100 pieces. He said he is shopping around and the best price he had so far was 8 bucks! He says "if you dont need the business just let me know". I say yes let them do it for 8 bucks.

[Homer]

the best are the referrals. . . .a customer will order a 144 shirts, tell their buddies what they paid. then the buddy will call and get a quote expecting the same price on his order of 36 shirts. . .never fails. . .then they get pissy about the price difference.

[ScreenFoo]

had a guy last week bring in a shirt that had a 5 color back, 3 color front and two 1 colors on each sleeve. Gildan Black long sleeve 100 pieces. He said he is shopping around and the best price he had so far was 8 bucks! He says "if you dont need the business just let me know". I say yes let them do it for 8 bucks.

I'd give him eight bucks and say you want one--great material for the gallery, right?   

[Prosperi-Tees]

I should have done that! I will remember that next time!

[mooseman]

...is the customer tactic of saying "Let me know if I need to go elsewhere..." when they aren't pleased with the speed at which their order is progressing.

Holy crap I live for this kind of idiot..."Let me know if I need to go elsewhere..." let you know.... holy crap i would have said if you were smart enought to figure that out on your own you would haver been smart enough not to come in here in the first palce. You know there is no value that you can place on a great straight man
mooseman

[ZooCity]

Q:  "Let me know if I need to go elsewhere..."

A:  Yes, you do need to go elsewhere...immediately.  No shirts for you!

I've never heard that one.  If I had that kind of flack I would turn into the shirt nazi in a hurry.

Regarding turnaround times: I do find it really odd that no matter how clear I am about the pickup date and even the pickup time we're always getting this chain of phone calls and emails in the days and hours leading up to that time.  That one has been really hard to curtail for some reason so I'm looking forward to implementing an online system for clients to check their job status as it moves through production and re-affirm their pickup date.  I can understand if it's a rush you might get a little nervous and need some reassurance but half of these folks don't even show up the day of their pickup in the end.  It's totally weird.  Our standard turn is 7-10 business days though I always set the official date at 10 days. 

[brandon]

Q:  "Let me know if I need to go elsewhere..."

A:  Yes, you do need to go elsewhere...immediately.  No shirts for you!

I've never heard that one.  If I had that kind of flack I would turn into the shirt nazi in a hurry.

Regarding turnaround times: I do find it really odd that no matter how clear I am about the pickup date and even the pickup time we're always getting this chain of phone calls and emails in the days and hours leading up to that time.  That one has been really hard to curtail for some reason so I'm looking forward to implementing an online system for clients to check their job status as it moves through production and re-affirm their pickup date.  I can understand if it's a rush you might get a little nervous and need some reassurance but half of these folks don't even show up the day of their pickup in the end.  It's totally weird.  Our standard turn is 7-10 business days though I always set the official date at 10 days.

Yeah, almost all of our corporate clients need everything yesterday and then when it is done it sits here for two weeks if it isn't shipped out. Just glad most of those orders do get shipped at once as we are at a premium for space. But that goes for the general masses as well.

And for clients that try to lowball for price they always come back every time without fail. Happens every other week. So and so printer messed  this up and that and blah, blah, blah. You get what ya' pay for. And we still won't do it for that price

[beanie357]

Our customers have learned we can ship yeaterday if they order today. Patented time warp technology. We had a small vinyl job for a 8 man team. $18.00 a shirt on a beefy t. Wanted better grade. Called 15 min later and said found cheaper. Customers ALWAYS lie about $$$. Decided to get a faster vinyl cutter and go after the market. Only 4 people in our area to put out of business. Decided as well  to give a quote for a job with cheapest alternative, then option the better grade apparel, more attractive designs, blah blah blah. Still setting grids up in FastManager to allow for quick quotes vs. the manual way. If we get busy, just put a staffer on quotes task. We have never liked price shoppers, but in our area, 99% (hee hee) are that, even if they don't want to admit it.
Over the years, we also have people call us to check other weird types of data that they could find online. We think they view us as experts (cough cough) so we view it as an opportunity to converse with them.
How about this one: Black printing (DTG) on a black shirt. Uh, yeah, right. It's an art form not to make them feel stupid.
Alcohol is a viable frustration removal tool.