What the longest you’ve had a finished job sitting before the customer picked it up?
How do ya get’um to pick’um up when they drag their feet?
ONE of my recent ones...A 4’x8’ has been here since June 6th...they needed a truck and the sign done right away. (Repeat customer) That was when they called in early January...I got the proposal done January 14th...they didn’t come and look at it until April 26th...I did the truck and sign June 6th...employee picked up the truck...I have called the owner twice about the sign...”they’ll get down here (3 miles) in the next few days”.
The last job I did for them sat here 5-6 months...I finally delivered it...it was paid for up front so it wasn’t a lack of money issue.
This time they paid half down, so there’s a balance owed, therefore I don’t want to just deliver it.
Do ya do like automotive shops and have yet another policy posted stating a storage fee will incur if items are not picked up within a certain time after completion?
Just pondering out loud I guess...
Jeff
[ August 03, 2005, 04:19 AM: Message edited by: Jeff Spradling ]
Posted by Arthur Vanson (Member # 2855) on :
1986, took the photo today.
As their business card. A mixture of painted graphics and 4B cut vinyl lettering.
Don't think I would have picked it up either!
Posted by Jill Marie Welsh (Member # 1912) on :
Aww, Arthur....I like it. It's older than my second child! Darn, I thought I had Jeff beat. My longest hang-arounder was a 4x8 aluminum ballfield sign that I moved around for 18 months. Right now I have sitting on my plotter a dozen small stickers for an auto body that have been there 10 days that they were in a huge hurry for. It happens to all of us, Jeff. My worst $$ one was a big-ticket deposited-on sign that was supposed to be picked up 3 days before Christmas but sat until 3 days after New Years. Santa had to use my Visa card that year. Love....Jill
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
I've got one from seven years ago that's still sitting here- it works OK to stop draughts in a corner of the shed. It was for a shed building company, needed in a hurry, then they decided to mothball their company & go into concreting & bob-cat work.
It was a sort of 'favour', but it was never collected.
Posted by Arthur Vanson (Member # 2855) on :
Hey Jill, try the squint test on it!
I loved the 4B in those early years. "Now, what font shall I use on this job? I KNOW! – Helvetica Medium ".
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Funny, Arthur, I was thinking the same thing- but there was always Clarendon if you needed variety! (Isn't it so 'mid-80s' !)
Posted by Ricky Jackson (Member # 5082) on :
I just had a realtor pull up in his Hummer to pick up signs he had ordered 6 months ago. And I have stickers laying there that were ordered but not picked up and I have no idea who ordered them; my son took the order and didn't write it up; a "cash" job you know. The phrase "I need this yesterday" has definately lost it sizzle for me. I just play along and work it in with the rest of my stuff.
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
I had 3 double sided alumalite 4'x4's & 3 magnets sitting here for 3 months, kept calling the guy, & the last time I spoke to him, he said he got into a little trouble with some coke & a girl.
I then was told by a cop's brother that I would never see my money, forget the guy, he is in jail!!! Yep, seems he & some girl were doing coke, she ODs, his son resuscitates her, then they do more, & she dies. Then, they propped her body up in field, no one found her after 3 days, so they went back & buried her. It bothered the 16 year old son & he told his mom, & she called the police. The father is in jail for abuse of a corpse, & the sons have been in & out of juvenile detention & foster homes. The mom is now a crack addict.
Very very sad.
I ended up stripping the alumalite & re-using it, & actually, the guy did pay for the material cost up front.
Posted by Michael Latham (Member # 4477) on :
One year on a pair of magnets. the customer recieved a call from my helper after a year and said he forgot, even after I repeatedly called in the early months. He then came in and ordered a pair of small banners he was in a hurry for. I took my time, putting it on the bottom every time it came up, after a month he calls up and says are his banners ready? I said yep...come on by... he shows up 3 days latter. Orders 3 more small banners he's in a hurry for...that's been a few months ago....
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
I've got two 8x4 sheet metal signs doing the rounds of the shed for the past three months now.
They always seem to be in the way! PITA!!!! Can't store them outside 'cause they packed in cardboard and it looks like it might rain at last.
Fully paid for. Just waiting to be collected.
I refuse to spend any more money on calls to his cell phone reminding him Posted by Steve Luck (Member # 5292) on :
Hey Jeff, I have an aluminum 4'x10' sign leaning against the wall of my garage for the Boys & Girls Club. Paid in full from last June! They had to include it in their budget last year and ordered it before they had tuckpointing work done on the old brick building. Tuckpointing still isn't done so the sign is still here. It's too big for my mini van to deliver. I have other magnetics and coroplast signs that are still here from last year that DIDN'T get paid for. I'll probably never see that money. Trust too many times and the law of averages shows up! I have learned to get deposits more often from this lesson! Sign-cerely, Steve
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
In Feb of 2001, I went back to see what I could do to help my father who was in drastically failing health by that time. While I was looking around in the basement by the laundry room, I noticed a 4 x 8 sign, completely finished for one of his big customers. I asked him about it and he said that they guy had ordered it, he made the sign and then the town where the guy had his business changed the sign ordinance and the sign wasn't legal anymore. I don't know the details. I believe that the sign had been down there for some time.
In Dec of that year, my father finally passed away and I went back to clean out his house/studio in January - 2002 by this point - and the sign was still there. I was there for a couple of weeks and the last Saturday I was there I had a memorial service for him at the house. Just before the service (just a gathering really) the guy shows up to pick up the sign. LOL
I was so startled I just pointed him to the basement and told him to take it. Talk about ballsy.
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
Kimberly, are you saying this guy knew your dad had passed, & then came to get it? Rude!!!!!
Did he pay for it?
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
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