posted
Last Monday I got a call from a client who needed a partial wrap done on a propane truck. He was being a bit pushy about the deadline saying he needed it by that Friday.
Nope. No way. Can't do it. Maybe either the following Monday or Tuesday.
He needed one of Aurora Graphics' Bushwolf military camo prints. Not a problem. I order what he needs.
Oops....now he needs a sample print so he can match some paint. I don't do wide-format inhouse. I sub it out.
No problem. I'll run it off my Edge. The colors have been very close in the past.
My Edge-FX default settings are at 600dpi/63 classic dot. I didn't think much of it and ran off a small sample that his painter could work from.
I noticed that the color was much more vibrant and greener than what showed on the monitor.
I ignored the little voice in my head. I'm in a hurry. Everything today is push, push, push.
I call the client and let him know he can pick up the sample print which he does. I failed to keep a portion of the sample for myself.
BTW, now its two trucks. Needs both by Monday.
Push, push, push.
I send off an order for prints to my wholesaler. The prints arrive on Friday. The print looks greyer than I remember. My mind must be playing tricks on me.
Push, push, push. Got a client who waited to the last minute to order shirts for the NC State Fair. Wants them last week. Push, push, push. Client is opening a new restaurant. Waited two years to order the menu boards he wants now. Push, push, push. Two new clients walk in. Gotta stop what I'm doing so I can talk to them. Both need new websites.Needs them pronto. Push, push, push.
Work through the weekend doing the State Fair shirts. Woohoo! Gonna make some profit. Gonna do two partial wraps on Monday. Woohoo! Gonna make some profit.
Shirts are done. Look beautiful. Load the truck up and head out to install the wraps.
Ewwwww...what an ugly green they painted it. Roll out the wraps.
Crap. What's this?
Client rejects it on the spot.
Egg on my face.
Now the client insist on a discount because of the delay.
I'm irritated.
I head back the shop to run another sample print.
It comes out grey looking just like the inkjet prints.
What's this? Why is it grey now and green before?
Time to play detective.
It seems that the color values for a 600x300 dpi are different than for a 300x300dpi where the Edge-FX is concerned.
The original sample was printed at Edge-II setting at 600x300dpi at 63lpi.
The new sample I ran was at the Edge-1 setting at 300dpi at 42.4lpi.
Same file. Huge color difference. The Edge-1/300dpi setting matches the inkjet print almost dead on. At 600dpi it is waaaaaayyyyy off. I've never seen it do this before in the 12 years I've owned an Edge.
At 6:30pm, the wholesaler emails the bill.
$996.00
Lessons learned.......
1) Slow down.
2) Listen to that little voice.
3) Only use prints from the same machine that is printing the wrap to give to the client for color matching. If that means he has to wait, he'll have to wait or go somewhere else.
Often it's the egg on the face that hurts more, as people 'talk' and bad news flies faster than good news in cases like this...
I had a vaguely similar scenario a year ago where the little voices told me as I installed a sign, that the wall panelling wasn't fixed right by the builders. I didn't know any better, did my best and couldn't wait to get down from the spot 20 ft up on the side of the very sheltered building.
Fast forward 3 weeks into a freak gusty wind storm and the wall panelling let go & took half the sign with it.
Somehow the building owner & the store leassee felt it was all my fault for inferior fixing, though when it came down the sign was still attached to the wall panelling- my job was more than adequate.
I held my breath & graciously fixed it all, at a materials cost of $1000 and 3 days labour...all in the name of 'saving face', rightly or wrongly.
I could have argued the point, but where would that have got me. I could have got the owner to claim on his insurance, there is a lot I could have done, but I did the least argumentative option.
I did document the poor work of the builder though, by photographing the studs and you could see there were no screws holding the sheet on for most of the wall sheet's area.
I couldn't get the owner to climb up & accept that though- and your first instinct is 'how can I quickly fix the problem' when they phone you to say it's all fallen down.
The second instince was a quick prayer of thanks that no one nor any thing was injured when it all flew off & came crashing down (3 1/2 sheets of alupanel & 1 wallboard sheet from 20 ft up).
I did regret using premium cast vinyl on all the alupanel considering its life was just 3 weeks!
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Glenn, I had a $5K error a few years back. I felt so ashamed & dumb, that I never told the story for at least a year & may have never told it here at all.
The biggest lesson for me was to discover that I do actually have it in me to simply take a breath, maybe a sigh... and get on with resolving a problem...
...where most other smaller problems like $50 ones make me go ballistic inside, raising my blood pressure & sometimes not being able to contain that on the inside, therefore raising suspicions of my mental stability..
...but when I had that 100-times-worse mistake... there was no way I could react even 10 time worse then the fits I've had over past costly mistakes... so I found my inner zen master in that moment...
The second lesson was listen to that voice... I had interpolated measurements off a photo, by using the 36" wide doors in the pic. The doors were in fact 36" wide, but they were set back 5 feet in a foyer, & the sign I was designing was going on a wall 5 feet closer to the camera.
I kept telling myself to go double check my measurements & finally I just ordered $5K worth of sign components on an $11K job. I was just so busy like you described & yet the job site was 2 blocks away. The sign was too big & was unusable!
Fortunately I finally measured before putting an incredible amount of additional labor required into those materials... so I just ordered the smaller ones, finished them & made no money at all on the most expensive (and possibly the nicest) sign I've ever sold.
One other lesson... ask your wholesaler for a favor. He shouldn't be getting the job to do this twice, because it never should have been needed twice. Instead of profiting twice, on a job his loyal wholesale client is losing money on, ask for a little sympathy in the form of a reprint at cost. I asked something similar & my wholesaler was very generous in expediting the re-make & cutting the price to the bone, as a favor to me. maybe you can swing a similar deal.
posted
Thanks for the reminder Glenn. I find myself falling into the same trap of taking on "rush" jobs when I know it's pushing my limits. We've had some really slow months this year and I guess I'm trying to make up for the lost income by taking as much work as is available. I know better, but I don't always listen to that little voice.
-------------------- Jean Shimp Shimp Sign & Design Co. Jacksonville Beach, Fl Posts: 1266 | From: Jacksonville Beach, Fl. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
It all comes to down to RUSHING. Thats when you will make more mistakes. It never fails, we sometimes allow the customer to "run us"....STOP!!!
Slow them down and tell them to chill out or walk. It ain't worth it. I myself have gotten caught up in their world of hell and then you gotta chill and either do the same to them or send them packing.
I honestly believe 99% of RUSH JOBS are not. We are in such a society of rush it's gotten ridiculous and uncalled for. It is a habit for some to require it NOW!
-------------------- You ever notice how easily accessible people are when they are requiring your services but once they get invoice you can't reach them anymore
posted
Glenn, If you're using the same wholesaler I am. He has looked out for me in the past on jobs that went wrong but I deal with him face to face, so that might make a bit of difference. They're good people over there, but they have the same push,push, push going on.
posted
the other early warning sign was ... push, push, push
never let a customer do this, or you will screw up
got one doing that to me now--i just ignore it and go one -- can't afford a mistake today
-------------------- Michael Gene Adkins The Fontry 1576 S Hwy 59 Watts OK 74964 Posts: 845 | From: Watts, OK USA | Registered: Jun 1999
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