tell me what you think

this story reminds me of my own neon story...

a new restaurant was opening in the plaza near the shop. i went up and saw what they wanted. it was a window neon sign. i went back to the shop, drew out a sketch, faxed it to the guy who blows our glass and waited for a price.

he called back and was laughing. said that this was the 7th time he had quoted that restaurant that week. we shared the chuckle and i wrote out a quote. left the quote along with the sketch.

needless to say... we didn't get the job. they used our design for the final job. we got beat on the price by $5.00. hmmmmm... go figure, huh?

anyways, it seems that the buttheads that did the sign used a used 15,000 transformer for the sign. it burned out in three weeks. the sign stayed dark for 3-4 weeks after that.

i happened to be eating lunch up there one day when the one owner came running over to me and started chewing my butt out about how we ripped him off and why hadn't i been there sooner and who the heck did we think we were dealing with and i better start paying attention to his b.s. yada yada yada...

i set my sandwich down, turned on my stool and calmly said... "look, all i did was design that sign, i didn't make it. if you HAD bought it from us, rest assured we would have been up here to fix it three weeks ago."

the look on his face when he realized who i was was absolutely priceless. i just got up and left him sitting there. never did pay for that half a sandwich i ate.... ooops. go figure.

the restaurant didn't last long after that. one of the three partners (who b.t.w. had been fired from his last three jobs for thievery) stole thousands of dollars and split. i am not one who tends to be real big on paybacks, but i figure it was true poetic justice.

so what did we learn from this incident that happened almost ten years ago? sketches are rarely made on prospectus, sketches (when necessary to sell the job) are never left with anyone without a deposit to secure it, and never eat in a restaurant that didn't buy a sign from you. ok ok ok... two out of three were real good lessons. the other is a personal thing...

don't forget to add a 20% charge for customers who are jerks. there is too much work around to have to put up with morons. let them become someone else's headache.

have a great one!

------------------
Bruce Bowers
DrCAS
Signtech

"how great are His signs..."
Daniel 4:3

i am a proud supporter of this website!

thanks nice to know im not the only one
who has had hear the bit%%% lol