Work is funny sometimes.
So I’m not sure how much was announced, but I work for a printing company and my official title is “Estimator” To those not in the biz, that means that customers contact us, let us know they want us to print something for them, and it is my job to determine how much they should pay for our services.
So onto the story.
This one man calls, and tells my coworker he needs a quote. And it’s a rush. She tells him to fax in his information and we’ll get a price out. So he faxes it. And I look at the quote, and price accordingly. I don’t know him from Adam so I give him a generally good price for what he’s after.
He then calls asking how to go about turning the quote into an order, so I explain to him how that process works. Now our printing is somewhat old-timey and predates the Flinstones when it comes to technology, so we use film and metal plates. And when I told this guy how much it would cost to have the film output he was shocked and appalled. So I told him to get it done himself.
His job happened to be a four colour job, meaning process colours, or CMYK. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. So since the press is going to mix these colours into pretty new colours, we need a proof to go by, a colour proof, to see what is supposed to be green or purple or whatever. This man had called back speaking with another co-worker of mine, who had made a note that the quality of the job was critical. And when we received the film, we didn’t have a proof. I have nothing to know what this envelope is supposed to look like. So I called him and let him know “Hey, I need a colour proof, because otherwise I don’t know what your envelopes are supposed to look like.”
His reply? “Well can’t you just imagine the envelope?”
Yes….. I can imagine the envelope right now. I am envisioning that you flesh-toned woman is really bright green, and that her blond hair is really a vibrant purple. No of course I can’t imagine your envelope!
So I convince him to get it sent over to us.
We go on press, and this job is more difficult than imagined. (Yes, I do imagine SOME things regarding my job) and with that we’re on the horn again looking for the man, or his customer, or SOMEONE to come down and do a press proof, basically agree that what is coming out of the press is good to go, sign it to verify that it is good to go, and let us go.
Well, he didn’t want to do any such thing. He didn’t want to bother his customer into doing any such thing. We then offered for him to sign a standard waiver we have, that says if you don’t like your envelopes, it’s your own fault because we insisted that you come down to look at it. And he didn’t want to sign such a waiver. He wanted his courier to pick up a sample of the envelope that was on the press. Then to take it to him. So he could take it to his customer. Who could okay it, who would then come back to us.
When our press is sitting still waiting for a reply? I don’t think so.
We told him if we pulled the job, that was it. We would take it off the press and he would have to pay for a double-set-up to put it back on. He ended up talking to the owner. Who at some point he hung up on. And she then cancelled his job out from under him. He was sending his courier to come pick up a sample, and instead we sent him back his proof, a sample off our press, and his film. And a letter stating we would be unable to fulfill his purchase order.
And he called. Oh how he called. He called me asking about the letter. He asked me about putting it back on the press. He asked how fast he could have his envelopes. He asked about us already having the plates made up. He asked why we sent him back his film so early. At every occasion I let him know that we were not running this job for him anymore. And he asked why. I had no good answer to give him. I told him that we took the job off the press because we couldn’t wait and he was unwilling to co-operate with us. And he asked about putting it back on, and I told him a double-set up charge would be added to his invoice. And he asked what that would be, and I told him $700.
Seven Hundred Dollars is a lot of money to add to an order that is around 2 grand in total. And he noticed that. And the only thing I could say to him at that point was “If you spent the hour to come down here and look at the envelope yourself, you could have saved yourself 700 bucks.”
He pretty well hung up on me as well.
It’s kind of cute, a day and a bit later, that he kept calling to annoy us. With little things. Like “You didn’t send me back my CD” and “I sent you a cheque. Please void it.”
How tempted am I to go and have the cheque cashed???
