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screen printing => General Screen Printing => Topic started by: Screened Gear on December 23, 2011, 03:58:50 PM
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I just did about 500 American apparel shirts for a client. I work with this client about 4 times a year. This time was with a new contact. They order 5 designs and about eight colors including hoodies. I got a call that they are missing 10 shirts some are hoodies. We count the shirts before printing and before boxing so I have the numbers that went in the box. I know they were all there. I am not mad I don.t even care about reprinting them being out the money. I just don't want it to happen again.
How wound you handle this? What do you do so clients don't just call and say they are missing shirts.
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I have this problem every now and then, and can almost be sure that their own employees, or kids, or players, etc are the culprits. I have sucked it up in the past with either a partial refund, credit, or replacement.
I rarely ship, so, though a little awkward, I suggest that the next time the same people pick up from me, they count 'em.
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It's annoying, isn't it.
We have a quantity on the order, which gets transferred to the production order.
( * supplied garments, contract stuff )
If we've got several hundred pieces,sizes, and such for the order, I count em after they're printed.
I find though, if I count them prior to printing, the numbers unsually don't jive.
Then I've stopped production and am playing phone-tag for awhile.
Usually, I then find out that, 'oh, yeah..we changed this or that'...
But, if I didn't call..
Did you ask them ( nicely ) to recount?
After a long run, I've come up with a couple different counts on occasion ::) , and they may have just miscounted.
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this happens when a school picks up the order and have students count them in- little Johnny ordered a large but instead took a medium and all of a sudden the count is off. . .we include a packing list with the packers signature on it next to the item and quantity. I tell the customer I have to trust my guy so please recount. 9 out of 10 times, they were off and gladly pay for the reprint -but it's that 1 time that really drives me nuts. whos' right? i have proof that I gave you what you ordered and you are saying no. . to keep the peace, we usually suck it up anyway and just run it. . but this is an area we struggled with about 6-8 months ago. . .it's usually the customers we don't see often, or are first timers taking advantage of our good will. . .
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It's for a school and they sort the shirts into a ton of small orders. So I am sure the mistake of sorting will never be found. AA shirts and about 3 hoodies about $200 after shipping.
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Those ones really bite.
No proper way to keep track, since they ( likely ) didn't count their receiving goods
( which they should have if you go with 'standard' shipping/receiving practices ),
before doing their breakdown.
Before reprinting, maybe inquire about any extras they may need, as, in the end, you're doing them a favor.
Just be diplomatic ( something I'm not so good at, haha ).
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I think this is the one problem with what we do. My embroidery had a client pick up a order the a few days latter say they didn't get it and still need it.
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I had this happen with a fire department. I made it right but I know damn well they were all there. I was informed this summer that one member seemed to always have a some fresh tees. It was the one who picked them up too.
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This happens all the time to us, like mentioned, if you have a steady customer that does this all the time, we ask them to count the shirts before they leave. We had a customer over the summer that claimed they were missing 35 XXL from their order, all of that size that they had ordered. It was a shipped order so we went to our records of the weights of the boxes, everything checked out. We told them that the boxes were confirmed by weight with UPS and if 35 xxl were missing then the weight would have been off by about 18lbs. We offered to open a claim with UPS for them and never heard back from them. My feeling is they either under ordered or someone got their hands into the shirts before they were fully inventoried.
Yep, it's definately a downside to this business. I think a lot of people would buy a drill at Home Depot to use it today just to return it tomorrow, but it's the liberal return policies of big retail stores that drives this behavior.
First line in the fine print of my invoices..."Customized products are non-returnable"
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Squeegee,
Good call with the shipped weight. I may have to show them the ordered shirts and at least show them the shirts did exist??? I have to go over the shirts that they ordered still. I just ordered the missing ones and I’m going to print them and be over it. They are a good customer its just a new contact person handling the order so I am sure they will not let this happen again. $200 Bye bye.
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200.00 gone -for now- but over the lifetime of this customer, you'll make it back no problem. sometimes, we toss a extra hour of design time on the next order or two, just to make up that lost 200.00, if you know what I mean. . .
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200.00 gone -for now- but over the lifetime of this customer, you'll make it back no problem. sometimes, we toss a extra hour of design time on the next order or two, just to make up that lost 200.00, if you know what I mean. . .
Thats not honest but I guess they started that game. I could never do that but I made enough on the job that $200 is not that big of a deal.
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We ask our clients to report any discrepancies within 48 hrs. It is stated in big bold text on every packing slip in every box that leaves our shop. We started this a few yrs ago and it has helped with this problem. We also put a disclaimer in our invoices to the same but further state that warranty claims past 5 days will not be honored. Of course clients that matter may be excepted but chronic problems can be stopped without any worries.
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Had this happen with a cheerleading squad , turns out the coach let the girls go through the box to get what they ordered. They ended up short 3 sets of pants/long sleeve shirts/and hoodies. I ended up splitting the cost with the coach but also lost the customer.
And again from a local pizza shop that orders from me 3 times a year. I now tape the crap out of their box and sharpie ONLY TO BE OPENED BY (insert owner name).
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In 3 years this maybe the second time this has happened. It's not the money, its having to print the shirts again knowing I did mess up.
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This happens all the time, and we count the job 3 times before it leaves our doors. It's frustrating as hell but we always take care of the customer. I can't stand it because I know it's the customer's fault. They didn't order enough of a certain size, or someone got into the box and took shirts that didn't belong, or it's some other reason that has nothing to do with us not delivering what we were supposed to.
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That’s it I am going to put a tracking device on all shirts I send out. I will find the missing shirts and charge the person that took them with robbery. Really what can we do. Have every customer count the shirts before they leave. If you ship them out they have to call you to get the combination to the box that you put a padlock on. Then you stay on the phone as they count the shirts.
Alan if this happens all the time your losing tons of time resetting up jobs to print a few shirts for free. That sucks.
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That’s it I am going to put a tracking device on all shirts I send out. I will find the missing shirts and charge the person that took them with robbery. Really what can we do. Have every customer count the shirts before they leave. If you ship them out they have to call you to get the combination to the box that you put a padlock on. Then you stay on the phone as they count the shirts.
Alan if this happens all the time your losing tons of time resetting up jobs to print a few shirts for free. That sucks.
Not only that you are loosing valuable time that could be spent somewhere else that is needed and making your company money. Customer Service on issues like this cost more than you think. Too many small business owners never account for their own personal wage. You should be making somewhat around at least $100 per hour personally. It took you 2 hours to deal with the customer and issue. Not only did you have to spend $200 on good, you have the cost of screens, set up time, press time and your wages of $200. That issue cost you more than you think.
Hate it yet like mentioned before, you now have a happy customer and most likely a repeat customer and some possible referrals.
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200.00 gone -for now- but over the lifetime of this customer, you'll make it back no problem. sometimes, we toss a extra hour of design time on the next order or two, just to make up that lost 200.00, if you know what I mean. . .
Thats not honest but I guess they started that game. I could never do that but I made enough on the job that $200 is not that big of a deal.
oh but it is, we give out discounted art all the time. drive me nuts, next time you get slapped with full price.. plain and simple. We had a bad case of the shortages about 6-8 months back, couldn't figure it out. We count everything when it comes in, count while being printed and count out with a packing list and signatures of who packed it -tape it on the box. Some of them I did myself. We can always fall back on the misprint clause, but it still leaves a PO'd customer. So I guess the best thing to do is put a buffer in your pricing program, nothing huge -just enough to account for errors. sometimes you can tell when someone is blowing smoke up your butt, so nail'em twice. . .if we did make the mistake, we fix it 100% and more. . .
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I send extra shirts in every order..... and I MAKE SURE the customer knows that.
I've never had a call about missing shirts.
I build the cost into my price structure. The true price is between $10-$20 per order, but the customer perceives it to be a value of $30-$50. So, I think it breeds repeat business.
Many times the person placing the order is a front man for a group... the last thing I want is for it to turn into a big hassle for him/her.
A couple extra shirts solves:
--- the guy who ordered the wrong size
--- a bad seam or pinhole
--- the person that turned in their request too late.
--- etc.
The $10-$20 hit in profit is covered in increased productivity (no reprints) and in marketing (good will).
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yep the shirts for spoilage get sent if there is no spoilage, they paid for them anyway just no markup
Sent from samsung gem(the worst smart phone ever)
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Thats it I am going to put a tracking device on all shirts I send out. I will find the missing shirts and charge the person that took them with robbery. Really what can we do. Have every customer count the shirts before they leave. If you ship them out they have to call you to get the combination to the box that you put a padlock on. Then you stay on the phone as they count the shirts.
Alan if this happens all the time your losing tons of time resetting up jobs to print a few shirts for free. That sucks.
It happens with one customer every time they order, and it's a 6/5 on darks with 6 different copies on the back, and the sales person will not take care of the issue. I'm going to take care of it for him if he doesn't do it the next time it happens. Sucks for him because they are friends of his, but we can't run a business like this.
By all the time I mean once a month, maybe we'll go a quarter without it happening, but it's 10+times a year.
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I send extra shirts in every order..... and I MAKE SURE the customer knows that.
I've never had a call about missing shirts.
I build the cost into my price structure. The true price is between $10-$20 per order, but the customer perceives it to be a value of $30-$50. So, I think it breeds repeat business.
Many times the person placing the order is a front man for a group... the last thing I want is for it to turn into a big hassle for him/her.
A couple extra shirts solves:
--- the guy who ordered the wrong size
--- a bad seam or pinhole
--- the person that turned in their request too late.
--- etc.
The $10-$20 hit in profit is covered in increased productivity (no reprints) and in marketing (good will).
I have always done that and made sure the customer knows it. I'm not a big printer, but I've never had a "short" order complaint.
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I send extra shirts in every order
Anytime I ship, I send extras as well.
For pickup orders, we offer to do a count with the customer. Whether they accept to do the count or not, they sign for the items when they pick up and we state and have in writing that their signature indicates the order is complete and the count is correct.
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I had a customer that did this every time they ordered. The last order was counted 4 times and they still claimed shirts were missing.
Last year they said shirts were missing that were never ordered. I politely called her a liar and they informed me they are looking for a new screen printer. Works for me, they were not a customer I was concerned about keeping. the profit in the job was eaten up by them needing more shirts every year.
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For big runs we label ever box and these firgues need to match the order sheet. We tell the customer we have labeled the boxes so if there is a problem they can add the numbers up to see if they match.
I'm not saying we do not miss something, because we do. But this helps to keep our numbers straight.
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"NO you are not missing shirts, either you can't count or someone you know is stealing shirts from you"
This is my normal response for 'those' calls.
Count sheets verified 3 times with a count sheet in the box allow me to call any customer a liar who says they are missing shirts.
Custy's who lie to me for free shirts are not custy's that I want to keep anyway.
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"NO you are not missing shirts, either you can't count or someone you know is stealing shirts from you"
This is my normal response for 'those' calls.
Count sheets verified 3 times with a count sheet in the box allow me to call any customer a liar who says they are missing shirts.
Custy's who lie to me for free shirts are not custy's that I want to keep anyway.
I agree with the sentiment, but as I and others point out, it's often not the actual customer lying, but rather their people stealing. True, after delivery, the customer is the legal victim, but some here have just figured out a way to help a customer they value.
Just not repeatedly!
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but some here have just figured out a way to help a customer they value.
Just not repeatedly!
It's amazing the things people will do for a custy they 'value'
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Yep, and some of these customers are well worth it as long as the problem is not ongoing, and a few dollars fixes it.
Great service like this can help the bottom line, though each case needs to be handled (or not) on its own merits.
The tips I received just in the last two days show how much some folks appreciate the extra service I sometimes give.