Having a customer sign of approval, still isn't enough...

[Xeira]

Hello everybody!

This is my very first post. Ive been reading the forums for quiet sometime now. But recent experience with a customer really was the last straw for me...

I work at a copy and print center.

I consider my customers are all cheap, petty and annoying. There were too many times we had to throw a job out or give it to them for free because 'this is too expensive' or 'i wasn't quoted this price'. So, now when we are taking an order, we give them the price quote then and there and make them SIGN for their approval. Pretty good system right? well... they(customers) still found ways around it...

So this guy comes in and have 3 reports that needs to be printed. He would like 10 sets of each binded and the first page to be card-stock type material. So I showed him the binding objects that we have and explained each type for him. He wanted the one that looks more professional. But i also warned him that the more professional binding isn't as durable as the others. He said he didn't care... So I continue to give him the price quote...All reports combined would be around 300 pages so i gave him a quote for 3000 pages. Because of the bulk rate, it came up to 5 cents a page. The card stock type print will cost 15 cents a page. And because all 3 reports are different sizes, i gave him the average binding cost and telling him that the larger report would cost more and the small report would cost less...

So he agreed to the price quote, signs, and leaves. A co-worker and I started the job...

Now the next day, I called into work to check up on some jobs and found out he had gotten for free. My co-worker explained how the customer threw a fit about the price and how apparently i was 'lying' about the price. I personally dislike getting called a liar, especially when a customer agreed to the job WITH HIS signature...

So in the end, he got the job for free because i didn't tell him the price and that i am a liar...


/end rant.

[AnaKhouri]

Even though he signed it and everything? What a dickhead, and your supervisor who gave him the order for free must be some sort of humanoid jellyfish. How much money did it end up costing the store?

Welcome, by the way!

[bainsidhe]

What, why? I mean, I'd rather sell for a discount to recoup some of the cost. Hell, I'd much rather throw the whole damn thing away than support this jerk by giving him free service. What was he expecting? I'd take his expectations and work from there at unravelling his insane logic. Then I'd point out over and over that he signed the form.

I wonder if you can have in the "contract" where a cancellation or refusal of goods would result in some sort of fee. And for larger projects, require a credit card to "hold" the job, just like they do for rooms at a hotel. At least a hotel still has the option of selling the room if someone no-shows. In this case, you're out product and labor and are now encouraging this behavior by giving this ass product for free (see how I hate the "free" part of this story)

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Nice. So not only did your fucktard of a boss/manager give this snausage his print job for free, but he/she/it tossed you under the boss as a liar as well.

Not good.

[Meegz]

I don't understand it. If I'm going to a store for service, say like your store, and I wanted some copying done (say for a resume or whatever reason) I would expect to pay whatever you quote me. As long as you aren't lying to me about the price (which you totally weren't!) I would expect to pay the price quoted. I don't even make a lot of money but if I really needed something done, I'd pony up and pay for it.

I don't understand managers that cave into those customer 'expectations'. Do the higher-ups realize what some store managers do or do they feel the same about 'the customer is always right'? I'm happy to say that I've never really worked for a company that would just give stuff like that away.

Seems like that its not just the fact that they don't want to pay to price, but they want to feel right in saying that the person behind the counter is lying, so they feel better about themselves even if they sign a piece of paper. Maybe I am just burnt out.

To me, it seems the same people who say this kind of crap are from the same people who will say "I own a business and I know how these things work blah blah blah". I do experience that a lot. K I'm done.

Sorry for your situation

[auntiem]

Long ago I used to work in printing. For whatever reason, there are a lot of buisness people that pay their printing bill last if ever.
I don't understand why your boss would give the work away. If the guy didn't like the price then fine he doesn't have to pay it - but then he shouldn't get the work.

[Grumpy]

Welcome!

Your boss must be completely spineless.

[BookstoreEscapee]

This was literally my face when I got to the part where he got it free.

/ok, well, I'm not blue but the expression is accurate

[tropicsgoddess]

I'm still and that your spineless manager/supervisor gave that SC his work for free when you explained everything to the SC who indeed signed and agreed to the rate you quoted him. I think we've hit a new low in spinelessness. Oh and welcome to CS!

[dithers66]

3,000 pages x $0.05 a page


= $150

What a loser manager who gave it all free. Hope the store owner chews his hide.

[Hyndis]

I don't understand this sort of spinelessness. At the very worst, I'd say no money means no product. If he doesn't pay up, he doesn't get the printed stuff. The exchange handover of money is also when the product is delivered to the customer, standard stuff.

But why would anyone still give the customer his items without getting paid for it? I just don't get it. I've never been at a job where that happened. In all of my job experiences, if someone doesn't have the money, they're not getting the item. Too bad if you want that bottle of booze, those cartons of orange juice, or whatever. An empty wallet means an empty shopping cart.

Giving away that kind of free stuff when its entirely the customer's fault is just pathetic, probably even worse than shoplifting. At least with shoplifting you're not spending time and money to have employees produce the thing which is about to be stolen. I could understand redoing thing if there was a printer error. At the store I work at, if there's a problem with a food product, such as the packaging is open or the product is damaged in some way and its the store's fault, we'll replace it for free. Even if a shopping bag rips and it falls and breaks, still replaced, but once it goes into their car, the warranty is pretty much over.

Customers can be major arseholes when they run out of money and can't get the items they've piled in the shopping cart. I've seen customers leave overflowing shopping carts at the register and walk out without the carts, and while its a pain to put all that stuff away, at least they're not stealing it by being liars.

A signature on a piece of paper is a contract. Why is your manager letting the other person break their contract? It just doesn't make any sense!

[Sliceanddice]

3,000 pages x $0.05 a page


= $150

What a loser manager who gave it all free. Hope the store owner chews his hide.

+ 30x.15= 154.50 and add the binding say... 2 dollars each 2x30 so 214.50.... yes... not bad

[mattm04]

That's just sad. we all know this huy will just try this stunt again since he goat away with it once. Now if it was a printing error o the stores part, I would expect it to be re made for free.

If i was the store manager I would have just gave him back the originals and destroyed all the copies.

[JustADude]

I personally dislike getting called a liar, especially when a customer agreed to the job WITH HIS signature...

So in the end, he got the job for free because i didn't tell him the price and that i am a liar...

You could probably sue him for defamation for calling you a liar, since it hurts your career and makes you look bad in front of your employer, which will affect your reviews and raises.

Given the way this country is going, this would probably be one of the saner things in court today.

[HawaiianShirts]

Now the next day, I called into work to check up on some jobs and found out he had gotten for free. My co-worker explained how the customer threw a fit about the price and how apparently i was 'lying' about the price. I personally dislike getting called a liar, especially when a customer agreed to the job WITH HIS signature...

So in the end, he got the job for free because i didn't tell him the price and that i am a liar...

I'm not in printing, but I can sympathize with you on that story. I once had a rather complicated computer package put together for a customer, and she asked me for a total price, with tax, before taking her to the register, just in case it might be too much and she'd need to take something off. So I took out my cell phone calculator, punched some numbers, and said, "My estimate, with tax, comes to $xxxx.xx, or at least very close to that."

That was still within her budget for this purchase, so I took her up front, passed her off to a cashier, and went back to work. About ten minutes later, one of the cashiers brings back her cartload of computer stuff and told me she got mad and left. Why? Because my "estimate" wasn't exact. Now, if I'd estimated too low by, say, $100, I might understand why she'd be mad (though I wouldn't think it warranted walking out after spending almost an hour deciding what to get). But I was off by five cents. Five cents! Not only that, but my estimate (and I did use the word "estimate," not "quote" or "exact total" or anything like that) was five cents over what her actual total came to! Most customers are happy to pay less than they expected to.

At least she didn't convince a manager to give it to her for free because of some perceived inconvenience. At the time, I had a manager who probably would have caved to that demand.