Ok, this is a rant, lemme start off by saying that. If you're not comfortable reading it or do not have the patience to read long passages of text then I suggest you stop and move on to the next post or go to another blog.
As you can see from my profile, I am a graphic designer who works on a few freelance accounts. One of my clients had a request for a project which although not unique per se, was not going to be as easily done as let's say, a poster. She needed 200 specific sized cards to be printed, cut to size & laminated with a hard plastic laminate. Seeing as how these days, many of the identification cards, driving licenses etc are no longer pieces of laminated card or paper but printed plastic, there aren't many places doing such things, or so I thought. I turned to my regular offset printer and was told they don't do that, but they did point out that most photocopying shops still offer that service.
So, living in the east, I thought I'd check out those at Katong Shopping Centre. Most only did A4 or A3 sized lamination but there was this one shop that surprisingly, said they could do it, and better yet, at the price my client was willing to pay for! Wow! Perfect, I thought. They quoted me S$1.60 per printout if I did 25 A4s (which came up nicely to 200 pieces, the quantity my client wanted), double sided full colour, on 250gsm art card, to be laminated using 6.5cm X 9.5cm laminate pouches.
After confirmation of prices, written on a scrap of paper supplied by them, I went ahead to get final confirmation from my client, which did take approximately a week. When I went back today, the lady I spoke to was not around but her colleague took a look at my file, did a test print on 250 gsm art card and then told me, she's surprised that her colleague quoted me $1.60 for 250 gsm artcard. I replied that that was the price quoted to me, and she said usually that's for 100gsm art PAPER. I told her, I know my clients well enough to know their needs as far as materials go, and this client certainly wanted something thicker than 100gsm PAPER.
After some discussion on the phone with her colleague (the colleague is probably the owner or a senior staff there, doesn't matter), they mentioned that they do have 250gsm art card, 128gsm art paper and finally 100gsm art paper. I asked what the $1.60 quoted price per double sided A4 was for and she mentioned it was for 100gsm art paper. Further probing revealed that to print on 128gsm art paper, it would cost me $2.50!!!!! WTF! Suddenly the quote has grown by 90 cents PER A4 paper, and it STILL didn't reach the "agreed" material specification from last week.
I told them that there is no way my client, nor even I, would pay such a ridiculous amount for this material and took my CD back, telling them that I do not indulge in stock market printing prices and took my business elsewhere. The colleague there was obviously feeling really bad about this as it's definitely not her fault her boss is clueless/unethical/ignorant of her own prices (you choose) and gave me the test print as a sample.
The shop, located at Katong Shopping Centre level 3 is truly "unique". This is the first time I've had a shop bump prices up on a whim, and at ridiculous levels. You have truly lived up to your shop name! Not only that, you do not even have the courtesy to talk directly to your customer, expecting your colleague, who has no clue what the agreement was, to handle the issue. Granted, your colleague shared that you were busy with some personal issues, which I can fully understand but what is amazing is how you are prepared to lose a customer for life than to just stick to the verbal agreement, something many small shops, and even some large ones do!
I went to Sunshine Plaza after that and guess what? This particular shop, Color Vizio, located at the side facing the bus stop for Bus 56, could do the whole thing the blacklisted shop above did, using 250 gsm art card at the initially agreed price! The best part, they did an ON THE SPOT sample for me using an existing printed art card. That definitely made up for the minor inconvenience earlier on and you, Color Vizio, will certainly get repeat business from me. I cannot say the same for the other shop at Katong Shopping Centre level 3 though. In fact, I was so pleased with Color Vizio's service, I gave them the entire project to output for me, A1 posters, banners and the small cards!
I will most certainly NOT be recommending my friends to the shop at Katong Shopping Centre level 3, which is so "unique" in their price plans!
Random thought for the day - I've never come across printing shops that go back on their agreed prices.
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