STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Elle · Hermes

How reasonable? (long, sorry)

alb · Marc Jacobs

here are my thoughts:

Um, no. That is bullshit. I really think you need to tell her (in as nice a way as possible) that you would like her to redo the "bad" invites. You did not expect to have to pay for a product that is defective, even at the far-from-generous 10% discount. I'd approach it this way--"I really appreciate you offering me a 10% discount b/c of this. I know you didn't expect this to happen, and I didn't either, but since it is my wedding invites and they are very important to me, would you please redo the defective ones instead of discounting them 10%. I am not trying to be difficult here, but I really was not expecting this type of problem, etc." If she agrees to redo them, I wouldn't worry about the overpayment of .5/invite adn the 4 hrs that she clearly should not have charged you for and just call it a day. At least you would be getting what she promised you. however, if she doesnt or can't reprint them, this is what I'd do "then do you mind discounting it more than 10% b/c we don't even know if we will be able to use those invites at all. We don't know what to do and are very upset about this. I know you are trying to accomodate us and I appreciate your efforts, but we weren't expecting this sort of mishap when we hired you (emphasize the "hired you" part). Also, I wasn't going to mention this before but I noticed that you charged an add'l 50 cents per invite and I also think the 4 hr charge is a little steep given the fact that (fill in the blank here). We also weren't expecting this increase in your price. Is there any way you can work with us here?

Then if she agrees and if nice about it, you can thank her profusely and see what happens next.

I wouldn't let her take advantage of you like that and don't use those invites if they look like crap!!

hth let me know how it goes.

luckyclover · Dooney & Bourke

That's horrible. I would be upset too. Common sense should tell a person if it is not coming out right to stop and consult the person who is paying you. I guess it depends on how they are when you get a chance to look at them. If they are not what you wanted I think I would find some way to pay for just the expenses and go somewhere else. I don't deal with individuals for important stuff unless I have seen their work and know people who have used them with positive results....I've had bad experiences with things like that. I hope everything turns out okay.

smash · Dooney & Bourke

as someone who does this for a living, this is complete bull. she should have told you *immediately* if there was any sort of problem and if she was unable to work with you to change things to accomodate glitches with *her* printer then she should have refunded your money and told you she couldn't complete the project.

did she print a sample for you before you booked her? do you have a contract with her? there is absolutely no way that you should have to pay for a shoddy print job. and she definitely shouldn't be chanrging you for *anything* that wasn't 100% agreed upon by both parties *before* she started working.

as an aside, if you need me to help you with anything printing related, send me a PM and i'll see what I can do for you. i know how stressful this must be for you!

-- Edited by smash at 13:23, 2006-03-31

Elle · Hermes

Thanks for weighing in on this Smash.

Here are some snips from her email:

Me: Did you intend to say the thank you's were affected? I'm not sure I understand how they could have been a problem since they are one-sided.
Her: Yes, in fact the thank you notes were affected the worst and I'm not sure why. They just didn't seem to feed through straight or print with the right margins. So, there are twenty extra of those as well.

Me: Also, do the 4 hours charged to graphic design include printing time? I remember you informing me about the rates for your design time ($20 for the first hour, and $18/hr after that, right?), but didn't expect 4 hours considering some of the corrections requested to the proofs were not actual changes to the print or design. Is there something in particular that took you longer to work on than I'm aware of?
Her: No, it doesn't include printing time. I actually spent more than 4 hours but only charged you for that. The things that took the longest were transferring it all into a program that would lay the design out in a printable format, changing all the fonts which also meant resizing, recentering ect, redoing the map from scratch so it could be brown, finding and changing the color of all the clipart. Then all those little changes you made just add up. When I just cut and pasted straight from your design, you didn't like it so I ended up spending more time than either of expected. I did forget to change the 3 hours to $18 and I will do that.

I made up my mocs in Word, so OF COURSE the spacing is going to be off if she tried to copy/paste it into another program, right? I asked her to change little things then (lines not being lined up correctly, words running into the border) that I thought she already should have changed before she sent them to me. Had I know that she was going to do a straight copy/paste I would have been even more meticulous with my Word mocs and/or I would have made the necessary changes and then re-sent them to her. And after she re-did them all, I had to correct mistakes to wording/spelling that she made while she was transferring stuff. guess I just don't understand how it could have been that much work considering I completed everything in word in about 4 hours - and that includes designing, extensive tweaking, and fighting with the Word program to make it do much more elaborate things than it ought to. I mean 'redoing the map from scratch'? It's in word, click on the freaking lines and select 'brown'!

I would have still questioned the charges had they turned out perfectly because they are more than we discussed. The fact that not only did they not turn out perfect but that I have to settle for not-perfect and pay for perfect is what upsets me. She originally quoted me 0.25/piece for one-sided cards and 0.35/piece for two-sided cards, and now when I emailed her about it she said she believes she told me that there would be a $5 cutting fee for each set of cards, so instead of billing it as an extra $5/set she just added on 0.05 cents to each card. That's fine, but when I originally contacted her there was no mention of a cutting fee for the printed cards, so I assumed when I asked "How much would these cards be?" the quote was for completed cards meaning print/cut.

Gaahhhhhhhhhhhh!

shopgirl82 · Chanel

i'm sorry she is being unprofessional. you would think that if your reputation is on the line, you would work harder to make the customer happy. so no, you are NOT over-reacting.

the two points i would work on first....if there were problems, why did she only print one, let you know of the problems, and then see if you wanted more printed out?! then i would work on the pricing. right now though, i would try to get the perfect product.

you worded this perfectly....so i think you should tell her this over and over until it sinks in.

The fact that not only did they not turn out perfect but that I have to settle for not-perfect and pay for perfect is what upsets me.

i'm sorry, 10% doesn't make up for it. she promised you something, she didn't deliver. that's her problem to fix, not yours.

ILoveChoo · Hermes

OMG no way!

1) if she sent you proofs (which she says she did, right?) they should have shown that the alignment was off right? Or was the "proof" she sent you before she decided she needed to put it in a different program? either way, no.

2) the design charges are ridiculous. OK, maybe she actually did need to put it in the other program. I'd give her that. But absolutely no way should it have taken her that long! She sounds like she doesn't know what she's doing!

gruiz · Kenneth Cole

Ok, to be perfectly honest, she sounds like a twit. I just finished printing, cutting and assembling my invites and if I could get them fed and printed correctly on my home printer, a "professional" damn-well better be able to do it too. I had single and double-sided cards, just as you do. I would fight for perfection here. You paid for it and you deserve it.

blubirde · Chanel

Did you give her money up front? Have you already paid her? My advice is to give her the $$ for the things you use and not one dime more. If you end up not using any of it, don't give her anything. If she wants to fight about it, let her file a case in small claims court and let her lose there.

FashionPrincess · Hermes

Has she done invites before? Cause she sounds like a complete amateur! I'm sorry this is happening to you, hope it as works out in the end. Just hang in there girl

Elle · Hermes

Thanks, girls. I paid her for her design hours and some cut items only - I'm just tired of fighting with her. The samples were fine - the problem came when she printed them all and then cut them all at once. Since some printed off just slightly but they were all cut the same, some are centered and others aren't. GOOD RIDDANCE!

I don't know what I'd do without you guys!