posted
Maybe it's just me (but I don't think so)...
What possible purpose can be served by selling 18"x 24"x .040 aluminum blanks that are black on one side and white on the other? Or for that matter blue or red or green all with white on one side.?
Has anyone ever seen a real estate sign thats red on one side and white on the other?
Do they expect me to buy two of them and mount them back to back in the frame so I can have a double faced sign with the same color on each side? (truthfully that would be cheaper than painting the second side)
Then they suggest that I buy a 48" x 96" double faced black .040 panel (quote) " We sell a lot of those" DUH!!! ok ok ...so I buy the 4 x 8 and now I HAVE TO CUT IT... to get my black on black.
Can't tell you how many times I've explained it to them and they just don't get it (or won't get it)
Another mystery item COROPLAST...Why do they make you go against the grain of everything you've been taught for 40 years about how things are measured...Always height before width...but if you want the damned flutes to be the right way you have to order them opposite..example (for those that haven't experienced this bit of wisdom) "the flutes run the length of the last dimension you give them (AT MY SUPPLIERS ANYWAY)...in otherwords if you sell the customer an 18"x24" sign you must order the material as a 24"x18" to get it right...but they don't realize how many mistakes this creates and yet they admit...and get this... "people get it wrong all the time...we are constantly changing them out"...Can't they understand it costs them time on the phone & double the gas money (ACTUALLY I HAVE TO PAY THE GAS SURCHARGE ON THE DELIVERY I GET WRONG AND ON THE ONE I GET RIGHT)...not to mention I am now a ****ed off customer.
ARRRRGGGHH...THATS MY RANT FOR THE DAY LETS HEAR ABOUT YOUR SUPPLIERS INANE MARKETING SKILLS!!!Surely you have some to add to this.
I'm going home now...(where there are no suppliers!
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
quote:Originally posted by Monte Jumper: Why do they make you go against the grain of everything you've been taught for 40 years about how things are measured...Always height before width...
Ummmm...both of the picture frame shops I worked at always put width first, so did the glass company. The cabinet shop always put height first, unless it was a certain salesman who always put the smaller number first. Around here an 18" x 24" is an 18x24, regardless of which way it's oriented. I draw little arrows so there aren't any questions. Our supplier just asks us if we want the flutes 18" wide or 24" wide.
Granted, I'm a about 20 years short of having 40 years of experience but I've got to ask...where'd the height first rule come from?
-------------------- Pat Whatley Montgomery, AL (334) 262-7446 office (334) 324-8465 cell Posts: 1306 | From: Wetumpka, AL USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
I'm sorry but height has always been first since the first day I went to work...maybe I was trained wrong. But I'll go you one better...if there was ever any doubt in your mind which was which the work orders at my first shop was always marked "landscape or portrait"
In other words 4x8's were landscape and 8x4's were portrait.
Maybe I just live in a weird world perhaps I should have taken the drugs when they were offered ...i dunno...anyway my rant is over:)
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
Learned the same here, didn't know any different till I started dealing with other trades. Alos ticks me off about the two colored panels, it makes no sense.
posted
Thas cuz you are serviced by the children of the corn..
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
The 2 colored alum. makes NO sense. I love it when they say, "buy 2 & put them back to back." Idiots! No, I don't think so. How about YOU stock blanks with the same color on both sides, how bout dat? Seems like a better solution, eh?
It always burns me when they don't have a vinyl color, "cus they don't sell that much"
They're usually multi million dollar companies... Why they don't stock a few $40.00-$50.00 items that they don't sell much is beyond me. It would probably even impress someone into doing more business maybe? I dunno.
I'm forced to buy whole 50 yard rolls of "baby crap green" & sit on it for years.
This could easily go on & on. I feel your pain Monte!
-------------------- Michael R. Bendel Bendel Sign Co,. Inc. Sauk Rapids, MN Posts: 913 | From: Sauk Rapids, MN | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
It's length /height here in OZ in most things
2400mm x 1200mm (8'x 4') etc
But like you Monte the flutes seem to run the other way!!!! I get confused. So when I buy my 600x900 (2x3) and 900x600 (3x2) 3mm corflute I get a 50 pack of each ... seem to use about the same portrait and landscape anyway. The 2400x1200 5mm comes landscape only.
If there is any confusion with customers I usually add "L" and "H" to the specs (2400mm L x 1200mm H) or ask the customer to do likewise.
posted
Man I had to do this just yesterday, buy a 4'x8' .040 (the only gauge that comes in colors of course) aloonimum sheet cut to two 18"x24"s. All that waste for a stupid little real estate sign. I always cut the coro myself so that's not a problem, but this color-one-side thing on blanks is a PITA. Love.....Jill
Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
One really plausable reason for having a color on One side & white on the other would be for fabricating channel letters; where the outside return can be any color (pre-painted) & the insides would be white, for most reflectivity for illumination purposes (especially when capped). The industry is probably more apt to cater to channels than real estate.
(edited) I really shoulda read the question more intently instead of flying off with that answer. My answer would've been appropriate for larger pieces than 18x24's. Please disregard - unless you find it useful.
(can I unedit it?)
& stand by my original thought just to say that the smaller pieces were probably cut from the aforementioned larger ones.
[ September 14, 2007, 08:58 AM: Message edited by: Bill Cosharek ]
-------------------- Bill Cosharek Bill Cosharek Signs N.Huntingdon,Pa
bcosharek@juno.com Posts: 703 | From: N.Huntingdon, Pa, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
A lot of this aluminum sheeting is manufactured for other industries than ours. For instance, semi-trailers. I've also seen it used on interior commercial refrigerated areas (walk-in boxes). Maybe the demand in these and other areas requires huge quantities of the stuff to be made for them. And of course, the leftovers could then be sold to sign suppliers at a somewhat cheaper rate.
At least, that's a theory.
-------------------- Dale Feicke Grafix 714 East St. Mendenhall, MS 39114
"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." Posts: 2963 | From: Mendenhall, MS | Registered: Apr 1999
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posted
The one that's been driving me nuts is calling companies who advertise they sell One Shot and finding out they don't have half the colors in stock. Some are just plain selling off what they have in inventory, usually the less popular colors, and dropping it all together soon.
The college art stores around here dropped it years ago with the reason "No one uses paint any more. They do everything on computers these days."
I think the assumption could become a self fulfilling prophecy. No one can paint if no one sells paint.
Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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Monte, I hear ya. I really appreciate the suppliers who have customer service (sales) people who have signshop experience vs. the everyday hacks who are just there to process orders, and have NO idea as to what they are selling.
I must say that Mid-West Sign & Screen Printing Supply (Milwaukee or Minneapolis anyway) has the most helpful staff I have worked with in 25 years.
On your other rant, the photography and printing industry ha always used width first, height second. I can only surmise that some walldog of old, when asked to paint a bulletin or wall, the first thing that pops into his head was, "how tall?", knowing that height was an important factor compared to the length.
-------------------- Curt Stenz Graphics 700 Squirrel Lane Marathon, WI 54448 Posts: 591 | From: Marathon, WI 54448 | Registered: Dec 1998
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Monte, Monte, Monte. I've found that a nice nap helps problems like that.
Don't try to figure out the system. Just go with the flow.
Why are wieners sold eight to a package and hot dog buns are six to a package?
Why does the price of gas always end in 9/10ths?
Why do you have to press Start to stop a computer?
Why are they called hot water heaters? If the water is hot, why would you want to heat it?
I'll just keep making signs and leave all the important questions up to the intellectuals.
I feel your pain, though. We only order one item from a local supplier (MDO) and they still manage to get the order wrong most of the time. Yesterday we had a shipment arrive of 3/4" MDO. For 40 years I've used raw (unprimed) Good Two Sides, and have never ordered anything else. Yesterday's shipment was primed, Good One Side. Go figure. The shipping invoice was right - they just loaded the wrong thing.
OK - time for a nap.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Actually, downunder, it's always been the trait to use the biggest number in a pair first- Timber is 3x2", 4x2", 8x2", or metricated 75 x 50, 100 x 50 etc.
Corro (corflute) size is specified by the side with the flute along it first, so 900 x 600 has the flutes running 3 feet long, while 600 x 900 has 2 foot flutes across it. That's the one we use mostly- portrait direction.
At least that's with all the suppliers I've used.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Ok... still dealing with with and height issues...I never thought much about it before this post but chances are pretty good that when I bought my first Gerber Gaphix Advantage if they had listed the width first height second on the sizing tools I never would have bought the program...that would have been a shame!
At least they agree that I could have been taught right!
That means a lot!
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
hey its an alpabetical thing too..h comes b4 w.
did ya know dibond is only good on one side? yep the side that has the protection on it. good to know after i've made hundreds of 2 sided parking signs. oh well....whatta ya do? nap time!
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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