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Sometimes it is a good thing when you don't get a call,,,you know,,that call you get about 30 minutes after delivering a sign. I dropped off two A-frames the other day. For about 5 hours after that everytime the phone rang, I hoped it wasn't the A-frame guy. I didn't want to hear about a line of copy missing or a word mis-spelled. But no call,,,,I could at last relax about that job.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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Twice, I've received a phone call the next day saying, "I thought you were going to put our sign up yesterday!" Both times, I asked them to go out their front door and look at their building again. I guess my signs are just too nondescript...
About 35 years ago, I sent a sign painter to change a sign from "Apartments" to "Condominiums". I received a phone call the next day asking when the sign was going to be changed. I told them "It was done yesterday." He replied, "It still says 'Apartments'", to which the sign painter mused, "I wonder whose apartment sign I did change yesterday?"
Phone calls...
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Maybe you can't relax yet Alicia. I remember reading in one of the sign magazines about a sign a guy put up for a medical clinic. Sometime later, I think it was over a year, one of the staff noticed that one of the two doctors name's was spelled wrong. The doctor never even noticed for over a year so you may not be out of the woods yet.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5396 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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I did some dumb campaign for a grocery chain that said in the small copy, "5% Fee" to cash a payroll check. My "f"s looked a bit like a lower case 'b'. 5% Bees is what the marketing manager complained about. I had to go back to a dozen and change them. After I did it a week or so passed and the marketing guru called and asked me when I was going to handle the deal. I had to drive back to all 43 locations again and make sure the guy was not smoking pot. Argh.
Naturally, the next campaign in a month was a BBQ special, advertising BBQ stuff in conjunction with the beginning of the KC Chiefs season. I designed the KC wolf (no longer used) as a wolf guy standing next to a grill, barbequeing. The headline was GO CHEFS to play off the snickers ad. Naturally the Chiefs lost the first three games and the chain wanted me to go back and add the letter 'i'to read Chiefs and not Chefs. They signed off on the original mispelled design, so they agreed to pay me for the return trip to all their stores. I figured I should try to make up for the loss of time with the Bees/Fees issue and charged them accordingly. They never missed a beat and paid me promptly. Sometimes it is not about getting every penny of a sale, but getting the contract to repeat again and again. They were loyal clients for years and I hardly missed the Bees.
-------------------- Preston McCall 112 Rim Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 text: 5056607370 Posts: 1552 | From: Santa Fe, New Mexico | Registered: Nov 1998
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Many years ago, I made a sign for a new subdivision. At that time the average house sold for $40,000, but the lowest house in this project was $150,000. They finished building in 3 years, and as they were removing the sign, one of the guys noticed the phone number was 926-6006. It was supposed to be 926-0660. Nobody had noticed it in 3 years.
The builder said, "No wonder we had such a hard time selling all of those houses."
Fortunately we had a good laugh, and he asked me to put the correct number on the sign for his next subdivision.
I have made several signs for him since, and he always double checks the phone number.
-------------------- Don Hulsey Strokes by DON signs Utica, KY 270-275-9552 sbdsigns@aol.com
I've always been crazy... but it's kept me from going insane. Posts: 2273 | From: Utica, KY U.S.A. | Registered: Jan 1999
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The call I got...a few years back I did a nice carved gold leaf job for a restaurant about 4 hours from my shop. The job was a few thousand dollars and I was on the tail end of a bunch of work and was ready for some time off...just 2 weeks after installing the sign, the owner called in tears, saying a car slid in the snow through the intersection and destroyed the sign. She was heartbroken and I was sad to see the destruction. Thank God they had insurance covering that.
Patterns were on hand and the second sign turned-out better than the first.
Bob
-------------------- "The 3-4 minute mark of "Freewill" by Rush.
Bob Kaschak Artisan Sign And Design Peru New York Posts: 1873 | From: Upstate NY | Registered: Jul 2002
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Bob, the same thing happened to one of my sandblasted signs for an apartment. We installed it late one afternoon and the next morning a garbage truck slid off a wet road and ran right through it. It was HDU and literally exploded. Thankfully, there was insurance.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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About 1980, we installed letters on an existing monument for a Union Carbide location. They had their Christmas card photo taken with all the employees standing by the sign. About two years later, we got a call saying the sign was wrong. The installer had transposed the "b" and "d", spelling the sign "Union Cardibe". It took two years for anyone to notice.
I still had the same installer and I called him into my office and gave him a marker and a piece of paper. I asked him to draw me a lower case "b", which he did. I then asked him for a lower case "d" and he properly drew one of those. I then told him, "Take that piece of paper with you out to Union Carbide and put the letters in that order." He did that, too.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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My problem is usually customers' friends. This just happened this week. A guy from the states hires us to rename his boat. We show him proofs by email and he approves. He had said how nice the layout was, and later even called me to tell me how happy he was with the job. Fast forward several weeks and he calls me back, saying that its not what he wanted, that a friend of his told him this or that. I pointed out the date and time of the email in which he approved, and reminded him of when he called to tell me how happy he was. "I can give you a discount for a redo, but I have to charge you for my time". He sent signed credit card authorization, case closed.
-------------------- Felix Marcano PuertoRicoSigns.Com Luquillo, PR
Work hard, party like a tourist! Posts: 2274 | From: Luquillo, Puerto Rico, USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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