Categories: business
Date: 22 September 2008 19:11:00
...I spent half an afternoon in a city close to where I live going round some printers and asking them to quote me for 1000 colour folding business cards. "No problem", you're thinking, "you ask for what you want and they give you a price". Hahahahaha, you're so naive!
Printer 1 takes my number and says he'll call back. No call. It's been a week now. No business coming his way from my direction.
Printer 2 employs a spotty 14 year old on their front desk and so having a finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist I decide to communicate visually with him (it's the preferred method of communication for the kids these days y'see). I spot a colour folding business card in the cabinet of examples I see next to the counter and ask, "How much would it be to have 1000 of those printed?", pointing at the example as I speak. "Ummm, I don't really know", replies teen acne, "It's not really a standard thing." He takes my number and 3 days later I get a call. 3 days? Does it really take 72 hours to figure out a price for these things? Anyway, price was steep. No deal.
So then I went to printer 3 in a trendy design studio out of the centre of town. "Wahey", I think to myself as I walk in, "Not a PC in sight!", which makes me feel at home, I'm just more comfortable around Macs. So, I sit down with designer blokey who looks like he could be the brother of Dave Stewart (him of Eurythmics fame), tell him what I want and he gives me a price. So far so good. "We'll e-mail you the proofs later this afternoon or tomorrow morning as a .pdf file." Cool. So off I toddle thinking I've accomplished my mission. By Friday I still haven't received the proofs so I drop them a line. "Sorry, we got your e-mail address wrong." "Ok, cool, no problem, these things happen", I reply whilst wondering how tricky my name followed by @gmail.com can be. So I get the proofs and return them with very polite text formatting instructions, i.e., capitalise this, centre justify that, this bit in white, that bit in black...y'know, complex stuff which only Graphic Design graduates can do. And then silence. Nothing. I'm not sure if their e-mail is down, if their roof has collapsed or if the company has gone bust.
The thing is, what with the current economic climate, some of these printers will more than likely lose their jobs soon. When they do they will more than likely blame the 'credit crunch' and resultant cutbacks for the loss of their livelihood. And I will more than likely be waving my £200 under their noses and saying "This could have been yours, all you had to do was COMMUNICATE WITH ME. How many other customers could say the same? You could be absolutely loaded if you had a basic level of competence, not brilliance, just competence."
So if anyone knows of a competent (or perhaps even a brilliant?) printer in the Bath area who can make me 1000 colour folding business cards then pleeeeeaaaase let me know. I really would like them before Christmas if that isn't asking too much.