Design on the mind

Yesterday, I had an experience that I thought I would share with you all. Our colour copier in the office had ground to a halt. I urgently needed some A4 proofs printed, so I dashed round the corner to a print shop close by.

I explained my predicament and that I was from Deckchair round the corner. The solemn faced man gave me the price for the job and said that he could have them done by the end of the day. He was a bit on the pricey side but I was pushed for time and was assured of a quality job.

I returned to his shop later on and was handed my pile of proofs. My jaw dropped, they were AWFUL; covered in white lines and scratches and completely unusable.

“What are all these white lines?” I ask

“Oh” he said, obviously hoping that I wouldn’t notice them, “It’s the imaging drum; we are waiting for a new one, I can redo them for you in a few days”. He hadn’t listened to me when I said the job was URGENT!

“So, you knew it was faulty when I came in earlier?” I asked Incredulously

He shrugged in an annoying noncommittal way.

“Well”, I said “I can’t possibly pay for these, they are unusable”.

Looking annoyed he grabbed the pile of prints and tore them up, then tossed them into the bin behind him.
I was quite speechless (rare for me I know). Without any sort of apology or explanation he returned to his rancid little back office. I left.

Thinking about this afterwards I wondered how long he would be able to stay in business, he had made every mistake in the book:

• He took the print job on knowing the quality would be poor, which is outrageous.
• He insulted me by trying to sell me the substandard work; hoping I wouldn’t notice.
• Then by not apologizing for the error or accepting any responsibility for it, he made himself even more unlikable.
• He offered a solution that was no good to me.
• He missed a business relationship opportunity with a graphic design company a few hundred yards away.

Who in their right mind would return to his shop?

Thanks folks I feel much better having shared that with you.
Got any print horror stories that you would like to share?
Want to have a rant about a rubbish customer service experience?

Toni

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Business, Print. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.