Protecting Brokers Client from Print Vendor

[jtwanabe]

1. Can someone suggest a generic legal agreement (free or not) that I can use to before I give my client information to a print vendor.

2. Short of that can any print brokers tell me what they do to keep Print vendors from going around you.

Thanks

[Alith7]

1. Can someone suggest a generic legal agreement (free or not) that I can use to before I give my client information to a print vendor.

2. Short of that can any print brokers tell me what they do to keep Print vendors from going around you.

Thanks

1. not sure, but if a designer/broker came into my shop with something like that, I think I'd be offended.

2. Find a reputable printer that you trust. If they're so shady as to steal customers from you, it calls into question their other business practices.

---then again, we're a very moral shop i guess. we print for a lot of smaller/larger printers regularly, as well as numerous print brokers and designers. We're always very careful and keep things generic when necessary.

maybe someone else who's less "small town" minded will have more input.

[jtwanabe]

It's sad but I've learned the hard way that good fences make good neighbors.

[maynardsayswhat]

1. What are you trying to protect?

2. It's all reputation and relationships. Anyone in the trade printing world "can" screw over other printers. But do that enough and they'll be out of business right quick. Even the rumor of such practices has hurt trade printers from time to time.

[Stochastic]

1. Can someone suggest a generic legal agreement (free or not) that I can use to before I give my client information to a print vendor.

2. Short of that can any print brokers tell me what they do to keep Print vendors from going around you.

Thanks

Hi There.

Print consultants, as they are sometimes called, are considered "parasites" of the print industry by some commentators.

This in part is true. When searching for the best "middle-man" between your company and your print provider, make sure you choose the right consultant.

If you are designing and your client wants to source the printing themselves in the dire hope they think it will save them money, consider offering them the complete solution so that you both can be confident that their/your work will look like it is supposed to every time. This is important in retaining their business.

Ensure that the company/contractor you select has a full understanding of the whole gamut of print, including offset and digital, and how your jobs will be on different substrates and make sure you ask what controls (if any) are in the workflow to ensure consistent accuracy of future re-runs.

If the "middle-man" is unsure or is unable to provide you basic information regarding your printing revenue queries, shop around.
Typically, there should be no "color management" as such on devices, yet simply passing thru a 1:1 or Direct workflow to the printing system. Upstream, i.e in your .pdf, you can embed alot of control information that can be honored on a correctly setup system and there are many tools as a designer available at your fingertips/mouseclicks.

Today, print companies usually have a good pre-press team to ensure consistency. In terms of negotiating competitive pricing with your print provider directly, generally most companies will naturally top-down sell under the assumption that you wont know any better. Questions like quantity breaks for plates/paper etc. Tell them you have done the market research, it will make them squirm, but generally they will come to a better price.
Remember, you pay for what you get so dont be too cheap nor dont let someone "get the better of you".

Just like buying/selling a house, check around the market beforehand to get a general idea.

I hear you say " but thats the print consultants job to do the running around....", yes but instead of paying them the fee for that service to save you an hour of good legwork and relationship building, do it yourself.

The eventual cost saving of going direct to save you the percieved "hassle" of organising your print will pay off and as you are a direct customer of the print provider, your business becomes valuable to the printer and it also helps keep them "honest" as they wont want to loose your business. Also, you know what youre paying for.

The "middle-men" print consultants were utilized, markedly in the 80-90's as technology changed rather rapidly, because of the lack of print knowledge in the market at design studios, publication houses etc and were mainly used as a compromise for cost vs. time saving. Now days, most design studios and p/h's have an internal pre-press and printing manager that deals with the print provider direct, negating the need for the middle-man.

Studios, publishers and designers are becoming "smarter" with understanding the print world and it is formus like these which empower decision makers with the basic tools to decide for themselves and take ownership of the products they are producing. The advent of the internet and Web based submission is slowly eating away at the independant "parasites" market share.

Research. Talk and build relationships with your print companies, they are no longer the grumpy "offset operators" they were once thought of. Align yourself with a smart and clever pre-press operator/designer who will help you. It is in their best interests.

Todays economic market leaves little room for margins to be paid to middle-men when you can do it yourself in conjunction with decent print providers, who in-turn should educate their customer to produce the most consistent and error free printing solutions.

In short, knowledge is power.

Jeremy.

[imagesetting]

We all like to believe we deal with 'Trade Only' suppliers - but when some have invested heavily, and need to feed the machinery, does greed not get in the way ... I like to think not, but business is driven by profit margins.
Saying all that we all know of those slippery suppliers who crossed the line - and where are they now though - long gone.
Choose the less aggressive more stable trade suppliers - long established through reputation, it is a trust relationship.

Exhibition Display Services, Cromalin Proofing & Prepress

[rich apollo]

1. Can someone suggest a generic legal agreement (free or not) that I can use to before I give my client information to a print vendor.

2. Short of that can any print brokers tell me what they do to keep Print vendors from going around you.

Make sure the relationship is profitable for the printer and I'm sure they'll deal squarely with you.

Get everything in writing, so that you have a legally defensible position.

Your question makes me think that you should be speaking to an attorney. I'm afraid anything you'll get from this forum will be of questionable veracity.

[mattbeals]

Several companies that I have worked for have had no-compete agreements with trade and commercial printers. I agree that good fences make for good neighbors. Having said that there are a few honest and ethical trade printers that you can trust. There is one up here in the Seattle area that I would say is completely trustworthy with customer information. Of course just a few miles away there was a trade printer gone commercial that poached a lot of customers from their old trade printed jobs. I'd say find a good lawyer and have them draw up a no-compete. I don't think it is unreasonable.

[jtwanabe]

The point of this thread was to see if there was a generic agreement or one that would give some idea of what one looks like.

[David Milisock]

The point of this thread was to see if there was a generic agreement or one that would give some idea of what one looks like.

I know of no generic agreement, I started as a print manufacturer and evolved into a shop that buys what we couldn't manufacturer well then as the computer skills grew we became a distributor. We since have moved on way beyond print distribution but still do a couple hundred K a year.

Keep the clients name unknown if possible, do not ship direct (quality checks more than anything), know who you deal with. Be prepared to get burned and move on.

My deal with my vendors is this, THEY MUST MAKE MONEY AND I MUST MAKE MONEY, if my file is wrong I PAY. If their job is right I PAY. If they scew me I TELL EVERYONE AND CAUSE A SCENE.

For the most part after 21 years I have about 6 regular vendors I can count on for 99.9% quality all the time. I have a couple internet vendors that are just HOT STUFF!!