Protecting Brokers Client from Print Vendor

[bkaupp]

I am no lawyer, but I can't imagine there would be an agreement that would be 100% enforcable, especially when you factor in marketing and free will/market.

I agree with the 'find and build a good relationship with one or more printers' approach. We are a digital shop that outsources any large offset or special print needs. We have two local offset printers we deal with, neither are 'trade only' but in over 15 years dealing with the one printer we have had no problems, and so far no problems in the last few years with the second (we use two so we can have at least two quotes to make sure we are getting reasonable prices).

We also sometimes source from an online 'trade only' printed from the other side of the country, shipping included pricing on some things is cheaper and we have even less worry of that printer poaching any customers.

We have recently started outsourcing some of our digital printed vinyl instead of referring customers, we found a local sign shop and they like the arrangement because we send them the files ready to print/cut and essentially leave all the headache to us. They make money and get more work, we make money everyone wins. So far its been a great relationship.

The relationship is key, and it may take time to find the right printer or printers to work with. Agreements are great but if not iron clad (which can be costly for a lawyer to draw up) they can be thwarted or taking someone to court could cost more then any work you get out of it.

[discountprintingservice]

I really am baffled myself...I am a print shop that prints in house but also sends work out that is beyond our in house capability.

Here is my delima:

There is a huge trade printer which I won't mention their name ((3+1)over.com) that pushed advertising in a lot of printing trade magazines as being trade only...

One ad in particular that ran for a long time really sticks out in my mind. It consists of 3 people in T-shirts one says trade printer, middle one says retail printer, and last one says print buyer. The ad show the trade printer & print buyer shaking hands behind the retail printers back.

In big letters at the top of the ad it read "we won't go behind your back"....well now they have with a retail web site, which ironically I found out about from my client. I won't spend a dime with them ever again.

Now, this huge trade printer who has all of us printers customers information and files can now market directly to our customers if they wanted to and bypass us all together....scary isn't it?

In addition, I have always thought that this particular trade printer hurt the industry with ridiculously low prices and started what I call printing price wars.

Best example is a card that most print shops sell for around $50-75 for 1000, these so called printers who have no equipment no overhead and work out of their house sell it for $20...

Trade printers like this is really hurting the industry, and their not the only ones....

I suggested a class action law suit against this particular one to a trade organization...

[mattbeals]

I'm not a lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express. If 2+2over.com was acting as a trade printer exclusively and then opened a retail store front they certainly are welcome to. If they took their trade printing customers (you and your clients) and kept that separate and didn't directly market to them I can see where they would be of the opinion that it is "safe". If however they did market to your customers (as is the case with one local trade printer I know of) I can see where you would have a toe, maybe a leg, to stand on. For example, now that 6-2over.com has as retail site and your customer went to their site to order your customer made the choice. But if 7-3over.com marketed to your customer then I'd be pretty hacked off.

I guess it comes down to this; did they (square root of 16 over.com)directly market to your customer(s) bypassing you or did your customers go to them on their own?

[discountprintingservice]

A blind package was shipped to end customer and some how (2+2)over.com was on the box, they went to the website and saw a link to the redtagprintsale.com their retail site. As soon as I heard about it I went to their site. I hit the roof! I called and asked for the President but have yet to get a call back. I have heard from others that they are doing direct mail marketing with postcards.....

[mattbeals]

Yeah, that's pretty unethical. I'd be all over that...

[discountprintingservice]

I call one trade magazine and talked to the managing editor & a trade organization president, apparently from what I was told the retail site has been online for about a year and most of the franchise print companies supposedly are banding together to boycott them, it seems like everyone who knows about it is pissed off and refuses to buy from them anymore...the magazine wants to make it know to all print shops but is worried about legal ramifications

I think the problem here is this one trade printer is so big they think they can't be hurt by going retail....when i talked to someone at the red tag site they reply was "do you know how much business you are losing to places like vista print? We're going after that market to help printers like you"....I had some choice words for them and them hung up....