Customers... don't ya just love 'em?

[easiprint]

Just had a customer teaching me how to accept artwork files.

Customer ordered some business cards, and asked me how I need the artwork. I tell her a pdf file with 3mm bleed all round will be fine. She goes off to speak to her 'designer', and then comes back to tell me that I am wrong. She tells me that her 'designer' said nobody uses pdf files for printing and that as soon as you create a pdf you loose any bleed because you cannot have a pdf with bleed. Also, that I do not need a bleed as I can print her business cards with no bleed anyway (solid colour right to the edge of the card). I was quite taken aback, as the customer was not prepared to listen to my reasoning, insisting that her 'designer' was very experienced, and that I was wrong. Where on earth do these 'designers' come from?

Anyway, I politely advised her to take her order to another printer. Sometimes walking away from a job is just best all round I think...

 

[sallak]

i can't agree more.
we got alot of such customers who think he knows more in printing than you do, so he tries to discuss prepress and makeready with you, not to mention some "designer wannabes" who use ready templates and convience customers that they're prof. designers who created schools of art

 

[Colorblind]

I feel your pain, it's a classic case of a blind leading a blind. In that case, I think I would've just take 5 minutes of my time and create a dummy card with bleed and email her the PDF so she could see for herself that you know what you're talking about.

 

[easiprint]

Glad to hear it's not just me who get's these numpty's. As soon as I heard her say nobody uses pdf's for artwork I knew it was gonna be one of those conversations...

 

[easiprint]

I feel your pain, it's a classic case of a blind leading a blind. In that case, I think I would've just take 5 minutes of my time and create a dummy card with bleed and email her the PDF so she could see for herself that you know what you're talking about.

I think I will do that now. Not that I want her as a customer anymore, but just for my own satisfaction I think it will be worth it.

 

[sallak]

got a customer who thinks he's a good designer, he send me his "desgins" for forms-single color in office word file" not CDR, not PDF, not Ai or EPS" he said word is better for forms design. yea right

 

[Happyprinter]

I to sympathize. I dont know were all these so called Graphic Arts " WIZARDS" are coming from but when it comes to preparing a file to be offset printed, most of the so called professionals we deal with dont have a clue. Sadly, most have graduated with a degree. Would be nice if the college instructors actually had real life experience in working with printers. Unfortunately the experience listed above, my designer is a professional, happens to us on occassion and there is no convincing the people that you actually know what your talking about.

 

[TerryWyse]

What is this "bleed" thing you speak of? You must cut yourself to print properly?

I also don't understand "4-color" printing since my photos have many thousands of colors.

Why do you "impose" on pages? I feel pages should have freedom and not be imposed upon.


Yesterday I couldn't spell Grafic Desyner but today I R one.

Thank you...

 

[easiprint]

What is this "bleed" thing you speak of? You must cut yourself to print properly?

I also don't understand "4-color" printing since my photos have many thousands of colors.

Why do you "impose" on pages? I feel pages should have freedom and not be imposed upon.


Yesterday I couldn't spell Grafic Desyner but today I R one.

Thank you...

Very good, thank you .. put a smile on my face

 

[Laurens]

I love such stories and have a small collection of them on my site. For a look from the other side of the fence, check out Clients from Hell, a site that is dedicated to such stories from the perspective of (web) designers having to deal with clueless customers.

 

[RGPW17100]

Graphic designers cover a great many avenues not just printing. A graphic designer that creates web pages does not need to follow the same rules as a designer for printing. The problem is when a web designer is asked to design printing material and he or she does not know their limitations. A 100 dpi image looks great on the monitor but not so on paper. If our prepress department did all of the design work for projects coming in we would be much more productive because they would be set up correctly to handle trapping, Over prints would be knocked out and choked or spred correctly. Most of the mistakes our print shop deals with are prepress mistakes and it is normally due to a designer that should have stayed in the closet and did something to fix a problem they were having and it did not fix the problem it just hid it.

 

[cosmo]

we get the dont need or dunno what bleed explanation all the time, we just cut there job smaller to create bleed, dummys dont even know.

 

[BillJ]

Give me a self taught designer from a print shop over a design school artiste any day.

 

[lfelton]

Ahh... customers. Our helpdesk just received an email that starts:

"I've got an A4 newsletter that I would like printing on black paper. I have created it on microsoft word "

Sadly, I don't think it's a wind up.

 

[prepressguru]

I wish the word desktop publishing was never coined. It sounds like that is what you are dealing with. Everyone with a computer and some graphics software thinks they are professional designers.

p

 

[RGPW17100]

Ahh... customers. Our helpdesk just received an email that starts:

"I've got an A4 newsletter that I would like printing on black paper. I have created it on microsoft word "

Sadly, I don't think it's a wind up.

So What is worse. The Microsoft word document or printing on black paper?

 

[mglouis]

I'd be happy to take that business card order for $1000.

 

[claude72]

we get the dont need or dunno what bleed explanation all the time, we just cut there job smaller to create bleed, dummys dont even know.

But dummys are never out of stupid ideas: I often get Publisher files that have no bleed AND no margin, texts stopping exactly at the edge of the page!!!
How do you fix this problem???
First, I enlarged the page adding 5 mm of white stroke around the page, but the customer didn't like it and forbids me to use this solution again... but he carries on giving me pages without bleed and without margin... sometimes, I feel like being stopped by an indestructible wall of stupidity!
Next time, I'll cut the job smaller, no matter for the texts that will be cut

So What is worse. The Microsoft word document or printing on black paper?

The Microsoft Word document!

... cause printing on black paper can be done with white ink or metallic inks

 

[Tpyo]

The truth is, I don't mind a designer (the 'd' word) that wants to learn how to consistently produce files that a printer can use without too much trouble, even if it takes time out of my busy, boss-pecked day to give pointers, and in some cases a small class or two. It's the one (the 'D' word) that has no time for specs, proofs and other damage control tools and still expects me to fix everything with no damage to his/her file every single time.

 

[Keith]

But dummys are never out of stupid ideas: I often get Publisher files that have no bleed AND no margin, texts stopping exactly at the edge of the page!!!

Ugh! I get that with Photoshop files! I swear, every customer that gives me a Photoshop file has the same problem! Type going right to the edge with no bleed or margin!