Opinions needed....

[Craig]

Some items we print and mail for clients require a 6-3/4 remittance envelope. Some clients have been providing these to us which have been printed elsewhere. Some have been purchased online and some by other local shops that low balled the price. Most of the time we have to fold the envelopes for insertion. During the folding process we have caught crooked printing (off by 3/16" or more), blanks sides and even other companies envelopes mixed in. We typically will set what we catch aside and return them to the client, but we may or may not catch 100% of the bad envelopes. My concern is if a receiver gets a mailer with a bad envelope and asks the mail owner who printed the mailer, they will inevitably say our company. I'm doubtful they will ask who printed the crooked ass envelope. Now I'm not saying we are 100% mistake free, but we have a reputation of quality which we have built in the last 57 years.

So with more clients getting items as cheap as possible, what are your opinions on accepting supplied printed materials to use in your finished products? I'm half tempted to stop accepting items we do not print, but on the other hand I don't want to offend the clients. I get that we are not the cheapest shop in town, that's not our business model and never will be. But when I had that conversation with a client she didn't understand, even after I handed her back crooked and blank envelopes her supplier printed.

Thanks!

 

[Stickman42]

If you feel your reputation would be tarnished, then I would say don't accept the supplied envelopes anymore. If this is a valued client, and you've shown them examples of the defective envelopes they've brought in, it's a component that you can print yourself, and they'll still look to place blame on you, then I would reconsider the value of the work to you.

We pride ourselves on finding defects that get past proofing (like typo's). Sometimes it's our bindery people who pick up on this. Clients are thrilled and shower us with thanks. Other times covers for perfect bound books are supplied to us, and are randomly missing embellishments like foil stamping or spot coatings. Once again, we'll pull what we can. But NEVER has a client held us responsible for something they supplied or missed in proofing. When an issue occurs, we evaluate the client relationship and the expense to re-do the job. We then come to an agreeable solution with the client. Sometimes we'll re-do for free, but we ask that our good will gets recognized where it counts.

 

[kslight]

We experience these and other quality issues all the time on some client sourced print pieces for mailing (in this case, usually all we are doing is inkjetting the address and mailing it). It just is apparent that most printers don’t care as much as we do..

We set aside the worst of it, don’t use it if they provided enough for spoilage (hah!), and point it out to the client and or vendor, but ultimately I’m sure some of it makes it out anyway.

I would document the bad product and establish the issue once with the client, ask how much time they want you to spend doing QC..I’m sure most of the time they will say very little or none - maybe they have a very important mailing where they would appreciate the extra thorough inspection - but ultimately I don’t think actually refusing customer supplied product is going to accomplish anything but make them replace you. If the client is indifferent about quality when price is on the line, so be it. If you think you can provide the same product to them at a similar price with perfect quality, then I guess you have a case to offer that.

My opinion is that in the case of mailings, it’s unlikely your rep is on the line over it unless your name is on it. And most mail gets beat up in the USPS and goes right in the trash by the recipient…so I don’t think I would choose this hill to die on.

 

[SoggyWinter]

We do not accept client supplied media period.

 

[gregbatch]

We always note on work orders and invoices the supplier of each piece. It's either us, our trade partners, or the end client. Very rarely do we have an issue with material supplied by our trade partners. End client supplied material is often problematic. This is especially true with envelopes which have been sourced to any hack who could provide them over the last year. If there is an issue with an item is it quickly evident on the paperwork who is responsible.

 

[Shawnd]

Crap flows downhill and we are the last ones in the chain. What I find happening is the older ones are retiring and the ones replacing them already have stuff they are doing so doing the mailing work comes last, especially for non-profits. Mailing the Appeals is becoming a secondary thought when it should still be a primary. Going to be an interesting year.

 

[Ynot_UK]

Making the best of a bad job when given poor quality client supplied media for fulfilment, and once the job’s done, highlighting the issues encountered to your client and how you went the extra mile to make it go out as good as possible, can lead to you getting the whole job next time. Conversely, taking the stance of refusing to touch anything other than what you’ve produced in-house, could backfire and lose you the whole job.

 

[Shawnd]

But when I had that conversation with a client she didn't understand, even after I handed her back crooked and blank envelopes her supplier printed.

Wonder if we have the same customer In the non-profit world this is getting more and more prevalent. I don't have a good answer for this, we take it on a per job basis. Had one newsletter come in with a ton of them not trimmed, like the person on the cutter just threw them in the box and put trimmed ones on top. Brought it up to the customer and they didn't understand, we fixed them but if I let them mail out that way I can only imagine the fury that would come our way. I just try to be as helpful as I can be, the customer just wants it out, they don't want to have to deal with vendor drama.

 

[Magnus59]

Wonder if we have the same customer In the non-profit world this is getting more and more prevalent. I don't have a good answer for this, we take it on a per job basis. Had one newsletter come in with a ton of them not trimmed, like the person on the cutter just threw them in the box and put trimmed ones on top. Brought it up to the customer and they didn't understand, we fixed them but if I let them mail out that way I can only imagine the fury that would come our way. I just try to be as helpful as I can be, the customer just wants it out, they don't want to have to deal with vendor drama.

Funny how so many customers "don't understand" when it comes to materials they have supplied!
Perhaps "don't understand" is code for "it's your problem now"

 

[MailGuru]

Wonder if we have the same customer In the non-profit world this is getting more and more prevalent. I don't have a good answer for this, we take it on a per job basis. Had one newsletter come in with a ton of them not trimmed, like the person on the cutter just threw them in the box and put trimmed ones on top. Brought it up to the customer and they didn't understand, we fixed them but if I let them mail out that way I can only imagine the fury that would come our way. I just try to be as helpful as I can be, the customer just wants it out, they don't want to have to deal with vendor drama.

Unfortunately, the mailer is the "last line of defense" before the job gets transported to the USPS.

It doesn't matter what has happened upstream, it's the mailer that has to deal with it. Un-trimmed, or, mis-trimmed material, stuff that wasn't folded correctly. Uneven score. Even envelopes that keep stopping the inserter because of intermittent envelopes with the gummed flap stuck down and already sealed (usually due to storing the envelopes in a hot warehouse over time).

There's nothing more frustrating than working with bad material. There's no tweak you can make on the equipment to make it work better. All you can do is clear the jam., and keep on running. Clear the jam, and keep on running. Clear the jam.........and....keep......on........running (you did remember to check bindery employees for firearms this morning....didn't you?)

 

[gregbatch]

We make one adju$tment that tends to correct issues on the next job.

 

[Shawnd]

We make one adju$tment that tends to correct issues on the next job.

You have some loyal understanding customers.

 

[gregbatch]

We explain that the poor condition of the materials is not our fault. We can make it work, but it will require extra labor charges to work through it. OR they can go back to the supplier that provided the bad material to make it right. They usually opt for us to do it and try to keep the drop date. Next round the materials are good. Sometimes it's from the same supplier, sometimes a new one. Either way it's resolved.

 

[oxburger]

G.I.G.O.