Comments | bellatrys: Printing PSA

bellatrys

Printing PSA

Jun 05, 2008 15:06

I don't really think most people reading this will have these problems, it's just been that kind of day already...If you walk into a print shop intending to have something printed up or photocopied, or at least to find out how much it would cost, and the person at the desk asks you ( Read more... )

customer service, common sense, stupidity, how do they tie their shoes let alone &c

Comments 10

stardragonca June 5 2008, 19:25:32 UTC

The customer is always right like fuck!

ronin_kakuhito June 5 2008, 19:46:09 UTC

On the other hand, when you are working for a print shop and the customer asks for something specific that you don't actually have/provide, it would be really really nice if you'd not be evasive as to exactly how the alternative you suggested differs from what they asked for.

I don't believe that I have been bellatrys June 5 2008, 20:53:47 UTC

altho' I have often encountered customers incapable of understanding what exactly the difference between cover and text is, frex, even when shown samples of both. And don't get me started about trying to explain why colored paper's color shows through the printing, when the white logo is white on their screen...

Re: I don't believe that I have been ronin_kakuhito June 5 2008, 20:55:57 UTC

I wasn't specifically talking to you. I was mostly talking to the guy who took 5 minutes of me prodding and pushing to get me the specs of the alternative option he offered. (After I found out that it was nothing like what I was looking for, I walked out and found someone else who would, you know, answer my questions.)

Well, both the local computer shops bellatrys June 8 2008, 18:58:40 UTC

have tried to (and in one case, succeeded until we caught them and took them to task) substitute non-spec parts and charge the same, claiming they were just as good, when I tried to get upgrades with them ( ... )

Thread 5

fledgist June 5 2008, 20:55:19 UTC

I can do a Basil Fawlty tone of voice easily enough, but I think I'll reserve it for blaming the Germans for invading Poland.

I come across clueless people on a regular basis, I'm afraid.

smurasaki June 6 2008, 05:25:20 UTC

But, but...why? Why would someone go to a print shop and not have the answer to those three questions? Okay, they might not be sure what the right term for the material they want (as in "um, that heavy stuff they print cards on" not as in, "um...some kinda paper?"), but surely they have an idea.

Then again, considering some of the odd customer interactions I had as a bookseller, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.

smurasaki June 6 2008, 05:26:08 UTC

And I fail at posting, clearly.

It does explain a lot about why small businesses have bellatrys June 8 2008, 18:46:52 UTC

such a high failure rate, I have to say - these aren't all little old grannies or high school students with personal projects (or people who don't read looking to buy books for that weird bookloving relative!), these are usually businessmen and businesswomen or entrepreneurs looking to start their own business, showing up totally unprepared and without a clue.

"I want some of those, you know, things you write down on, where the customer gets one, and you keep the other?"

"Um, you mean receipt slips?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"What do you need it to say?"

"I dunno - what do they usually have on them?"

(If I'm lucky, they will have come in with a much-scribbled and overwritten invoice from a competitor that they want us to rip off, with many changes, but I should be so lucky very often...)

I just get scared when I realize that these people are out there on the road, every day - I wouldn't be surprised if one of them managed to blow up a city block with a fridge, somehow, out of sheer clue-negativity. [/grump]