88x

How would you handle this?

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So a customer came to me with their own shirts and wanted a 3 color design front and back. I ordered the heat transfers thru a new to me, but a well know vender. (I use one company all the time and have been very happy with the result every time, but thought let's try this other company out.) Well my customer calls and says they are having issues with the shirts, that they are cracking and lifting. So I contact the company and they told me to send back the transfers I have left for them to test. They get back to me today and say the issue is on there end, so they will refund or reprint the transfers, but will not pay for the shirts that are ruined. What is the right thing to do with the customer. Since they bought the shirts themselves. Do I refund the amount they paid me? I'm out my design time, time to press etc. Or what's the right thing to do? Thanks in advance

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customer provided shirts and assumes responsibility at that point.   tell them you will redo the shirts they provide and also will give them the $2.69 that you would have paid for the shirts if you had done the job start to finish 

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Thanks for the response!! That's kind of what I was thinking about bringing their own shirts. The only tough part is there was hoodies too.

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This is one of those times when having the pre-build conversation about the risks of doing business might have paid off. I generally tell anyone who wants to supply the garments that if there are problems I will not charge for my mistake but will not cover their garment replacement costs. When they act upset I calmly run them through the math of my investment in their shirt and the buck or two I will make if it all goes good. If they want to let me order the shirts and make another buck or two there then I assume the risk of a mistake and hope that the mark-up I make over the course of a month will cover the occasional problem. Once they look at it that way they usually understand. I have had some take a walk but the old adage is still true that the only job you don't risk losing money on  is the one you don't take. 

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problem is when the customer supplies their own garments you do not know how that garment has been pre treated or not - some stores sell items that have a sizing (think like starch) that makes them present well and flat - that can interfere with our htv process - you usually can tell if they are pre laundered and that itself can add more chemical issues - so when some wants to provide their own garment I charge almost the same as if I supply the garment that i have control over - which usually changes their mind.

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The customer works for a company that has an account with sanmar so that's why they bought their own shirts. The thing that is weird is that FM expression took the blame for the transfers having issues, not that it was a shirt or a pressing issue.

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58 minutes ago, 88x said:

The customer works for a company that has an account with sanmar so that's why they bought their own shirts. The thing that is weird is that FM expression took the blame for the transfers having issues, not that it was a shirt or a pressing issue.

the majority of your price is not the shirt nor transfer - so hope you charged them accordingly and can at least break even --  - - if you charged based on material cost you shorted yourself bigly

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IMO when it's all said and done were I in your shoes I tend to make sure that the customer is happy with the resolution at least on a monetary basis. You may not be able to re-do a shirt and still hit a deadline but at least monetarily I like to be sure they are happy even if I take a hit into the red. All of my customers are people in my community and they talk. Most of them came from referrals in the first place and I don't like my name being associated with bad work.

That being said I would probably then make a more firm agreement going forward. If they were to continue to supply the garments then in the future the risk (to the garment only) is 100% theirs and they can absorb the occasional glitch in the savings they see in garment purchase same as I would in-house. You sell 1000 shirts and have 1-3% issues you are talking 10 to 30 shirts possibly. My numbers run much less than that but I almost always bring in a couple extra shirts of the most used size on any order over 25 or 30. 

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Thanks for the input I am still waiting on the customers decision on what they want to do. I will update you guys when i know more. Thanks again.

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Thanks for the replies from everyone. Heres what we worked out: I gave them the option of the 20 transfers that they originally purchased from me to be used in any way they seen fit, (replace the lifted and peeling shirts or a different style shirt all together) as long as they provide the garment. They decided that they wanted to do 10 hoddies to replace the ones they had issues with and use the other 10 transfers along with another 10 transfers for T-shirts that I gave them a price break on. Again, all with them providing the shirts. I guess in the end it all worked out I believe they were happy and I about broke even in the deal so all is well. 

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Bottom line is you did a good turn and were willing to try and resolve the situation. They will come back I bet ya. 

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I wash all clothing no mater where it comes from first off........This is a tough one for me to decide on what i would really do, I know that a customer supplied shirt is to be a gamble due to the technicality of how it was washed etc , But for me whether or not they supplied the shirt or not ,the main issue was with the transfer which in turn ruined the product not the clothing having an issue.  I personally would have to replace the customers clothing .It was not the clothing that caused the issue in this matter.

What if you did a decal on a vehicle and for some godly reason the adhesive ruined the clear coat due to a mix up in the  chemical adhesive   ( Not that this would really ever happen but just an example) .The material you supplied to put on the vehicle ruined the paint, Does that mean your not liable for fixing their paint job ? Or tell the customer since you supplied the vehicle i wont take care of you but i will give you a deal..lol  Sorry  but whatever product im supplying that ends up having a defect to cause an issue falls on myself or the manufacturer who supplied the item... I would have to eat the cost of the shirts and put it on the supplier if possible, otherwise eat it and move to another supplier,, But what do i know... lol..

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Yeah it was a tough deal all around. But just a heads up with FM expressions, they won't pay for the garment no matter what, even when they tested the same transfers with the exact results. Maybe that's with all companies, not sure. Lesson learned, I will use Versatrans all the time now. I have done more then tons of transfers with them with zero issues.

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Try Howard Custom Transfer next time and save yourself the aggravation, cheap and good, never go together..and quit printing on someone else's shirts, that alone will solve a lot of problems

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1 hour ago, mfatty500 said:

Try Howard Custom Transfer next time and save yourself the aggravation, cheap and good, never go together..and quit printing on someone else's shirts, that alone will solve a lot of problems

heck I didn't know they changed their name from howard sportswear :/  I'm slow

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They just changed in the last few months, and they moved to. I'm only about 30 minutes from them, so we just pick up our orders

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