A little good news and a LOTTA bad news.
Mar. 23rd, 2005 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenmillionFirst, the good news. I got about 500 of the tarot cards printed and 250 of them laminated. I bought a lamination machine, which I ran some numbers for, and figured that not only would I pay for the thing with THIS job alone, I would actually pay for 1.7 of these machines. So new lamination machine it was... it will be very handy. And I'm not real keen on going back to Dateline where I was getting my lamination done.
On that note, we get to the bad news.
I went to Dateline today to pick up some copies of Wish3 and get the title page of the LEs copied to send to Syl for signage. I'm all happy, snappy, see an error on my invoice - not the most unusual thing, and ask to get it fixed. I'm picking up four books, my total is $60. Um, no.
Um, yes.
They've instituted (without warning, which would have been nice, say, when I dropped off my job...) a $10 minimum per job fold/staple/trim charge.
Well, hell. But still, not the end of the world... I can understand minimums, ya gotta set up the machines, and that's labor, and I can understand wanting to discourage dinky little jobs like mine. Not the end of the world - I can bring in larger orders in the future, plan ahead, etc; I've got enough capital to do that. Space might start to be an issue, but oh well. I ask anyway, can I get the previous pricing, because I wasn't warned?
Sure... that'll be $4.83. Per BOOK.
What? The previous price was .12. I kid you not: twelve pennies. We're looking at an increase of fortyfold. PER BOOK.
The previous price was .12, I say. Oh, no, I'm told: the previous price is .12 PER PAGE.
Not in the SIX years I've been getting books made there, thank you.
Well, it is now, according to my salesperson. An order I was paid $27 for cost me $31.40 to send them.
So, I paid my bill, told them, with these prices, YOU WILL NOT SEE ME AGAIN, have a nice day, and left. The order I was paid $27 for cost me $31.40 to send them. *facepalm*
I have been a customer of Dateline's for eleven years, literally since I started my business. It's sad to leave them, they've always been very good to me and corrected their (copious) mistakes willingly.
But if I'm getting charged nearly $5 per binding, they can kiss my sweet ass goodbye. I'm not convinced yet that it wasn't a mistake and they won't come back and apologize, but I'm still probably going to be shopping for a new printer for both Wish3 and all of my coloring books, thank you very much.
Also, I don't think I mentioned here, but I will NOT be purchasing an Epson4000 as I'd hoped... another case of the company being OH, so helpful. I call Thursday, say I want this machine! I salivate over this machine! Give me this machine! They say, we're having trouble with Epson's funding of this sale... call back Monday and we'll get you squared away!
I call back Monday, they've used up their sales budget. ON FRIDAY. They did not even consider calling me because I 'was not committed' and besides, the people they did sell their units to was a 'big customer.' Meaning, I'm small fry because I only wanted one measly $1900 printer, and not worth their effort. As they have also ceased carrying the paper I liked, I will, again, be finding another place to shop. Rarely do I promote a company, rarer yet is my turnaround on my promotions. But here I am, saying, don't bother with www.digitalartsupplies.com. They're overpriced (I've found most of what they carry much cheaper elsewhere), pushy (they've called me at home several times with 'sales updates') and committed to their big clients. Getting my reseller's discount out of them was like pulling teeth. This was the last straw.
Oh yes, and there is MORE bad news. These tarot cards? Well, I'm all pleased with myself, feeling accomplished, FINALLY, I'm going to get these off my chest... and the Holt is closing? Oh, great... is my timing beyond awesome or what?
Somedays, being a small business owner sucks twinkies and I wish I'd gotten a job at McDonald's, instead. Okay, maybe not McDonald's, maybe... retail. Retail at Christmas... yeah, that would be much better.
Heh... okay, maybe not...
On that note, we get to the bad news.
I went to Dateline today to pick up some copies of Wish3 and get the title page of the LEs copied to send to Syl for signage. I'm all happy, snappy, see an error on my invoice - not the most unusual thing, and ask to get it fixed. I'm picking up four books, my total is $60. Um, no.
Um, yes.
They've instituted (without warning, which would have been nice, say, when I dropped off my job...) a $10 minimum per job fold/staple/trim charge.
Well, hell. But still, not the end of the world... I can understand minimums, ya gotta set up the machines, and that's labor, and I can understand wanting to discourage dinky little jobs like mine. Not the end of the world - I can bring in larger orders in the future, plan ahead, etc; I've got enough capital to do that. Space might start to be an issue, but oh well. I ask anyway, can I get the previous pricing, because I wasn't warned?
Sure... that'll be $4.83. Per BOOK.
What? The previous price was .12. I kid you not: twelve pennies. We're looking at an increase of fortyfold. PER BOOK.
The previous price was .12, I say. Oh, no, I'm told: the previous price is .12 PER PAGE.
Not in the SIX years I've been getting books made there, thank you.
Well, it is now, according to my salesperson. An order I was paid $27 for cost me $31.40 to send them.
So, I paid my bill, told them, with these prices, YOU WILL NOT SEE ME AGAIN, have a nice day, and left. The order I was paid $27 for cost me $31.40 to send them. *facepalm*
I have been a customer of Dateline's for eleven years, literally since I started my business. It's sad to leave them, they've always been very good to me and corrected their (copious) mistakes willingly.
But if I'm getting charged nearly $5 per binding, they can kiss my sweet ass goodbye. I'm not convinced yet that it wasn't a mistake and they won't come back and apologize, but I'm still probably going to be shopping for a new printer for both Wish3 and all of my coloring books, thank you very much.
Also, I don't think I mentioned here, but I will NOT be purchasing an Epson4000 as I'd hoped... another case of the company being OH, so helpful. I call Thursday, say I want this machine! I salivate over this machine! Give me this machine! They say, we're having trouble with Epson's funding of this sale... call back Monday and we'll get you squared away!
I call back Monday, they've used up their sales budget. ON FRIDAY. They did not even consider calling me because I 'was not committed' and besides, the people they did sell their units to was a 'big customer.' Meaning, I'm small fry because I only wanted one measly $1900 printer, and not worth their effort. As they have also ceased carrying the paper I liked, I will, again, be finding another place to shop. Rarely do I promote a company, rarer yet is my turnaround on my promotions. But here I am, saying, don't bother with www.digitalartsupplies.com. They're overpriced (I've found most of what they carry much cheaper elsewhere), pushy (they've called me at home several times with 'sales updates') and committed to their big clients. Getting my reseller's discount out of them was like pulling teeth. This was the last straw.
Oh yes, and there is MORE bad news. These tarot cards? Well, I'm all pleased with myself, feeling accomplished, FINALLY, I'm going to get these off my chest... and the Holt is closing? Oh, great... is my timing beyond awesome or what?
Somedays, being a small business owner sucks twinkies and I wish I'd gotten a job at McDonald's, instead. Okay, maybe not McDonald's, maybe... retail. Retail at Christmas... yeah, that would be much better.
Heh... okay, maybe not...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 07:35 am (UTC)I guess we'll just have to grow big enough for these people to grovel at our feet to do business with us. *daydreams*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 09:48 pm (UTC)