threats of news release

[Turnip]

Hello everyone,

This is to follow on from my previous post. I own a small business. To simplify things, I will say that I make plastic replicas of bigger items for promotional gifts.

I contacted a client a few months ago. I made a sample of their product (say shampoo bottles), with their contact details at the back. Information on the replica was in raised letters. The client says - it looks ok but the raised letters are too small, then asks if can he have a sticker on the product as his real shampoo bottle really do. I make a computer design. (sticker is hiding the raised letters). He is happy with it. Order goes ahead.

I make the product in high volume. I get paid 2 weeks ago, and products are delivered. The moment he receives it, he is not happy. He says sticker does not look good - wants to return the product. I reply saying he requested the sticker, and the product was manufactured to the design that was sent. He then says, he said he was not happy with the small raised letters - why are they still there? I reply saying that the sticker hides the raised letters, and should the user remove the sticker, the contact informations are still embedded onto the product - besides he never told me to SCRAP them altogether. I also add it is a customised product made to his speciifications and I cannot accept returns.

He must have looked through our previous emails. He comes back to me and says that I should have known to scrap the raised letters from a designer's point of view. He says he has written a press release and will send it to all editors to warn people about me and the way I do business. Is this even legal?

Thruth is - accepting returns and issuing refunds will be extremely hard financially for me. Do I still have to do it for the company's reputation?

I do not feel that I have been wrong but maybe you will see otherwide. What would you honestly do in my place? Please advise me.

Turnip

 

[winelabels]

As with most press releases it would only be used if it interested the editor. Your business sounds too small for them to care, its not exactly BP and a leaky oil well.

You may just want to mention to your client that any libellous statements would result in legal action.

 

I would suggest that there is room for compromise here.

Your customer might be a smart-arse, or might be genuinely aggrieved by the design. Can you establish which?

Perhars your starting point should be either 10% discount, or send the stock back & I will do it again (You know your margins - the idea being to make it worth his while not to return stock..)

Whatever you do, try not to get emroiled in an 'all or nothing' battle.

 

[fisicx]

Seems to me that he didn't want the raised letters, he wanted a sticker instead. Did you send a sample of the stickered version for approval before going into production?

 

[JElder]

I would not worry too much about a press release. It's an argument over details between two companies. There's no human interest side, no major legal issues.

Nothing to see here, move along!

I have enough problems getting even interesting press releases noticed!

 

[Ernest Andy]

I wouldn't be too worried. I'm no expert but I don't think raised letters on a plastic thing with a sticker over it is exactly a scoop. People will not rush to the news stands to read the latest in the gripping blow by blow account of the raised plastic/sticker crisis. I doubt it will go national. There will not be widespread outrage with demonstrations in the streets of every major city around the world.

So I doubt it would be printed, (or read) even if he is petty enough to have really done a press release.

I suppose the dispute comes down to what was actually written and agreed in the emails before production. That is all you need to look at IMO.

 

[sysops]

What idiot puts a sticker over raised letters?

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

1). Be honest. Can you actually see the raised letters through the stickers, even slightly?

2). Did you clearly state that you were keeping the raised letters and were simply going to put the sticker over the top?

3). Could the client see this in the design?

You need to use a degree of common sense and give the client what he DOES want, instead of giving him things which he hasn't said he doesn't want. You really should have asked and made sure. It sounds like you continued to include the raised letters because it was simply less work for you.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry about the press release a great deal even if he is in the right (which he might be). Most publications will probably see it as two small businesses having a little feud and won't want to get involved.

 

[Turnip]

The product is not unfit for its purpose in any way. Regarding the sticker, it is not a paper sticker but a polyvinyl sticker. You would never know that there are raised letter below it, unless u actually touch it and feel it.
Anyway, I proposed a percentage off and the customer is happy with that. I persnally feel that even he knows that the product is good - just wanted some money back. Well, we've compromised.

 

[filtuh.com]

Sounds like a nice resolution to a thorny issue. May be worth revisiting your acceptance/proofing/protoyping arrangements and tightening up the process to ensure that the customer accepts the actual model going to be produced, not the model just before production.

TBH I can see the customer's point in that raised letters versus sticker are very nearly mutually exclusive - asking for one implies not having the other, or at least should be a grey enough area to ask for clarification. If he didn't explicity say to remove the letters though it's one of those issues that could be argued back and forth for generations.

 

[Turnip]

I can see what you mean. It is a bit of a grey area. Well, I suppose that I have learnt for next time.

Sounds like a nice resolution to a thorny issue. May be worth revisiting your acceptance/proofing/protoyping arrangements and tightening up the process to ensure that the customer accepts the actual model going to be produced, not the model just before production.

TBH I can see the customer's point in that raised letters versus sticker are very nearly mutually exclusive - asking for one implies not having the other, or at least should be a grey enough area to ask for clarification. If he didn't explicity say to remove the letters though it's one of those issues that could be argued back and forth for generations.