Are we in the wrong ?

I deal with this a lot in my job.
Mugs, teddy bears, leaflets, t-shirts, flyers, brochures, pens, pencils etc.
I design or say what I want, they send me a sample to approve and I give the go ahead.
If they make the items wrong because I approved it then its my fault.
However, like your client I would still argue the case even though I'm wrong.
 
I worked in this field for nearly 10 years. If your T&C states that once the final proof is approved then it's the clients responsibility, then they clearly don't have a leg to stand on. However, you should try to come to some compromise that softens the blow for both of you - and hope they want to keep using you.

As for the people saying it's the designers fault because the info they were originally given was correct, etc - rubbish. It's unrealistic to expect designers not to ever make a mistake! When I started it was even worse - no spell checkers, no OCR, clients providing briefs scribbled on Post-Its (because not everybody had a PC at work then), so the proofing stage was vital. And in this case (a phone number) it should be one of the first things the client checks!
 
Curio said:
As for the people saying it's the designers fault because the info they were originally given was correct, etc - rubbish. It's unrealistic to expect designers not to ever make a mistake!
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I think people are saying it's the firm's responsibility (not necessarily the designer) to check for such school-boy errors. If I came to you wanting a 100 page document printed, would I have to check those 100 pages for typing errors your staff made? Is that really a good way to operate a design and printing business? It does seem a lot work like that though...
 
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Depends on the specifics, if it was me (and we work in a related industry by the sounds of it) if it was the cleints error we'd offer to print them again at a discounted cost as a good will gesture, if it was our fault (and the client had sent us the correct details in the first place) we'd redo them FOC.

Bottom line if you sting them on this you'll get no other business from them in the future. What about they for the reprints and you give them a voucher for the difference agaist a future job therefore encouraging repeat business.
 
I guess I'm with the 50/50 crowd but the customer is in the wrong for not properly proof reading it.

How about stickers to cover the error on the existing leaflets?
 
Surely you have a system (quality assurance) where you check the original details before and after you send off a proof to the client i.e ok were done now lets recheck it all before we send a proof off to the client to make sure we have done as requested (check spelling and numbers and design).

So its kind of a 50/50 issue but i'd say the client is right mostly because he sent you the right details and just because he didn't check the number doesn't mean its his fault as he rightly would presume you double checked the details before sending the proof off to him. He basically checks the design then says ok. Most would do this.
 
I agree with tw fox 100% the guy prob wrote what he wanted in the printing companies 'details' form,and checked checked and checked again the details were right. sometime later the printers come back saying hey here is the design we will print! customer thinks 'that's nice yeah print that' and they print it. he will b looking at the design,not details he has provided,its basic human pshycology / blindingly obvious what a customer would do. you designed and printed it,you made the error,you take the hit.
 
sniffy said:
If I came to you wanting a 100 page document printed, would I have to check those 100 pages for typing errors your staff made?
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Yes, yes you would.

For your own peace of mind that your document was correct at least. At some point you will be asked to sign a piece of paper stating that those 100 pages are correct. I work with 100+ page financial documents on a daily basis and *someone* has to read everything. We have a proofreading department, and they read it, then the client reads it, and once everyone agrees it's correct, off it goes. Most content is provided by the client electronically, some handwritten. It all gets read and re-read by proofreading and client each time.

But at the end of the day, the client knows that the content, not the layout, not the colours, not the paper stock, but the content is ultimately 100% their responsibility to be correct, no matter *how* it got into the artwork - they read it.

sniffy said:
Is that really a good way to operate a design and printing business? It does seem a lot work like that though...
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*All* of them work like that. Clients have to be aware that they shoulder some responsibility, and that responsibility is that the content is correct. Some printers/design companies are large enough to swallow the cost or a re-print, some aren't.

@Paulus Do you not have insurance for stuff like this?
 
[Robster];11984954 said:
But at the end of the day, the client knows that the content, not the layout, not the colours, not the paper stock, but the content is ultimately 100% their responsibility to be correct
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You're right; it is their responsibility. However that responsibility was upheld by providing correct information in the first place. If you then turn that correct information into incorrect information then that's your fault.

I'm obviously wrong as according to you (I have no reason to think you're lying) all firms operate like this. It just doesn't sit well with me.
 
Last week I took delivery of two sample items for t-shirts and hoodies and gave them a quick scan over.
I noticed that they had put Young Apprentices instead of Young Apprenticeship and quickly rang them up about it.
If I'd given the order to carry on, we would have an order of 120 t-shirts & 60 hoodies with a misprint and it would have been my fault even though I had sent them the correct wording.
 
Paulus said:
We designed and printed a leaflet for a client.

a typo mistake was made and the phone number was incorrect making all the leaflets useless and ready for the bin.

the client is saying he sent us an email with the correct tel number ...

we are saying, we sent him a proof to approve before we went ahead with printing and he didnt spot the error..and approved it for printing.

it was such as silly typing mistake, the number should have been 7707 and we put 7077

who is right? should we reprint them again at our cost, or should the client pay again for all the re-printing.. ? (45,000 copies)
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You are entirely in the wrong IMO. Not typing a phone number correctly is a pathetic mistake and you should take responsibility for that.
 
Have to agree with that.

He is your customer after all.... and was expecting (at the very least) - that you got the details he supplied correct.

If you expect him to pay for something he didn't ask for - that's just a bit ridiculous, and it is a perfect way to loose customers and business - Something you just can't do in this financial climate.

Take it on the chin and learn to properly produce what a customer requests. You made the mistake - and just calling it a simple typo just shows your lack of professionalism. It should have been proof checked more than once, and it should have been re-checked before the main print. Surley the phone number was the second most important Item in the flyer after all & there is no way in hell I would pay even 1% for flyers I didn't ask for (even if I had checked them)
 
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UPDATE::::::::


had a chat with the client and he said that he was happy to reprint them at a 50/50 split on the basis that we both made a mistake and take half the blame each.

I also offered him a massive discount on the next big project he has and he was happy with that.

thank you all for your opinions, i am glad its over and im pretty sure we will keep him as a client.....

we have learnt some lessons to make sure this doesnt happen again.


[QUOTE='[Robster]
@Paulus Do you not have insurance for stuff like this?[/QUOTE]


No, not at the moment.
 
Paulus said:
UPDATE::::::::


had a chat with the client and he said that he was happy to reprint them at a 50/50 split on the basis that we both made a mistake and take half the blame each.

I also offered him a massive discount on the next big project he has and he was happy with that.

thank you all for your opinions, i am glad its over and im pretty sure we will keep him as a client.....

we have learnt some lessons to make sure this doesnt happen again.





No, not at the moment.
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He saved a ton of money if you'd pressed the Ts and Cs and you retained a valuable customer. I believe the textbooks call that a WINZOR / WINZOR !
 
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