Who is or what is the responsibility if the engraver?

[Keith E Byrd]

OOPS - title should be WHO no Whi!
Question for you all: I am not an engraver (but looking into acquiring a system) but have a question: When you take in work to be engraved who is responsible if the engraving is not done correctly? Who pays for the damaged item? Is there any assumed liability by the engraver is or is it simply take it to be engraved at your own risk?

Thanks for your insights!

[Gary Hair]

When you take in work to be engraved who is responsible if the engraving is not done correctly?
That depends on who does the engraving. If you do it then you are responsible, if your employee does it then you are responsible, if neither you or your employee does it then you are responsible. Are you seeing a theme here? Same thing for a damaged item - your responsibility. The only time it's not your problem, liability, responsibility, etc., is if you have an item that may have a defect and you point this out to the customer and have them agree that you won't be responsible for any damage, other than that, you are on the hook.
There have been several threads about waivers and the general consensus is that, even with one, you are likely to be held responsible. After all, you are the engraver and you are "supposed" to know what you are doing.

Gary

[Tim Bateson]

Another exception is if the Customer gives you the wrong info (been there, done that). If at all possible have them send you this stuff electronically to prevent typos on your part (been there, done that too). Now, this may STILL be your fault in the eyes of the customer, but you can print out a copy of their email to show it was engraved as directed.

[Martin Boekers]

One way to look at it is if you took anything for someone to work on your, car, appliance etc and they broke it wouldn't you think that they would be responsible?

[Bruce Dorworth]

That just made me think of a situation. If someone brings in an IPAD or phone to be engraved do you check to make sure it works before you engrave it? Someone could say it worked before you engraved it....
Bruce

[Gary Hair]

That just made me think of a situation. If someone brings in an IPAD or phone to be engraved do you check to make sure it works before you engrave it? Someone could say it worked before you engraved it....
Bruce

As a matter of fact, I do check them while they wait. The only exception was when a return customer brought in 20 ipads, they were brand new and I wasn't about to make them wait while I opened all of them.

Gary

[Keith E Byrd]

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That depends on who does the engraving. If you do it then you are responsible, if your employee does it then you are responsible, if neither you or your employee does it then you are responsible. Are you seeing a theme here? Same thing for a damaged item - your responsibility. The only time it's not your problem, liability, responsibility, etc., is if you have an item that may have a defect and you point this out to the customer and have them agree that you won't be responsible for any damage, other than that, you are on the hook.
There have been several threads about waivers and the general consensus is that, even with one, you are likely to be held responsible. After all, you are the engraver and you are "supposed" to know what you are doing.

Gary

Thanks for the response - I have taken several items to the engraver - items I have sold and getting engraved for my customers - and the engraver has made mistakes - like burning all the the way through, wrong position, double striking etc. All I get out of him is "I won't charge you for engraving that one" Needless to say I am looking for a new engraver and considering buying some equipment. Problem is low volume - 20-30 items per month - hard to justify the expense. I will take a different approach with a new engraver when located!

[Martin Boekers]

Hey you may get lucky for the drawing here in Feb, the trotec sureeeeeee looks nice!!

[Gary Hair]

Needless to say I am looking for a new engraver

When you talk to the next engraver be sure to come to an agreement up front regarding mistakes. The mistakes you mentioned,
burning all the the way through, wrong position, double striking, are all things I would take responsibility for, if I ever made that kind of a mistake that is... I would advise against buying a laser for 20-30 items a month, it's a liability that you don't really need with that low volume. If you did 20-30 items a day, every day, then that would be another story.

Gary

[Glen Monaghan]

I require electronic submission of engraving information, including text, font, and location for engraving. Then I prepare the CDR file and export a jpeg "proof" which the customer must approve prior to the actual engraving. Even so, I had someone contact me last Friday to say she didn't like how an engraved item she'd purchased from me came out, thought it would look better if the two engravings were reversed, would I please redo and send right away?

This sort of thing has only happened to me twice before and both times I told them that, because they had approved the proof picture, I would redo at a reduced cost (didn't explain but it was basically my cost for the item plus shipping) and they fussed but agreed.

This time, I just sighed, redid the job, and sent gratis. Mumbled some to myself, but did it. I priced the original work to cover 2x my item cost and time to get the profit I wanted and cover myself if I screwed up, so I didn't make a profit but didn't actually lose money either. But today, she contacted me to buy more plus said she'd referred me to some friends, mentioned names, and sure enough, they just purchased as well. So I suppose it paid off here to take responsibility for her happiness even though I provided exactly what was requested and it wasn't my fault she didn't like what she'd originally asked for...

[Tim Bateson]

... All I get out of him is "I won't charge you for engraving that one"...

It does sound like too many mistakes are being made, but.. I think you are expecting too much if you expect this person to offer more than he has. Unless you press the issue you woun't receive additional compensation from anyone. On the rare occasion I make a mistake I too offer to not charge for the work. If you as a customer feel that's not good enough, you have to speak up and/or look for a more reliable engraver.

[Rodne Gold]

Those aren't "mistakes" , those are the mark of an inept and inexperienced and careless engraver..their attitude to their responsibility shows they couldn't give a damn..find another engraver.

[Keith E Byrd]

Hey you may get lucky for the drawing here in Feb, the trotec sureeeeeee looks nice!!

I entered the drawing! Who knows - might be my own worst enemy if I tried to do my own engraving!

[Joe Hillmann]

You haven't really given enough information to say for sure that it is the engravers fault, although that is the knee jerk response from the information you have given us. You say 20-30 items per month. How many mistakes has he made over what length of time? And is it a different item you are bringing him every time or do you bring the same item every time. If you are bringing him different items every time then more mistakes will be made since he has to figure the settings for each item every time and he also has to try and figure out the placement for each item every time. Whereas if you bring him the same item every time he should have a jig and file for it and know the best settings, so mistakes should be pretty rare.