This is what you want, really?

[Kev Williams]

One of my customers contacted me Wednesday. One of THEIR customers needs a bunch of stainless and 'phenolic' tags, fast, need to be in another galaxy far, far away by Saturday. "Can you do it?"

Sure, get me some info...

hoo boy... after reading thru the spec sheets and labeling prints, I knew this one wasn't going to be any fun...

Below is a screenshot of an email forwarded to me, the third response to my concerns about their specs. Note the text within the clouds are rough samples of the verbiage needed on these plates, but the wordier one on the right is the most typical, actual text needed averages 120 characters per plate...

I can't seem to get my customer's customer to understand the problem...
375600
--and this is now me-- http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/banghead.gifhttp://www.engraver1.com/gifs/pullinghair.gifhttp://www.engraver1.com/gifs/nilly.gif

Needless to say, this order isn't going to get delivered tomorrow ;)

So that's my latest 'here's your instructions' horror story--- Yours? :D

[Scott Shepherd]

I feel for you Kev. Over the holiday I was contacted by a long time customer with a job that "had" to on location this Monday. So about a week away. I emailed back on the holiday, and said "if this needs to happen, I need all artwork and specs by Tuesday", which would give us 6 days to get the material ordered, the jobs done, packaged, and shipped. That was going to be tight. They responded "Sounds good, you'll have artwork by Tuesday morning".

Tuesday came and went. Wednesday came with some drawings and a list of questions. I responded to the questions, with questions like "What are the actual dimensions, you left them off". Wednesday afternoon, I get copied in an email, with them asking their customer for dimensions and some other info. No reply. Resent, copying me again, on Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon, a follow up email with "We need to make this happen".

I responded with "Make what happen?". You're past the point of being able to make it happen. In order to meet your timeline, we needed all specs and artwork 3 days ago. At this point, you are beyond crisis mode. There aren't physically enough hours in the day to meet your deadline at this point". So I expect to come in Friday morning and find all the details in my email, and then have to fight all day and work all Saturday, then ship this stuff (it's a lot of large stuff) next day air on Saturday. I open my email. Nothing. 12:30 on Friday, I get most of it, then at 2:00 on Friday, I get the rest of the details.

It's amazing that people don't understand that it physically takes a certain amount of time to produce things. If a job in a laser has a 1 hour run time, you can want it in 15 minutes all day long. It's not going to happen. 10 lasers aren't going to help. It's 1 part that has to run on 1 machine and that takes the time it takes.

[Keith Outten]

I have returned more project Specs back with "No Bid" marked on them than I have accepted. If the specs are so bad that I don't think I can get them corrected in one review/question cycle I am not going to spend my time correcting a customers mistakes or shore up their lack of expertise without being paid.

I'm fortunate in that I can now ask what their timeline is for delivery and flat tell them no if the schedule is to tight. To tight means twice the time I normally need now that 65 is in the rear view mirror.

Steve, I'm grinning from ear to ear because its funny how ignorant some people can be and remain in business. I have experienced the same situation you described so many times over the years.

[Michael Henriksen]

I sometimes turn down jobs because I know the part the customer wants will break easily as designed or there are other good reasons why laser cutting isn't the best option. They usually take it well. One customer asked for clothes hangers cut from plywood. I had to explain that the edge would likely stain the clothes and if they all had to be sanded it would increase the cost.

One thing they sometimes struggle with is the concept of waste. Certain shapes just don't nest well. Of course I have to charge for the material that is wasted as well.

I do spend a fair bit of time up front with new customers to explain about what a laser can and can't do, best material for the job, processing time etc. I do get my share of time wasters, but it's not too bad with B2B customers. Private walk-in customers can be really bad though and I've gotten better at turning them away quickly if I sense they don't know what they want and don't want to pay anything for it. There is the occasional walk-in that know what they want and will pay what it cost - those are the ones that can make the day more enjoyable.

[John Lifer]

Truly amazing how truly ignorant many supposedly smart engineers are. (I am one, so I can talk disparagingly about them all day long). Had a rfq the other day from a company that needs aluminum parts marked with a 2d code. Tried to get info on what kind of mark and got vague and contradicting answers. Picture of Mark sent that was both dark, (cermark?) and reverse fiber engraved. (code had frosted surface surrounding the actual code.) but the human code was black like cermark... Or was it steel and annealed - came from the third party the actual customer and looked like steel. Actually think it was reverse engraved then annealed, or was it just magic marker highlighted? Who knows? I found more about the code the actual customer wanted than they were able provide in my spending 10 minutes reading...

And they can't even decide if they want human readable code or not... Duh that is time and expense too!
Gave them an off the cuff worse case for me quote, I need the job, but not at my expense. We'll see!

[Kev Williams]

In my email, the first words are 'the 3/4" text..." -- that was the original spec for ALL the plates- I sent them a sample graphic with the dimensions of the plate I laid out with 3/4" text: 25" x 7-1/2", a bit biggish for an ID tag ;) - "That's bigger than the equipment it's going on!" sez my customer. And simple logic says that if you cut the text size in half, you'll cut the plate dimensions in half, which is still a rather large 12-1/2" x 3-3/4" plate.

Hopefully by Monday someone figures out I can't park 25 Cadillac's in a 2-car garage ... :D

[Gary Hair]

In my email, the first words are 'the 3/4" text..." -- that was the original spec for ALL the plates- I sent them a sample graphic with the dimensions of the plate I laid out with 3/4" text: 25" x 7-1/2", a bit biggish for an ID tag ;) - "That's bigger than the equipment it's going on!" sez my customer. And simple logic says that if you cut the text size in half, you'll cut the plate dimensions in half, which is still a rather large 12-1/2" x 3-3/4" plate.

Hopefully by Monday someone figures out I can't park 25 Cadillac's in a 2-car garage ... :D

What's the problem? Can't you fit 9 lines of 3/8" text on a 1" x 2" tag? You're just not trying Kev.

[Jerome Stanek]

Designers say I can draw it on paper but it can't be built. MC Escher the impossible stair way

[Ross Moshinsky]

Engineer/architect specs are not real when it comes to engraving. They literally just copy and paste things into documents from other jobs without much thought.

That job is for a 2"x1" stainless steel tag with black text. I'd send them a PDF proof and tell them to print it out and see if it's big enough. If they want it bigger, I'll make it bigger.

I'm not always right in guessing what info is important and what isn't, but most of the time you can narrow it down pretty quickly.

[Bill George]

Engineer/architect specs are not real when it comes to engraving. They literally just copy and paste things into documents from other jobs without much thought.

That job is for a 2"x1" stainless steel tag with black text. I'd send them a PDF proof and tell them to print it out and see if it's big enough. If they want it bigger, I'll make it bigger.

I'm not always right in guessing what info is important and what isn't, but most of the time you can narrow it down pretty quickly.
And always get the approvals in writing, signed and dated.