Screen Printers Open - A Forum for Screen Printing and Embroidery

So we have a customer of ours asking for us to replace a shirt that supposedly has some ink spot on it.  We delivered this order a little over a month ago.  We are also quite certain that there were no ink spots when delivered.   

How do shops handle this kind of thing?  Do you consider how good of a customer they are and make a decision?  Or do you have a disclaimer protecting yourselves from this kind of stuff from any and all customers?

This is a good customer of ours and we want to take care of them. 

Any help is appreciated!

Terms and conditions that limits the time to replace a garment and lays out exactly what you will or wont do to address an issue.

Had a good customer do the same thing about a month ago. I stopped by on my way home one night and looked at it, yes there was a spot. I took a piece of tape from the customers desk and lifted the spot right out. I think he was more impressed that I fixed it on the spot. 

This is a good customer of ours and we want to take care of them. 

Any help is appreciated!

You have answered you own question.

I'd ask them to bring in the shirt in question and see if we could get the spot out with a spot remover gun.
If that didn't work I'd print them a new shirt and mention to them that if they needed more shirts now would
be a good time to order them. You'd be surprised how many customer will order at that time.

Hey its your call your customer you made the call....like  everyone else said its how well the customer is and if you still have screens still, I'll ask to bring in the shirt to see if I can fix it or maybe reprint if the screen..note I said screen, not going to set up a multi color print for one shirt after a month good customer or not unless I just really goofed on my part.

Darryl

this order was for a church.  they ordered them for a set number of people.  suggesting to the customer to order an extra of each size is a good idea.  explaining to them why its a good idea.  i like that. 

regarding how long the cust has to report back with an issue is still something we are trying to decide on.  we cannot keep the screens for 30 days because we will certainly need those screen before then for other jobs.  we do not have enough screens to hold them for 30 days after delivery.

we have updated our terms and policies.  these updates are reflected on our estimates and will be on a "policy page" on our website.

thanks for the replies everyone. 

I don't keep screens either. If I happen to have screens still on press I'll do another shirt at the per-piece price and explain to the customer that it's because the job was still set up.

I don't charge for screens, I charge for press set up, which includes burning the screens, taping, and registering the job. This makes it easier to answer the question we've all been asked: "Why do I need to pay for a screen? You should have it from last time."

As mentioned in other posts, if it's just a spot, why not gun it out? If it's a spot within a print, you'd be surprised how well you can touch it up with a screwdriver or a toothpick, ink, a paper towel, and a little patience. If you repair a spot and it looks lumpy, your heat press and a piece of kraft paper will take care of that.

All that being said, if it really is something you did wrong and the shirt needs to be replaced, I'd bite the bullet and print a new one at no cost. It might be annoying but will pay off in future orders and word of mouth advertising.  I'd also politely ask the customer to please inspect future orders upon delivery and let me know if there's a problem within a few days.