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Its a wonderful place to have a print/sign shop. The sun bakes the vinyl within 3 or 4 years and we have to replace the signs. Or, the hurricanes blow them away. Its the gift that keeps on giving.

Whoa...$5000? No way. I bought a new 54" Chinese laminator 8 years ago for $1500 and its still works like brand new.

I always put a disclaimer on every quote and invoice that says: "We calibrate our printers on a regular basis, however, we can not guarantee an exact color match under any circumstances." We've never had an issue with complaints on color.

Who knows what fluid or chemical could have splashed on it since the install. This is why I don't offer a warranty on vehicle or window graphics. Once it leaves the shop, I have no control over what happens to it. Just my thoughts.

I don't necessarily disagree with you because I like to do a good job. But, I don't really have the time to inspect every sentence of every job to ensure the client has spelled everything correctly. I thought this was why we make customers sign off on proofs in the first place. To shift the...

The material you're describing sounds like back-lit transparency film. Just a thought.

Personally, I'd do absolutely nothing for him and send him on his way, with no refund either. You should tweak your contract a bit with a clause that specifies what is considered "crooked" to prevent this from happening again.

Don't you have the client "proof" the copy before you spend all that time working on the project? A simple proof sheet or proof email with the usual industry standard proof wording would easily transfer the liability for errors from you to them. As a commercial printer and sign shop, I wouldn't...

I charge $100 an hour for onsite installations. I invoice for how ever long it took. No has ever complained.

I agree with Gino...let your competitors do the low/no margin work while you take the profitable business.

If it were me, I'd probably first try pumping ink through the system. From my experience, its takes a while to fill the baffles and get the ink down the lines to the head. Your manual should have a procedure for this.

I've never had anti-virus software on any of my computers over the past 20 years except the Microsoft Defender that comes natively with the OS. Once in a blue moon, I'll download and run Malwarebytes free version just to see if I've contracted anything but it most often comes up with a clean...

We had much the same problem with installations. No labor available to do them. So, I just stopped doing installations. I tell customers upfront that they'll have to pick up the sign and put it up themselves. This hasn't really affected the business much as everyone has the same issues. Good luck!

Agreed...once its out of warranty, no problem. I've personally never had an issue with either Bordeaux or STS inks.

I always use STS Inks in Florida for my Mimaki. Great inks, fast service, fair prices.

What an interesting post! I must be very old school! I charge a minimum $25 design fee and then $65 per hour or fraction thereof. There is no free graphic design in my shop. We're a commercial printer, sign shop and t-shirt printer. I've never once had a client squawk about paying for graphic...

I run two QNAP NAS devices with a total of 16 TB of storage. These work great. I also back up nightly to an off site storage facility which costs only $9.99 a month for unlimited storage. Overall, I feel protected and that my data is safe.

Are you using expired ink? I had a similar problem recently and it turned out that several of my STS ink carts were expired beyond the usable period.

I enjoyed reading this post! My wife and I are Canadians living in the US Caribbean (both dual citizens) and have a well established commercial printing company and sign shop that we bought as a going concern 20 years ago. We're 60 and 63 and heading in the other direction from the OP! In the...

Personally, I have never used any anti-virus software except the Windows Security that comes pre-installed with the OS. I've owned my business for 18 years, have over a dozen work stations and have never once had a virus in all those years. Once in a blue moon, I'll install the free version of...