New member, has problem

[Old Dog]

I'm a former high school art instructor who has been involved in the sign business for over 40 years. I've gone from a lettering kit filled with brushes and one-shot, to a 3600 sq ft shop with plotters, wide format printer and router table. My son has joined me and helped to make our business successful in providing unique, creative solutions to a variety of sign projects.
Now, the problem: Mactac Bubble-free vinyl that is defective. We are currently replacing $10,000 worth of wrap & partial wrap jobs that have gone bad. (The Mactac Bubble-free does not stick after a couple of months.) We are currently replacing these jobs on our dime because our customers expect us to provide a quality job. They don't know Mactac or our distributor of the vinyl in question.
We experienced no problems with the Mactac Bubble-free PRO that suddenly became available after we had used 3 rolls of the afore-mentioned product.
The Mactac response has ranged from,"You misused the product" to "We will replace the rolls of vinyl".
My question is, "What about the laminate, Mactac Razor, the ink, and the labor?
This brings to mind the Avery problem of about 5 years ago. Avery eventually admitted a defect, and grudgingly replaced vinyl & labor with product.
Has anyone experienced this problem?
Old Dog

 

[TheSnowman]

Welcome to the boards OD. That's a rough one. Sounds like you had quite the investment, and you had it all put into one brand. I am glad that you stood behind your product, and kept your customers satisfied, but that's A LOT OF WORK to remove, reprint, relaminate, and reinstall.

I think I'd fight this one to the death w/ MacTac. I think a lot of people will tell you that's why they only use 3M or Oracal, but that's beside the point. At least they are replacing the vinyl, but if you used the recommended matching lam, they should cover that too. I can imagine the hardest part will be getting them to pay for your time and ink though.

Sorry I don't have any advice, but good luck on it, and let us know how it turns out. Hopefully MacTac will stand behind it's product as you did, and take care of it's customer.

 

[omgsideburns]

you won't see anything in my shop with the name mac-tac on it.. except a squeegee one of our guys got at the isa show.

good luck with that mess.

 

[DOGraphics]

:Welcome: 2 :signs101:

Hope you get help from Mac_Tac

 

[graphicsman40]

That's a real bummer. A lot of people dismiss material component warranties as unneeded, but it is this example that shows why they matter. The 3M MCS warranty would cover the materials, removal and reasonable labor and o/h for a material based failure. Avery has the ICS, but in my experience they rarely stand behind it and their past failure rate is legendary.

I would recommend sticking (sorry for the pun) with 3M for vehicle wraps. It costs more but its worth it. That way in the event of a failure, you are at least somewhat covered.

Regardless, I would keep hammering away at Mactac and the distributor to help offset the replacement cost, assuming it was material based and not installation.

 

[Gino]

Welcome from PA.....................


It's tough to answer a question like this, when so many things are dependent on other things and we just have to get to know you a little...............

 

[Old Dog]

Thanks for the support! I will say that the only reason we used Mactac in the first place is because The Oldham Group, who made us a really good deal on a printer, laminator & plotter, sell Mactac. They apparently have very little influence with Mactac, or havn't pushed the issue. We have since switched to 3M.

 

[Mikeifg]

What did you use to clean the vehicles in question with? We had an installer use 409 one time and everything came off.

 

[GZ SIGN DESIGNS]

we had some failure issues,but was always taken care of by our supplier. case in point we had a faulty roll of overlaminate tues my wife made a call they personally delivered a new roll and filed a claim. make sure your suppliers stand behind the products they sell.

 

[OneUpTenn]

Please keep us updated!

 

[Jane Diaz]

You might try having your distributor put a little pressure on the company. The distributor stands to lose your business because they supplied you with the bad product. I would think a good distributor would fight for your right to be treated fairly or at the very least get you to a person at Mac-Tac that could answer your questions... If they can't do that for you, I might look for a new distributor!

 

[BobM]

Welcome from Cape Cod. I would chase them to the grave. Keep us posted and be sure the Signs 101 community is watching.

 

[Marlene]

way back in the 80's when we screen printed, we had some MacTac and it was horrid vinyl back then and we hated it. hope you can resolve something with them to get back some of your loss.

 

[anotherdog]

Welcome to the boards.
It's always a question of where the buck stops.
If something goes wrong we always cover our customers.
This is strange since our suppliers only go so far as replacing bad material.

Thank you for the information, I'll add MacTac to the Avery list.
You only get one chance to lose a lot of customers at once. Hope the people at MacTac read this board.

 

[Pro Image]

Howdee from VA...........

Mac-tac is in the same boat with Avery in my shop..........

When I installed lettering at Dollar Tree Stores, Dollar Tree supplied the vinyl.....Mac-tac.....I had one store that the vinyl started falling off the wall faster than I could put it up........LOL......

Keep pushing the home office until you get to someone that can help or your feed up......take pictures of all the work and how its failed and keep all the vinyl you removed......if it comes down to it for that amount of money I would sue Mac-tac........JMO........

 

[d fleming]

Oracal and 3m only here. Did one race car with mactac a year or two ago at the suggestion of supplier. Released in two weeks. Got NO satisfaction from Mactac or supplier, don't use either anymore. I have a sincere policy of who cares what the supplier says now, they are only salespeople with a barely working knowledge of what we do for a living.

 

[TheProfessor]

Welcome from MD!
Yeah, we only use 3m for wraps. Avery or orcal for cut vinyl and maybe mac-tac for printing jobs that are single use and not up for long. Good luck with your suppliers and getting reimbursed.

 

[Red Ball]

Welcome from Texas.

3M only!

 

[jscarl]

Welcome from mid MIchigan. First time i received a sample of Mac Tac i had problems. Droped it, stayed with Oracal. Keep after them.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Nice. I got suckered into buying a roll of Mac Tac to try out. I've got a 24" x 50 yard roll sitting on the table that's not adhesive at all. It will cut, it will weed, but the scrap you weed off won't stick to itself and the vinyl lettering won't stick to a damn thing even with heat applied.

By the way...anyone want to buy a cheap roll of red vinyl?

 

[The Big Squeegee]

Welcome From OK