Out of State Sign Work...

[Joe Diaz]

Do you do it or not?

Well, our last out of state job was the straw that broke the camel's back for us. The job ended in threats of lawsuits and all sorts of hostility. I won't go into details.

What I will say is now we have decided to no longer do out of state sign work. We will continue to do out of state design work, but the production jobs that need to be shipped out have become more trouble then they are worth. I'm not 100% sure why the majority of these long distance jobs turn into such disasters, but I have always found it suspicious that someone would not prefer to order a product, like a sign, locally.

And it isn't like we don't have plenty of local work to keep us busy. I would almost rather we spent our time keeping our loyal, local customers happy and avoid that back and forth, back and forth and all around hassle that usually comes with many of these long distance jobs.

This all started several years back when we optimized our site for search engine traffic. It has been working great for us, but almost too good. Before then, we hardly ever did work outside of a 100 mile radius. Things were simpler then.

So what policy do you guys & gals have for out of state/long distance sign work?

 

[TheSnowman]

I rarely did anything out of state, but it really bit me in the butt the one time I did. I did stuff for a place called Auto Credit Express, and they stiffed me for 5K. Since they are out of state, I've been told by court, and lots of creditors I have on their butts that it is almost impossible to get my money because they can't serve them papers and verify that they get them.

 

[G-Artist]

Out-of-state service of process is easy but not always cheap.

Use the services of a professional process service org. For what you pay they will certify
all the details to the court's satisfaction and if necessary testify, in court and under oath,
that the proper person/people were served.

Your lawer most likely could recommend a firm two if you are using SC court on a DIY basis.

 

[Rick]

I do out of state and country design work... each have their issues, especially building code or language barriers.

When I worked as a designer at one place, we had a project implode when the client had to use union installers and a project manager who was not ready for that type of project. It was a huge mess that is probably still not resolved.

On jobs out of country where english is not their prime language, you can make the best specifications, but sometimes a drawing to scale with side and top views with a statement similar to 'MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THIS' is your insurance that they will not add your drafting notes and witness lines to the actual sign.