Sick to death of Ferrari's BS

[genericname]

Ferrari either needs to drop the prices of their insanely high cost material, or fire the lot of their management, because a premium product this is not.

We've been through headache after headache with both Decolit and 456 for over three years now.

Random lots smell like either ammonia, or skunk, and they refused to acknowledge it for two years, finally settling on the excuse that the crates that their shipments were in must've been on the sunny side of the boat as it was making its way to North America.

The stay flat, double sided material no longer stays flat, and you can't print on both sides without a different profile and different customer expectations of quality. The weight of their material fluctuates wildly, as does the texture, and its ability to retain ink without over-saturation.

Instances of crushed bugs and defects like holes, stains, and runs in the stock have increased at an exponential rate, and just today, I go to take off some displays I'd printed overnight, and there are raised, black flecks all over the inside of the roll! What the hell?!

Our suppliers keep trying to find us alternatives, but nothing works as well as Ferrari's material used to. That being said, they are still charging for a premium product, but all we're getting is f***ing garbage in return, and arrogant excuses or dismissals as a response. These clowns need to change their entire operation, or just bloody disappear.

 

[rjssigns]

Why put up with headaches for 3 years? How much money was wasted over that span dealing with inferior materials? There are alternatives to everything. Time to change your process.
Arlon makes a super nice no curl matte blockout banner that we print for banner stands.

 

[Gino]

You sound very upset.

I have no idea what this material is, where it's made or what it's for.



Care to enlighten me ??

 

[genericname]

I agree, but our needs are veeeeeery particular. No curl has to mean absolutely no curl. We produce multi-panel tradeshow displays and media backdrops. If the seams curl up even an eighth of an inch, it looks like garbage.

There are a few media options that I would've settled with, but my word is not the last here.

 

[HulkSmash]

so, buy a different material?

 

[jfiscus]

Sihl has a few new materials out that we haven't tried yet, but the samples look interesting.

 

[genericname]

You sound very upset.

I have no idea what this material is, where it's made or what it's for.

Care to enlighten me ??

I am. It's from Italy, and there are main branches, used for a variety of purposes. The first is a mid-weight banner material, and the second is a light-weight, supposed double-sided, display material.

Both are among the most expensive media you will ever find.

so, buy a different material?

Believe me, we've been trying. Kinda hard though, when your stipulations are 98" wide, absolutely flat, lightweight, smooth, matte finish, solvent compatible, and accessible on short notice.

 

[Z SIGNS]

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Yup, we used to use Decolit exclusively as our retractable media, we got the skunky smelling rolls a few times, our biggest client was a local hospital, who can't have strong smells. they were complaining about the smell after a few weeks.

We switched over to other materials, but like you said, none of them are as good as decolit used to be, luckily most of our customers don't seem to mind to slight curl in the new material, especially with the slight price drop!

 

[Gino]

No idea of how to help you, but I'm sure you'll find your answer here from someone. If it were me, I'd call or PM BigFish. He knows everything about these kinds of things.

 

[genericname]

Yeah, he offered a while ago, and we kept following other leads, but I think I'll PM him now.

 

[anotherdog]

it's actually made in Germany. We use it for our banner stands and when it's good it's great...

We lost a good customer over the cat pee smell, All we got was replacement rolls and excuses. Our supplier now has to do a smell test on every roll.
They have gone completely downhill. I have found bird crap in the middle of a roll...What kind of factory has birds flying round it?? Flies we get from the cheap chinese stuff but birds?

Honestly we are looking for the 1st supplier that can do a good non curl 10oz. They have trashed their reputation....another Avery?

 

[genericname]

Just out of curiosity...have you looked at dtec's product line?

We've been through so many samples, I honestly couldn't tell you. I know we tried a few from Spicers, so it's possible. But it's worth another look.

I see that they don't have anything with stay-flat properties in 98" wide, which may be why we didn't go with them.

 

[genericname]

I have found bird crap in the middle of a roll...What kind of factory has birds flying round it?? Flies we get from the cheap chinese stuff but birds?

Me too!

For a while I had honestly believed that they outsourced their production to China. It was the only thing I could think of that would explain the complete 180 they pulled. I understand if someone messed up one thing here or there, but a new inconsistent formula, shoddy shipping practices, and non existent QA? It's like a whole other company.

 

[PURVEYOR]

I have the same problem with this material. It's the only true stay flat I have found but the smell is atrocious... it's disgusting. How anyone can sell this to their clients and not have it returned due to the serious odour is beyond me. I had been told that they had dealt with the odour issue, but I just picked up a new roll last week and when I opened the box it almost knocked me over the stench was so strong. I have to return it now and continue to look for a new supplier.

has anyone come up with a good replacement?

 

[peavey123]

I haven't seen any of the things you've mentioned other than the smell. It smells like weed man. lol I've been accused of lighting up a couple times now while I was printing on the stuff. Ferrarri warehouses must second as grow-ops is my guess...