Nobody else has problems....

[pspdfppd]

My strategy is simple....

I spend untold hours "fixing" files and quite often it adds up to lots of extra overtime hours in a week. Nobody in management questions this overtime so I don't really care. I moaned about the crap for years but now I just fix em and shutup. Now if "management" came down on me for all my overtime then I would have to change my ways but I'm not sure how!.

We have one salesman that is constantly asking me if I would like to have "designer A" or designer B" come in so I can educate them.....I think that is a total insult. If he or she wants me to train them on my time where I can CHARGE them for the education then that's fine I say. I don't have the time or patience to train a veteran designer how to put together a usable file at work and if I did...I wouldn't want to lose my overtime hours because their files are perfect. Besides....how can you train someone about something that is a moving target? By this I mean....you train them how to make a proper pdf or whatever then they start screwing up something else when a new program comes down the pipe. You just cant do it.

I don't blame the designers. They have their own issues to deal with. Just makes me realize that I'm an integral part of the Idea-design-output to client process. And I can't see that changing anytime soon.

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by RosieHS

After we encounter a problematic file(s) we send a detailed PreFlight Report to our CSRs who then send it to the Sales Person. This report lists all the problems found with the customers' files before we even work the job. Our Prep Dept. will flag these problems as a CA (Customer Alteration) if a "fix" will take longer than 25 minutes. These CAs will be charged to the client or to the Sales Person. Sales usually pays from their commission either because they do not want to charge their client and/or if the client refuses to pay. Our Boss Man is very business savy and he enforces this.

Boss Man also sets the law in every department. For instance, we (prep/prepress folk) are forbidden to directly contact and/or have anything to do with our sales folk. Sales are forbidden to enter our work area without a CSR escort. You won't believe how much more productive this is!!!

Yes, every now and then we will "doctor" files on our company's dime. Usually that involves an approval from the Boss Man. He can be very intimidating at times but, overall he is a great guy to work for.

This sounds very much like a company I worked for in CA (California not Customer Alts) Sales communicated with CSR, CSR communicated with DTP and reverse. We had a complete Pre-Flight Station that analyzed every job Sales brought in to the CSRs before they ever made it to DTP.
Salesmen weren't even allowed in the DTP room. The size of the company helped in that I worked a night shift with 15 other operators, the day shift had 22 (including the scanner operators) and we had a weekend shift that came in at 6 am on fridays to 6pm on sunday.
This is where I really learned and came to value job protocol. Everything we did was written and made into a book we all had to refer to. Even file naming protocol down to "cropped" "rotated" "scaled" "duo-tone" etc. if you modified a file in any way you were responsible for renaming it using the correct protocol, or else!
Since the company dealt with extremely high end clients (such as, in the music and movie industry, Universal City) you get the idea.
The thought of them having to come "on-site" and look over your shoulder as color corrections or retouching was done at $$$$ per hour (and I mean hundreds of dollars) was nothing to them, but all irritating to us. 8O :x :cry: :wink:

[riff-raff]

When a job is quoted as the customer supplying "print ready files" that is how we produce the initial proofs "as supplied". The first page of our quote form states:

"Always remember that submitted artwork is printed "as is." When professionals submit digital art, we assume the work is color corrected, the images are adjusted to your satisfaction, all text is correctly spelled, and that the original submitted artwork is correct. Always provide a print or a PDF file of the artwork along with the digital files."

At this point any problems with the files are right on the proof for our customer to see....

If any corrections are required, we provide a "change order" with the price for the corrections, or allow the customer to re-submit the files corrected and can pay for a new proof only or a "soft proof" (PDF) at no charge.

I believe the real problem lies with companies that DO NOT BACK UP THEIR OWN POLICIES!

Hey, if a customer gets mad at the fact that their work is no good, and the printer is not willing to fix it for free...we allow our sales people to pay for the corrections with THEIR COMMISION....

[nlynx76]

We've recently had a big problem with one of our clients. I was given their newsletters to preflight and RIP since the last two operators who worked in their stuff regularly have left the company.

Nowhere in documentation were there notes or instructions that if we ran across missing fonts that we did not have the license for nor did the client supply them to us, we had permission from the client just use another font to make it look decent. So when I started the jobs and *every issue* had multiple fonts problems, I informed the CSR each time, as per our standard procedure. It started grating on Someone's nerves. I don't know if we managed to save the client or not, but this was an example of why you need to keep track of what you're doing extra or on the side for the client - you never know if someone else has to take over the job. Also, I don't think the client ever knew they had so many things going wrong with their files because it had been so long since anyone bothered to tell them "hey, this file doesn't match your hard copy and we've got font substitution."

[araquen]

I guess I'm lucky in that my boss does not put up with this stuff. We always quote that the work must be "camera-ready," pre-flighted and properly collected. If the file is bad, he will immediately make sure the client knows and they have the option of being charged for us to clean up their mess, or they can do it (though he's somewhat more polite about it). 99.9% of the work I get is stuff that designers should know not to send (and I say this because I do both design and prepress, and when I was just a designer, I made damned sure that my files were as printable as possible).

I always make recommendations to my designers. They never listen.

[popzork]

This post just initiated a huge discussion at my company. At least now we have a "policy" in place. "It's our job to get the customer their job to them correct". It seems to be accepted that prepress is not a profit center and never will be, therefore, just get the jobs out so the mail date is met...whatever that takes. That is how I've operated for a while, but it always goes around as to what we should and should not do to a customer file.