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QUESTION
Glen D. Eley
Owner
Eley Imprinted Products
UPIC: ELEYP001
Call the supplier’s customer service
and discuss how they suggest handling
this. Also, check the pens yourself, and
ask the client if there were unusual cir-
cumstances that directly affected the
pens, i.e., water, other liquids or exces-
sive heat. Determine how many of the
pens were impacted. It may be that
much of the order was already used in
the promotion. Smudge them, rub them
and determine if the image is easily
removed. Check to see if the entire order
seems to be affected.
If you feel that there is a real problem
with the imprint after all of this—and
you can afford it—ask the client what
they want. If it’s a repeat customer, offer
to provide either a credit or a refund, or
to contact the supplier and work some-
thing out. By all means, don’t get testy
with the client because he or she men-
tioned the problem “a few months later.”
Larry Rogers, CAS
Partner
Boundless Network
UPIC: Bound784
Go back to the supplier and have
them do it over correctly. And get sam-
ples to send to the client.
Gary M. Murphy, CAS
Owner/President
IMAGE WEST
UPIC: IMAG0007
Merely explain the situation with
your client and, depending on how val-
ued he or she is, decide whether to
compensate them or not. It’s your judg-
ment call.
A valuable rule of thumb in negotia-
tions was fostered by Andrew Carnegie,
business icon of the 1800s. Ask your
client: “How would you amicably resolve
this occurrence if the tables were com-
pletely turned around and I was the
client and bought from you?” You
empower their value by allowing them
to sit in the driver’s seat, which you
know will be beneficial for the two of
you. Don’t argue, but listen and learn.
Bob Steinbach
President
The Idea Company LLC
UPIC: IDEAP002
Unfortunately, many of the prod-
ucts we sell are not for immediate
Q
A Distributor Asks:
When my client received an order of logoed pens, they were in
pristine shape. Months later, my client mentioned in an email that
she used the pens at an outdoor event and noticed that the print-
ing came off of some of the pens while they were in use. What, if
anything, should I do at this point to make up for this?
PENNED IN
DECEMBER 2014 •
PPB
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