Approval Forms....show me yours!

[Justin]

Anyone care to share their approval forms please? Just looking for a general form that I can use for all jobs for customers to sign off on :-)

Any ideas/suggestions appreciated that may save me a few valuable minutes starting from scratch!

[ArtyGamer]

Try this simplified one:

Yes, I am an idiot [ ]
No, I'm not an idiot [ ]
I lied above [ ]

I don't have a form for merchandise, only for programming and design so it wouldn't apply. I've been dealing with clients directly for 26 years now, and dealing with retail customers for the past two years... and it always comes down to whether they're an idiot or not. You can always tell who will give you trouble from that first ever chat or email. Sadly. Even when you've got a watertight set of T&Cs, people will try it on.

[mrs maggot]

dont forget to add, if you are paying by paypal ignore anything that may appear on the form and feel free to reverse your payments in the next 180 days and have paypals full approval for doing so

[purpledragon]

you lot are soooo cynical ebay and paypal are nothing but fair to both seller and buyer and always look at every case in a balanced informed and absoloutly fair and unbiased manner . Not that it matters anyway because members of the public are also extremely fair always give concise and exact instructions and never ever lie please have a little more faith .
Oh and by the way im now on tablets for my intense delusional ramblings but i dont think theyre working

[James990]

You need to up the dose me thinks

[Justin]

Yeah thanks guys, really useful responses :-(

Not looking at binding contracts or terms and conditions, just showing the customer what the job will look like and getting out signed off.

I have a rough idea, just wondering what woes folk out into theirs.

[Skye]

Hi Justin,

I ordered a personalised item yesterday. Here's the email I received with the proof.

Many thanks for the order received for your xxxxxxxxx.

Please can you check the details on the attached PDF and let me know if you need any changes or if you are happy to go ahead.

If you print the PDF off that is the actual size and style your xxxxxxxx will print.

Karen

[purpledragon]

Yeah thanks guys, really useful responses :-(

Not looking at binding contracts or terms and conditions, just showing the customer what the job will look like and getting out signed off.

I have a rough idea, just wondering what woes folk out into theirs.

yeah sorry justin we dont really use a form if asked for a mock up ill provide one if i had an army of workers who can do this for individual customers then no problem but i dont it is very time consuming also with ebay being so finicky over postage times and sellers being marked down for dispatch time i would think that in the case of ebay sellers it would be detrimental to provide a mock up for each sale as you then have to wait for a response from the buyer which all adds time to the dispatch and as we all know the buyer can be very demanding and most probably think becasue you have a mock up made then its just a case of pressing a button and the item is printed packed and delivered within the hour.
If its a bulk order i always provide a mock up ive just printed up 800 pillowcases i wouldnt want them to go out to the customer without them agreeing the design first that rteminds me i need to open a thread on bulk postage

[Printcess Jen]

Hi, i normally send a branded visual proof which has a disclaimer stating that visual is for layout purposes and is not 100% exact to scale (in case the customer could be really really fussy), it normally states product, print size/colours/sizes and then the customer's email with their approval is kept as a record of their approval. This normally seems to suffice. if it is a large order then the customer can always pay to have a physical proof first to cover postage and any set up. Hope this helps.

[purpledragon]

heres something of interest . A large printing firm local to me has just been asked by a friend of mine to do a sign for them my friend owns a shop and has had signs from them before as well as their van wrapped so they are existing customers. The printing firm has just sent their estimate to my friend for the sign to which my friend replied can i see the sign design first before i pay obviously not wanting to pay for omething they havnt agreed on the printing firm has said yes biut it will cost £10 for the mock up . I can understand them saying this to a complete stranger after all mock ups take time but this is an existing customer the least i would expect is to be promised a reinbursement on ordering . needless to say they lost that and any subsiquent jobs