Letters, feedback, get if off your chest: 3 April 2008
In this week’s round up, Print 21 plays watchdog to ongoing internet scams, while one reader reckons a little HR could go a long way.
Re: Internet print scam comes out of Africa
I've received what appears to be a very similar scenario to that of the Victorian print company in the article. This morning I received an email requesting quotes for decals. On further questioning to determine what the client required he qualified that they were bumper stickers. The email asked for a quote and specifically wanted the freight excluded from the quote. I quoted the job stating that no printing would commence until payment had been received by us and cleared through the account. The client then sent another email giving me details of the freight company, asking me to organise the freight and that he would pay the two invoices in full by credit card once I gave him the totals. It still seemed reasonably legitimate at this stage.
When he provided the delivery details it was to an address in Accra-Ghana. The alarm bells were ringing. I then received an email from a second person requesting a very similar quote, however this one had answered some of the specific questions I asked the first one including "Product name: decals which is bumper stickers".
Both asked me to provide the layout for the job with the quote. Our policy is acceptance of the quote first before we commence work and even then when an email proof is sent it is secured so that it can't be used by anyone else and it is watermarked with our name and logo.
I'm awaiting replies from both - I've asked them to give me the organisation name and physical address for invoicing purposes. I haven't received a request for us to pre-pay the freight but after reading your article I wont be surprised if it comes.
Thankfully we have policies and procedures in place that made sure we aren't caught up in scams like these.
I will let you know if anything further develops.
Karen Bruin
Gwydir Design & Print
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Re: 300 editions of Print 21
Congratulations on the 300 editions on-line milestone.
Keep up the good work, I enjoy reading each edition.
Mark Barnes
Sales Manager QLD
GEON Scanlon Printing
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Re: Letters, feedback, get it off your chest: 27 March 2008
While I sympathise entirely with your correspondent Mr Jeremy Woolf, after lurching through twenty-five years in our fascinating industry I have to question the apparent wide-spread practice of:
a: providing credit to a print broker? Presumably the broker has already been given a margin to recognise his/her costs in servicing the end-user client, including risk. We anticipate that our print broker clients will organise their own credit, and encourage them to pay by credit card on collection/delivery of the finished job (enthusiastically absorbing the card fee - a whole lot less painful than absorbing the bad debt).
b: providing 90 days (plus?) credit to any client? If a printing business is sufficiently profitable to operate a sideline in financing debtor clients' working capital (probably interest-free), then any client (of any size) who has not paid within 90 days is using your money either inefficiently or cynically. Alternatively by the time any debtor factoring fees have been paid, a significant slice of the apparent industry-norm net percentage profit has already been eroded.
In terms of advice to your correspondent / my peer; the somewhat useless advice I can offer is to wait for the Form 529 from the Administrators. It would be reasonable to assume there will be other major creditors out there, not least of all the Australian Taxation Office, so there is little potential return from investment in legal costs. Advice for the future would be to search credit application referees for other printing companies, and talk to them before providing credit. If there are no printing companies listed, start asking the questions you are asking now, and be as assiduous with credit checks as you are with sales activity. Remember: "the sale's not made, until the money is paid.
I doubt that any other industry provides such relaxed and debtor-friendly credit terms as the printing industry. Bad credit practice is arguably as big a threat to our industry as "competitive" (suicidal?) pricing.
Yours sincerely,
John Horsley
Expression Printing Group Pty Ltd
Simple rule - don't do work for brokers. They are leaches sucking the value out of the game and giving us all bad reputations.
I follow the McMillan rule - if they have a press they are a printer and you can do their work. If they don't, they're a broker and deserve to starve.
Baden Kirgan
Jeffries Printing Services
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Re: A happy staff is a healthy business: Print 21 magazine
Many thanks for such an informative article.
As a HR practitioner in a large corporation these are the basic fundamentals to employee retention, however they certainly get lost along the way. This article has been forwarded to many managers and colleagues around our organisation nationally. Let's hope it encourages reflection.
Regards
Melanie McTaggart
Salmat