From: TomCrouser@aol.com
Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 13:42:24 -0400
Subject: Printing Horror Stories
Content-Length: 16497
X-UIDL: 833221041.002

Crouser Report OnLine Copyright 1996 Thomas P. Crouser, May 27, 1996 -
Material may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written
consent of the copyright holder.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Next Power Pricing Seminar is this Saturday in CHICAGO, June 1st. Miami s
date has been moved to June 29th. Also, NEWLY SCHEDULED!!! PHILADELPHIA on
July 27th. Call (304) 342-5100 if you want to attend any of the sessions.
Session is FREE, but you must PRE-REGISTER. Coming up: Next Generation
Presentation at the NAQP s Chicago Meeting and Show (July 15th) entitled


Family Print Shops: From the Worst of Times to the Best of Times.

 See you
there.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Printing Horror Stories
Transmitted from Charleston, West Virginia
*****
Well, during all of our spare time this weekend, let s share some of our
horror stories. Here s several I have collected over the last few weeks.
*****
Subj:	Customer responsibility, horror stories, etc
From:	rstor@panix.com (Robert Stor)
To:	TomCrouser@aol.com

Tom. . . .the horror story: About 3 years ago, there was a tremendous
business in NYC in doing copies for law firms specializing in bankruptcies.
We had a client that was doing about $80,000 a year with us. The job would
come in in the afternoon. Typically it was a document of about 50 to 100
pages. They needed 200-2000 copies of it, stuffed into 9x12 envelopes and
addressed, and put into the mailed first class before midnight. 

These were creditor notifications and they had to meet strict court
requirements for serving the papers. They had to be at the creditor by a
given date so they would have enough notice of upcoming court dates.

We had been servicing this account for about 18 months and they were very
happy with us. Since we were getting premium money for this service, we were
also very happy with them as well.

One evening the order came in and it was handled by an experienced night
manager at one of our shops. Everything went off fine, as usual.

Two dyas later we received a call from the law firm. They had received a
packet back for insufficient postage. On checking with the manager, I found
out that, although he had done the job before, he had become confused by what
the appropriate postge should be. He reasoned that, because it was printed
matter, it should be mailed at  

book rate

 rather than first class. 

Miraculously, only the one package was returned. The rest made it on time.
Unfortunately, the one returned package was to the opposing attorney. The
hearing had to be postponed with much loss of face to the law firm. We never
got another job from them again. Despite my initial impulse, the employee is
still with us. Bob Stor Copycats
*****
Subj:	Re: Mistakes
From:	JLS PA
To:	TomCrouser

I ve been with the company I work for, for 15 years. Always have had good
reviews, etc., but recently with a management change my reviews have slipped
as have others in the same department and there has been a lot of rework
recently. One such job that we had lost $20,000 worth of paper by running one
million extra of a version that we should only have run 200,000.

It turns out that the films on the flats were marked with the wrong version
number. (There were just two versions and the only change was a code number)
Well, proofs got made and someone had the proofs marked as to the correct
versions and no one ever changed the flats. When the plates were made they
were marked with the same versions that were on the flats and no one caught
the error until the second time the plates were mounted on the press and two
shifts later.

I am a scitex operator and also do a lot of stripping and my writing was on
these flats so I was the one where the blame was laid. I received a written
warning from my supervisor which I was quite upset about, more so because of
the stupid mistake that I thought I made, more so than the paper that was
given to me. 

Upon more research I had found out that I indeed did strip those flats but I
remember being very careful about marking those flats correctly, and
researching my time sheets finding that I worked on that job on April 4 but
the films on the flats were stamped with a date and time from out Dolev when
output with the date April 8, and I wasn t even in the building that day.

So apparently there were corrections on the job and someone else had pulled
the films off and put the new films on but switched the versions.I wrote a
very strong letter to management regarding this and only had one person offer
an apology and it was quick and under his breath when he said it.

I will wait about a month and then ask to see my personel file to make sure
the warning was removed. Unfortunately after this public embarrasment for
accusing the wrong person they did the same thing three days later to a
proofer for an altogether different job and again had accused the wrong
person.

I guess what I m trying to say is that you can get people to do more for you
by being nice but stern and by being a friend to someone to try to help them
through any problems that they may be having than by being very accusing. I
indeed felt bad when I thought I had made the mistake but I felt even worse
when I found out that the accusation of my mistake was unjustified. And, as a
fifteen year veteran, I didn t even get so much as an apology from upper
management. Dumbfounded did well and handled the situation very well. Jack
*****
Jack, you are illustrating the theory of 

basketball management.

 That s when
an owner finds a mistake, blows a whistle, draw everyone s attention to the
offender, even make them raise their hand, and post it on the score board.
Usually results in a very unhappy work environment and high turnover. Thanks
for you thoughful letter.
*****
Subj:	biggest mistake made in shop
From:	MSQP1
To:	TomCrouser

Dear Tom. . .I volunteer the following.  The biggest mistake ever made in our
shop (at least that I know of) was made by me, the owner.

I was doing a spec book for an architect who had designed a unique music hall
for Aspen Colorada.  It was  a $7500 job that I worked on myself.  We were
short staffed because it was the off season and a couple people were on
vacation. I thought it would be best if only one person worked on the project
because it was rather complicated. 
 
The architect s project manager came back to me about two months later and
said that I had left a section out of the book.  That section was the
sprinkler system for the lawn.  When the bids came in they did not include
the sprinkler system.  I tried to piece together with the company what had
happened.  They were bringing the book to me in sections and to this day I
 really do not know if I left out the sprinkler system or if they never
brought it to me.

I worked it out with them to give them back $4,000.00 to cover part of the
cost of the sprinkler system.  At least I kept a good customer.  They have
continued to bring me much work over the years. Mona Long.
*****
Those are the kind of entanglements which will keep you awake at night. Well,
let s end this Memorial Day tribute by clearing our mail box of a few
comments regarding the Xerox thing. Here s Hotline Cy with a little more
historical perspective.
*****
Subj:	Re: More Xerox Comments and Other Things
From:	Hotline Cy
To:	TomCrouser

Tom. . . I m just getting around to reading some of my non-Hotline related
mail and your reader s love/hate Xerox comments are more than just
interesting. I see a common thread with my experiences over the years - not
only with Xerox but also with Varityper.

My problems with Xerox is not the competition from their retail stores - we
have never had any in East Texas. My problem is that they would let me
develop a market for the copy work then sell my major customers the same or
similar machine as they sold me. Since many of those customers are much
larger than was I they were able to purchase their supplies for less than me.
I ended up getting set up as a dealer for DaisyTech and was able to save a
fairly substantial amount on toner & developer - even selling a little to my
new customer 

competitors.



But, this problem is not new. Over 20 years ago I purchased the first
Varityper CompSet 500 in Texas and the second 3500. We developed a very nice
market in Houston producing special interest weekly and monthly tabs for
small publishers and setting galley type for ad agencies. That lasted for
about a year when all of a sudden Varityper started selling the same
equipment to our competitors at less than what we had paid for our equipment.
My largest customers ended up setting up their own typesetting departments.

Fortunately we were diversified enough so that it didn t kill us, but it
certainly hurt for a short period of time. Another one of your subscribers
and a long-time friend, Bob Stohr probably can shed an even greater light on
this since he was also an early Varityper user and his company was much
larger than my own.

Several years ago we had yet another experience with not a manufacturer, but
with our printing equipment and supply house. One of our largest customers
was the local school district. The supply house came in and sold the School
Board on purchasing their own high speed copy and offset equipment - which
they did. Our sales to the school district immediately dropped substantially
(as did our purchases from that vendor.) As it turned out, we were able to
re-capture some of that work after the school district discovered that the
offset equipment didn t run by itself and their storeroom clerk couldn t
produce an acceptable product. Last year they sold all of the offset
equipment for about 20% of what they had originally paid for it, but kept the
copy equipment. I have since sold my printing company, but understand that
the school district has now purchased a RISO and is attempting to bring as
much work back in house as is possible.

Many of the smaller customers have started to purchase their printing
requirements by mail from such companies as NEBS. While NEBS has a sister
company that wholesales to printers (DFS), quite often the most popular and
profitable items that NEBS offers is not in the DFS catalog. Other
out-of-the-market area mass marketing vendors are also pulling business out
of the area.

Even in deep East Texas it s getting harder and harder to maintain a good
customer base. There isn t enough business to support the high-end equipment
necessary to provide all of the services your customers require, so you have
to be creative. There s still a lot of business to be had but it is getting
more and more difficult to get and keep it.

Thanks for a great newsletter. Cy
*****
Hal Wendt now adds his two cents. . . .
*****
Subj:	Re: Xerox, NEBS, Alco Standard
From:	HalSan
To:	TomCrouser

Hi Tom. . .Just thought I d add another two cents to the fray. If quick
printers are 

really

 upset about  Xerox and their marketing tactics maybe
they should actually  try to do something about it.  I seriously doubt if
writing letters will do much.

Economic sanctions work the very best,  why not switch all the machine
mantenance to Kodak.  According to others like Larry Nebel (screen name
LarryHN) printers can save money, get better service and expierience higher
up time.   The added benefit of course is that Xerox is no longer receiving
the money.  Impacting their pocket books is obviously the only way to get
their attention.   Many copiers are purchased each year simply because they
are on display in print shops.   If printers can find another machine to use
in place of a Xerox they should of course do that as well.

I really get a kick out of people who say 

what Xerox is doing is not
illegal

 as though owning a print shop somehow qualifies them to be the last
word in what s legal and what isn t.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion but
only court cases decide what s legal and what isn t.  In the sixties when I
was involved in data processing IBM operated a company called SBC.  Service
Bureau Corporation offered 

low priced

 data processing to businesses who
didn t have their own staff or equipment.  Naturally there were a bunch of us
trying to do the same thing, but we couldn t hardly compete with IBM who made
the equipment.  Lots of service bureau people said that what IBM was doing
was of course legal.  Well guess what,  they were finally beaten down and
forced  (by the feds) to divest themselves of SBC and all of their other
illegal business practices.  The end result was that IBM ended up losing most
of their banking business to Burroughs Corporation and is just now (30 years
later) making in roads back into banking. The only major difference between
then and now that I can see is that our trade organization then, the Data
Processing Mangement Association chose to take sides with their members and
not take sides with their largest industry vendor.  A little different than
NAQP who is obviously scared of Xerox. 

Are all of the readers aware that a frew months back NEBS sent out a press
release informing everyone that they were putting an official NEBS
representative in every single Kinko s location to assist Kinkos (and NEBS)
in selling business forms?   Those of us who were aware have thrown away all
of our NEBS catalogs and switched to other sources (we went with Ennis).  I
seriously doubt that NEBS can survive solely on the business they receive
from Kinko s.   Any printer who continues to order from NEBS is only hurting
themselves and their fellow quick printers.   I hope everyone will refuse to
buy from NEBS and instead buys from anyone else.

I think the same thing could and should be done to all of the Alco/Standard
companies.  Don t buy anything for any reason, why would anyone help support
their own competitors. Someone else sells comparable products . . .Hal Wendt,
International Minute Press. I guess that s closer to a quarters worth.
***** 
Thanks for the letter, Hal. The following is reproduced from the Page Path
Technologies newsletter (Launch s manufacturer) which provides the following
explanation of the Xerox Digital Document Connection.
*****
The XEROX DIGITAL DOCUMENT CONNECTION
What is it? 

Digital Document Connection (DDC) is a software package written by Xerox to
enable print shops to easily and efficiently process jobs received by LAUNCH!
remote file transfer software from PagePath Technologies. It augments the
LAUNCH! file transfer capabilities with automatic job decompression, storage
and entry into a job database.  It provides printshop operators with a single
Windows control panel to perform basic job management and seamless production
printing to almost any printer on the network. For those with a DocuTec or
DocuPrint, it even provides automatic DocuTech and DocuPrint job ticket
programming directly from the LAUNCH! work order information.

The package is designed to enhance a digital print shop s ability to quickly
and productively manage and produce electronic jobs received via modem or
other file transfer method supported by LAUNCH! LAUNCH! with DDC will work
well in both a traditional light lens copier environment as well as in a
fully wired digital printshop.

If you want more information on either the Digital Document Connection or
LAUNCH!, please E-mail us at 

launch@pagepath.com

, or call 1-800-856-2978.
*****
Well, that s it for today buckos and buckaroos. Sorry the past few weeks have
been a little light on messages, but my dog broke my convenient, handy-dandy,
take it anywhere computer and I have been using a rental that doesn t seem to
want to comply with what I want to do when I want to do it. Nevertheless,
have a happy summer and we will see you soon.

Happy Trails. Tom and Pamela Crouser