# Just curious if this seems fair...



## mrbigjack50 (Jun 9, 2008)

Ok so I been bickering back and forth with a client/friend over a fee which I am charging him...

Fee is as followed:

He want me to get blanks directly from:

AA, Kavio, and 3 other companies because they weren't typical blanks you get from distributor.

I told him, this is extra pain in my butt because I had to dig up tax id number, reseller number ect, and fax these people copies of documents ect.

I agreed to do so under the condition where he fills out paper work and that I will later fax them specific things but at a price.

This process taken so far 2 hours of my time and I told hime will be $100, and that I usually never do this just because someone wanna get wholesale deals on regular clothe.

Does that sound fair? Me charging $100 for dealing with this crap, I usually wouldnt even do it but ya..


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Are these blank shirts you are selling him, or are these shirts you are printing for him? If you are printing them for him, then I would just mark up the price a bit per garment. I would not get blank wholesale shirts for anyone  But yea if you are printing these shirts and you have to go out of your way to do so, then charge according. I would charge a bit above wholesale, plus the shipping cost to you.


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## mrbigjack50 (Jun 9, 2008)

he is covering all cost o shipping/ cost of garment
I will be printing on these, what I am charging him is for consulting fee/him being able to order stuff under my company name


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

I think I would just mark up the price. I mean the guy is not going to get wholesale pricing from anyone. Most people mark up the cost of the garments. Hes not buying them from AA or Kavio, you are so just charge on top of the wholesale cost. That way you also make money each time, and over time that will pay off more. Are you charging him more then wholesale on the garments? I never let any customer know how much I pay, because sometimes I have to charge a bit more to make the jobs worth while. There is a reason why we get wholesale prices, its because we are resellers, so marking up on price per garment is not unheard of


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## mrbigjack50 (Jun 9, 2008)

I never make a mark up really on garment, I just charge for printing : )
He would never get wholesale prices, like I can and he will be ordering roughly 60 garments.
Issue is that he is a designer/friend and I figured instead of doing a surcharge on each garment, I well do a one time fee which I thought was fair


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## nascarbob (Mar 29, 2008)

Sometimes its easier to keep fees at a minimum per item. We all know how shipping fees are. 

You could of marked up each shirt for shipping say $1.50 each. $90 for your work without any problems, just blame UPS. 

I've done this before for friends, why because they are usually the worst customers. Good friends but bad customers.


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

I agree with Bob  Its much easier to mark up per garment because its such a small amount they dont really notice. Plus when people special order garments there is work involved and you should get paid for that work.


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## mrbigjack50 (Jun 9, 2008)

friends tend to be worse workers/customers sigh : (

I have lost friends/girls over this, why i work alone now


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## sillybears098 (Jul 11, 2009)

nascarbob said:


> I've done this before for friends, why because they are usually the worst customers. Good friends but bad customers.


^^ QFT.. and yes i agree with the other messages, mark up a bit on top of the price u get them for, never do free favours like that for friends theyll prove you made a mistake later on.. lol


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## Girlzndollz (Oct 3, 2007)

Hi Sean, I agree with everyone else. Seems like at 60 shirts - it almost seems you might even have made out better marking up the garments, rather than a flat fee. But, since you don't normally charge mark ups on garments, and usually only charge for printing, I can understand why using a flat fee for basically procuring the garments came to mind. 

What I read your post, the question that came to my mind was this:

With the wholesale cost of the garments, plus your fee, did you friend come in under what he could have purchased them for himself *if* he could have gotten them for a supplier that doesn't require a license? (Like maybe Alpha or Jiffy, etc)

If they can't be gotten *anywhere* but suppliers with a license, than at basically $1.50 over wholesale cost to him, I think he did well by using you as a supplier for his garments + your consulting/procurement fee, because it would be at least as much (or more) for him to file all the paper work to go into biz himself so he could procure them himself at wholesale.

If it's a one time fee, and from now on you only charge him for printing, then he's golden. I wouldn't sweat it. You didn't say if your friend was okay with this or had a problem with it in your post (that I saw.)

Basically, your fee is cheaper than him trying to register a biz himself, so he is making out well, and you do need to charge for your time. If he'd use someone you are already with, then he wouldn't be paying the procurement fee...

One thing, I wouldn't have had him fill out the paper work. If he's paying you a fee, seems you should be doing the labor... that was the only thing that really stuck out to me.

Good luck to you guys with the order, hope it goes smoothly for you.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Fair? Sure. Well communicated? Not so much. The problem with a full explanation is it's more information than he needs. More information is more to argue with. More potential that he doesn't agree with your reasoning. _That's_ the kind of disagreement you don't want, because those are the kinds that drive a wedge into the friendship ("You did _such and such_ and it wasn't justified, I resent it.").

All he needs is a price and to know you won't do it for any other price. In that regard he's just like any other customer.


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## mrbigjack50 (Jun 9, 2008)

i usually would of charge a flat fee, issue was that i had to register with so many companies and he does have an understanding i am doing him a big favor but I am not getting the gratitude i prefer in getting.
I am just gonna tell him to stop his whining and it is what it is : )

I kinda see it a a labor fee for me to have to fax over paper work to companies I really wouldnt wanna deal with because of long wait for delivery and extra shipping cost


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> All he needs is a price and to know you won't do it for any other price.


That's a great way of putting it. You don't have to go into details about every aspect of the price if you don't want.

But if it's 60 t-shirts, calculate the cost of the blanks wholesale, the shipping, your time add it all up, divide by 60 and say the cost is $X per t-shirt for the blanks.

From my experience, flat fees and "setup" fees tend to go over much harder than just a "price per shirt" cost, no matter if it all equals the same or even if the "per shirt cost" is more. 

I think people here "fees" and "setup" and it makes them twitch and frown.


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## GLinks (Jun 5, 2009)

Definitely charge and keep the explanation simple. Rodney et al. are correct, IMO. Don't undervalue what you do as well as the fact that he's getting a big time deal anyway, much better than he can get on his own, even with a "friendly" markup.


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## ambitious (Oct 29, 2007)

I agree with everyone else, NEVER tell friends or customers how much you get your t-shirts, materials for. When i first started printing i had all my friends ask me to print stuff for them, so i did and most of the time it was free.

Then 1 day a friend called me and said he needed 34 t-shirts for his son's birthday party. Sooo i said okay it's a $170 bucks i WON'T charge a screen fee. 

He said that's to expensive your suppose to be my friend not some kind of stranger. So i lost it and told him to go some where else. 

So that friend told my other friend that i was trying to rip him off, that i get my shirts and materials dirt cheap and i shouldn't be charging him that (he knew how much i got my stuff for).

And lost contact with 3 friends because of this. And i blame myself for being [email protected] and telling them what how much i get my supplies for.

So lesson to be learned... My friends and family get high prices so i can scare them off. Like somebody mentioned thay are indeed the worst customers.


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## mrsgege (Aug 11, 2006)

Amen to all of you. I don't disclose my costs to anyone. I also require at least a 50% deposit before I accept any order. I keep prices visible
for simple jobs and have quotes ready for the more challenging ones. 

No matter what the costs are me, I'm providing the service and ($$$) are my charges. Friend, family whoever, business is business.

I never show up at anyone's place of employment and demand freebies just because I know them. I'm offended at those that ask me for freebies just because they know or think they know me. It's like
asking me or my family to go without just so they can nurture their greed at our expense...






ambitious said:


> I agree with everyone else, NEVER tell friends or customers how much you get your t-shirts, materials for. When i first started printing i had all my friends ask me to print stuff for them, so i did and most of the time it was free.
> 
> Then 1 day a friend called me and said he needed 34 t-shirts for his son's birthday party. Sooo i said okay it's a $170 bucks i WON'T charge a screen fee.
> 
> ...


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## mrbigjack50 (Jun 9, 2008)

Lol. good point, I make it clear to clients who say, oh if I screen print they give me way better prices for bulk work, and I say go for it, because your not comparing apples with apples.
I do DTG and its completely different than screen printing ; )

I dont really do work for friends thank god, and to be honest I sometimes charge them more because they are bigger pain in a$* 

I dont got a problem, with people knowing how much it cost to do stuff, I just tell them, ok, go spent over a hundred grand and do it yourself cheaper : )


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## mrbigjack50 (Jun 9, 2008)

mrsgege said:


> Amen to all of you. I don't disclose my costs to anyone. I also require at least a 50% deposit before I accept any order. I keep prices visible
> for simple jobs


I get 100% down before i even order shirts, I been burned a few times in past few month, only time I get 50% down is when I deal with local clients on picture framing


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## MotoskinGraphix (Apr 28, 2006)

I think you may have opened a can of worms that should not be open. You do what you do for a set price and profit. He doesnt need to know your bottom line or in fact your suppliers. You can give buds a discount ride but dont give them the keys to drive your bus.


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## mrsgege (Aug 11, 2006)

Yes Sean,

I hear you. The 50% is mainly for locals. So far so good. Internet orders are automatically 100% prepaid always. 




mrbigjack50 said:


> I get 100% down before i even order shirts, I been burned a few times in past few month, only time I get 50% down is when I deal with local clients on picture framing


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## plazake (Aug 3, 2009)

Thanks everyone for your support, you're the best!!


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