bought a customer a fax machine-how will the gift be recieved

[huggytree]

a good customer has had a broken fax/scanner for months....now he is refusing to fax me back signed contracts...he says his e-mail confirmation should be good enough...i responded that id accept a e-mail, but when i see him on the jobsite i still need him to sign.....hell i may just add $100 to each job and track him down at his house to get him to sign

anyways tonight i decided to just buy him a new all in one ($250).....bought it from Amazon.com and its shipping to his business in a week

i e-mailed him to tell him its an early Christmas gift

will he take it as a smart @ss/negative thing....or will it help the relationship????



i had a customer with broken down lock boxes a while back.....i bought him 4 new lock boxes for his jobs....he was very happy....im hoping for the same result!

ive made $10's of thousands off this customer, so $250 for a Gift is nothing....and hopefully insures Millions over my career

[MyITGuy]

he says his e-mail confirmation should be good enough...i responded that id accept a e-mail, but when i see him on the jobsite i still need him to sign.....

I wouldn't rely on an e-mail confirmation, but something like Electronic Signature Solution - Online Digital Signatures | EchoSign (http://www.echosign.com/) may fit your needs for this specific customer

[Steve B]

He'll probably see it as both. I'm sure he really didn't need you to buy it for him and he probably was lying about it being broken anyway. If you make that much off him, I'm guessing the cost of the scanner wasn't the issue. He just wanted to simplify his life and force you to allow his e-mail confirmation. He'll probably give it to his kid or somebody else since he already has a working one.

But, this may shame him into giving you what you want.

[Freelancier]

I'm not sure I would have done it either, just because of the potential "shaming" factor. And EchoSign is an excellent alternative for digital signatures that should stand up in court if your state's laws permit it. Too late to worry about it, if it's already shipping.

[Harold Mansfield]

It could be taken both ways.

I can see where he's coming from personally. Faxes are so....well 90's. But some companies do still use them and you have to be prepared to do business the way other people are doing it. So from a business stand point, he's kind of acting like a baby. I don't use faxes either, but I'm not going to tell a cleint that if that's what they need.

I don't really think buying a new one was the issue either. But I know what you are thinking. Take away all of the excuses and see what's really going on.

[billbenson]

I think emails are a pretty safe confirmation. I rarely see a fax confirmation required, even with companies like the Navy, large government contractors, Proctor and Gamble, Walmart, the CIA. Yes, I've sold to all of them.

[Pack-Secure]

We accept either faxed or e-signed. Hey if you are feeling generous I could use a nice new printer. ;)

[billbenson]

What do you mean by e signed?

[Harold Mansfield]

I don't do any of that. I've been using the deposit as confirmation of the agreement. Is that wrong?

[Wozcreative]

I don't do any of that. I've been using the deposit as confirmation of the agreement. Is that wrong?

It's definitely not a wrong way of going about it. I use email and deposits as a confirmation the job has begun, and a balance payment BEFORE I submit final artwork to show the art has been approved. I don't know anyone besides realtors and government businesses that use fax.

Other ways of getting a client to "sign" things is using Acrobat PDFs. They allow tools for approvals, signing, notes etc. He can use that and send it right back to you.

[KristineS]

I think it really depends on your relationship with this client. If you're fairly close he may well take it as a nice gesture and appreciate it. If you mostly just have a business relationship, it may be taken as stepping over the line. Since you know the guy, you would probably be the best one to judge how this will be taken.

[billbenson]

It's definitely not a wrong way of going about it. I use email and deposits as a confirmation the job has begun, and a balance payment BEFORE I submit final artwork to show the art has been approved. I don't know anyone besides realtors and government businesses that use fax.

Other ways of getting a client to "sign" things is using Acrobat PDFs. They allow tools for approvals, signing, notes etc. He can use that and send it right back to you.

In the case of the pdf, the customer is going to print it and fax it back to you. Scanning and emailing it is just another step in the process. If I had hardcopy for every order I'd have 20 boxes of confirmations in the garage.

On a different note, one customer of mine has some sort of slick system for instantly sending an email with an attached pdf. It takes her no longer than sending a normal email to send one with a pdf the she wrote while we were on the phone. Anybody have any idea what software she might be using to do this? It's like a combination email pdf writer program. She doesn't know, it was set up by her IT people.

The problem with a FAX is you paper copies. I'd have 20 boxes full of confirmations in my garage if I had a paper copy for everything.

[Wozcreative]

In the case of the pdf, the customer is going to print it and fax it back to you. Scanning and emailing it is just another step in the process. If I had hardcopy for every order I'd have 20 boxes of confirmations in the garage.

On a different note, one customer of mine has some sort of slick system for instantly sending an email with an attached pdf. It takes her no longer than sending a normal email to send one with a pdf the she wrote while we were on the phone. Anybody have any idea what software she might be using to do this? It's like a combination email pdf writer program. She doesn't know, it was set up by her IT people.

The problem with a FAX is you paper copies. I'd have 20 boxes full of confirmations in my garage if I had a paper copy for everything.

Acrobat Pro does this. You can create a PDF in acrobat.. then click mail to in a window and it will send it.
With respect to the printing scanning feature.. like i said there is no need if your PDFs are created with editable fields which are simple to do. Client downloads.. fills it out.. saves and emails it back.

Also you can create a PDF out of ANYTHING by going to File > Print > save as PDF (usually in bottom left corner). Then you can send it.

[huggytree]

it worked

i got an email this morning thanking me for the fax AND i got a E-signed copy of my contract

his fax was broken because his partner also tried to fax me yesterday and couldnt(i watched it try to come over), but yet i could fax to him....their scanner is also broken, so they cant print,sign,fax back to me...

one of you said i did it to take an excuse away from him....you were correct!....its coming down to where i need to add an extra $150 onto his bids, so i can track him down physically and hand him a copy to sign....thats not practical, but thats my next step...

he wrote me apologizing and saying he has anger management issues....he is in a partnership which is dissolving....he's going...another benefit of this is it points out my frustration to his partner (who is great to deal with).....my long term hope is this guy goes and another project manager takes his place......

im sure it did shame him too....all of you were correct about the situation....it was a gut reaction to the situation last night and i was more and more unsure of it this morning....but in the end i made the correct decision....$250 for a all in 1 may get this customer back in line and save me headaches next time.....they have become my most steady customer, but i am willing to let them go if they refuse to sign a contract

ive got another guy who refuses to sign...ive asked him 10-15x over the past month.....i just send out a copy in the mail yesterday with a stamped return envelope and a post it saying i will not start until you sign.....

i dont get why these guys wont sign...it protects them as to what tasks im going to accomplish....it defines things between us....why wouldnt they sign?

[Harold Mansfield]

it worked

i got an email this morning thanking me for the fax AND i got a E-signed copy of my contract

his fax was broken because his partner also tried to fax me yesterday and couldnt(i watched it try to come over), but yet i could fax to him....their scanner is also broken, so they cant print,sign,fax back to me...

one of you said i did it to take an excuse away from him....you were correct!....
Nice work Huggy!



i dont get why these guys wont sign...it protects them as to what tasks im going to accomplish....it defines things between us....why wouldnt they sign?
Probably apprehentious about signing on to more shared responsibility and financial obligations in a dissolving partnership.

[MyITGuy]

On a different note, one customer of mine has some sort of slick system for instantly sending an email with an attached pdf. It takes her no longer than sending a normal email to send one with a pdf the she wrote while we were on the phone. Anybody have any idea what software she might be using to do this? It's like a combination email pdf writer program. She doesn't know, it was set up by her IT people.

What does the e-mail/system accomplish? I.E. Was she generating a quote or ?

I know the quoting system I have automatically sends the e-mail, creates a PDF and also submits it to my vendor so my clients can view the quote online, followed up by e-signing it and submitting payment.

[billbenson]

What does the e-mail/system accomplish? I.E. Was she generating a quote or ?

I know the quoting system I have automatically sends the e-mail, creates a PDF and also submits it to my vendor so my clients can view the quote online, followed up by e-signing it and submitting payment.

It was just amazingly fast. Also fast for scanning and email.

If you recall from a thread a long time ago, I have a script that prints out an html page that has on it an invoice a PO to send to my supplier, and some info for me. The process I do today is copy the invoice or purchase order section to Thunderbird, print to pdf, attach the pdf to an email and send the email. That may sound trivial, but I get a lot of back to back calls and anything that is a one click solution is better. A lot better. I was going to write a script that automatically sent the invoice or PO. I just haven't gotten around to that yet. I suspect there is a script out there that I can modify to do what I need. You preferred using another application for what I wanted, but part of the reason I write php is so when something comes along that isn't available out there I'm able to write a script that does it. Plus I enjoy coding even though I'm slow at it. I get a good sense of accomplishment out of it.

Its just that my customer is the one and only customer that can do it that fast - I mean seconds, like one or two clicks. And its for any document including scanning a document that a purchasing department might need to email. In part, I'm doing what waz suggested above in my current procedure, but it ain't one click. Somehow this company has several systems integrated or must have a custom solution. They are a pretty big company.

[MyITGuy]

It was just amazingly fast. Also fast for scanning and email.

If you recall from a thread a long time ago, I have a script that prints out an html page that has on it an invoice a PO to send to my supplier, and some info for me. The process I do today is copy the invoice or purchase order section to Thunderbird, print to pdf, attach the pdf to an email and send the email. That may sound trivial, but I get a lot of back to back calls and anything that is a one click solution is better. A lot better. I was going to write a script that automatically sent the invoice or PO. I just haven't gotten around to that yet. I suspect there is a script out there that I can modify to do what I need. You preferred using another application for what I wanted, but part of the reason I write php is so when something comes along that isn't available out there I'm able to write a script that does it. Plus I enjoy coding even though I'm slow at it. I get a good sense of accomplishment out of it.

Its just that my customer is the one and only customer that can do it that fast - I mean seconds, like one or two clicks. And its for any document including scanning a document that a purchasing department might need to email. In part, I'm doing what waz suggested above in my current procedure, but it ain't one click. Somehow this company has several systems integrated or must have a custom solution. They are a pretty big company.

I do recall...I also believe we mentioned some PDF library that you could utilize to eliminate the extra steps...you could also take it a step further and have it e-mail the PDF to the client (Assuming you have an e-mail field on your form).

If you want to e-mail me a sample file(s) I'll see if I can generate some code during some downtime.

[billbenson]

I appreciate that Jeff. It won't be this week, but I'll try to put something together.

[Pack-Secure]

If you wouldn't mind emailing it to me also, I am always into learning new things.

[billbenson]

If you wouldn't mind emailing it to me also, I am always into learning new things.

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