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Subject:Re: Another "TWs get no respect" story From:Eric Haddock <eric -at- ENGAGENET -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 8 Oct 1996 08:34:10 -0500
>the printing company messed up and printed our
>manual covers for an upcoming release
Hey hey--that's _their_ fault. There's _no reason *at all*_ why the
printer shouldn't reprint the manual covers--and do it quickly enough to
meet the deadline they were assigned.
The time it will take you to redesign the layout of the manual to
accomodate the margin change _will exceed_ the time it would take the
printers to correct _their_ mistake. It's up to the printer to make it a
rush job if they have to meet the deadline they were assigned. This is an
important point. It's up to the printer to accomodate _you_, not the other
way around. You are the customer, you are the one already paying--you
deserve satisfaction. You are paying them to deal with headaches like this,
not the other way around.
I have a very short tolerance for printers who error then make no effort
to correct their own mistakes. I correct mine, my company corrects its--why
should printers be exempt? They shouldn't.
Won't altering the margins alter the flow of text within the manual? How
about headers and footers? Page numbers? Bleeds?
There has to be some effect on the text somewhere along the line, and
those changes require time to compensate for. It's not like you can just go
to a single setting in your software and change the margins and that's that.
It's very likely that you'll have to re-typeset or re-layout the manual (not
to mention perhaps re-sizing graphics) and that will require lots of
time--time that _you_ shouldn't have to do. If the printer made a
mistake--then it's their mistake, not yours or your company's.
Don't do it--it's a *complete waste of time* for you to accomodate a
printer's error as huge as this. Your company shouldn't have to spend cent
one correcting this error, but they're going to if they make you redesign
the manual.
