Kill Fee?

[alexfugazi]

So- get this:

An artist friend of mine does a poster for a local Austin film festival (ahem). They need 100 copies. And, since I have my own little personal shop, he asks me to work up a quote to the fest to print the poster, so he can oversee the printing directly. The quote is cheap, as I know my buddy will help me do the printing on his own print.

The Fest also gets a bid from ANOTHER shop here in town, and of course, this shop is notorious for...being very, very cheap. The fest goes with the 2nd shop. I try to warn them a bit as this shop is notorious for...fucking stuff up. But I don't wanna push it too hard as it'd seem like sour grapes.

2 weeks pass, and then my buddy calls me and asks if we can rush print the job as the fest can't get the 2nd shop on the phone, doesn't have the posters, and the deadline is in 48 hrs. (I have it on good authority that the owner of said shop hides under his bed to avoid clients he's in the process of fucking over.) So, I make special trips to OK paper's north warehouse, rush the films out the door, get the paper cut down, burn the screens, my buddy comes over and mixes the ink...and THEN...right when we're about to start printing- he gets a call from the fest saying the 2nd shop says they have the prints done, so there's no need for us to print. They don't actually KNOW for sure that the prints are done, as they aren't in hand, but whatevs- their funeral.

So now the question is- what is a proper kill fee for running around like a crazy person to pull this off, and to have my nertz cut off at the last second?

It WAS going to be a 3 color 100 count 20x26 job for $350, but we did everything except pull the damn squeegee. I built my little shop so that it would just take care of the printing for me and my friends and never really wanted to deal much w/ outside clients so I never researched this at all.

I can still use the paper of course, but other than that- I got my chems, ink mixed, films, and labor...not to mention re-arranging my day to pull this off.

What say you, community of more professional printers than I?

[alexfugazi]

And when I say the 'deadline' was in 48 hrs, I meant the ACTUAL EVENT was in 48 hrs.

[papablue]

So now the question is- what is a proper kill fee for running around like a crazy person to pull this off, and to have my nertz cut off at the last second?

I know a guy who says $50 and he'll make it look like an accident.

[JustinHelton]

Id say 20% or whatever your cost for materials were minus the paper...which ever is higher.

[phoondaddy]

Time and supplies purchased and used x's 2 + a newborn baby.

[necro]

did you make them sign anything?

[DRG]

50% of the total quote for the job is my kill-fee (regardless of what my costs are).

In this situation though, it sounds like it was your friend who actually commissioned the rush job -- does he have an agreement with the Film Fest guys which includes a kill fee? In which case you bill him and he bills the Fest.

Good luck!

[philaarts.com]

5 cure cds

[Tenebrini]

did you make them sign anything?

30-50% (I usually start with 50% for small or rush jobs) but yeah... if you don't have anything in writing you could be screwed.

[JustinHelton]

Do you guys not think that 50% is a little too high considering no actual printing was done? My 20% was based on the fact that all he could really say he did is create the screens and purchased supplies...just a thought.