Spell-Check Disclaimer

[Daniel Duane Owen]

Untied We Stand!
...but seriously, honest mistake!

[Bill Cunningham]

This is the main reason I 'always' have the customer email me the exact text they want on the product, flush left, single column. I just tell them not to worry about the font or alignment, I will look after that. I don't trust my eyes/fingers/brain anymore. This policy saves me so much time, I can now hunt for the stuff I put down two seconds ago, and can't find anymore!

[Robert Walters]

I'm glad you guys enjoyed the poem above.

Here's something I wrote up that you all can hang in your shop/website to HOPEFULLY get the point across to customers to proofreading their artwork BEFORE sending it to you =)

NOT ICE

Pleas e bee a ware tat ewe kneed to proof reed and spill cheque y or are t were k.
We R knot res pons able four typo graph ical err ors ore o miss ions.

NOTICE

Please be aware that you need to proof read and spell check your artwork.
We are not responsible for typographical errors or omissions.

[Mike Null]

I have a policy similar to Bill's. Text must be provided in an Excel or Word document so I can copy and paste. I have one customer where my agreement is to replace a part that costs $17.00 if I make an error. I only charge $8.50 for engraving it. They must provide orders in the form of Excel documents. So far I've made two mistakes in about 500 items. (I can still spell the name right----on the wrong item.)

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

I have a policy similar to Bill's. Text must be provided in an Excel or Word document so I can copy and paste. I have one customer where my agreement is to replace a part that costs $17.00 if I make an error. I only charge $8.50 for engraving it. They must provide orders in the form of Excel documents. So far I've made two mistakes in about 500 items. (I can still spell the name right----on the wrong item.)

- Or make two of the same thing with the same name. - Oops, done that too.

[Adrian Hill]

I don't think that it is fair on the customer to have a spell check disclaimer. I think that any service provider should take responsibility for obviously avoidable errors. I have made my fair share of mistakes and I have always taken responsibility if it was my fault. Imagine if we all had disclaimers for everything we do. You take your car in to have the brakes done, you get it back and promptly crash into a tree. You find out that they forgot to fit the pads. They then say, well you see, there is a disclaimer just in case we forget how to fix brakes..etc.

I think that we need to remember that we are also customers and that we should seriously consider how we would feel and what we would do if the supplier does not take any responsibility what so ever.

But really, there are things that a customer simply doesn't have to write down for us to get it right. I am sure that when the customer says engrave "Happy Birthday" on this part we don't need him to write down "Happy Birthday" because we don't take responsibility for being able to spell "Happy Birthday". The same applies to the phrase "United we stand"

Sometimes we just have a blue Monday and make mistakes, its just a part of life.

[Mike Null]

Adrian

Your example isn't apples to apples. With that, you can do it your way, but I'm going to do it my way as I have to pay for mistakes otherwise. If you sit at a keyboard all day typing errors are a regular occurence. Why not minimize that problem?

[Dan Hintz]

I don't think that it is fair on the customer to have a spell check disclaimer. I think that any service provider should take responsibility for obviously avoidable errors.

And there's the rub... what's easily avoidable? How am I supposed to know the award for "Best Boyz Band" was correct and not "Best Boy's Band"? If I correct it "automatically", I'm the one who made the mistake, and the customer is going to look at me like I'm incompetent.

Obviously avoidable means making sure there's no scratch down the middle of the award, or the text is not off-center... spelling doesn't come into it.

[Adrian Hill]

Are you telling me that if you misspell the word "America" then spelling doesn't come in to it!

...come on, you can't be serious - even my 9 year old daughter takes responsibility for her spelling when the words are obvious.

[Dan Hintz]

Are you telling me that if you misspell the word "America" then spelling doesn't come in to it!

...come on, you can't be serious - even my 9 year old daughter takes responsibility for her spelling when the words are obvious.

What if the client specifically wanted "Amerika"? They may very well have a good reason for spelling it that way (inside joke, a play on words for their organization, etc.).

The point is, you don't know what is going on in the mind of the client. I try to point out possible mistakes, but in the end it's up to the client to make sure the info they give me is correct. If I miss pointing one out, however, I will not be held responsible for the client's mistake, only my own.

[Mike Null]

Adrian

It is not a matter of taking responsibility it's a matter of doing what the customer expects to be done. Having them provide electronic documents is standard practice in this country and a good one. One of the advantages we didn't mention is that it saves the customer set up time thus set up fees.

Keep in mind those of us who do this for a living are dealing with pretty fair volume heavy on details just begging for a typo.

For example, this weekend I will make nearly a thousand name tags (if I hit my target) and there's no way I could do that error free without electronic documents to work from.

[Adrian Hill]

Ok, then let me ask you this:

I come to your town on holiday. I buy a lovely wooden eagle in your shop. I say to you: "Mike, could you please engrave 'I love America' on the base of this item". You ask me how big it should be and I say, well, you decide.

Now, are you going to ask me to write out "I love America" just to be sure that you get the spelling right?
What if I am a Japanese customer and I can't spell Engrish?

Ok, you do the work and I come in the following day to pay $100 dollars for my masterpiece and I find you wrote "I levo Amerika" - are you going to say "Well you know, you have to take the item because we don't hold ourselves accountable for obvious spelling mistakes"

Look, of course we need customers to spell out anything that might be remotely odd but I am quite certain that you do not ask the customer to spell the word America, or do you?

[Mike Null]

At some point after trying to explain the concept so many times I just give up.

[Adrian Hill]

Please explain it again, I am a bit slow and I don't get it.

What will you do in the scenario that I sketcked?

[Mark Ross]

A couple of funny things to mention. I have seen pictures for cakes...somebody goes to walmart of whatever and places an order and they say (not write down, they tell the ladies in the bakery) "make they cake say happy 21st birthday lindsey with an e"...they go to pick up the cake and it litterally says, "Happy 21st Birthday Lindsey With an 'e'"...lulz...

Now we have smart phones right? Yeah, spell check is bad enough, now they push autocorrect on us. If you want some serious laughs, google damnyouautocorrect....too funny.