News
Conmen preying on printers
Financial pressures are leaving printers open to attack from conmen, it has emerged.
PrintWeek has learnt that several companies have been approached by potential conmen seeking to prey on printers who are feeling the pinch as the economic climate worsens.
Paul Lowe, managing director at Bloomfield Printers in Warwickshire, said that he was approached by a company wanting to send print abroad that requested he use its own transport agency, which charges the printer to deliver.
Lowe was told that payment to the transport company had to be cleared before they would deliver the work.
He told PrintWeek: "Because of the current financial climate, companies might look a little bit closer than they would if they had a bucket full of work on.
"I have seen things in the past, but this is the first time I have ever seen something specifically targeting print companies.
"Printers need to be aware that these people are about. They could be a bit more casual in their checking at the moment, quick to take on a job, so it is a case of being alert."
Meanwhile, at IPH Litho (Coventry) the company was approached by a 'salesman' who promised he could bring in £60,000 worth of work in six months, or he would return any monies he had taken.
After several meetings with the 'rep', who claimed he had been let go when his London-based employer had moved to New Zealand, the company agreed to bring him on board, and gave him a £650 advance on expenses to "get him going". The company has not seen him since.
Mike Jennings-Bates, chairman at IPH Litho (Coventry), said: "He quoted some high-flying accounts to us.
"Seeing a carrot like that is not easy to dismiss. Printers are dying like flies and everyone needs sales – I think anyone would at least give it a bit of thought."
He added: "He said the right words, I am 57 and have never been conned, I have now. I would advise any printers out there to be very stringent if they are approached. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is."
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Comments
Robin Nicholas - 18 November 2008
My old granny used to say, 'There is one born every minute'. By God she was so right!
How stupid can some people be?
Idiots that fall for cons like this don't deserve to be in business, they certainly don't have the brains for it!
Robin Nicholas - 18 November 2008
The statement I made above is taken from my forthcoming book, 'How to win friends and influence people'
Mark Wright - 18 November 2008
We had the same thing with a company trying to get us to pay for transport.
The thing that gave it away was the delivery the delivery address. Bergen in Singapore??????
They really should look it up first on Google earth
Not Colin Thompson - 18 November 2008
I almost fell for a con some years ago: a very convincing 'thug' tried to get us to sign a contract for his firm to go round and collect money for us. He showed me a folder full of cheques that he said he had collected just that day - and I did just notice that all the cheques were for the same amount. When he asked me for a 'deposit' cheque 'to show we were serious about collecting our debts' I said I needed to think about it. Sure enough the penny eventually dropped - his folder was full of cheques he had collected from 'mugs' who had falled for his con, not from his debt collecting activities. The contract made clear that it was up to them whether they did anything about collecting any debts - it said there was no obligation for them to do anything and no entitlement to a refund.
Julie Cook - 18 November 2008
Robin you've taken the words out of my mouth.
Robbed by Print Management firms, on several occasions, still didn't learn my lesson, what an Idiot I am. Kall Kwik the Sunderland franchise should be mentioned the North of England Building Society/Northern Rock contract over £20,000 lost, PN Print Management the owners have now joined a PM firm in South Shields, over £30.000 lost. Both firms were declaired bankcrupt but yet are still traiding.
Still a mug.
Regards Julie
Gary Smith - 19 November 2008
Got to say Julie, I don't think you were robbed by Print Management persay - rather by your own stupidity for not checking out your client's credit credentials - The PM division of Redactive has only had only £400 bad debt in 3+ years since set up.
We've had clients with no credit offered against them but dealt on a strictly cash up front basis, and these clients know if they pay by cheque nothing happens until it clears -
DO THE CHECKS BEFORE YOU EVEN MAKE A PLATE OR ORDER A SHEET OF PAPER
- read the help offered in Print week, week in week out.
Sorry to sound a bit heartless, I assure you it's not my nature as its never nice to hear anyone being ripped off, you wouldn't walk into any high street shop and expect to be given any product you couldn't afford to pay for would you? So why would you do this for your clients?
Good luck
Inky Fingers - 19 November 2008
I got ripped off by the same salesman, lets call him Terry. I believe he's popping up all over the UK, he was really plausible, the thing that amazes me is no one can do anything about these people committing low level fraud. You risk throwing more good money after bad only to discover no assets to cover the dept. ICSM are good people tto speak to regarding this kind of stuff.
Alan Partridge - 19 November 2008
Salesman who talk the talk but can't walk the walk are popping up everywhere in and out of the Print industry, and always will as long as employers keep letting it happen...
There can't be many companies out there who've not been taken in by a 'salesperson' who's all talk and no action, and you shouldn't be too hard on yourselves if it's happened to you \(as long as it's only once!)
Here's some good advice: If you employ anyone who's ever going to bring anything in, you should see the right signals almost straight away in the form of REAL ENQUIRIES coming in, REAL PROSPECT SITE VISITS/MEETINGS, and preferably some small token orders within the first few weeks. Anyone out there claiming they bring existing client relationships, or is a real 'new business' individual will deliver these things and make the right noises almost immediately. Talking a good talk does not count as the right signals under any circumstances; people do this for a career, of course they can bullsh*t.
Far to many companies allow sales people 'the 6 month settling in period', then throw good money after bad for much longer in some cases. - JOURNEYMAN LIKE 'TERRY' AND MANY MORE \(YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) MAKE A CAREER OUT OF THIS!
It's wasters like this that sit at home doing not much, driving thier company cars, burning our petrol, taking thier wage each month, promising the sales, and eroding our profits. Don't let it happen, we don't have the margins to be charities to such people
All Seeing Eye ! - 19 November 2008
Well done to Redactive to have all their clients on such a tight leash!
Unfortunately for the rest of us & especially in the current climate business does mean taking propsective clients at face value in the old fashioned way or running the risk of losing the work to a competitor.
Despite any credit check, there is always a risk but without trust there is nothing.
Robin Nicholas - 19 November 2008
I'm sorry Julie that you got burned, in fact having held both ends of the stick in my time, \(I'm an old fart), I can recognise the honest individual now.
I've had letters from supposedly different people trying to get an interview and they all look too good to be true, and all have one thing in common, a scenario that boasts incredible sales and brilliant management abilities.
If you ever get one of these, stop, think and consider this. Why is this supposedly brilliant person unemployed? The big players in every industry know who are the really good salesmen and spend a lot of time and money on trying to poach them, so why would they miss this one?
As for grabbing new business in desperation and holding your breath hoping they will pay, that's a mugs game.
I would rather be at home doing something constructive, rather than working for nothing to put money in someone elses pocket.
So when that new piece of business comes through the door or down the phone, ask the prospective customers why they picked you and who used to do their work. If they have nothing to hide they will tell you and you can then tell them that ALL new clients are strictly Pro-forma until they fill in an account application form and submit it.
Tell them it takes at least 7 working days to clear your credit insurance company and until you hear otherwise the new customer will have to be cash up front.
You don't have to have a Credit insurer to do this, just use it as a way of keeping tight control. When the new customer asks if its been cleared tell them that the credit insurer has knocked them back until they see some sort of track record for regular payments and its the current financial crisis that has caused this.
Works for me every time and I've never lost a good paying customer yet, just the ones that I didn't feel happy about.
Forget about trust, it doesn't pay the bills!!
Just always remember this ... TRUST NO ONE AND YOU'LL NEVER BE DISAPPOINTED, JUST PLEASANTLY SURPRISED NOW AND AGAIN.
More extracts from my forthcoming book 'How to make friends and influence people' RRP £20.00
PS. Taking advanced orders from any numptie out there who is stupid enough to send me an order with £20.00 cash in a plain brown envelope.
Inky Fingers - 19 November 2008
Robin why should I send you £20 for your forthcoming book when I can get a 'Free' report from Mr Colin Thompson :-)
Julie Cook - 20 November 2008
re Gary Smith Yes my own stupidity, although credit checks were made via Experian and Lloyds TSB, both had a value of 999 out of 1,000 or in the case of Lloyds TSB, credit worthy to the sum of £200,000 in the case off kallkwik, £90,000 in the case of PN Print and Graphic Management. Credit insurance wasn't available via my bankers at the time and was almost unheard off in the industry. After printing for North of England Building Society for 8 years previous to loosing the contract to Kallkwik, NOEBS paid the bills on time, KK simply pocketed the money and done a runner after six months.
Yes a lesson learnt, I am stupid. And Gary I'm owed a small amount from the York NHS Trust which is overdue, please offer me some advice as they have placed another order, should I supply them or wait for the moneys due. Credit Rating 999 from Experian or AAA- from Lloyds TSB. Over 300 schools are also behind on payments.
I got to say whilst the odd bad payment is to be expected, to me it shows character in a person/firm/staff that can work through the difficult times and manage to stay affloat, and not offload your debt and start again.
Regards
Julie
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