What! You Embroidered the Blue Cross Logo in Red!!

It was a disastrous situation. A distributor had an order of 500 very expensive leather jackets for a special event. The paperwork was correct and had been approved by the client. Somewhere in the process however, the decorator embroidered all the jackets with the cross embroidered in red. That would make sense, really. We all are very familiar with the widely recognized Red Cross logo. The only problem was that this order was for another well-known organization, Blue Cross. Ouch! A mistake like that hurts.

Our business is based on effective communication skills and being able to handle details. Despite our best efforts however, things happen.

I like to say that we may make only one mistake; it's just repeated 500 times! This recently happened to me. The client wanted to add a web address to an order we do annually for an event. It was a simple typesetting change. The paperwork was properly prepared and signed off on. A proof was sent and approved by the client. One small problem—the proof was wrong. The web address said .com, NOT .net.

Obviously, the client proofed the order without carefully looking at it. That never happens! I'm kidding of course, but I also am at fault because I didn't carefully look at the proof either! I was counting on the client to do that, and for the supplier to set it up correctly in the first place. This is why I'm always offended by a charge for a proof, but that's a topic for another rant. This is a classic case of one simple mistake repeated 500 times (literally).

Complicating the situation is the item is for our client's client who is out of the country. The mistake was discovered when the items arrived in South Africa.