Overcoming a Beverage Label Nightmare! PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 24 February 2009 00:00
I came across a label company when I was presenting at a Angel Forum last year. The CEO of the company came up to my booth and talked to me about what amazing labels they make. He said, 'we made the first Fiji Water labels. We have state of the art machinery and incredible labels."

Well, I agreed to take a look at the quality of labels when I got back to San Francisco. Who knows, I thought, maybe he does have amazing labels. I also had a label maker that I was using before that, but wasn't really happy with the quality of the label.

So, I had them send me some of their labels and meet with my manufacturer (just to make sure they were legitimate). I was really happy that I had covered my basis. Well, that is I thought I had.

I had asked before signing up how long this would take to get done. The representative told me 3 weeks once we have everything. Ok. I was happy with that. I could live. Besides, they were making me labels of the highest quality, Fiji Water quality. How could I go wrong.

Well, I sent over my PDF file, and the rep got back to me saying that they needed to buy a new die. Umm. Ok, that's fine. He told me that they would have it by the middle of January at the latest.

During this process we had to make some changes to the label and add and delete a couple things. Every time, we made a change, the representative came back and said that they would have to put me in the back of the Que and that it would be an additional 2-3 weeks.

I couldn't believe it. Here I thought that this process would be already done by the end of January. Well, it even gets better. Just when I thought we were going to get the label, he tells me that I have to wait another 2 weeks! So, I am thinking now that I should get it mid February.

Wrong. I went back and asked him to send me the proof, the invoice and TBD. He couldn't get any of this to me. I than emailed the CEO who I had met at the Angel Forum and he said, 'I am glad that your label is coming along."

Lesson to be learned. You may have a great product, but if you don't have customer service, you lose the deal. They said I would have my labels in the first week of March. I told them that I was going somewhere else.

To make a long story short, I found a label company close to my manufacturer who delivered in just 2 weeks with Fiji Quality labels. The other company came back and said they would deliver in 3 days if I didn't move. It was too late than. They lost what I told them would be big big business some day.