Are you shopping for cheap Ceramic Coating? Maybe you are comparing a few quotes and are leaning towards the most budget-friendly Ceramic Coating? Recently I purchased some budget-friendly mugs from a promotional product company. This post covers that experience. I hope you enjoy!
A Story Relating to Cheap Ceramic Coating
Stephen and I LOVE our clients. We always include some free gifts after their Ceramic Coating Experience at Kings Valet. It includes products from local businesses, high quality drying towels, after care products and more. One of the freebies that rarely rotates out is coffee from @Victorian Pantry in Granger. Recently, we were struck by the idea of introducing custom coffee mugs as a part of the post installation package. As a collector of mugs myself and coffee enthusiast – I am shocked this idea took this long.
I handle all the purchasing / marketing for Kings Valet; so I jumped on Google to search for coffee mugs. While searching, I was slightly surprised about the average price per mug ($5+), so what did I do? I started looking for cheaper. Guess what – I hit a home run with the search term “cheap custom coffee mugs”! I found some for $1.50 per mug AND I got a 15% discount since it was my first purchase. I promptly ordered 72 (smallest quantity) to test out the product; since this was a company we had never used for promotional products.
The Mugs Arrived!
After ordering, the mugs only took about 2 weeks in production / shipping time. They arrived on the 3rd of July and I was so pumped to check them out after the holiday. Wednesday (the 5th) rolls around and I rip open the box like it is Christmas morning (I geek out over marketing stuff). Take a look at the picture below and tell me what you think…
In case you didn’t notice – take a second look at the logo / text on the mug. Yes, it’s crooked. The old adage of “Good, Cheap and Fast – You can pick two” comes to mind. They nailed it on Cheap and Fast…
Okay, I get it – Mistakes happen. Simple solution, I’ll jump on a call and see what they can do to rectify the situation.
Rectifying The Mistake
I dialed the promotional company and had a reasonably short wait time. After a couple brief minutes of talking on the phone – the solution presented was for me to open both cases of mugs, survey all the mugs and see how much was affected. After which, I was to email a few photos to the rep so they could see if there truly was a mistake in printing. No problem. Snap a few photos and send them over (about 10 am). Thursday morning I am reviewing emails and notice nothing new from the promotion company, so I send off a quick follow-up email to bump the thread and leave it at that.
Friday Morning rolls around and I still have radio silence. I decide this is worth another quick call. About 30 minutes into this “quick call” – it is still very cordial as the agent is playing middle between a manager and I. After a couple times on hold; the agent provides their solution. 30% off. Her stated reason being that the mugs were “in good condition with no cracks or chips” so they are considered “usable” and could still be used for promotional purposes.
Buyer’s Remorse
Buyers remorse now replaces the last glimmer of hope I had for them providing me a great experience after the initial stumble.
I will NOT blast this company directly; however they have an email tagline of “your image is our business” – One would think they should certainly understand that my image is EVERYTHING to me. I politely inform the rep that this is not a viable solution for me. I would either like a reprint OR a return label and refund as the mugs are useless to me.
A few minutes of holding and she comes back and says her manager says they have no use for the mugs and therefore they will not provide a return label or refund. The agent repeated her offer of 30% off my order. Again, I politely informed her that this solution just won’t do as the mugs are also useless to me. I ask to speak to the higher up that made the decision that they could not rectify the situation in any other way.
The manager jumps on the phone a few minutes later. We are approaching the 1 hour mark on this call. Now if you haven’t done the earlier math ($1.50 x 72 mugs), this was only about a $100 order (a little less with the initial 15% off promotion). They have already spent more in just labor costs than EITHER of my solutions would have cost them. What an illogical way to run a business.
“One-Year Quality Guarantee”
I ask the manager one simple question when she gets on the phone:
“What does the ‘One-Year Quality Guarantee’ mean to you?” – I think she was stumped; as she was literally speechless. I am not a yell and scrap it out guy, but rather prefer the fastest route to the solution. After a few seconds of silence, she stammers a bit and asks me to repeat myself. “What does the ‘One-Year Quality Guarantee’ mean to you? It is on the byline of EVERY email your company sends – right next to the signature of your CEO.” After a very short conversation and one more hold (not really sure who she had to check with), we landed on the idea of a reprint being the best definition of this promise.
The Moral of This Story Applied to Cheap Ceramic Coating
I experimented with cheap for less than $100 on a promotional product that my company can just write off and throw away. Are you really willing to experiment with cheap ceramic coating on your new car or truck? I can promise you – finding the needle in the haystack (a high quality AND cheap company) isn’t worth the risk with an average cost of over $45,000 for a new car.
Furthermore, based on the first product and interactions with the promotion company – I expect there to be just as much of a headache in two weeks with the reprinted mugs. The issue that will arise is this will not be worth another call to the same company – meaning I will be paying TWICE to have this project done. A new google search, a new set up fee, a new account to create, another three weeks to wait and so on. The ultimate goal of “saving money” on your Ceramic Coating will backfire when you have to pay Kings Valet to fix another company’s mess-up. Yes, it will cost MORE to have it done a second time as we will have to strip whatever the prior company did to your vehicle.
High Quality Experiences at Kings Valet vs Cheap Ceramic Coating
Kings Valet carries a perfect 5-star rating on mainstream platforms (Facebook, Google etc). This is because we do NOT offer a budget ceramic coating nor a cheap experience. Our “cheapest” Ceramic Coating starts at $1,000. Kings Valet provides a Lifetime Warranty AND a 200% Money Back Guarantee as a part of their Peace of Mind Promise. Why? We NEVER want you to have an experience like I did above; IE. buyer’s remorse. Kings Valet has also taken it a step further – we understand that maintaining a Ceramic Coating can seem like a daunting task… as such, quarterly maintenance won’t cost you a dime with us!
