Petra Rankin shares this story:

I went for a drive to pick up some business cards from my local printer. When I got there, I was handed four boxes of very shiny business cards, even though I had specifically ordered matte. I had specified matte a number of times because it was very important to me, and he was also charging me a premium price for the matte laminate.

So I told the person who was serving me that they were not matte, and I was told in response “yes they are.” (!)

Given that these cards were so shiny I could almost see my reflection in them, I asked to speak to the manager. He come out and agreed that they were not matte, and also agreed that I had asked him a number of times to print matte cards, but he would not lower the price of the cards. I offered him what I thought the cards were worth given they were a misprint, but he was too proud and said I couldn’t take them!

So he is throwing away 1000 perfectly good (albeit shiny) cards, because he didn’t want to accept a discounted price for a mistake!

I wonder how many other small business people operate their business like this? They would rather have a big loss than accept a small one?

(PS She just wrote me and said the printer called her at home, told her had changed her mind and even offered to drive the cards over if she’d just pay the discounted fee.)

find Petra: Achieving Our Potential (And Beyond).