CYA — A Peeve with Printers

without mentioning any names, i always get tweaked when a printer plays cya (cover your a$$) in the midst of a pressing deadline. i get especially annoyed when it’s all about some old school practice they should have abandoned years ago. let me provide some detail here. one of my clients is printing a set of business cards and letterhead through their favorite printer. since this is a rebranding exercise, i am on board for quality assurance. client requests proofs are sent to me for review and approval. i receive, get with the client on something that looks a bit muddier than expected and request a small change with the printer — one that will take next to no time to adjust for and then we’d be back on track. but it can’t be that easy, of course. they need me to complete a form with my notes, signature and wait for pickup by one of their drivers. this is a thursday. because things get hectic on a friday, they don’t pick up the proof until after 6pm, which now means we’re into a new week on monday before this moves forward again. ugh! why can’t can’t i take a photo with my phone that provides a record of my notes, signature and where the change needs to be made? i can email that to you inside of 5 minutes. why couldn’t the printer have a second set of proofs on their end and not rely on the one set they gave me? business owners and directors, we all understand the importance of cya — but don’t disregard our most precious resource in the process. time!