We made some table frames for a customer. It was the customers design. We just did the metal base, they did the wood top, and sold it to their client. It went into a high traffic/use scenario. I'm just a general fab shop, though we specialize in bases and display stands, etc. My customer, long time customer, good relationship, gave me the design, we made a prototype, they made a couple small changes and approved it, then we made about 40 of these bases. I just heard back that in a 5 month time frame, 12 of the bases have failed, all at the same point. The consistency and the quantity of the failure say design flaw, or consistent abuse to me. My customer is trying to put 100% of the blame on me, which I don't necessarily mind. They're not angry about it, they just want me to pay all that's required to fix the problem, which is going to be considerably more than I charged them to make the bases, since they want all 40 bases to be reinforced, and it has to be done by a union shop in the middle of the night.
I had a conversation with my customer who flat out told me this was my fault, not theirs, and they wanted me to cover all the expenses, to which I politely said you approved the prototype, we made them to spec according to the prototype, and this seems more like a design flaw. Though I also said I'm not entirely pushing off responsibility of this, and am willing to work with them, and he sort of agreed. At this point, I'm being put as the contact for the end user trying to work out the details for reconciliation and I'm hoping I can convince them to let a non-union shop make the repairs, and take the bases off site for repair instead of in their facility in the middle of the night.
Personally, I don't want to pay more to have this fixed then I charged them for the bases, and even though I feel like I'm not entirely at fault, I obviously want to keep them happy so they keep giving me business. From the initial estimates I've received, the repairs could end up being close to $15,000 MORE than I charged them for the bases, which seems outrageous to me. I'm estimating the repairs to be no more than 30 man hours tops.
I guess I'm looking for advice. Long time business owners, should I just take it in the rear to make them happy? Try to work out a middle ground? Or just tell them I'll cover UP TO the cost I charged them? There's been one or two other problems in the past, but it's always been less than $100 incidents. This is the first big one.
I think the obvious response is going to be: Make new bases already reinforced. Issue here is the final customer is requiring union installers, which charged $14K just to install the bases and tops on the initial order, so that's about the same boat I'm in as having them repaired. Plus I'm backed up enough as is...
I had a conversation with my customer who flat out told me this was my fault, not theirs, and they wanted me to cover all the expenses, to which I politely said you approved the prototype, we made them to spec according to the prototype, and this seems more like a design flaw. Though I also said I'm not entirely pushing off responsibility of this, and am willing to work with them, and he sort of agreed. At this point, I'm being put as the contact for the end user trying to work out the details for reconciliation and I'm hoping I can convince them to let a non-union shop make the repairs, and take the bases off site for repair instead of in their facility in the middle of the night.
Personally, I don't want to pay more to have this fixed then I charged them for the bases, and even though I feel like I'm not entirely at fault, I obviously want to keep them happy so they keep giving me business. From the initial estimates I've received, the repairs could end up being close to $15,000 MORE than I charged them for the bases, which seems outrageous to me. I'm estimating the repairs to be no more than 30 man hours tops.
I guess I'm looking for advice. Long time business owners, should I just take it in the rear to make them happy? Try to work out a middle ground? Or just tell them I'll cover UP TO the cost I charged them? There's been one or two other problems in the past, but it's always been less than $100 incidents. This is the first big one.
I think the obvious response is going to be: Make new bases already reinforced. Issue here is the final customer is requiring union installers, which charged $14K just to install the bases and tops on the initial order, so that's about the same boat I'm in as having them repaired. Plus I'm backed up enough as is...