You went with them because they gave you the best price, yet in the end they could end up being the most expensive. It seems it would be easy to always give someone the lowest price to land the job then have a contract like that, that can change the price to any amount.
I think we can all understand how pricing can fluctuate, but you would think they could do better than that. Do you have a rep or adviser from the company that you can discuss this with?
Naw--that's too "loose" of a contract for me to sign. Our PTO budgets for everything, and not knowing how much higher "additional expenses" can be makes me nervous. If the company said the price may vary either way by a fixed percentage (i.e., 10%), then you can plan for additional expenses and budget for the higher amount.
But not knowing until you get the bill??? That's not good!
That is the very reason that we didn't sign with Taylor this year. We went with Jostens.
We were a little nervous with them not being able to tell us what our price would be.
When we order our spirit items-coffee mugs, sport bottles, etc-we have to sign the same thing. It says that the price is just an estimate but if they have to make more items than we order then we have to pay for them. We have to approve a proof sheet that is faxed-so you can't really tell what it looks like. Even when I was a merchandiser for a local store, I ran across this all the time. Most of the time, everything works out, but if you are that concerned about it, ask the other two companies if their policy is the same and ask your committee to approve that way they at least know how you feel about it and that they are taking a risk-but everything in life is a risk!
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
Our yearbook committee has finally decided to go with Taylor publishing. We have not used a company for the past few years (did it ourselves) but the committee this year feels this is a better way to go. They had three companies bidding against each other for the business and Taylor came up with the best price.
They sent me the contract for signature a few days ago and I was just amazed. Basically, the contract says we "think" this is your price per copy, but if our suppliers raise their prices or we have additional costs or you give us the informtion late we can raise that price to ANYTHING we want - and we can't tell you until it happens.
Now, in the "real" business world I wouldn't ever sign a contract like this. But is this a standard thing for yearbook companies?
