What Is Included in Your Quote?
Our Hoodie expert Nigel did a fantastic blog post recently highlighting the hidden costs that can often be found in school hoodie orders. We speak to staff and students every day and have heard of many suppliers quoting unrealistically low prices only to add on hidden costs throughout the process. Often, like most things, if the price looks too good to be true it probably is. You may end up paying over the odds once all extra surcharges are included, so it pays to know what to look out for when you are receiving quotes from suppliers. (All our pricing is transparent and includes all services agreed!)
Nigel made an important point that students often are not used to ordering from suppliers and often do not take VAT into consideration, which at 20% can have a large impact on the final cost. As staff ordering resources you will be well aware of VAT, however suppliers can be clever in their quoting and there are a few things you may wish to look out for when ordering marketing and educational resources for your school.
Delivery – often delivery is not taken into consideration and the cost can be massively under-estimated. When ordering items in bulk you can find your delivery is several weighty pallets which could be costing you £100s on top of your initial quote.
Design – designing resources for your school can be a lengthy process to ensure the end product is exactly as planned. You may have agreed some design time into your quote with your supplier, but does this cover the whole job? With some suppliers you may get a nasty surprise when you are told your allocated studio time has been used up before you are happy with the final artwork, or you may have to pay for extra studio time or even be presented with an unexpected costly surcharge upon invoicing.
Photography – If your project requires photography, your supplier may not include this in your quote. We work in partnership with photographers across the country which keeps the photography costs low (usually substantially lower than hiring a photographer yourself for the day) and if required, we will always include this in your quote.
Set up costs – if you are being charged a price per item, you could be at risk of missing the extra charges for process set ups. Set up costs can be substantial so it is worth double checking this is included.
If you have received a quote that looks too good to be true let us take a look, we can check for any hidden charges, and will do our best to price match should the total cost be lower than our equivalent price.
Find more useful advice here.
Image by Véronique Debord-Lazaro