I Got Scammed by My Own Salesman – and It Was My Signshop’s Defining Moment

I’VE BEEN IN THE sign game for a long time now … 38 years to be exact. I have witnessed, first hand, this industry morph and adapt with a tremendous explosion of growth over the last four decades. (God, that makes me sound ancient…)

In the ’80s all you had was 1 Shot enamel, a tray of lettering quills, and if you were a rich kid, you might have had an airbrush too. But that was it. You had to be an “artist” to be a signpainter. Well, there were other sign offerings, like neon, channel letters, silk screening and the like, but I wasn’t that type of sign guy. I was a brush-slinging signpainter — and I had the multicolor paint pants to prove it!

But all these years later, we fabricate 8-ft.-tall channel letters, enormous over-the-road architectural structures, towering stadium signage and crazy-high-rise installations for some of the largest companies in the world!

Last week someone asked me how I ever made that jump: from a kid in a busted Toyota pickup truck, to building the massive projects we do now. Which got me thinking about what I’ve been through over the years that led me down this path, and one event that changed everything for me…

It was the late ’80s. I had graduated high school a couple years earlier, but having started my sign biz, Dr. S Signs, out of my mom’s garage when I was 16, I’m already several years in at this time, handpainting boat names, MDO boards, vehicle graphics, etc. I was a one-man shop, but growing and eager to do more in the industry. I got my first vinyl plotter and thought I was ready for the big time! So, when a slick-talking, suited-up sales guy from a giant awning company I did vinyl for asked to come sell signs for me, I jumped at the opportunity. Right then and there, I hired my very first salesman and held on tight in anticipation of all the new business most definitely coming my way.

First few months, he sold a few nice little jobs, but nothing to write home about. Month four rolls around and this guy is nowhere to be found — like straight MIA, no clue where this dude is — and there were no cell phones, not even beepers back then. Weeks later, still no show.

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Then I started getting calls. Lots of them, none of them good: pissed-off people demanding my missing sales guy’s head, threats of being sued for “non-completion,” people demanding their deposits back.

… People I had never heard of, and damn sure never got any money from. But they insisted on talking to the owner of Dr. S Signs. And guess what? They weren’t asking for me; they were asking for him!

What in the fresh hell was happening? I drove to five “clients” to get to the bottom of this. All had two things in common:

1. One of my Dr. S custom, chrome foil-printed business cards, except printed with his name as owner of my company!
2. Each had given him $5,000 deposit checks, written directly to his name.

And boy, were they hot!

I didn’t know what to do. I was a 19-year-old kid and just got scammed so hard! But, I wanted to help these people and avoid having my company trashed, so I agreed to finish all five projects for only the balances due.

The problem? They were all neon channel letters. Fabrication trial by fire, for half price.

And that, my friends, is exactly how I got into larger sign projects.

Bad News: I never saw that joker again.

Good News: 35 years later, two of the five I made good with are still my clients. 🙂

PHOTO GALLERY (4 IMAGES)

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