Researching Your Past atmo -

[Dallas Tex]

Not everyone understands that for folks who earn their living with their hands, time (literally) is money. That 45 minutes digging through old records and making copies and composing an email response to the request IS 45mins that you're not earning a living.

Do it right. Integrate it into your store/website. Let them click to send request & pay. Batch up the requests and respond when you get time.

[steve garro]

Hell.........I don't tell the first owner the angles or the measurements........much less the second or third......
"What size will it be?"
"Yours"
If you give me the serial # I can give you the year out of my head, glad to do that N/C
- Garro.

[e-RICHIE]

Hell.........
- Garro.

Steve I agree with what you wrote earlier before the evaporation situation. No warranties
extend past the original client. You buy a used unit and you inherit all the baggage atmo.

[steve garro]

the evaporation situation..

What's that?
You lost me there.....
- Garro.

[e-RICHIE]

What's that?
You lost me there.....
- Garro.

I had a window open ready to reply, and your earlier post went missing when I refreshed it atmo.

[Will Neide]

The only questions I would ever ask are:

"Did you make this frame?"

"When?"

I wouldn't ask for angles or measurements. I have a ruler and angle finder for that.

[JimFrain]

I feel like any service that's less fun than sitting in the backyard reading science fiction/revisionist history and petting my cat is possibly billable. My wife owns a gardening business and when she does someone a favor like the one that you are mentioning or gives the client a discount, it goes on the receipt as a "x service rendered, you saved x$" for the service. If you ARE going to do a service for free the client should at LEAST know that you did them a favor that costs you time and money.

[pruckelshaus]

Do you have an opinion on this atmo?

Yeah, I guess I do. I suppose that if I were in the situation where someone contacted me with a picture of a frame that I built and a serial number, I would be glad to reply "yes, I built that frame in ____ year.", and if they wanted additional information, i.e. original build, dimensions, color, what-have-you, along with a certificate of provenance of some sort, I would charge a fee.

But that's just me.

[Curt Goodrich]

A few thoughts- Will people really spend money to find answers to questions when all they need is a tape measure?
-If a builder hasn't built 1000's, is this a task that really takes much time?
-Is everything that takes time really billable? I'm all for not giving away time and expertise but even lawyers routinely offer free legal advice.

[christian]

A few thoughts- Will people really spend money to find answers to questions when all they need is a tape measure?

Almost assuredly. If you typed up the results on a fancy diploma with the build date, original color and serial number and called it a "Certificate of Provenance" $50 bucks easy. And let's not pretend, you need a measuring tape and a $.99 angle finder application on your phone.

I do think this addresses one of the biggest fears when buying a used bike from a distance -- that the seller doesn't know how to measure a bike. I passed on a nice bike earlier this week for partly that reason. I know how to measure a bike. Getting accurate consistent results from a seller...

[rphetteplace]

I'd have all those old orders pulled and catalogued into PDF files by some local minion. This may cost you a few $$$ to do, but then when you receive the call all you have to do is hit send on the e-mail and to me you have justification for a transaction fee. imho.

[JimFrain]

A few thoughts- Will people really spend money to find answers to questions when all they need is a tape measure?
-If a builder hasn't built 1000's, is this a task that really takes much time?
-Is everything that takes time really billable? I'm all for not giving away time and expertise but even lawyers routinely offer free legal advice.

I guess that my own point was that you can decide to give the time away for free but it doesn't hurt to let someone know that your doing them a favor.

I was definitely thinking more about Richard's case where that type of research does take time to go through thousands of frames.

I've worked for lawyers and most of the ones that I was in contact with could afford to give advice for free from time to time. :)

[e-RICHIE]

Adding to this above -

Folks don't want the measurements, they want the life story of the unit atmo. Especially the folks looking to
profit from the resale. And again, I am only looking at the situation in the OP as a path to take, I'm not on it.

[Joachim]

Usually businesses who do me a favor end up getting my business in the future. If I have to charge for all the scientific advice I give people for free, I would be living in a tax haven.

[e-RICHIE]

Usually businesses who do me a favor end up getting my business in the future. If I have to charge for all the scientific advice I give people for free, I would be living in a tax haven.

Odd - The tie-in with Tiffanys huh atmo...

[false_aesthetic]

This is coming from a photographer not an eff-builder.

We shoot something like 500gigs of photos each year. When a client wants a photo all we need to do is ask for the file name (read: serial number). You plug in the drive corresponding to that year, hit command F and type in the file name. Back when it was film, each contact had a serial number and it was cataloged. 10 fire-safe cabinets of film. Back then, it took under 10 minutes to find something and 2 minutes to call the delivery service. Now its 1 minute to plug in the drive, 1 minute to let it spin up, 2 minutes to make espresso, 5 minutes to "find" and copy it over to a disc or FTP and that's that. How long we archived the images depended on the clients + contracts but on average we were shooting 180 gigs a year and could go back at least 10 years.

The ONLY time we charged to find files was when a new ad agency was hired and they wanted the the archive. At that point, we sold them the rights to the photos and shipped everything to them with the agreement that we would no longer be responsible for any archiving.

I dunno how you communicate a life story but if a client really wants that I'd write up a few scripts and just email them something about gnomes and wizards.



*Lemme just say though, that if I was booked a year to 7 years out, I think I'd be inclined to not be so "giving" to the clients. But when you're always bidding and crossing your fingers for a job, you give a lotta "blowjobs" to put food on the table.

[e-RICHIE]

Like I said (I think...) it's less about the client, or what he wants, then it is someone looking to profit
from the resale of something you once sold atmo. Again - I'm not taking a side, just thinking out loud.

This is coming from a photographer not an eff-builder.

We shoot something like 500gigs of photos each year. When a client wants a photo all we need to do is ask for the file name (read: serial number). You plug in the drive corresponding to that year, hit command F and type in the file name. Back when it was film, each contact had a serial number and it was cataloged. 10 fire-safe cabinets of film. Back then, it took under 10 minutes to find something and 2 minutes to call the delivery service. Now its 1 minute to plug in the drive, 1 minute to let it spin up, 2 minutes to make espresso, 5 minutes to "find" and copy it over to a disc or FTP and that's that. How long we archived the images depended on the clients + contracts but on average we were shooting 180 gigs a year and could go back at least 10 years.

The ONLY time we charged to find files was when a new ad agency was hired and they wanted the the archive. At that point, we sold them the rights to the photos and shipped everything to them with the agreement that we would no longer be responsible for any archiving.

I dunno how you communicate a life story but if a client really wants that I'd write up a few scripts and just email them something about gnomes and wizards.

[false_aesthetic]

Yeah, I recognize that and that's why I mentioned the part about the new agency taking over a gig.
My sense is that if someone wants the build sheet, give it up for a nominal fee ($25?) and then wipe your hands.

But I also mention the archiving thing because I believe that in this day/age there's no reason why locating something should take a billable amount of time.

[MarkC]

Clear solution: Certified Pre-Owned Sachs

--Mark

p.s. Proud owner of #2395 for about 30 years.

[e-RICHIE]

Clear solution: Certified Pre-Owned Sachs

--Mark

p.s. Proud owner of #2395 for about 30 years.

Here's a freebie for you -
The 239th RS branded frame, made in 1978 atmo