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  • !llumenati

This is a sign ? that was ordered and paid for. Built by a " Sign Company ". Here is the construction. .032 Aluminum returns and backs. All the electrical wiring is speaker wire. And lots of balck electrical tape. The sign was wired thru the wall into a power strip. Yes it was also speaker wire. The electrical tape was wrapped several layers thick to make it waterproof. The LED Lighting,,, the cheapest crap you can find. The grand prize was the installation.....Attached to a brick wall with 1/4 inch x 3 inch sheet metal screws directly into brick, no shields or anything. The more you look at this, the more disgusted you get. The customer paid $ 2,800. for this.

The lucky customer received a violation from the City. By the time this was over, the violation and removal cost the customer an additional $ 8,000. The sign was thrown into the garbage.

Thank God for LED Lighting and all the suppliers who sell to everyone. No skill, No knowledge.

Just great bullshit to sell signs. Hey...its just a sign.

post-2367-0-52549900-1459519263_thumb.jppost-2367-0-25037300-1459519271_thumb.jppost-2367-0-99663700-1459519277_thumb.jppost-2367-0-52037000-1459519283_thumb.jp

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Paul,

I think you're really discounting and perhaps even missing the aspect that this "sign company" turned 25¢ modules into Thousands of dollars and for that they should be admired, maybe even hailed! The R&D part of EBay, Alibaba alone even, was also missed.

You also should have provided, which you did shamelessly omit as a night shot....the enginuuuity of the front red illumination with cool outer white halo glow.

Finally, as a custom shop we all need not forget the "creativity" aspect of what we do, for that, the use of the Best Buy Speaker wire should also be applauded!

You're doing this NO justice!

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. - Winston Churchill

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  • Board Patron

Come on... They used outdoor rated rivets....Looks like Flashing used for the returns. LOL!

This is why I refuse to get in pricing wars. If price is a customers only priority. There's zero reasoning with them. Honestly I don't feel bad for the customer. You get what you pay for. And they're paying for it now.

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I would have loved to see a night shot of this. Halo with no return on the back. Just another "hack job" keeping us qualified and honest companies in business.

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Come on guys, at least they used light enhancement paint on the the backs. :crazy:

FYI- If you want a good laugh on LED module pricing go to DHgate.com. A distributor and I were looking up pricing for a good laugh a few weeks ago and found 12 cents per foot modules. Yes, 12 cents per foot. Lead time was something like 3-25 weeks. UL Recognized modules of course.

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  • Board Patron

Was this sign installed? Did a customer buy it from so goof who could not install it and sent it to you to install. I am not sure if its better or worse to see what our wholesale competition is doing and thats where the race to the bottom is taking us? I guess this is why we have people call all the time and ask if they can "buy" a UL Label. Yes you can BTW they are 3 million a piece how many would you like?

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"Thank God for LED Lighting and all the suppliers who sell to everyone. No skill, No knowledge.


Just great bullshit to sell signs."



I knew a tube bender (now deceased) who used to complain about all the suppliers selling transformers, GTO, etc to folks who didn't know anything and were driving down the neon market plus giving it a bad name. When I was a teenager my father used to complain about people selling lit box signs for half of what they should have been. His friend, the sign writer, complained about people with "a pickup and brush" who were selling painted signs for pennies on the dollar, and whose work faded in a year or two.



There will always be folks who start off low on their pricing and can only go down from there. This looks to be one of the worst led signs I've seen but I don't expect it to get better. How it could be worse IDK, but someone will lower the bar even further.



BTW, that crushed conduit is a doozie. to reduce, re-use and recycle is one thing but...


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"Thank God for LED Lighting and all the suppliers who sell to everyone. No skill, No knowledge.

Just great bullshit to sell signs."

I knew a tube bender (now deceased) who used to complain about all the suppliers selling transformers, GTO, etc to folks who didn't know anything and were driving down the neon market plus giving it a bad name. When I was a teenager my father used to complain about people selling lit box signs for half of what they should have been. His friend, the sign writer, complained about people with "a pickup and brush" who were selling painted signs for pennies on the dollar, and whose work faded in a year or two.

There will always be folks who start off low on their pricing and can only go down from there. This looks to be one of the worst led signs I've seen but I don't expect it to get better. How it could be worse IDK, but someone will lower the bar even further.

BTW, that crushed conduit is a doozie. to reduce, re-use and recycle is one thing but...

This is the problem with the sign and many other industries. Trade magazines encouraging folks who should not be building stuff that with this kit or this cheapazz tool they can be a ________builder. I dont care what anyone says the sign biz started its decline with Gerber and the 4B It took all the skill to layout and paint signs and turned it into a cheap looking poor designed sign in one feel swoop. Then suppliers and trade mags continued to push stuff to the unskilled. I am sorry but banging on a keyboard is not a skill. Fortunately we have have continued to evolve with technology and with skill and craftsmen to be able to build signs that a lot of shops can not even design much less build. Yes we still build some rectangles and simple channel letters and thats ok to. I am so glad I went the wholesale route a long time ago because competing against hacks all day would be tiring. It seems that even with rectangle and red face channel letters the larger wholesale shops have hit a level that has some minimum standards with materials and UL for the electronic part.

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  • !llumenati

I am sure that we all come across signs like this everywhere. To answer some questions.....Yes the sign was installed and lighting. Hot spots everywhere.

Installed into brick with sheet metal screws with no type of anchors. Blue Concrete screws or Silver sheet metal screws,

whats the difference, its only a color ?

The customer paid for this " Artwork " and thought he got a beautiful legal sign. Why not ? He hired a "Sign Company "

Permits and legal requirements are not even thought about or mentioned. The sign construction and guarantees are worthless

The customer is into this artwork for a total of ...Sign $ 10,800. and has Nothing. New Sign And Permits.......$ 9,300.

Sign Total......$ 20,100. I do not feel sorry for any business who chooses to go with " the Other Sign Company " even when

they are clearly told of the rules and regulations. And the Violations ! They see the products and the companies work.

Now the customer is educated and paid for his education. He now knows and will tell his friends the lessons learned.

There are some "Non Licensed Sign Companies " out there and they do great work. That is not the issue here.

My Licensed Electrician friend said...." How hard is it to put stickers on metal ? "

My response was...." Hard hard is it to plug in an extension cord "

If it was only that simple.

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  • !llumenati

As I've said for years, the expression "You get what you pay for" is wrong. The correct expression is: "You don't get what you don't pay for".

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"Freedom has ceased to be a birthright; it has come to mean whatever we are still permitted to do" - Joe Sobran

I was tired yesterday, I'm tired today, and I'll be retired tomorrow - TD

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Just when you think you have seen it all ....... WOW! We say it a lot on here, and it likely rings true with this one - the customer got 2 or 3 quotes, and went with the lowest COST! At some point you have to stop feeling sorry for these customer that just wants to save $100 bucks or so without regard to quality. They don't even do their homework and check the company out - they just see that number on the page, and BAM - that's who they go with. It's true, they can do their homework and still get screwed, but not as likely if they do. I have customers complain all of the time because I won't install a sign without permitting it. They don't want to have to pay for the permit acquisition fee and the permit. I tell them they should go somewhere else if they want to break the law. That's now how I work!! The folks that did this should be charged and if they have a license, it should be revoked. There is no excuse for "work" like this.

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