SIGN HANGER

We have used Think Sign out of Louisville, KY and Vantage LED out of California for lower priced LED signs. A word of warning about using Vantage LED. While their prices are usually aggressive they are not loyal to their resellers in my opinion. Vantage offers a (7) year parts and labor warranty with their displays but it is set up with a third party insurance company. We sold a Vantage display to a customer of ours but the display had a service issue after we sold it. The third party insurance company called and asked what we would charge to go fix the unit. They also called my competitor and he quoted a cheaper price so they hired him to go do the service work. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and seeing. We worked hard to obtain and service this customer and Vantage was willing to let another sign company in the door because of their poorly thought out warranty program. When my customer told me my competitor showed up to service his sign I blew a gasket. Here's a sign company I had just defeated in a bid to win this project and then they show up to do service work on a sign I sold. My concerns to Vantage were ignored and I was told I need not sell Vantage displays anymore if I was unhappy. I would avoid using Vantage LED until they realize what they are doing.

SKYSIGNMAN, It is not a quality issue I am referencing. I have sold Watchfire displays in the past and they have failed and required repair too. In fact, one of my previous Watchfire customers disconnected their Watchfire display and replaced it with a Samsung. I didn't get the job to replace it so perhaps it was their way of saying to me keep your Watchfire displays. What I am referencing is the lack of vision on Vantage's part to support their dealer network.

I wanted to bring everybody up to speed on Vantage LED. I had a recent incident where I sold and installed a Vantage LED message sign to a customer of mine. The sign had a problem after it had been running a while and I notified Vantage about the issue. Vantage had a third party maintenance company contact me about repairing the sign and I gave them a price. Apparently not liking my price they shopped around and found a Watchfire Dealer, who is a competitor of mine, willing to do the repair for less then me. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A company I had beat out on the job was now coming to repair a Vantage Sign I had sold and installed. When I called Vantage to complain this was asinine behavior on their part they could have cared less. I am dumbfounded at Vantage's ignorance and foolishness regarding their warranty program. Lesson here is Vantage Displays does not care about their resellers. If you value your business and your customers you will never sell a Vantage Display.

The city of Peru, IL recently put a 90 day moratorium on ALL SIGN PERMITS. Can you imagine these people thinking sign companies and businesses could wait three months for them to re-tool their sign permitting process? After passing on information (Thank You ISA) and attending three weeks of meetings, they finally realized it was unconstitutional to do so, and revised their moratorium to LED signs.

David, We just bid installation for Love's here in Oglesby, IL to the contact below. Christy Kallenberger Project Coordinator christyk@effective-images.net office: 605.753.9700 fax: 605.753.9701

Mark, I have a competitior who used to approach customers we both were bidding and tell them to let me quote and design the sign. He then told the customer to give him my sketch and quote and he would take 10% off in order to win their business (he would then tweek the design to make it "his"). I know it worked some of the time but it also backfired on him too. I talked to some of my buddies who work in other trades and it seems every industry has their weasels. It just seems to me we have more then our share in the sign business.