You can consider FU to be Follow-Up or F*-Up. Either one will work.
The original UPC blog can be found here.
Here's what I found out this morning, from my client (you're gonna love this):
1. It wasn’t you!!!!! There is a conversion thing needed. I am working on a NEW column in that Excel spreadsheet that you will and copy and paste a code (text string) rather than the actual numbers. ARGH!!!
2. Kip,
You were likely using the wrong font. Use the fine called “UPCTallThin” which is part of that font suite because I have it on my PC after installing it. It does it all for you including the human readable UPC underneath. I’ve tested it and it totally works beautifully!!!!!
I’ve got this all ready for you to copy and paste these Excel CELLS into your design program. I had to install something on my computer and put a macro into this worksheet.
Just click on the cell, COPY, and paste the barcode string (red) into PS text cursor using pt. size 73 and the font called “UPCTallThin” do NOT resize.
Please send me a test.
(at this point I responded to let him know that the font he sent me does not install this font name .. it only installs WASP 39 M.)
3. Weird…yeah when I installed it, it put several barcode font types on my system. UPCtallThin is the last one near the end of my font list. Hopefully it’s not a MAC/PC thing where you need the Mac versions. Ugh….I’ll find out and also re-send.
So he then contacted the printer AGAIN to find out about the fonts, got the right one for the Mac, and forwarded to me, along with the comments from the printer:
"Glad everything worked out. Here is the font.
Don't be too hard on Xxxxx, he is after all only a salesman."
What kinda bullshit is that? Don't be too hard on him? If he's a salesman, he should know what he's asking people to do when he asks it. It is no excuse to be "just" a salesman. If he didn't know what he was doing, he should have asked someone else. So what, everyone else is just supposed to sit back and accept his ignorance? No.
I informed my client that I would be sending him a separate invoice for my time trying to solve the problem. I don't want my client to pay it - I want the PRINTER to pay it. I told my client, if the printer doesn't pay it, then we'll just call it a wash. But I feel very strongly that if they value my client's business, they should take this opportunity to realize the value of TRAINING their salesmen prior to sending them out to advise their customers in a half-assed manner. I feel like feeling a financial hit for this will help them do better next time. I apologized for his having to be in the middle of such an unprofessional situation.
His response:
4. Kippy,
Go ahead and send two bills. I WILL go after them for it. Their pre-production manager says that Xxxxx was just trying to help and is “only a salesman” who doesn’t really know what it entails. He was also on vacation when we ran into problems or maybe we would have gotten the answer sooner.
I appreciate that you don’t want US to part for it. I don’t want to either. LOL!!! I’ll definitely talk to my rep when he gets back from vacation and see if I can get this resolved.
Of course this is NO reflection on you and it was OK that I was in the middle of it.
As I told my client – what probably makes me MOST angry is that WE had to figure this out! How long would the printer have gone on handing us the same bullshit line, only all too happy to charge my client for THEM to do the work in the end, because "the designer" couldn't figure out how to do this?
Unreal. Simply unreal. I ran a test by him ... it took me less than 30 seconds to make the proper UPC. I not only had the wrong font, I had the wrong code.
This whole job could have been finished last week.
