The PDF I sent was the wrong version and the client printed 200 copies

Was at the print shop in Austin last Tuesday, my hands shaking while I double checked the file on my phone. The client had approved a draft with the old logo, somehow my Dropbox synced the revised file after I already emailed it out. They had already run 200 brochures before I noticed the footer said 'Acme 2019' instead of their new rebrand. I ate the $340 reprint cost and now I have a checklist I run through before every single file transfer. Has anyone else been burned by syncing delays or am I the only one stupid enough to trust it?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel_clark371mo ago

Wait, you actually trusted Dropbox to sync before you verified the file on the client's end? That's wild, man. I've been there too though, my Google Drive did the exact same thing to me last month with a contract PDF. The worst part is you can't even be mad at anyone but yourself, because the stupid cloud is supposed to be the reliable one. Now I've got a rule where I never send the link, I download the file and attach it directly, and I literally check the file name and size before I hit send. It's a pain, but it beats eating $340 and having to explain to your boss why the logo is from five years ago.

rowan_thomas841mo ago

Making a local copy before sending is the only way I stay sane now, saved my skin twice this year. Even if the cloud says it synced, I open the file and scroll through it real quick before anything goes to a client. Takes an extra thirty seconds but that's nothing compared to the headache of chasing old versions around.