What Does 10% ‘Overrage’ or ‘Underrage’ Mean?

Why did i get 10% more labels? or, Why did i get 10% less labels?

In printing, it is an industry standard that you will get 10% more or 10% less of your order.

Label Over-run

An “Overage” (over-run) of printed labels means that we have printed more than you ordered.

Label Underrun

An Underage or (underrun) of printed labels means that we have printed less than you ordered.

Why Does This Happen?

The billing will be adjusted to accommodate the extra amount or less amount.

When printing some labels will inadvertently get damaged during the manufacturing process. This is common in the printing industry. This rule applies to custom labels, stickers, paperback books, hardcover books, catalogs, magazines, newsletters,  brochures and more.

We make our best effort to only produce the quantity of labels you need.

When printing some labels will inadvertently get damaged during the manufacturing process. This is referred to as spoilage. To make up for this we will print extra to try and offset this and bring the count of labels up to the quantity requested by the customer. This is one example of how you can get an overrun or underage.

We want to keep our customer label costs down and we want our customers to get what they pay for. For example, if a customer orders 500 labels and our label production actually produces 510 labels, do you think most customers would rather we recycle the “extra” 10 labels as spoilage and simply build that cost into the price of the order? This is not fair to you, thus this is why we have the 10% rule. Simple.

A printing company who doesn’t offer 10% more or less of your order is just building that extra cost into your order, and you are paying a higher amount regardless if you get extra labels or not.

We do accept orders from customers who tell us “Absolutely No Overruns.”   When this request is made, we then must tell customers that they will be accepting of an underrun of up to 10%, which is still within industry standards. The billing will be adjusted to accommodate the less amount of labels.

If this FAQ page does not clear up your understanding of overrages / underrages as they apply to our label orders, please give us a call and we will gladly have a customer service representative discuss the issue with you. We want you to completely understand how billing with this policy helps saving you money and give you what you pay for.