Just after picking up my business cards. Extremely annoyed

danton

I've had a bad seven days. Sorry about the length of this post but I'm pretty annoyed.

Last Friday I changed my Meteor plan from pre-pay to bill-pay. In the process Meteor deleted my online account and approx 500 phone numbers that I had gathered over the last 5 or 6 years. They are non retrievable.

Then on Tuesday I rang a well known printing company (Company A) regarding business cards as I needed 50 or so for Thursday evening (yesterday). It was lunchtime so the lady took my number and said that she'd get someone to phone me back. No call. So I rang again in the afternoon and spoke with a male. He said the person dealing with business cards was with a client and so I left my name and number again for them to ring me back. I waited until Wednesday afternoon for a call but no call. So they obviously didn't want my custom.

I then approached a small (2 person) printing shop (Company in the community. They do everything from web design, to stationary to business cards. I had my design done out myself on both PDF and Adobe Illustrator and brought it along to this printing shop (approx 4pm on Wednesday). I said to the owner that I needed the 50 business cards by close of business on Thursday. He said no problem and to call back around the same time on Thursday to pick them up.

On Thursday I called into this shop at 4.30pm. The owner, whom I spoke to yesterday, didn't really recognise me until I said that I was there to collect the business cards. He sat down at his computer for a few seconds, looked at his screen and got back up to tell me that he "didn't actually get a chance to get them done". His excuse was that he was having issues with the ink for his printer and spent the day looking for ink. He asked me for my contact details and said he'd ring me tomorrow (Friday) when he has them done. I had aldready given him my contact details on Wednesday and they were also on my business card file.

I then approached another printing company (Company C) in the locality at approx 5pm who were extremely helpful. They printed 50 business cards and while they weren't able to cut them as they were getting a new cutter installed, they still managed to print them in a matter of minutes. I got them cut at another printers (Company D) for €10 (The quality was excellent). As soon as I got the go ahead from Company C that I was able to get them printed I rang Company B to cancel my order. The owner's wife answered and she said she'd let the owner know. I then got a call at approx 5.45pm on Thursday to say that he had the business cards printed and that they were ready for collection. I told him that I cancelled the order but his exact words were: "I actually put a few other tasks to the side and focussed on getting your business cards done". This was after him telling me at 4.30pm that he hadn't a chance to get them done and he'd ring me tomorrow.

So I was persuaded by my family to collect the business cards from Company B even though I personally didn't want to. I was advised that I am in a similar line of business to one of his services and I didn't want him bad mouthing me. So I picked up the cards this morning and they were wrapped. When I got home I opened up the cards and to say that the job is amateurish is an understatement. There is a large white border around the cards, they are not aligned properly, the paper quality and print quality is sub-standard. I only paid €30 for the cards (50 of them) but I'm not at all happy. I can safely say that I won't be giving these cards to any of my potential customers as I would be embarrassed. I will use the cards I got from Company C instead.

What do people think of this situation? Sorry for ranting on but I needed to vent some frustration?

Oryx

You learned a valuable lesson about who is good to go to for printing, and it cost you €30. Thats about all you can say. Vote with your feet and dont use bad suppliers a second time.

testicle

danton wrote: »

Last Friday I changed my Meteor plan from pre-pay to bill-pay. In the process Meteor deleted my online account and approx 500 phone numbers that I had gathered over the last 5 or 6 years. They are non retrievable.

Aren't they in your phone???

danton

testicle wrote: »

Aren't they in your phone???

Only some of them. Please see my post here

91011

I'm not being funny, but 50 biz cards is probably the smallest order they'll ever get and at €10 - €30 it would probably have zero profit.

In theory the printers should have said that they could not do the job in time. But what probably happened was they took your order and as it was very small they gave other jobs a priroity and forgot about your order.

Poor service alright, but I can also see it from the other side in that it was an inconvienent job.

danton

91011 wrote: »

I'm not being funny, but 50 biz cards is probably the smallest order they'll ever get and at €10 - €30 it would probably have zero profit.

In theory the printers should have said that they could not do the job in time. But what probably happened was they took your order and as it was very small they gave other jobs a priroity and forgot about your order.

Poor service alright, but I can also see it from the other side in that it was an inconvienent job.

I understand what you are saying. I know it was a small order. I didn't want to order in bulk as I've to sort out my landline and permanent address before doing that.

With regards to giving other jobs a priority, I don't think that was an issue. I've been in a few times for different things and he's either chatting to customers or watching YouTube on his PC. I should have know. I know it's not a lot of money but it just frustrates me handing over €30 for cards that I will not use. I'll know better next time i guess.

Jev/N

On a side point, learn to backup your phone numbers just like you would backup your laptop/desktop...

I know it sounds obvious now but it's something a lot of people overlook

judas101

Look at it this way, in future you'll know not to use company X and go to company Y instead. 30 euro isnt a lot.

Could be 30 well spent if you were relying on company x for a more substantial project.

Register your dissatisfaction with them and forget about it.

Also, did you consider the fact that as you are in a similar line of business he could have deliberately made an inferior product for you?

wyndham

Vistaprint ftw!

dudara

You can't blame Company B here - you didn't cancel the order until later. At the time you were getting the cards from Company C, Company B were still thinking that they had an order for cards from you.

looksee

Look, sorry but you are just going to have to put it down to experience. You could have given them a massive order and they could have let you down, you will know not to go there and to use the others instead.

It is not true though to say they would do a bad job for a competitor - I doubt the OP is a competitor, more like a potential source of jobs, and either way it would be to their advantage to do the best work possible. Obviously they are messers, there are a lot of people out there who have a computer and a printer and think they are graphic designers or commercial printers.