I wanted to put gold house numbers on the transom above my front door. I figured adhesive vinyl lettering would be easy and effective. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of using Speedysigns.com for my custom lettering needs.
Speedy Signs is not very "speedy". Implied in the name Speedy Signs is that they will fulfill your order quickly. What is not mentioned is that this will cost you an arm and a leg. Their "economy" shipping will run you over $10 and that takes two weeks to deliver. If you actually wanted your window stickers in a few days, it will run you closer to $70-$100 extra. I feel they use "handling" charges to pad their prices. If you really need something quickly, you're much better off using an honest vendor or going to a local store.
Speedy Signs is very expensive. As noted above, the shipping and handling charges are unreasonably high compared to using a local vendor. But the actual product is expensive, too. My house number is "1222". The charge for this was approximately $5 per number! But, I figured I only have to buy these numbers once, so what the hell? Well, I ended up going to a local sign company and paying much less-and with no hidden shipping and "handling" fees.
Speedy Signs makes a poor quality product. First, the colors you select on their order form are different from what you get. I wanted gold numbers with a black outline (so it would look like antique gold leaf). So, I selected "gold metallic". But according to their difficult-to-use, convoluted, online ordering monstrosity, "borders are not available with specialty materials".
Fine, I would just use the plain "gold" instead of metallic gold. But what looks gold on the website is a "rotten mustard" color on the final product. Why do I want that above my front door? Second, the window graphics ship in a cardboard tube that's stapled closed. But the staples are actually through the vinyl sign itself! Great packing job, guys.
Finally, Speedy Signs claims that installation is easy. But do they include any instructions? No. I'm not a complete idiot, so tried to make do without instructions. But during my failed attempts, the vinyl numbers kept rolling up on themselves, sticking to each other, and finally just falling off the glass. Worse, the vinyl lettering leaves nasty gunk on the window that is near impossible to clean off. So, the product was not what I wanted, was poorly packed with no instructions, and was impossible to install.
Speedy Signs has terrible customer service. So I wasn't satisfied with the custom window stickers. I contacted their customer service department asking for either a refund or a replacement. They very rudely told me (in essence) that I got what I ordered and should leave them alone. When I still insisted that I wasn't satisfied, they offered to allow me to buy a replacement for 50% off.
Wow, how charitable of them! If I wanted to pay 50% less for vinyl decals I could have just bought them from one of the many cheaper stores in the first place. I ended up contacting my credit card company and using their dispute resolution process to get a refund. I wanted my money's worth from Speedy Signs, but instead all I got was the run-around.
Speedy Signs has draconian fees and unworkable return policies. Read the fine print! They offer no returns or refunds, and if you want to change or adjust an order it will cost you. Sure, you may be thinking, "But they do custom printing, each job is different so how can you expect a refund?" I have worked with many different printers, and reputable printers offer "proofs" to allow the client to approve their order beforehand.
If there is a problem in the final product, the printer has to fix it—it's not uncommon to reprint entire runs of thousands of prints because of color, bleed, or even spelling errors.in fact, just this kind of scenario is built into the cost of doing business. Remember, it cost almost $30 for one small set of custom vinyl numbers. I would expect a quality product and the customer service to back it up.
BOTTOM LINE: Do NOT order vinyl signs, custom vinyl lettering, or window decals from SpeedySigns.com. You will be sorry if you do.
0 comments