I found Adeas printing online and I was a little skeptical about the good price and I soon learned why they are lower than anyone else. When I asked for proof of mailing the owner told me to go "F" myself!
I called Monday 11-12-07 and placed an order for mail outs for my carpet cleaning business. As you can imagine the holidays are the hot months so it was imperative I get this done ASAP. I checked with several companies before picking this one.
I spoke with Robin who said she would have to call me back with an exact price. I explained to her the situation during our initial conversation and she was very helpful. I called back around 5pm but they told me she had left w/o giving me price. During our initial conversation she told me it would take about 5 days to print and deliver the pieces. Because she didn't call me back until Tuesday, we were already behind one day.
I called back on Tuesday and she told me she tried to call three times but it just kept ringing. Well, I track every in coming call but I gave her the benefit of the doubt so we proceeded. She asked me for 20% up front but I gave her 100% as a sign of good faith in order to get this done ASAP. She told me the graphics designer would be looking at my pre-made work at around 3pm. I decided to make one last minute change on my artwork and re-submit it. I never heard from the graphics designer until Wednesday.
Wednesday rolled around and I got an e-mail from their graphics person who sent me a proof. There was a misspelling in the change I made because I did it in haste. I fixed the one word and sent back the artwork with a note saying "just go to print, I don't need a proof on this".
Friday rolls around and the graphic person calls me up to say she needs my approval on the artwork. I was SHOCKED! THEY WAITED 2 DAYS TO GET MY APPROVAL TO PRINT even though I already sent a note saying no changes need to be made.
I was checking my online banking at the time I found 2 unauthorized charges for $25 each by this company. I didn't say anything about it but I got the full story from the owner. The charges were because I resubmitted my artwork, $25 each time, even though I submitted the new artwork BEFORE the first proof was even looked at!
I was getting a bad feeling about this. First off the price was way too low for what we were getting. I checked with the post office and the price I paid for artwork and printing was less than what the post offices lowest bulk mail rate is. I also had a very targeted list so I know the postage is even higher because of it!
I decided I should just cancel especially since it took them FIVE DAYS to get a PREMADE graphic approved (basically they just send it back to you in a PDF format, they didn't touch the graphics at all).
So I was split down the middle. Half of me just wanted to cancel and the other half said "just go for it, it needs to be done!" So I called the graphics department and said "OK the proof is good, let's go with it pending I speak to the owner".
Roth, the owner comes on the phone. He sounded like a decent guy until I started explaining what was going on. He said "look, I've heard it from my employees I don't need to hear it again". WHAT? I couldn't believe what I was hearing! He didn't want to hear it. Finally he said "let's just try to get you taken care of". Ok. That sounded fair. So he came back and said "there is nothing I can do, everything is still set for Monday".
So let me get this straight, he didn't want to offer any remedy and he didn't want to hear the complaint. Finally I said "Well, I'll just go ahead and cancel the order and get a refund". He then tells me he's going to charge me something around $150 and the $50 for the graphics.
What? This company completely drops the ball and they want to charge me for it? NO WAY!
So as I was trying to explain to him what had happened he started talking over me. Literally, every time I'd open my mouth to say something he'd talk over me to the point of yelling. What really aggravated me the most is I was trying to tell him exactly this "look, I understand you are busy but so am I. I am running a business here so let's just do whatever needs to be done to get things running smoothly". It was apparent we were playing his game and no other.
Then Robin calls me up and tells me I have drop everything I was doing, get to a fax machine in the next 12 minutes, sign a "special order contract" and fax it back to her. Excuse me? I wasn't even in the office and I already paid up front! The deal is done!
I called him back and told him I paid for a service and I expect that service to be completed or I expect a prompt refund. He asked me if which one I wanted so as I was explaining my view about doing business with them he kept cutting me off
"so what the answer yes or no?" I tried to say "well, if it's going to be done on Monday and no other day then let's do it". But before I could even get to the word "going" he cuts me off again. "yes or no, yes or no, just a simple yes or no."
I COULDN'T BELIEVE HOW I WAS BEING SPOKEN TO! I kept saying "Sir, if you would give me a moment to speak" but he kept interrupting me with the same thing. At this point I was just fed up with it and so be it if I have to call another company and send these out 7 days later on top of the 5 days I was already behind.
As I was about to say "just refund my money", as soon as the word "just" came out of my mouth he says
"I'll make it easy for you, why don't you go "f" yourself". WOW! I can really learn a lot from this guy! He must have a really successful business talking to his customers like that!
See, what he doesn't realize is we do mail outs once a month. Not only did he lose out on this order but he lost out on every order every month.
My motto is a happy customer will tell 10 people but an unhappy customer will tell 100. Well, I'm out to tell 100 people about my experience!
You can excuse a company for dropping the ball. Hey, we all get busy. But you CANNOT excuse THE OWNER when he is completely rude and unprofessional and then tells you to go "f" yourself.
I called my bank immediately to dispute every charge. They took care of it all. As a merchant I know about the fee's involved when getting a charge back. So not only did he lose the profit from this order, the profit from all subsequent orders but he's negative from the fee's merchant services charges for a charge back!
Hey Roth... Was the bad attitude worth it? You actually spent more time arguing with me than the time it would have taken to just listen to what was going on!
Nice work buddy!
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