I am a graphic artist and have had great success with GotPrint on multiple occasions. The clients love their cards, their inexpensive I couldn't be happier to send my business there. However, in light of recent events I can no longer use them.
A client of mine had had her business cards printed at a local print shop. Running low on her cards, with a large event looming, she asked my suggestion for a printer and I told her about GotPrint. I gave her the contact info for some of my clients in related fields who gave the company rave reviews. So, using the same file I had given her for the other print shop, (A CMYK.tif file) she submitted it to GotPrint, and when her digital proof came in, she approved it, eagerly waiting her 5,000 new business cards.
When they came in her brown toned cards were GREEN, not just tinted green, but everything was green. She emailed GotPrint who told her that she approved the design, and they just print what she gave them, so they're sorry she's unhappy but she can get a discount on her next order. She emailed them back a scanned copy of the old cards and the GotPrint cards to show the difference, and was told to contact customer service.
She contacted GotPrint herself at first, and was treated very rudely by the customer service person she got. When she said she was the president of "company X", the guy on the other end said "Good for you", when she asked "excuse me?" he said "That's awesome." She asked for a supervisor and was told that they were all at a training meeting and wouldn't be back for 3 hours. She took his name down and called me.
I was horrified that my client was treated like that and called them back immediately. I talked to a very helpful customer service person who informed me that quality control was on lunch and she would contact me in about half an hour when she got back. An hour later when I still hadn't heard anything I called again, getting a different customer service rep who informed me QC was on another call, and would contact me shortly.
I received a call about half an hour later, and explained the situation. I emphasized that I had had other cards printed successfully, and that the exact same file had been printed elsewhere and came out perfectly. She said that I must have sent an RGB file. I said, no, I hadn't, and as stated before this exact file had been printed elsewhere and came out fine. She said that different printers print things different ways so even though it prints fine elsewhere it doesn't mean it's going to come out the same there. She said that they do gang printing and that's why they're green.
I told her that all that meant was that there was going to be a lot of people with green cards, and she said "Not if they sent their files correctly. You can update your files and we can print them at a discount." I asked her if this meant that my client had to eat the cost on these cards that she can't use, and then pay MORE money for cards that don't have a predictable outcome. I was told "Well we will send you a proof for you to approve" I answered back "But those are in RGB!"
She then tells me that it must be the fault of the file that I sent and comes back to tell me CMYK percentages are all wrong, and that's why they didn't print correctly. She then rattles off my color percentages, saying that was the reason for my green cards, and I again informed her that there was NOTHING wrong with the file, that it was a mistake on their end. She told me to just change the colors of the file, which obviously isn't an option. I was on the phone with that representative for 20 minutes and never got anywhere.
I ended up informing her that since there is no way to get predictable results there is no way that I can use their products for my clients or myself, as I can't afford a crapshoot on if my cards will turn out well or not. I canceled some pending orders that I had, and washed my hands of GotPrint.
I think it's sad that the situation was handled so poorly, as the cards I have gotten in the past came out gorgeous, I just can't take the risk of wasting $100 - $500 on if my products will turn out well.
Edited to add that this was sent to my client with no forwarding message.
There is a problem in order # GP_498638
Date: 12/05 16:26
Status: ELEVATED
Message:
Spoke with kristi X for order number 498638 as soon as i got the call
She was adamant about talking to a supervisor, no supervisors were available
At this time everyone was at a meeting i asked her if i could help her but
She still said no in a rude tone, i kept telling her there isn't any
Management i can send her to at this time and if i could be of any
Assistance she said no i called George to get some info on a email he had
Sent her, in order to get to a final conclusion on this order she had to
Respond to the order but she said she doesn't have time nor is she going to
Bother with this automated stuff and still wants to speak to a manager and
Proceeded to tell me about how shes a company CEO i told her that is great
She got mad thinking i was making fun of her so she changed her tone to an
Insulting volume and told me i needed to be getting trained on my CS
Thinking i meant it in a sarcastic way than i told her its great she owns a
Company i would like to do that!
To one day and she replied at the rate your going your not going to get
Anywhere at this point i told her shes out of line and if she wanted to
Speak like this with anyone els they would hang up on her and she got upset
And took down my name and i provided her with my last name so she couldn't
Have mistaken me for anyone els
Vg-12-05-07
My problem with this is aside from the fact that I trust my client's account explicitly, which severely differs from this one, why would this CS person inform her that all Quality control personnel were in a meeting when in actuality they were not? Why can't a request to speak to a supervisor be handled in a civilized manner?
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