For starters I have been printing magazines with different printers for the past 6 years. My company, INS Media, is a small graphic design, pr and marketing firm. We print 6-8 entertainment magazine issues a year at over 20,000 issues each run. I thought I had dealt with all types of company's but boy was I wrong. I came across Imaging Bureau from a bunch of mailings that I m sure most of your other guys get from printers trying to get your business. I got these mailing for about two years before I decided to give these guys a chance for a pet project we had been working on. It was a small digest magazine, only a couple thousand copies which we would double up our order based on the response from our readers and distributor, i. E we do this for the money not as a hobby.
From the start there were issues. I was quoted one price and quickly given another by a Sherry Copenhaver or Copenhaven. I eventually had to get these quotes again because I guess I ask too many questions when I'm about to spend money. I then requested some samples from her which never arrived (RULE #1: if you don't get samples don't do business). At any rate she is the bait that lures you in because she is nice and appears to give a sh@t but she quickly disappeared.
I was then dealing with Rhonda and Juan. Juan was in preflight and likes to talk to people like they are slow. His responses to my emails were short and matter-o-factly. What he didn't know is that I play stupid just to see how/where tings are going. Hey had an upload form which timed out a couple times so we had to get a direct FTP going in order to get them our files. After a couple issues with our file trying to adjust to there printing capabilities we got it together. They got the PDF files & the BARCODE.
After an almost 7 day stretch I finally get an email saying we got proofs while at the same time I got some random emails from their online proofing system which asked me to OK my proofs, which I did only to get some hard copies in the email. I Ok'd my proofs, signed them and then had to go back to the post office and mail them back! So now we talking another day so at this point we at about day 11 or 12 and nothing has even printed yet. On the 15th day I get an email saying they couldn't print because they couldn't charge my card. So I had to explain to them to break it into two so it would pass through my bank because the amount was too large and I had a daily limit (go figure). After another day of this back and forth we finally get an email saying we are printing, now we at day 21!
Ok so now after almost a month I get these boxes dropped off by FedEx. We checked the shipment only to find that these guys didn't even print the friggin barcode on the magazines! WOW, can I scream now!
So I emailed them to let them know I had an issue and you won't believe the response I got from Rhonda:
Mike - I did investigate and review the preflight notes and I did see there was a lot of Email sent, notes and phone messages left to you regarding your files. On 08/15 after the 3rd set of files were sent, Roxana fixed what she could and release the file to prepress. This is standard procedure. When you sent the 3rd set of files the barcode code was not in the file and Roxana was unaware that an eps file for the barcode would be sent to place into the files.
Needless to say, this is the reason why proofs are sent out for customer to approved. I did pulled the proofs that was signed approved by you and the barcode was not on the proofs nor were there any notation that the barcode was missing and needed to be added. You might want to go online to Discount Labels www.dicountlabels.com and see if you can get some small labels to apply to the booklets.
Rhonda
Wow, she suggested that I go buy some labels and print them myself, well why don't I just print the whole magazine myself Rhonda! So naturally one good deed deserves another so I emailed her back as nice as I could ahem
Email Response to Rhonda:
Seriously,
This is your response to having shipped me a box of magazines with no barcodes which I supplied! This is your response to an issue with customer service! I don't know who Roxana is, but I didn't deal with her, I dealt with you and Ms Copenhaver. Regardless of the number of emails, I supplied the final files and EPS on 8/17. I didn't agree to have my magazine ruined because you guys had to READ a lot of emails and make phone CALLS that's what you do as a business. Calss and emailas are the life blood of any company Its not an excuse to run over your customers. Had I done a google search instead of getting your unsolicited brouchures I would have been aware of exactly the type of "COMPANY" you guys operate. I didn't annotate that I didn't have a barcode because I didn't think you would ignore it in the final run since I supplied it with the 2 & 3rd uploads, but I can see that was a grave mistake. Who prints magazine without a barcode? Do you print magazines without INK, I dont think so. I demand that this order be re-done asap or reimburse me for this order. Please don't make a mistake on your part a costly one for us both as word can spread fast on how your company treats customers.
In the end I got a call from Jessica who is the first person to take this issue serious. Her only recourse for me was to send them back to her to have the barcodes reapplied. WTF! She wanted to do a silk screen barcode and ship me some test samples over night which I would have to go see if they are scanned and then ship her back the proof so they could then run all of the mags again. I politely told her that I supplied this order on 8/13/08 and I just got it on 9/15/08 and I don't have the time to waste any longer.
Needless to say these guys are a joke and should be able to write on paper let alone print on it. I have aV log coming on Brightcove and my websites to let people know to steer clear of THE IMAGING BUREAU
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