did you hear me? I'm officially breaking up with you" That's how I feel about my relationship with printers. I have a love/hate relationship and now the hate has taken over. I cannot say it enough : I HATE PRINTERS! OK maybe hate is a strong word...
I'm allowed to call it quits, because I've had way too much experience with printers and printshop. Unfortunately my work must rely on printers and they are never consistent in the colors, the quality, the printing and everything else. Why is it so hard to get things right the first time around. I'm so frustrated and wish I could live without them! (Printers that is)
Here is what happened....
After I finished the design of my invitations, carefully verified all the colors (using a Pantone chart) checking to make sure I didn't make any typos, I went to various printers for quotes. The printshop I chose was one I dealt with when I was in design school... and since I knew them I was sure they were going to do a good job. I brought in my artwork Monday morning and asked them if they thought they'd be ready by Friday (I absolutely wanted to mail them out that weekend) The lady at the front desk, said it wouldn't be a problem, and told me she would contact me to verify the proofs.
Wednesday is here, and I still haven't receive a call from the lady at the printshop. I picked up the phone and called to see what was going on. She told me that the proofs weren't ready yet, but again, reassured me and said,
Monday is here, its almost noon, but before I leave work to stop by the print shop, I decide to call just in case. Luckily I did, because the proofs weren't ready yet. The lady told me to go after work, and I did. Finally time to approve the proofs. I got there, everything looked nice, until I turned the cards over. I had created the background in Photoshop and the rest of the card in Illustrator, and even though it was the same color (pantone CMYK equivalence) it was completely different. I was so angry.... but at the same time, I was already late and did I really want to redo the colors and go through this whole story all over again? Not really... so I printed them as is. Honestly, I don't think anyone will notice, only the designer in me... but its so frustrating to pay for something that isn't right!
Its Tuesday now and as I was going suppose to get my invites... well guess what? It didn't happen. They had a problem with the printer again! Big shocker!!! I this point I was used to it, I didn't care anymore... it was to that point, so I waited until the next day. Wednesday is here, 8 days after I sent my invitations to print and finally I get the invites. Better late than sorry... ya right. Come time to pay for the bill, the lady didn't even offer a discount or something because of all the issues regarding my invites. I didn't event want to start fighting about a percentage off... so I paid and left. I was so happy that was over with.
When I got home and started to assemble everything, don't I realized they screwed up the quantities!!! I'm not kidding you. I had three elements to my stationery: my invitation, RSVP and accommodation cards. The quantities were also easy 55 french, 25 English. Well for the accommodation cards, they screwed up. They printed only 40. I was in disbelief. Let me just say that some of my guest didn't get any accommodation cards. There was no way in hell I was going back there to get more printed. No way!
Isn't my story surreal? Guess I have to add it to my vendorzilla stories (not that they are considered a vendor - but still an important part to the whole invitation thing)
For those who designed their own invitations, did you have issues like I have? Anyone else want to call it quits with printers?
{Image found here}
Here is what happened....
After I finished the design of my invitations, carefully verified all the colors (using a Pantone chart) checking to make sure I didn't make any typos, I went to various printers for quotes. The printshop I chose was one I dealt with when I was in design school... and since I knew them I was sure they were going to do a good job. I brought in my artwork Monday morning and asked them if they thought they'd be ready by Friday (I absolutely wanted to mail them out that weekend) The lady at the front desk, said it wouldn't be a problem, and told me she would contact me to verify the proofs.
Wednesday is here, and I still haven't receive a call from the lady at the printshop. I picked up the phone and called to see what was going on. She told me that the proofs weren't ready yet, but again, reassured me and said,
"even if I approved the proofs on Thursday, they would still be ready on Friday."Thursday is here, its almost noon and no call in sight, again I called the lady
"I apologize, the proofs won't be ready in time, our printer broke" Are you for real? No way!!!! But what could I do at this point... nothing.Its now Friday and I don't have my invitations like they said I would. So now I'm hoping they fixed what ever issue they had with their printer. I called again, the lady knew it was me before I even said a word. That's not a good sign. She told me
"I'm so sorry, we have the technician in sight, but I won't be able to show you the proofs today. But Monday for sure! Is noon okay?"Do I have a choice? Not really, so being the nice girl that I am I say "Sure, what other choice do I have?" I was angry all weekend long because I couldn't send out my invitations. Especially when the situation is extremely frustrating. On a good note, I took the oppurtunity to address all of the envelopes (at least that went well), so now I just have to put the invite in the envelopes and voila... send to the post office.
Monday is here, its almost noon, but before I leave work to stop by the print shop, I decide to call just in case. Luckily I did, because the proofs weren't ready yet. The lady told me to go after work, and I did. Finally time to approve the proofs. I got there, everything looked nice, until I turned the cards over. I had created the background in Photoshop and the rest of the card in Illustrator, and even though it was the same color (pantone CMYK equivalence) it was completely different. I was so angry.... but at the same time, I was already late and did I really want to redo the colors and go through this whole story all over again? Not really... so I printed them as is. Honestly, I don't think anyone will notice, only the designer in me... but its so frustrating to pay for something that isn't right!
Its Tuesday now and as I was going suppose to get my invites... well guess what? It didn't happen. They had a problem with the printer again! Big shocker!!! I this point I was used to it, I didn't care anymore... it was to that point, so I waited until the next day. Wednesday is here, 8 days after I sent my invitations to print and finally I get the invites. Better late than sorry... ya right. Come time to pay for the bill, the lady didn't even offer a discount or something because of all the issues regarding my invites. I didn't event want to start fighting about a percentage off... so I paid and left. I was so happy that was over with.
When I got home and started to assemble everything, don't I realized they screwed up the quantities!!! I'm not kidding you. I had three elements to my stationery: my invitation, RSVP and accommodation cards. The quantities were also easy 55 french, 25 English. Well for the accommodation cards, they screwed up. They printed only 40. I was in disbelief. Let me just say that some of my guest didn't get any accommodation cards. There was no way in hell I was going back there to get more printed. No way!
Isn't my story surreal? Guess I have to add it to my vendorzilla stories (not that they are considered a vendor - but still an important part to the whole invitation thing)
For those who designed their own invitations, did you have issues like I have? Anyone else want to call it quits with printers?
{Image found here}
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