Warning to small business: do not use overnightprints.com

Note: we have seen many pages disparaging overnightprints.com. However, a lot of them are very anger filled, (understandable) and we wanted to relay our experience with them, without the lens of rage. So here now is a good chronological telling of our experience with Overnight Prints.

With the new year, we felt it was time to get some new business cards. We wanted something nicer than just the usual. One of the things which caught my eye, was that Uriel had gotten some bookmarks for C2E2. They were spot glossed, and I have to say…they looked really really nice. She got them from a company called overnightprints.com. They were sharp, well cut, and just beautiful:

Originally, Uriel had some concerns. When she contacted them for samples, she did not receive any samples for weeks. While this should have tipped us off, the fact that the bookmarks came out so clean, and arrived when promised led to the belief that OP.com provided a pretty good service. What we found out was that OvernightPrints.com’s run of Uriels bookmarks was the exception, and not the rule.

After C2E2 was over, we began work on business cards for everyone here at Double Cluepon. Uriel actually put together a whole new design for the cards. The cards were two sided, and she performed the masking as overnight prints specifications required:

As you can see from the screenshot (from their own site) we had the masking correct on the front of these cards. The back had spot glossing too. Over the top and bottom borders, and over all of the wording/information.

So, we placed our order on Friday, March 25th. We wanted to get them by Saturday, for our general staff & board meeting. We selected a receipt date of April 1st. We should maybe perhaps have taken that as an omen. But, again…the bookmarks were awesome! What could possibly have gone wrong?

One of the first things I actually noticed was, having placed the order on the previous Friday, I figured…it would be run some time during the week. Periodically I checked on the status of the order and I noticed it did not list it as “in production” until late Wednesday. But, I assured myself…this is an offset press job. These people know what they are doing. I’ve worked in Offset printing, my dad was one of the foremost repairmen for Meihle. He moved or touched or worked on every press that was on Printers Row. He was a Miller man. He even helped put up one of the first Dry Offset sheetfeds in the country. I grew up crawling around in cornstarch. I used to come home smelling like Blanket Wash and Kerosene. I was not worried, because…while there are a lot of pressmen who do it for the money, they all tend to put out decent product.

Skip forward to April 1st. When I opened the box, my heart sank. Just completely sank. One of the first things I saw was absolutely horrible scoring on cards. Not in the middle, but at the front of the stack:

This appeared on all sets, in varying counts..click to enlarge.

So, as I begin to look at the cards, I see nearly immediately…there’s a huge problem. On the front of every single card…the spot glossing is upside down, and transposed:

Look inside the square. Why is there an E there?(Click to Enlarge)

Revenge of the wayward E! (Click to Enlarge)

The sad bit: this is on the entire run of cards. Nobody caught it, or they just did not care in the slightest. But, these were not the only flaws. Upon further inspection of the cards, we saw a myriad of other issues:

Mottling/Splotches: How did this happen to come up in all batches? (Click to enlarge)

Oops! Missed Two Colors! This happens when someone mixes "make ready" sheets with actual production. Shoddy.(Click to enlarge)

Who knew? We changed our logo! Actually, this is more make ready garbage. (Click to Enlarge)

Of course, none of them were cut to any kind of consistent size either…some were off by as much as 1/8th or 1/16th of an inch:

How do you fail at cutting something with a standard template size?

Now, I realize that in any offset print run, there are bound to be misprints, or one or two defective units. It happens. However, the sheer number of defects was troubling. Not to mention, most of the defects we found were in the beginning of the stacks. Despite all that, there was no excuse for missing the fact that they transposed and flipped the UV Spot glossing on the front of the entire run.

We were, needless to say, very very unhappy with what was sent to us. So, I then placed a call to Overnight Prints. I spent 15 minutes on hold and was then connected to Angela. Angela put on a very good show. She wanted to help. Okay. I let her know this is the worst offset printing I’ve seen in my life. I openly questioned the sobriety of the person who ran it.  I then informed her that, having had this very unsatisfactory experience I would give Overnight Prints one chance to correct the issue. Here is what Angela had to say:

1) She would issue an RMA for the box of defects we received.

2) She would put in an express order, to be delivered on Saturday (the next day).

3) She would flag it for inspection.

I took her at her word, because I needed the cards, and because she seemed genuinely willing to help solve the problem. Had I known then what I know now, I would not have accepted this solution. Unfortunately, as we all know: hindsight is 20/20.

Saturday comes, and around 11:00 AM, having not received a fresh box of cards as promised I call Overnight Prints. I was then informed of the following:

1) They were not able to get it out the previous night.

2) It would be here on Monday.

So, strike number two. Not only did they break their commitment to have the cards here on Saturday, they did not even possess the basic customer service skills to phone me, and let me know there was an issue. Cant meet the customer on something you promise? That’s a follow up call. Period. Where I come from at least. If you try to make things right, you continue to try to keep making things right. Follow up is so essential to this. Especially if what you told the customer is no longer true.

I was annoyed, but figured eh, maybe they’re actually taking some extra time to inspect the order. I was annoyed, but I figured…nothing I can do about it.

Monday rolls around, and when 2:00 PM gets here, I have no cards. In fact, I have no information at all. So, I call Overnight Prints. At this point, I consider the business relationship abusive. Overnight Prints is like a friend who is all smiles, and cool when they want something, but when they owe you…you have to track them down.

I call and wait on hold. I get a customer service rep who sounds, literally, like he has had the life sucked out of him by the Skeksies from The Dark Crystal. I cant even understand him when he says his name. Once again, I explain the problem to him. He proceeds to put me on hold numerous times for a total of 20 or so minutes while he figures out what to do. He eventually tells me: it will be here tomorrow. I tell him flat out: I do not believe him, connect me to a supervisor.

I spend another 10 minutes on hold, while he “finds a supervisor”, and then it takes another 10 minutes for this supervisor to get to me. At this point, I’m thinking to myself…if supervisors are this in demand, just how many people do they piss off in a day?

Finally, the supervisor answers. Her name is Semina. Now, you’ll see her talked about on Overnight Prints facebook page and all. You might think she has some kind of magical customer service powers, but you would be wrong.

I explain to her the situation as it stands. I tell her flat out: this is unacceptable. After some back and forth on how awful things are, she relays the following to me:

1) The woman I spoke to on Saturday, didnt have access to shipping details, because that system is only available during our production hours. My response was: so, she didnt actually know what she was talking about?

2) Now, near direct quote from Semina: we were advised by our shipper we couldnt get it out for Saturday.

3) As the call progresses, and I spend more time on hold, Semina then informs me that they have to re-print the job again. Wait, what? I thought UPS held it up. The job is wrong again? Which is it?

4) She refunds me for the shipping.

5) She assures me I will have my cards on wed, they will be right. If they are not going to arrive by Wed, she will call me.

Total time on this call: 59 minutes and 8 seconds. How much of it I spend on hold? 90% of it.

On tuesday, I receive two emails. The first one says, there was a delay in shipping. The second one says: we are shipping it now. I already know in the back of my mind what UPS will be carting up to me.

So, here we are today. The cards arrive at 7:30 AM. I sign for them, bring them in…and lo and behold….

Every single card has transposed, upside down spot glossing on the front. One run of cards was cut horribly (you can see the top of the other card on the bottom) The entire run is botched. Again. The job they said they reprinted twice internally. The one flagged for “Inspection”. The one they assured me would restore my faith in Overnight Prints.

Total. Complete. Fail.

After speaking with Semina after this latest batch of fail, she of course goes with the “the people who print don’t actually look at things, because we gang run multiple jobs”. Excuse me but, gang run or not, if you have pressmen who are not pulling 10 sheets per 5 or 10,000 to look at things like:

• Registration.
• Spot Gloss Quality.
• Color saturation and quality.
• Smudging.
• Alignment.

Then you are not actually performing any service whatsoever. You are printing on the basis of hoping you get the job right. Gang Running is not an excuse. Lots of shops gang run. I’ve worked on crews with gang run jobs. We still pulled sheets. When you perfect a press to run for production, it does not always stay that way. They tend to vibrate a great deal. It can do everything from muck up registration to mess up alignment over time. You always lower the delivery guard and take a few sheets to make sure everything is still good quality.

No, what happened here was: a distinct lack of care or concern about the product they produce. A distinct lack of reliable information about what they do internally. Semina told me that when they put the rush on, the inspection flagging was removed. How do you run a business with tight logistics without a solid process from front of the house to the back of the house? The answer is: you cannot. Overnightprints.com proves this. The fact that an entire run was produced again, at the expense of overnightprints.com and it was wrong tells me this is a company that does not have a solid business.

She (Semina) even offered to run the job again, this time with inspection. As if.

At this point, we are officially done with Overnightprints.com. We’re going to be given a refund. But, unfortunately we cannot make up for the loss of time, the loss of use, the loss of sleep over this ridiculous issue.

We can absorb that though. But, if your an artist (and yes, we know a few) and you go to conventions, and have tables at artists alley’s and you have tight deadlines: we strongly warn against using overnightprints.com. Especially if your livelihood depends on having printed media for sale. Imagine if your job, which you need delivered a week before was the job we just tried to get run: it would be a disaster. You might even lose significant opportunities to sell.

In closing, we boxed everything up, and put a sheet with the following on it at the top of the box:

—-

qual·i·ty

/ˈkwɒlɪti/ [kwol-i-tee]

–adjective

1.  of or having superior quality: quality paper.

2. producing or providing products or services of high quality or merit: a quality publisher.

quality assurance

- noun

1.       a program for the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service, or facility to ensure that standards of quality are being met.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I can only assume one or a combination the following from these two separate prints of this job:

1)      Sobriety is optional.

2)      You employ blind people who print and inspect using only touch.

3)      You run jobs in complete darkness.

4)      You don’t actually want repeat business.

Be sure to check out what we have to say about your 10^th rate horrible service on the web!

http://blog.doublecluepon.com/overnightprints-com/

By the time you receive this, it will be posted, complete with pictures! I hope the shame leads you to perhaps ponder the definition of Quality and Quality Assurance. (See Above, unless of course, you have the lights out.)

I would also like to let you know, we have now chosen a reputable and quality printer who not only beats your price, but understands that you actually have to look at what you print, before you put it on the dock. No, it’s not Vista Prints. It’s actually a local shop, here in Chicago. I can even go pick up the job myself.

Between myself, my director of Marketing (you screwed up his cards too), two of my artists (yes, you messed up their cards as well) we will be attending every regional and non regional anime/comic and game convention in the United States this year. While we will definitely be promoting our own products, we will be making a special effort to make sure we point people, especially artists in the artists alleys to the above URL. We love making games, and so we’re going to gamify real life, and have fun trying to dissuade people from ever going near your service.

Regards,

The Double Cluepon gang.

 

 

If you have questions, comments or concerns…or you want to vent about this dangerous and wretched vendor, by all means…leave it below. Help get the word out. Overnightprints.com is a dangerous vendor because quality is an exception, and not the rule. Any business that operates along those lines is a danger to the consumers who may patronize them.

UPDATE: We selected a local printer, and had great results. If you want to see how well our cards turned out, check this post. We encourage everyone to find a good, solid local printer…rather than use a gimmicky website.