OvernightPrints.com specializes in small business printing including business cards & brochures.
Order Business Cards From OvernightPrints.com
Introduction
After being disappointed with my last business card purchase through VistaPrint, I decided to give it a second try and revamped my design in the process. I opted to buy the ‘Stylish Business Card' theme from ThemeForest and began designing. I loved the look and the finished product looked amazing as you can see from the designer's photo below:
Once I had my edited the business card template to my liking, I had to choose which printing service I wanted to use. I almost went with 123Print, but was more expensive than competitors, so I decided to follow through with OvernightPrints.com, but little did I know I was in for a big surprise (not in a good way).
Uploading & Configuring My Design
Since I had previously designed the business card in photoshop, I visited the ‘business cards' section on OvernightPrints.com website and click “upload your own design”. Within minutes, I had my design configured how I expected and was given an instant proof of what it would look like. The spacing looked event and the information was correct so I was satisfied. Below is the ‘low resolution preview' which matched the proof's outcome, but is a lower quality.
Pricing & Checkout
I followed through the rest of checkout process and opted to order 1000 business cards in the high quality satin matte finish for $49.95. The final cost was supposed to be $61.90 with shipping, but they were running a promotion at the time which gave me ‘VIP pricing' which gave me $15.10 off my order. This seemed like I was getting an excellent deal especially since the same order through 123Print came out to be just under $100 with shipping. The final cost for the 1,000 matte business cards came out to be $46.80 shipped. The checkout process was simple and straightforward there it just became a waiting game for my business cards to finally arrive.
Turnaround Time & Delivery
I officially placed my order on May 23th at 3:10 PM. I received an email on May 28th at 4:21 PM informing me that my business cards have been printed and shipped which means it took them 5 days in order to print the cards. That turnaround time is nothing impressive, but it was still reasonable and I was glad they were in route to my home.
On May 30th at 11:51 AM, I received my order in the mail and they were neatly packaged in one large box. This put the total time between order placement and product arrival at just under 7 days, which is fairly acceptable in my opinion.
Business Card Quality & Impressions
Upon opening in the box, I had one reaction come to mind which was utter disappointment. Though the card stock was of a decent quality, the printing was downright terrible. My uploaded design was completely off center which ruined the clean white border I had anticipated based off of the preview and the designer's photo. What was even more disappointing is that upon further inspection, my uploaded design is not only off-center, it was also printed crooked and the corners have different lengths of white space. In terms of the color and the print quality, I would put it as mediocre at best and on par with VistaPrint's capabilities.
I immediately referenced the sample images on my account and verified that the spacing was correct (as you can see earlier it was spot on with equal borders around all sides). This made me very frustrated, but I gave the company the benefit of the doubt as mistakes happen. I was sure they would see my disappointment and remedy the situation appropriately.
Customer Service & Resolution
The first thing I did was call their customer support number. I received a representative after only a few minutes, the woman on the phone was very short with me and talked to me in a dull and uninterested tone. She tried to reference my order number, but was unable to see the proof therefore informed me to take images of business cards and send them to their email address.
I followed her directions and promptly sent photos of the front of the card, the back of the card, a shot of multiple cards (showing they were all printed incorrectly), and I also attached the low resolution preview that I based my order off of.
Within a few hours I received a response from their support representative Angela, which stated that I must have uploaded the wrong file attributes or has done something wrong on my end to achieve this result.
Angela went on to state:
At Overnight Prints, we recognize that these things sometimes happen. To help you resolve your issue, we will gladly issue you a 50% store credit of the product cost ($34.85). Store credits never expire and can be used with other discounts on future orders.
If you no longer wish to keep the cards, you will need to return the product at your expense for a full store credit of the product cost. Please provide the tracking number for the return right away so we can process your store credit.
Now, I was a bit surprised by this response as even though multiple of their print previews showed the correct spacing, they still claimed I was responsible for the spacing problem. This seemed to me as highly unlikely especially since the cards themselves were not printed on a level angle and were slightly tilted, which is not even possible to achieve during the upload process. Worst of all they expected me to keep the defective cards in exchange for half of my money back in store credit (which I wouldn't use considering how terrible the experience was thus far) or I could ship them back to her at my expense and she'll be “kind” enough to issue me a full amount of store credit equal to my purchase total (again I don't want store credit for something that is defective).
I gathered my thoughts and responded to Angela confessing I was doubting her explanation and that the previews were all matching the correct spacing and looked exactly how I expected them to come out. I did inform her that I would be citing my experience in a review that would be made public, hoping she would show some sort of positive customer support and salvage what's left of their reputation even if it were slightly. Unfortunately, she dropped the ball and things could not be fixed.
She responded back with a response that made me nearly fall out of my chair:
If you review our website's design guide we advise against any borders on your files and we also make sure you are aware that our cuts do shift 1/16th of an inch in any direction during the cutting process. This cutting shift is why we do not recommend borders on your files. The link on the site for all the information on guidelines and cutting is – http://www.overnightprints.com/main.php?A=specs_guidelines. We are not able to guarantee a perfect centered cut and per the Terms of Service that you agree to during the order process, you acknowledge that borders are considered to be a customer error.
In reviewing all of the options I think I may have come up with a resolution that will meet your needs. Please choose from one of the following:
- If a store credit is requested, Overnight Prints will send you a prepaid return label for the defective product. Once that product is received in our facility, a store credit code will be will be issued to your email. Store credits never expire and can be used with other discounts on future orders.
- If a refund is requested, Overnight Prints will send you a prepaid return label for the defective product. Once that product is received in our facility, a full refund will be issued.
I was truly baffled. She stated her company was incapable of printing a design perfectly in the center of a business card and due to their lack of performance, they classify this as a “customer error”. This means their print preview panel DOES NOT accurately portray what your business cards will look like in the final product and are undoubtedly deceiving. I guess the only real mistake I made was not reading the fine print (this will change next time) and realizing how terrible this company really is before I decided to do business with them.
Final Verdict
In the end, my OvernightPrints.com business card experience was extremely disappointing and really opened my eyes to how horribly some companies are run yet miraculously are still in business. I opted to return my 1,000 business card order in exchange for a full refund as I would never do business with the company again. Their lack of professionalism, customer service, and printing performance makes them a nightmare to do business with and I HIGHLY suggest you avoid them at all costs. I suggest trying a competitor like Printingforless.com that has a great deal of positive feedback. I will be writing a review of my experience with them in the near future.
Order Business Cards From OvernightPrints.com
