Saturday, March 12, 2011

The tiny print run that fell through the cracks

So here I am. All ready to print our invitation suite... *drums fingers on laptop* and none of the local printers have called me back. It's been three days and not a word. WTH, small businesses?

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Printer #1 gave a phone quote last week, but the number/size of the printed pieces has since changed and I need a revised quote (plus I'm not sure the original quote was 100% accurate because it was so cheap). Hoping to expedite the quote/proof process, I uploaded the final files and job specs. It's been three full days and nothing. The turnaround time for this job? A day or two. Like most businesses, they're closed on the weekend so an answer will have to wait until Monday.

Printer #2 didn't make it easy to get a live person. After going through their multi-layered automated answering service hell, I was unable to leave a message. Calling back this week, I got an operator who put me into a sales rep's voicemail... who never returned my call. When I spoke with the operator, I prefaced my inquiry with the size and nature of the job, understanding it might be on the small side for them. Just call me back - it takes two seconds.

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When I was in college and had to professionally print my work, I must have worked my way through most of the area printers, one by one, as they found new and creative ways to screw up my print jobs. I swore I'd never use any of them again... until recently when one was granted redemption by handling our office's holiday postcard two years in a row without any issues. So I know they're capable.

I'm just anxious to get a quote and a proof so I can order matching yellow envelopes and start ticking off the invitation-related to-do's.

How long did you wait to receive quotes, proofs and the final printed product? Did you run into printer issues too?

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