Thanks so much for all of the above comments. Very useful
Last year I ordered 170gsm silk A4 posters online. The printers were going to send me 170gsm gloss - They had written the wrong stock on the invoice. I flagged this up and the order was amended at the last minute - which saved the company money in having to do a reprint... It wasn't a big deal because I resolved it before the posters were sent out.
Ok, so they had the wrong paper stock. That might not be a mistake, but maybe the only paper in stock at the time you placed the order. Sometimes paper stocks are substituted by non-graphic designers/printers, called estimators, and gloss is close to silk and the estimator felt it was ok for the print run.
Although, no excuse. Wrong stock = reprint.
Later that year the printer sent me some posters and the colours were washed out. They explained that this was because the A2 posters they printed for me were run on a different machine to the A4's so they came out differently. Initially they blamed me and said it was a problem with the artwork - however we agreed that, that was impossible because the A2’s were dramatically different to the A4’s - it took quite a lot of back and forth contact before we came to a resolution - this resulted in a 2 week delay, numerous emails and phone-calls, I had to send them samples. They didn’t compensate me in anyway for the delay, the postage or offer me a discount on future orders - but this wasn't something I could double check before they arrived.
A4s can run off digital printers, which are not the same as litho. Most digital run up to A3 size, and after that it has to be printed litho.
There is a different colour profile determined for digital and litho - which accounts for the colour mishap.
Should the printer know this - yes, absolutely!
Once I ordered some flyers and posters from them and they forgot to cut off the bleed, but I didn’t ask for a reprint. They looked fine with the bleed left on. The posters were also missing from that order and this delayed me getting the print to my client on time. I wasn’t compensated in anyway. - and again it wasn't something I could check on until arrival.
This rings alarm bells, if you have bleed then you should have crop marks. If it was digital then they printed to a digital printed that printed to the edge of the sheet.
How do you know they didn't trim off the bleed? Did it still have the crop marks on it? Or was it printed to the edge?
I paid £20 for a printed proof of a booklet. I ordered it before 12am so it would come the next day but it arrived 2 days later. When the proof came it had duplicate pages in the middle. I sent an email to request a correct proof and I sent amended artwork. They sent me a new proof using the old artwork. I emailed them again and asked for a new proof using the correct artwork, 4 days later, I received a proof which had the pages in the wrong order and was missing the back page. The final proof they sent - had the trim still attached. I didn’t get a refund for the proof, or any kind of discount offered off my order.
I would have demanded a refund citing the above reasons.
But, you have duplicated pages in the middle, and you sent new artwork and they didn't review.
Queries crop up about the printing company. By now you should be wary - after quote 1 I would be fuming.
Last week, I ordered a banner and some flyers - I sent the artwork all together via wetransfer. I received the flyers the next day, but no banner. I followed this up and received no apology. They told me they had not received the artwork. I explained that I had confirmation the artwork had been downloaded. The banner I ordered to arrive on Thursday actually arrived on Saturday. I wasn’t compensated in anyway.
Is wetransfer what they use normally to download files? Do they have another method?
No banner. No deliver. No excuses.
You need to get harder with them.
Additionally I arrived in Leeds yesterday. I am doing a project there - Some of the print has been taken out of the box and distributed - however I noticed that the print I took out of the box today is a different colour to the other print.
What other print? Who printed it? They did? If they did then there's serious quality control issues to be answered.
If you're comparing your prints, or onscreen then you have to think again, what is on screen, or in your own printer will almost never meet your colour/quality expectations.
This is why you need a colour proof delivered from the printers.
The reason why these things have never been "double-checked on my end" is because those problems are not in anyway my fault or resolvable at my end. The reason why I continued to use that printers is because they are quick - I have placed at least 50 orders with them and the above are the only problems I have. I know that I need to find someone else. I suppose I was hoping that on this occasion the printers would offer me a discount on 'my mistake' because of the amount of times I had forgiven them for theirs..
But this problem was your fault... why would they reprint for free? Over 50 orders and lots of complaints.. demand to speak to owner/director/someone above manager level.
Although you have granted certain circumstances that you are in by every right to receive discounts or refunds, there are always 2 sides to every story.
I would be interested in hearing the rebuttals to your arguments from the company in question.
Honestly, someone that provides constant errors (not directed at OP) I'd question the artwork 100.
Anyone that fucked up my artwork I'd never pay for at all.
