Back in July (Thursday, July 8th to be exact), I placed several calls to some local printing service businesses to get a quote on something I needed printed. I was seeking the price of 45 color or black & white prints on cardstock in 12x12 in dimensions (think scrapbooking paper). Not tough, right? I needed a printing service because my home printer doesn't expand wide enough for 12 inch wide paper. Stupid printer.
A few businesses said they couldn't meet my needs because of the paper size but one company, Sir Speedy, said they could help me. I spoke with a guy for about 10 minutes explaining what I was looking for and the color quote he gave me was around $60.
Holy fuck - that was about $40 than I wanted to spend.
I asked him what it would cost for black & white prints and he quoted me $14. Yes, $14. I was astounded and he explained that color printing is MUCH more expensive. Well no shit.
He also explained that they'd have to print on 12x18 in paper and then cut it down. All this for $14. Hallelujah!
Stupid me waited until this week to follow back up. I just wanted to confirm the quote so I submitted the information online and received this e-mail:
[MrsTwink],
The cost to produce the 12 x 12 inch copies is $56.50 + tax.
The only thing I'm uncertain about is regarding bleeds. If you want the image to extend beyond the 12x12 inch area, we'll need to produce on press at increased cost.
The machine used for this job will place approx. 1/4 inch white border around the edges.
Nancy [Fuckwit]
Sir Speedy Printing
Wow, that's a pretty big difference from $14. I wrote back confirmed that we were talking about black & white prints here. She confirmed. Still confused, I wrote back explaining the quote I received in July and then received this:
I'm sorry. I've asked [turd 1] and [turd 2] if they spoke to you. Neither of them remembers the conversation. [turd 3] and [turd 4] aren't here to ask.
I'll try to figure out who spoke to you and find out what they were quoting.
It's possible the person speaking with you thought they could run the job on our black and white machine, but it doesn't accept the 12 x 18 stock (largest sheet size is 11 x 17).
Even if you want black and white, it has to run on the color machine.
If you want full color, the cost is $61.00.
Nancy [Fuckwit]
Sir Speedy Printing
Hhmmm… now I'm getting angry. How the fuck did the price jump from $14 to $56?! What did I miss?
I called them this morning and was very pleasant. No need for name calling just yet. [Turd 2] answered the phone and when I mentioned the situation, replied, "We were talking about your situation this morning. Nobody wants to fess up!"
Then he puts Nancy Fuckwit on the phone. Well - Nancy couldn't have been a bigger bitch to me. Nothing angers me more than when customer service folk talk down to me as though I'm mentally challenged. As though I don't understand the complicated world of printing stuff. As though I'm a liar who makes up fake quotes.
Well - nobody here remembers speaking to you… Perhaps the guy you spoke to was in the middle of other things and misspoke… oh, you talked for 15 minutes? Well - he must have misunderstood how the printer works… well, we honor our quotes for 30 days so if you would have come in that day, we would have honored that price… although just to cut down the paper would have cost more than that! I don't understand where you're getting that number…" And so on.
Stupid me should have quickly hung up the phone with whoever gave me the miracle quote back in July and drove over to the store. Stupid me assumed that the workers at Sir Speedy weren't fucking assholes.
Yarg!
I called another print service today, ABC Imaging and that guy couldn't have been nicer! When I mentioned that I had owned the paper I wanted to print to, he said we could try it out on their printers to see if it would be accepted (there's a good chance it wouldn't) and the cost would be much less. He even offered to have someone pick the paper up FROM ME today to check it out!
I told him I didn't have it with me but that The Mr works just around the corner from their store and would stop by tomorrow. He quoted me $21.25 if my paper worked, $31.25 if I have to use their paper plus an additional $10 if I need it cut down (and I will).
However, stupid me forgot to get that guy's name. D'oh! Let's hope he doesn't end up being a fuckwit like Nancy.
7 comments:
I HATE hate hate bad customer service! HATE. I have been in similar situations before and feel your pain. I'm glad you found a better place.
My dad owned his own print shop for 10 years. I know more about paper and printing than I ever care to know. I also know a rip off when I see one and Sir Speedy? Blows hard. You want to go with a locally owned, mom and pop print shop and never go to a chain. All they do is gouge. It's terrible :)
I think the motto of most companies is, "Customers are assholes. Treat them as such."
Oh I HATE that. I used to work for a copy place/printer, and any dimwit should've known what paper fits into what machine. Seriously they are jackholes.
I am loving that you have a tag called "fuckwit".
Ugh! That's annoying on so many levels!
i've never had to deal with a printing company on any level as such, and now after reading your post, i hope i never will. i have, however, dealt with complete and utter assholes in customer service and now i get names of everyone i talk to, even if they're fake names (see my post regarding "claire" with the thick indian accent).
i just bought a new dell laptop this weekend after spilling beer on my other one (yeah, yeah, i know.) i'll post about that soon. regardless, the guy i spoke with was a downright southern peach ... sweet as anything ... but i still got his name. owen ... kinda a hot name, ya? anyway ... ALWAYS get names ... always ...
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