…did you hear me? I’m officially breaking up with you.”
That’s how I feel about my relationship with printers.
I’ve had a lot of experience with printers and print shops because my work relies on them, but they’re often inconsistent with colors, quality, printing and everything else.
After I finished the design of my invitation, checked for typos, and carefully verified all the colors (using a Pantone chart), I went to various printers for quotes. The print shop I chose was one I dealt with when I was in design school… and since I knew them, I was sure they were going to do a good job. I brought in my artwork on a Monday morning and asked them if they’d be ready by Friday (I absolutely wanted to mail them out that weekend). The lady at the front desk said it wouldn’t be a problem, and told me she would contact me to verify the proofs.
Wednesday came and I picked up the phone and called to see what was going on. She told me that the proofs weren’t ready yet, but reassured me and said, “even if you approve the proofs on Thursday, they’ll still be ready on Friday.”
Thursday came and again I called the lady. “I apologize, the proofs won’t be ready in time, our printer broke.”
It was now Friday and I was hoping they had fixed whatever issue they had with their printer. I called again and she told me, “I’m so sorry, we have the technician on site, but I won’t be able to show you the proofs today. But Monday for sure! Is noon okay?”
Being the nice girl that I am, I said, “Sure, what other choice do I have?” I was angry all weekend long because I couldn’t send out my invitations. On a good note, I took the opportunity to address all of the envelopes (at least that went well), so now I just have to put the invites in the envelopes and voila… off to the post office.
Before I left work at noon on Monday to stop by the print shop, I decided to call just in case. Luckily I did, because the proofs weren’t ready yet. The lady told me to come after work, and I did. I got there and everything looked nice, until I turned the cards over. I had created the background in Photoshop and the rest of the card in Illustrator, and even though it was the same color (pantone CMYK equivalent), the colors looked completely different.
I was so angry, but I was already late and did I really want to redo the colors and go through this whole story all over again? Not really… so I printed them as is. Honestly, I don’t think anyone will notice, but it’s so frustrating to pay for something that isn’t right!
I went to pick up my invites on Tuesday… and guess what? It didn’t happen. They had a problem with the printer again! At this point I was used to it, I didn’t care anymore. On Wednesday - 8 days after I sent my invitations to print - I finally got them. Come time to pay for the bill, they didn’t even offer a discount or anything despite all the issues. I didn’t want to start fighting so I paid and left. I was so happy that was over with.
When I got home and started to assemble everything, I realized that they had screwed up the quantities!!! I’m not kidding you. I had three elements to my invitation set: the invitation, RSVP and accommodation cards. The quantities were 55 in French, 25 in English. Well they only printed 40 accommodation cards. I was in disbelief. Let me just say that some of our guests didn’t get any accommodation cards. There was no way I was going back there to get more printed - no way!
For those who designed their own invitations, did you have any issues? Anyone else want to call it quits with their printer?
you need to summon your inner graphic designer-zilla and call them back to demand a partial refund 
that’s RIDICULOUS! think how a client would feel if you were managing print for them and this happened. I would be on that printer in a second because the client would be on me!
is this a big print shop or small? I would try to speak with the owner and make a big stink out of this for sure. That’s just really poor service!
As a bride to be and graphic designer I can totally feel your pain. Thats just not right. I actually just got my invitations, that I designed, printed and there was only a minor confusion which was somewhat understandable in my case.
The combination of the amount being wrong, the printer always broken and the fact that they couldn’t get the two programs to cohesively work together (with Pantones involved) would make me question their abilities for sure.
Hope things start getting better for you.
I would have been livid! The customer service/retail background I’ve had would have made me demand a refund or compensation of some sort! It’s only right that they should just due to principle. I’m sorry this happened to you. 
We printed our invitations and response cards as two full-color, double sided postcards using vistaprint.com (super cheap and i had used them many times reliably in the past). they arrived on time, but both had weird color streaks through them and odd digital “noise” around the text. i knew i couldn’t send them out that way and immediately called customer service. they re-printed them both for free (perfectly this time) and i received them by the next week. although i was frustrated at the time and hate sitting through all the customer service b.s., i was relieved at the end to mail out an invitation suite that looked like what i had originally intended.
being the one on the other end (the printer) i am completely disgusted for you…
it’s a shame you don’t live in ottawa, i would have taken such good care of you!
and i agree with missrae - demand some sort of refund or discount.
bonne chance!
I had major issues w/ my print shop. The price they told me in the beginning, although they said it was a ballpark, was very different from what they ended up charging me. There were lots of hidden charges which were not discussed with me. I was upset and acted like a coward so my FH made me go back w/ him and say our piece. Needless to say I will not be resturning there, not that they want me back at this point. It was sad to have frustration and bad feelings associated w/ my invitations. They just don’t look the same to me anymore.
You need to call back. Explain calmly the situation. Alert them to your utter disappointment and ask for a partial refund. Tell them you understand that they had problems, but that the problems should not have impacted the invites in the way that they did. If they refuse, well - the best you can do is simply advise others in the future that the operation might not be their best choice. But if you do not call back you are doing a disservice to the store and others. If the store is unaware of what they have done, they might continue to make similar mistakes. Others may run into the same problem as you and that can be particularly frustrating - specially if this store usually does a fantastic job.
how did they mess up the pantones? That’s so bizarre! I could understand if you had them in RGB but not CMYK. You should definitely demand money back after you didn’t get all your prints. I fuss a lot about things. Luckily my printing issues were fine but at work I have a severe hatred with all the printers.
I just met with our main printer last week and they are also helping me out in printing my custom-designing invites. I’ve also used their Pantone charts and am doing everything in CMYK and I’m still very nervous about how all of the colors are going to work out. Especially since there’s a color RSVP postcard involved.
These are your WEDDING invitations. Not that it makes it any more or less important, (in their eyes) but if that had happened in our office, we would go back and get it done right, at no extra cost to us - total reprint or just supplement what was missing. I would at least go in and talk with the owner/manager/person in charge and tell them what your experience was.
Good luck and I’m sure your invitations were/are still beautiful. I know they’re probably not what you imagined but no one is going to know the difference and they’re going to love what you’ve done to make your wedding your own.
Wow, I’m so sorry to hear this…..
I might have a future solution for you, we need to talk.
Andrea
i hope they didn’t overcharge you then?! but, your invitations are so lovely that your guests will totally be all giddy receiving them! hehe. wish i was a guest!! 
I’m totally feeling for you–its so frustrating to spend a lot of time designing something & then have the printer seem so careless!
… but I do have a question: Have you ever printed such a small run with that printer before? With such (relatively) small quantities, they should’ve definitely counted the actual number they printed, but I’ve been told time & again from my work with printers that a 10 percent difference is industry standard. If you haven’t already mailed them, I’d feel confidant going back and explaining the problem. Assuming you printed the originals offset (and setting up the press again is going to create another delay), you could ask them to print the remaining cards digitally on the same paper (gratis, of course)–nowadays professional digital/laser output printing jobs can look really great… definitely not perfect, but just an idea…
I will just relate the story of The Printer I eXtremely Did Not Work With. I sent two print shops my STD design (an 11×17 sheet, to be rather intricately folded per MS Weddings instructions), and The Printer I eXtremely Did Not Work With responded “this is not a normal size for a save-the-date. You need to reformat it to…”
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Thanks everyone for the support on this one… Honestly I didnt want to go back. I even called them to tell them that they had screwed up on the quantities but she only gave me a SORRY nothing else.
My invites are gorgeous and my graphic designer friend didnt even notice the color difference… so I am being extra picky!
But for the production aspect and all of that… they should of given me something in return… but still I hate printers.
Kel — If anyone understands what you are going through its 100000% me!! ABSOLUTELY!! It took me a VERY long time to find a print house to establish a relationship with. Once I did, I was beyond overjoyed because they call me if there are artwork issues, they don’t run things if the color balance is off, and they keep their promises when they tell me deadlines.
Sorry you have to go through this, but I would definitely call and ask for compensation. Hey, maybe even ask for a free print run of thank you notes!! You never know until you ask.
[...] - especially the price because it definitely fit in our budget. Even though I had some issues with the printing, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Now it’s time to design the other stationery items [...]
Mrs. Flamingo, Montreal, Canada
Age and Occupation: 25, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Nursing Student
Engagement Date: December 2004
Wedding Date: June 21, 2008
Venue: Imperia Hotel (modern chic hotel)
About Me: I am a passionate designer who loves anything pretty. I heart all paper products (eco-friendly of course). My passion revolves around anything considered glamour; vintage and modern. In my free time, I love reading Martha mags, designing jewelry and making a pit-stop at Starbucks for a chai latte. I'm also a chocoholic at heart and my family drools over my homemade truffles.
oh man i’m sorry! that sounds awful. my boyfriend (hopefully eventual finance) would have been sent down there to oversee the printing process– until they had it done right, at no extra cost to me! you have way more patience than me, i’m impressed.
at least they’re out though