A couple of weeks ago I decided to order some business cards that I could hand out instead of having to write down my domain name on pieces of paper for people when my blog comes up in conversation. So, I went over to VistaPrint.com and gave their process a whirl.
It took me about 45 minutes to search through all of their different designs until I had finally decided on and customized my new cards. By the time I was done I ordered two sided, full color, glossy cards on the heaviest weight paper. Yeah, I’m a sucker for upgrades.
I found the entire process to be relatively simple. You pick the design you want, fill in a form with your info, then customize things by deleting unused fields, dragging others around to where you want them, and changing fonts if necessary. All in all, if you can use MS PowerPoint, you can create your own business cards.
I was generally pleased with the order process with only one exception… the pricing “scheme”. When you are designing your products the prices are really cheap. But where they get you is at the very end when it comes time to pay for shipping.
The standard shipping is 21 days for about $7.50. You can bump that up to 7 days for $15 or 3 days for even more. Anyway, when it came right down to it even with the shipping it was cheaper than local printers as well as a couple of other online printers that I looked into.
Now, after I completed the order for 1,000 of these babies for a grand total of $47 including shipping, the system game me an offer to get an extra 500 for only $4.50 more, so I took it. This means that 1,500 full color, two sided, heavy duty, glossy cards came to a grand total of $51.46 delivered.
Over the next week I began to receive e-mails almost every day from VistaPrint.com trying to sell me more and more stuff. It was so annoying that I had to actually use their unsubscribe function in the e-mail. It seems to me that when a company is this aggressive you also have to worry about them selling your address to other companies.
About a week later the cards arrived in the mail. Generally speaking I have to say I’m a bit disappointed with them, but only for one reason. In the screen capture above – which is what I saw when I was proofing the cards – all of the black on the front of the card is clearly the same color dark black. But when I received the cards there is a distinct color differential between the photo area at the top and the rest of the black background. To me, this destroys the aesthetics of the cards, though others have not noticed or told me it looks fine.
I intend to contact the company to ask them to be reprinted as they appear on screen, then we’ll find out what kind of customer service they actually offer. But all in all I would say that so far I would not order from them again. The combination of Spamming me, extraordinarily high shipping costs, and marginal quality printing don’t leave me wanting to rush out and order more from them.
If anyone else knows of a great online printing company please share your experience down in the comments. Thanks!
I was very disappointed with my VistaPrint experience. The cards are kind of embarassing — I don’t use them. I find they don’t survive the wallet test.
There’s also been several complaints that they have bad affiliates that do credit card scamming:
http://internetducttape.com/2006/08/02/is-vistaprint-a-scam/
After looking over several reviews of VistaPrint online, I was afraid to use their free business card service. So I did some valuable online research and came across 1to1 Postcards and I highly recommend this website! It’s really easy to look thru, and there were a lot of desings to choose from. The card stock was thick and came out looking great, WITHOUT any other companies logo on the back! I’d suggest taking a look at this website!
Well, I was searching for information about business cards and came across this very interesting blog.
If anyone needs custum print designs, right down to the minute details, then I can do it for you. You can send the high res images for printing whever you please. And I am a single individual working from my home pc, so I dont spam:)
DO NOT use VistaPrint! I am a graphic designer based two towns over from their printhouse. They are horrendous! Horribly incompentant, overpriced and LOW quality product. Want great service and quality product? Go to http://www.jakprints.com or http://www.printingforless.com or http://www.printpelican.com or http://www.printlizard.com. I do not work for any of these companies, but have worked with all of them. A pleasure to deal with and guaranteed happiness everytime you pass out a card with your name on it! Good luck!
I design logos for horse businesses and now I recommend http://www.printingforless.com and http://www.colorprintingpros.com. Both have free file reviews and both answer emails quickly, and both do quality print jobs.
I am a graphics designer and I can’t say enough good things about http://www.colorprintingpros.com. Their quality is the best I’ve seen and the service is fast and personal. They use the heaviest paper stocks and offer free UV and aqueous coating. They also can do spot UV coating and offer 5 color printing using PMS 877 metallic silver ink. If your looking for printing that’s a cut above just good you have to try them.
I had a fraudulent charge for $356.00 dollars show up on my fathers Bank of America Card from Vistaprint.com. They caught it and called, we were trying to find out who this stuff was shipped and they refused the lady I spoke with says they are located in Jamacia.
I’ve used Vista print many times over the past two years. Bussines cards, brochures and even my own picture Christmas cards and envelopes. The key is select the cheapest shipping!! I have never had it take as long as they say it will. My orders always show up in about 5-7 days. I’ve never had any problem with them.
Do you work for them?
Vista print has made so many mistakes on my orders that it is unbelievable. They even gave me a credit of over $70 and then when I came to redeem, it said that there is no credit and their customer serive sucks. I will never use them again.
Placing an order for my child’s first birthday and all i got was nothing after 9 days. they can’t even tracj=k the order. wasted hours on emails and ohone for nothing. and thier customer service has not been hepful or compensating. instead they refunded the money without even an apology. they could not offer a next day delievery to save the day.
DO NOT PLACE ORDERS WITH THEM TO AVOID WAISTING TIME AND MONEY.
SHERIF