Avatar Community Business Center

I have been coming here for several years now, and I really enjoy all the people. The new owners seem very nice, but the best is the staff and the level of care and customer support they give you. I also always feel very welcome when I walk in the door.
If a job doesn’t come out exactly the way I want it the first time, they take the time and effort to make sure it’s perfect, and they always do it quickly.

Super convenient if you live in Fairfax. I have a mailbox here which surpasses any USPS mailbox by far. How come? Because they will call you when you get a package delivered!!! Beat that! Well, you can’t. The people here are well-​intentioned, friendly and capable. I highly recommend Avatar!

Remember the good old days, when you knew and trusted the people who owned and ran the neighborhood copy shop? — those days still exist, thanks to Avatar. On more than one occasion they saved my butt by turning around high-​quality color copies in minutes. Manager Sharon knows her stuff and knows the value of helping her customers.
Avatar is a great local community shop for so many services you can’t find without driving miles «into town», east of Fairfax and points west (where I live).
Highly recommended.

I LOVE this place — I live in Fairfax and use this place as my safety net for all things «office.» I go there for sending FedEx’s (cutoff time there is 2:30 pm for overnight delivery), buying paperclips, a ream of paper, post-​its, etc. But ALSO I go there to get the most wonderfully curated gifts such as beeswax candles, diaries, books by local authors, and a tasteful and broad selection of artisan notecards. They do lamination and poster/​banner printing, as well as invitation printing, faxing, scanning and there are computers with wifi access, too. With a community business center like this, I can do my work from home so efficiently, without having to go all the way into San Rafael to get my supplies.

I am self-​employed and have worked from home for more than 20 years. When I knew I was moving from Oakland to Fairfax five years ago, I took a mailbox here before I even found a place to live, and it’s been my base of operations in town ever since. I get my mail and packages signed for here, make copies, get notary services, ship products to customers, the works. Everyone is wonderful and helpful. The staff help me carry heavy items out to my car routinely. When I needed a third party to send a legal document by mail service, one of the owners walked it over to the post office across the parking lot and saw it off personally. This is independently owned by a married couple who manage a large, competent staff. I’m extremely happy with the consistent good service.

Wow — such friendly service! I was going to go to a large nationwide company, but my wife reminded me of this local, independent shop, and I’m glad she did. I just wanted to send a couple of faxes, and three different workers offered to help me in my short stay! While browsing I noticed some cool cards and magnets, so I’ll be back.

This place is HORRIBLE! They are rude and incompetent with prices DOUBLE what Kinkos charges in San Rafael. The Asian woman who works the back shipping department is incredibly offensive. I went in to get a very simple full service copy job on heavy stock paper. She refused to give me a free proof copy on the stock I was purchasing, telling me it wasn’t necessary at all and if I wanted it I had to pay for extra copies. Then she screwed up the entire job — which cost me $ 80!!! — and blamed me because I should know that the heavy stock paper doesn’t copy the same as regular laser paper. WHAT THE HELL??? She also tried to deny me the local business discount because «I didn’t have a store front»??? It turns out she has a personal belief that only businesses with physical stores are real, I had to argue with her and get a special review from the owner just to shut her ass up and get my 10% discount! This bitch routinely answers phone literally while in the middle of conversations customers, and she does NOT write down the details of your order so of course she forgets the details while she is yapping with someone on the phone in the middle of your transaction.
Basically this place SUCKS and the employees are incompetent unprofessional a-​holes and if you go here for overpriced low quality work you are naïve and will regret it. Go to Kinkos in San Rafael it is well worth the drive to avoid this SHIT SHOW.

Handy location for copies, basic office supplies and notary. The younger male staff are unfriendly, and unhelpful with questions. Something is seriously wrong with their mail handling — they have now lost two packages of mine, they never made it to USPS — beware. Luckily USPS is next door so I have stopped being lazy and go direct now. Faxes are really expensive even with a bulk discount.

Mailing a package to Soquel: This business location is very misleading because the Avatar is on the left side while the US Post Office is on the right side of the parking lot.

I was one of the first customers through the door and I’m still a customer. Wouldn’t dream of going any other place… Steve Wolf

The go-​to place in Ross Valley for copies + printing, shipping, packing, notary service, faxing, etc. Staffed with friendly folks who are pleasant to deal with. Plus they have a cool selection of cards and assorted other trinkets to browse or buy that will make you smile.
The sign on their door says «Only in Fairfax». I think that sums it up nicely — there’s no «chain» mentality at Avatar. :-)

In Ross Valley and need something laminated, color copied, bound, or enlarged? Don’t want to plow through all of that SFD Blvd traffic to get to Kinko’s? Want to buy local, shop local, and support local business owners? Want to see little blue people with pointy ears running around on tiptoe?
You can do all of that by shopping Avatar and you can also pick up some unique little gifty items in the process: Nice greeting cards, unique calendars, mole skin notebooks… the selection always inspires me to shop a bit.
I’m happy that Avatar is still standing after the economy tanked. And I was only kidding about the little blue people.

I like going here. The copiers work well and the staff is usually available to help with layouts. They do get busy and sometime due to the limited staff you have to wait a minute or two. But, that gives you time to look at the selection of paper supplies. They have a great calendars, cards and notebooks.

I love Avatar –good customer service and an area for my kids to play while do a quick wireless print or send a package. The card and gift selection is great for a business center. I walk in, planning to spend $ .15 on a copy and leave with a unique greeting card or a beautiful beeswax candle or a sleek new pen, $ 20 later.
If I really can’t browse through the lovely gifts, it is a quick stop and the employees make sure to get customers in and out. Finally, the location is great for those in Ross Valley/​West Marin, right on Center Blvd. parallel to Sir Francis Drake in Fairfax… and there are 2 big convenient parking lots adjacent (one across the street)/

My new short-​run printer! Yes, I finally have a place a block from home I can trust with short print runs. Service is great, they understand me, I understand them. Their printers are well calibrated and are clean so nothing I picked up had registration, colour shifts or streaks. And they are reasonable and do a good job cutting. High five Avatar.

The service here is great, the people are great, and it’s just overall a nice place to go to. I also like supporting businesses local to me. However, it can be a little expensive. Binding costs twice as much here as it does at Staples, so when I have a lot of binding to do, even though I’d rather support Avatar, I’ll opt to pay $ 25 rather than $ 50 for all my binding. Prints are more expensive too. I love all the stationary, though, and all the gift wrapping options. It’s really fun to go here and buy wrapping for gifts ~ they have hand made paper, that’s actually not expensive at all considering.

Service is very friendly here, and my dog loves the treats and affection the staff doles out, but there copies are really expensive. Not sure when the last reviewer went, but as of today (Dec. 19, 2007), they charge 13 cents per black and white copy and 1.25 per color.

Avatar is a great asset to our (small-​ish) community. Customer service is always excellent, they have a great selection of office supplies and most importantly stock a variety of moleskine notebooks!
We rely on them regularly for faxing, copying, shipping materials and office supplies.

Customer service was excellent, it took about 30 seconds to copy, print and pay! My total was a whole 4 cents (for one copy).
When I have additional copying needs I shall return!
they also ship UPS if anyone out there needs to find a drop off location.
update: faxes are a $ 1 per page… a little steep if you ask me.