Geary Print Shop

Prices and quality were great! Treated very well. This is the place to go for all your printing needs!

Overpriced and very unprofessional! Wanted to charge me $ 2 for a single fax and $ 1 for a single black and white copy. They couldn’t even get my fax through and wanted to charge me for every attempt. More likely to charge than provide a quality and hopeful service. You won’t find that here!

I found this place by driving by on Geary and was excited to find a print shop in my neighborhood. I was looking for a place that could bind my booklets with a wire binding, so I called this shop and spoke to a nice guy over the phone. He was really helpful and said they could do it quickly, so I came in right away. I walked in and the woman at the counter kinda stared at me and then rudely asked what I needed. I explained that I needed binding. I chose the style and she proceeded by ORDERING her employee (I think the guy I talked to on the phone) to look for the size I needed even though he was busy with another project and that she was standing right next to the wall of disorganized boxes of binding. He climbed on top of a table to reach the boxes, but every time he pulled the size SHE asked for, she would yell at him that it was the wrong box! She must have yelled at him 10 times! It was so uncomfortable hearing her yell at him for doing nothing wrong! After about 10 minutes of looking for the binding, I asked how much it would cost. She quoted $ 60 and it was for 3 thin booklets (about an 1/​8″ thick) that were already printed! The price included an additional charge because I printed it! She also added another $ 5 for a plastic cover for each booklet. On top of it, I had no confidence in her that she even knew what she was doing or if I would get my booklets back in one piece. Needless to say I walked away without binding.
I will not return to this store because I don’t want to be nickled and dimed and sit there to watch the owner demean her employees.

This place is a mess– horrible print quality and much too expensive. The lady who runs the place is a nut; tried to convince me that this horrible quality was the norm so I went down the block to office max and got the same job done in two minutes for a lower price. I’d support local small business if it didn’t try to overcharge me for shoddy work.

This is a terrific print shop. I have been coming to Geary Print for many years; they have done my letterhead stationery, envelopes, and other office printing needs. The work has always been high quality and efficient. The staff is friendly and oriented to customer service. Geary Print is a rare find.
Stephen I
San Francisco

If I went to this store again, I will cut myself. I went to this store once and it was a totally totally nightmare.
Here is my story.
I was going to ask a perfect binding. I gave them all the papers and cover which I already printed and cut (expect the cover). Because it was my final project, so I chose really nice paper for both inside and cover.
The young guy told me it would be done in 5 hours which is the same day. And he said he would call me after he done. I was good with that, before I need my book tomorrow for my class.
After 5 hours, no one called me. So I just went to this place and the old woman told me the young guy cut himself while cutting my cover. And he went to hospital. I was sorry about this, so I said when can you finish then? The old woman said, if he can’t do it, I will do it but maybe it will not be a good job… I’m kidding. Tomorrow 12pm, I will finish it.
I didn’t blame them anything, I said it’s ok. Because I was sorry about the guy who cut himself. But the paper he needs to cut is only ONE sheet. I cut hundreds sheet per day and never cut myself.
Anyway, I called them before I went to there on the second day. The old woman said, it will be done in 2mins.
So I just went to there, the real nightmare started. They completely ruined my book.
The glue is bleeding, my white cover is dirty, scratches, fingerprints etc… I even can’t open the first page because it sticked together. The old woman told me she won’t charge me for this book. Of course, you are not. I really don’t what to say. They wasted my time and money. My class will start after 3 hours and I have to go back home and reprint the whole book.
STAY AWAY from this unprofessional and poor store, guys.

Complete rip off! $ 14 for faxing 6 pages!!! I don’t need to fax very often but wth?!!
Like the others said, the Asian lady here needs lessons on customer service. She didn’t even greet me.
Took forever and I was so shocked at the price. There are many other copy places around here. Go to those. I came here because it is closest to me. I’ll be taking my business to the Kinkos on Stanyan.
No wonder this place is always empty. Good lord, I feel bad for the employees here. The job market cant be that bad!
AT LEAST ASK FOR THE PRICE BEFORE YOU USE THEIR SERVICES!

The other day we saw «Perks of Being a Wallflower» at the Bridge Theater (
). Set in around 1990, the movie has several characters giving each other Mixed Tapes they made specially for the other person (CD-​Rs were introduced in 1990, so tapes were still the way to go when you made a special mix of music for someone in your life). I got a chuckle out of this because I had just gone through the 2000’s version of this — making a CD for someone’s engagement party. In the day of playlists and links to music, we chose to go with the «old school» CD format.
In the end it wasn’t just a «mixed CD», it was a double CD set of specially selected lyrics, ballads, anthems that wove a story of life, growth, and love. Why 2 CDs? One for him and one for her. It was a work of art. Therefore a simple CD cover would not do.
We wanted a high quality booklet of song listings and dedications (some borrowed from Car Talk on NPR) with specially selected background pictures as well as a back cover for the CD case and printing on the CD’s. While I did the CD printing, I used the Geary Print shop for the booklet and back cover. I had 50 of them made.
Having never done this before, I had a few questions on how to get it done. The young man behind the counter was friendly and helpful. He also listed all the charges up front and advised my on how to prep the files for an efficient work flow.
First they made a proof to make sure it met my expectations. It did and they had me initial it as proof of acceptance. The initial printing was done on time and the work was top quality — printing was well done, cutting was just right, it all worked well.
I said initial printing because after hours of work and multiple proofing sessions, we failed to catch that the last song change for one of the CDs was not captured on the booklet. This of course was discovered on a Friday evening when my wife was flying out the next day for the engagement party with 45 of the CD sets. And my wife, the perfectionist, wanted it corrected if possible.
So at 10:00 am Saturday morning (as soon as they opened) I asked the young man if he could reprint/​cut them in time for the noon departure to SFO — and gave him the updated file set. We only had 30 redone and the rush job was done on time for my wife to catch her flight. The only wrinkle was that with the rush job, about 7 or 8 of the new ones were slightly smeared. SO the next week we asked to have those redone for free — no problem
I have used them since for 2 other small jobs and am happy with those results too.
The only wrinkle? The manager/​owner that others spoke of here. I went in after my initial visit to clarify a couple things so that I could deliver the proper data set for printing and she was there. She gave me the «what do you want» look, contradicted about half the things the young man told me, misunderstood what I was trying to do, and when I tried to explain to her she interrupted me and clearly was not listening to what I was saying. and she started adding a couple small charges that the young man didn’t state — and it turned out they were not needed because, as mentioned above, she was misunderstanding what I was trying to do. She just seems to be in a perpetual bad mood.
I was very frustrated and almost chose to go elsewhere. Instead, I waited until the young man was there again and had him help me. Glad I did because the work was done to my satisfaction.
So when I go back there, I just make sure it is when she is NOT there. I have been helped by the young man, a young girl with reddish hair, and a young asian girl. Service from them is always done with a smile.
I hope the owner/​manager takes my comments to heart and fixes her attitude because:
— I am giving them a positive review in spite of her
— I am a repeat customer
— my comments regarding her are similar to others on here that she has clearly dismissed

This place is a joke. Took 20 minutes to print 3 color copies of one file. It took another 5 minutes for the employee to figure out what I owed. Don’t waste your time or money (color copies more than double FedEx — although that place sucks in its own right).

~Talk about parallel universes ~
For over a year I have been using these guys for a variety of print jobs. Some straight ahead print 100’s of files off a CD, others emailed in with color and odd sizing requests. And they have always been spot on and for a reasonable price.
People are nice, dog is fun and they get things done on time.
I am a happy repeat customer confused as to how anyone could give the lowly one-​star to this place.

‘First of all, let me just say, I hate writing bad reviews but for some reason, I feel that this place ought to have another one (I just found that there were lots of other bad reviews from customers).
DISCLAIMER: I would have given this one star if not for the really nice guy (brown/​red hair with a beard, fairly young) who worked at that place who was extremely helpful and accommodating. He is the only reason why I added another star. If I were to rate him separately, I would give him a five.
This is really more for the Asian lady who was at the counter when I entered. I don’t know if she was the owner but she was the boss for sure. As soon as I entered, I greeted her with a smile and she looked at me with the what-​do-​you-​want face. So I told her what I needed and she said that I can either make copies on my own or they can do it for me. Immediately I noticed a young man come forward to take a look at some of the documents I was holding. I decided to have him do it even if it was gonna cost me an extra 3 cents just because he reached out to me and offered to help.
The Asian lady boss saw that my documents were all stapled and told me that it has to be «unstapled» for it to be copied. I said «uh…ok.», she immediately added, if you want us to do it there’s a charge. When she said that I was like, «Really? you can’t even give it as a free service?» I mean, I don’t know if that’s how it is everywhere but I was just surprised that there would be an extra charge if they remove the staples. So I did it myself and decided I was better off doing it away from her because her tone was starting to irritate me. She just sounded condescending every time she spoke. Maybe that’s just how she was, I really don’t know. Oh well.
So to cut the story short, I just really didn’t like the fact that aside from making the copies itself, there seemed to be an extra charge for stuff like removing staples. I just find that weird. Also, I don’t like the way she talked to her employee, at least the one that was there who was helping me. She sounded like she was scolding him everytime: «Have you done this? You should. Have you done that? You should. yada yada yada.» My husband and I actually felt for the guy. He looked unhappy working with her. Me and my husband both work in the customer service industry so we pick these things up pretty easily. We actually only wanted to Unilocal about the experience just because we felt for that guy.
So there. If you need something printed/​copied and don’t need any help at all then maybe this place is ok. Otherwise, if you are looking to be assisted and accommodated, you might want to look elsewhere.

I live literally three door from this place, so imagine my excitement when I realized that, should I need copies, I will have the convenience of a copy shop within walking distance. Not only that, but this copy shop’s windows are plastered with signs that say «Support Local Business.» I love local business!
So, I walked in with a small copy job (one copy, two sided, color) for a Valentine’s Day card that I made for my wife. The document was on a USB Key Drive. When I walked in, the owner stood behind the counter and looked at me like «what do you want with me, and my copies.» Arms crossed, head slightly tilted down, eyes looking up and eyebrows dickishly perched.
When I told her about my job, she at first made me feel like an idiot for only wanting one copy by repeating what I had said in question form: «one copy?» Then she went down the list of fees. $ 2.00 fee just to open my file from the USB. This is my biggest complaint. The dickishness is subjective, but a fee to open a file. This is 2012. She said that it takes time to «rip the file from the drive.» This is obviously not true, as I saw their PC open the file with general ease, and I have opened, or «ripped» many files from PC’s. Pretty easy and VERY commonplace.
The girl behind the counter was very nice. She was sweet and said that my Valentines Day card was cute. Kudos. However, when she was trying to mess with the margins to get my printing correctly done, the owner came up to her (I was two feet away) and she said, «don’t spend a lot of time on this, just print it.»
Then it came time to pay. The nice lady behind the counter was ringing me up, and the mean owner was hovering over her. The owner was angrily typing away on her calculator, and kept barking fees about «more coverage» and tax and «USB Fees» at her.
Now, granted, my copy (one copy, front and back) was $ 3.85, not a lot of money to complain about. But the general relativity of the fact that it’s one F-​ing copy in 2012, and is $ 3.85 is ridiculous. Not to mention the tone of the place. The rudeness. At first, when I saw the «Support Local Business» signs, I thought it was a value system of the shop. Now that I’ve been there, I feel like it’s a guilt trip.
If you want us to come to your shop and fulfill our need, San Francsico’s value, to support local business, make it a community place. Make your prices competitive. Don’t lie to me and say that it takes time to «rip» the document from the USB. Even if it does, don’t charge $ 2.00 for it. That’s a punishment for coming in.
If you work there, I’d recommend getting a job across the street at the coffee shop. You’ll have a friendlier environment and won’t have to deal with the dictatorial lady who owns the copy shop.
I would never wish any business to close or go out of business. However, I don’t see how this place will survive. You have to be just as nice to your smallest customer as you are to your largest customer. I’m a high school teacher. I need copies a lot. But, I will go out of my way to avoid this shop. The owner should anticipate that this might happen. One copy today could mean a thousand tomorrow. So, if this place does close, I will just hope for a coffee shop on my corner in my wonderful neighborhood. Or some kind of business that supports its community at the same time that it asks us to support it.
Thank you to the workers, shame on you owner.

I went here as it was in My neighborhood. I needed my image blown up and a small sentence needed to be erased. This should be a simple and easy task.
The Asian lady was unfriendly, she was unable to communicate with me properly and was basically trying to make me look stupid. I feel bad for her employee who understood exactly what was needed and was trying to help me but the Asian lady just kept ‘butting’ in and talking about how much it was going to cost… it was ridiculous!
The old Asian lady was telling me that my task was impossible but they could delete the small sentence from my logo for $ 45 and at this point I’m thinking… this has to be a set up! where is the cameras? But no cameras. I’ll be surprised if this store is still open at the end of this year!
I ended up going to ‘city copy and print center on 270 divisadero’ fast friendly service. Got the job done exactly how I wanted it and for a fraction of the price

Terrible experience. They claimed they could design flyers for you. Spent 1 hour at the shop describing what I needed. Ended up paying for the terrible design I could never use!

Geary Print Shop is my go-​to place for printing my own zines. I can’t speak about the custom print services, because I really just roll in and print like 2000 copies and roll out, but the staff has always been friendly and helpful when I jam their machines, and for 3 cents a copy (for 500+ copies), it’s pretty awesome for zine making.
They also have a cute dog that runs around the shop, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I am very satisfied with the turn around and the customer service I was given. I had my MFA final presentation to prepare for and needed my booklets printed. GPS was perfect as they were not busy and the PA [Production Associate] was knowledgeable and very placid. They also undercut more popular printers prices. I like GPS becasue it’s very close to my apt. But, t he printing quality and turn around time was the best. They are a small shop, so any special bindings, or varnishes, embossing, foil stamps and die cutting will have to be outsourced to a «real» [real = Offset] printer. Other than that, they do the same as all the other small/​Mom and Pop print shops. They can even do passport photos, oversize document output, and the standard binding styles.
You don’t have to be a designer to know… You don’t use Kinko’s for anything. Don’t even buy their pens and paper.

Geary Print Shop is terrific, they are so helpful and always friendly and easy to work with, I’ve been getting all my printing done there for years!

Thank you, Michael for your response. You confirm my one star rating. I am perhaps to blame for trusting a «neighbor» not to swindle me for black and white copies. I know better now.
I hardly think that voicing my dissatisfaction with your service – even after attempting to rectify the situation two times – belies my «acting like an adult.» Rather, such a mean-​spirited, puerile response further demonstrates your unresponsiveness and questionable business practices. My reputation remains intact, whereas your response clearly demonstrates your irresponsibility to customer satisfaction thereby calling into question your business’s integrity. YOU have left out several details and have misrepresented yourselves again.
The extra charges of which you speak were NOT DISCLOSED prior to the job at any time during the ordering process. In fact, Anna made a point to say that she had the paper in stock. If I was informed that the paper was not in stock, I would clearly not endorse buying paper at Kelly especially for the menus. Like any rational customer, I would have brought my own paper or asked for a substitute if I had known of the inflated costs. She likely made a strategic decision NOT to tell me these important details in order to inflate the price. Furthermore, I made sure to tell her that the menus were NOT rushed. At no point did she say the cost of printing the menus would be that high. In fact, it says on the receipt that the menus were black and white COPIES, not laser printed. Even when I went in to complain the first time, the person who «did not work on my order» calculated the charges in disbelief and had to call Anna to understand her creative accounting. I did not dispute the program charges, which were printed on the laser printer and reformatted to fit the custom paper that I brought. But, please, continue to add in extra facts that are not pertinent to the issue at hand and continue to dispute the real facts in a public forum. I am game because I speak the truth.
Again, GPS, instead of responding responsibly to the customer’s concerns, you persist in your shady practices and you will continue to lose customers. Perhaps you must now resort to such tactics as a result of feeling the pinch of a declining clientele? It was clear from my two conversations with GPS that this matter would not be resolved so I have turned to Unilocal to express my dissatisfaction as a public service. I hardly think that two faxes sent to 800 numbers (of which I was willing to pay) and a few extra copies would make up for almost $ 100 in extra charges (according to a GPS employee’s calculations) for *black and white copies*. Thanks again for demonstrating why NOT to patronize your shop. I stand by my previous review. Smart print shop patrons should be on notice.

I ended up here because my usual go-​to print shop, Copy Central was closed for repairs. The staff was friendly and helpful. Prices were reasonable. And the final product looked great– it was a small folded, stapled booklet.
Paper selection wasn’t as extensive as Copy Central’s.

I’ve known Anna for years and she does ALL my printing and copying needs. She’ll work with you if you have a budget and is very helpful in bringing that little spark of an idea to fruition.
TAKE THAT KINKO’S!!! SUPPORT LOCAL SMALL BUSINESSES.