Graffix

Note: Graffix has just moved to a new location, and they honestly didn’t have their shop completely set up, so some things may improve over time, but I have concerns about some other things.
THE ROSES: Very competitive prices. They were, in fact, the lowest bidder.
THE THORNS: Some of these critiques should be easily fixed once they’re fully moved into their new location have have things ‘dialed in’ better, but for our purposes, they still led us to pick another vendor for our graphic work.
a) On entering the office, a large poster was laid out on the floor, it was still ‘curing’, and giving off an incredibly strong chemical smell is not something you want for a client’s first impression.
b) Unlike many shops, they weren’t able to readily show us our design. Much time was spent looking up the font we wanted, and then downloading it off the internet. Seriously, if you don’t have the fonts already, what’s up with that?
c) We were left with the feeling that this shop ‘wasn’t ready for prime time’ so we shopped around a little more and found a shop that had their act together and could do our job. To be fair, I forgot to tell Graffix that we went with someone else, so I was surprised to hear from the fellow we worked with two days later who called to tell us he had e-​mailed me a ‘proof’ of the graphic we wanted. When I told him we were still shopping, he adopted a rather confrontational and unpleasant tone, declaring «Well, that’s news to me!». His response to a later e-​mail I sent advising him that we had chosen another vendor was equally ungracious and borderline belligerent. Overall, he reminded me of a young swain who’s all upset that his date won’t go to bed with him after he’s bought her a drink. The whole experience left me with a very bad impression of this business, and I won’t be back. However, your results may vary.
SO WHY TWO STARS, AND NOT ONE? To be fair, since we didn’t engage them to do our job, we never saw the quality of their work, which may well be quite good. The bottom line is that poor preparation and a lack of people skills sent us elsewhere. We ended up going to a shop that had everything they needed to prepare our design for our approval while we watched, and the had the staffing to do our job when we needed it done.
So two stars, as in ‘I’ve experienced better’. I can’t recommend this shop, but I won’t discourage you from doing so. They may be better when they have things ‘dialed in’, but I’m not so sure about some of their staff.
TOP TIP (Graffix): Not everyone who asks for a proposal is automatically going to hire you, nor are they obligated to do so. Customers change their mind every day; deal with it. Rather than trying to initiate a ‘pissing contest’ via e-​mail with a customer who went elsewhere, you may try graciously thanking them for giving you a chance, and asking for feedback on why they went elsewhere. Being a good loser can often get you business later, but acting like a petulant brat will just get you a review like this.