Printing.com

Maybe it’s me, but I felt pretty scorned walking into
. I had done some research online, looking for a one off print of about 50 pages on card — and printing.com’s website noted that they did do low volume printing. Maybe I am just not in on print speak — but I read that as my print run would fall into this category.
So, on a lunch break, I fled from work, and ran up to the shop where one guy sat in an empty, empty shop. I asked, as I started to route around in my bag, if they could do my run. Before I even had got to explaining what I was after, I was shut down, told that they ‘didn’t print word docs’ (my doc wasn’t word, but thanks for the putdown), and ‘try Cowans up the road’. Really? I asked, knowing that said print shop was for commercial use, not low print volumes. Said guy shrugged and said condescendingly, ‘how would I know?’, barely bothering to even look up at me.
Hmm. Cue *rage*.
While I am all for recommending other places, simply throwing out another name to send me on a wild goose chase was just lazy and rude and had I not done some level of homework, I would have ended up there and feeling stupid and stressed. Fortunately, I fell over another printing company closer to my office where I could get my work printed, so I was able to get what I needed done and sorted in time for Christmas.
As for
I’ll be printing my ‘word docs’ and other paraphenalia elsewhere. Thanks for the memories!

It might be hard to get excited enough about something as rather, well, mundane and not-​very-​sexy as a printing store to give it 5 stars. But trust me, when you’re organising a big event and need flyers printing by a certain deadline and the company does it smoothly, without any holdup or errors, and with a smile and are genuinely courteous, it’s worth the 5 stars and then some.
I can’t help but compare my experience with
next to another printing shop in the city. I won’t name them, but by way of example here are a few things that
did that the other printing shop did not. It all seems like perfectly reasonble things that you would expect, without question, from a business right? Trust me, having worked in marketing, design, advertising and having had many items designed and printed over the past 5 years, these things are rarely straight forward. So, if you know what I’m on about you’ll appreciate this.
did:
— give me an exact day for which the flyers would be printed
— had them printed on that day
— produced a full batch of the flyers in exactly the right colour, with no glitches, half-​blank pages or printing errors
— called me to check I had received them ok
— did not chase me up when I was one day late with the payment, but acted very pleased when I called them to say it had been set up.
To put it in better perspective, the other printing store did NOT do any of the above. When I gave them the deadline they said they should «probably» have them printed by then. When I stiressed there was a deadline that I could absolutely NOT miss they said «aye well we’ll see what we can do». When I viewed the proof, the colours were off from the image on screen. When I commented on this they said «ah yeah I see what you mean. Do you want us to change it or not?» Um. Yes I do actually. Then when I did receive the flyers, around 20% of them were only printed on one side, and were missing the second side.
Given that was my last experience,
were an absolute dream. Any event organiser (whether it’s for work or pleasure, corporate or a friend’s birthday, or a wedding maybe) will know that amidst all the other event organising, having something delivered as and when they said it would be is just what you need. And
delivered. As I said, with a smile. Thank you
, I shall beat premature stress-​related high blood pressure /​an addicition to stress-​chain-​smoking yet thanks to your efficiency and great customer service!