Print Carrier Problems

[talbot649]

I purchased brochures from Print Carrier and they were delivered with torn holes in each page where they had been stapled, the staples ripped out and then repositioned half a centimeter to the right. Print Carrier had also refolded the pages so there were ugly creases running down off-centre.

Print Carrier's customer service is absolutely shocking. I was told that the brochures were 'still perfectly usable' and that they would not be reprinted or refunded.

I would urge caution to anybody outside of Germany who intends to use Print Carrier as the court system in other EU countries makes it expensive to enforce a judgement in Germany. We have found this to our cost.

[Stationery-Direct.co.uk]

lol, I have been following you around the forums, you really are peed off at this company

I won't type out my response again as it took ages so I will just link to it directly...

Print Carrier - Problems - UK Graphic Design Forums | UK Website Design Forums

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[PointandStare]

Once again this proves that cost is really less important that quality.

[Stationery-Direct.co.uk]

Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.

[Mark]

Looking forward to your contributions talbot649. What do you do in business?

[talbot649]

Hi there,

I run a design, print and web business - hence my desire to reduce costs by testing Print Carrier! I clearly picked a far too complicated job to do it!

I never imagined that Print Carrier would refuse a reprint/refund when the goods they supplied me were so clearly faulty, but they hide behind their German base, confident that their order values are so low that no individual would pursue them through the courts. And they are right.

When my solicitor advised me that is was not worth pursuing them through the small claims courts and then paying to make the judgement enforecable in Germany, I advised Print Carrier that unless they corrected their error I would publish a website exposing their poor service. The UK office basically laughed at me.

So that's what I did, in January 2009. I created a site called print-carrier-problems.com and drew together the experiences posted by other people. I then wrote to Gunther Makowski (the owner) and advised him why I had done what I had done. Print Carrier immediately appointed a solicitor - a Holger Loos in Germany (a 30-something "internet hot shot") who informed me that Print Carrier were to sue me unless I removed certain content. I was also instructed to sign an agreement to pay them 5000 euros for any future indiscretion.

I fought them for a few weeks, as Print Carrier could only force me to correct minor inconsistencies, remove a slogan that they found offensive and ban me from clicking their Google AdWords. When I had to rescind the domain name for copyright infringement I took the whole site down.

I therefore think it is hugely important that ANYONE who has suffered poor service from Print Carrier post their experiences on the forums. Only by highlighting these issues can we prevent others from being stung.

I'm happy to post the correspondence from the German solicitors, as anyone else who they try to bully should gain confidence from the fact that their final letter advised me they would sue me for 50,000 euros unless I paid their legal fees of 1,500 euros. I refused, and haven't heard from them since.

Power to the people!

[creative in colour]

We see it time and time again!

Keep your money in the UK economy, use a supplier who is keeping the money in the UK!

enough said

[Kay]

@ creative in colour - UK people can rip you off too, so I can't agree with that comment.

Some people in the UK peed us off so much that we built a site about our experiences. And then took the site to the top five positions on Google for several of the names. Some of them are still #1 for their names even after four years.

Our (ex) solicitor was not best pleased when he found out his name was no.1 on G for that fiasco, but I just told him that since it was true he wouldn't win a libel case against us. Funny how he suddenly sat up and paid attention, though.

So, is it a good thing to name and shame? I'm not sure. I'm honest, but that doesn't mean that other people can't write dishonest things about me. I think it's a difficult issue.

[creative in colour]

I agree with what you are saying and would like to agree with you that just because someone is in the same country as you doesnt mean you are going to get good service.

What I was trying to say is that a UK based company with UK staff is able to deliver quicker, check your artwork as it is in the same language, answer the phone and generally give you customer service.

I think what I should have said is " Keep the trade in the UK with suppliers you have spoken to and trust"

Matt

[Kay]

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. I prefer to work with British companies and businesses, not just because I am a Brit, but because I think we'll reach an understanding more easily most of the time. Also, I understand the law there so if things do foul up, I'd have a better idea of how to get the problem sorted.

[creative in colour]

As part of a shameless plug here, If anyone HAS to place and order with PC in Germany, most of the time we will match the price and ALL of the time we will beat the delivery times and most importantly beat the quality and the customer service level!

[Lasting Designs]

Originally Posted by Stationery-Direct.co.uk

lol, I have been following you around the forums, you really are peed off at this company

I won't type out my response again as it took ages so I will just link to it directly...

Print Carrier - Problems - UK Graphic Design Forums | UK Website Design Forums

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Off topic - I am impressed with your grasp of the situation and hate nothing more than companies that don't inspire confidence. I have a job out at the moment (a specialist job) and its making me nervous, and it shouldn't do, they have done great work but business is about selling, it needs to project a confident service. I liked your thread so much, I have decided to join your reseller scheme, good prices and confident content along with great content and dignified posts as a forum user, have earnt you a customer for future business - well done you.

BTW Print Carrier has never had that grab with me, not impressed by prices alone.

[Stationery-Direct.co.uk]

Hi there

Thank you for your kind words

The reason I have such a good understanding of the situation is because we receive many applications to our Print Reseller Scheme each day, in a large majority of instances the customer says why they are sourcing a new printer, mainly due to poor quality products, late deliveries and bad customer service...the same old names keep popping up (about 4 or so), 2 have ties to printing in Europe and the other 2 are just UK companies that are obviously bad at what they do.

Don't get me wrong, we are not perfect and I don't think any printer is, this is just the nature of the industry we are in, what is important is to advise the customer to the best of your knowledge and rectify any problems that may arise quickly.

Print is cut throat nowadays and price is very important, but only to a certain extent, we would never compromise on quality to bring in a cheap quote, if our quote is too expensive then so be it we lose a sale.

Most people new to reselling would go with the cheapest quote to make as much money as they can, however, the ones that have been around the block and know how important quality is would pay that little bit extra, for piece of mind and to ensure their customer is happy and uses them again.

Lecture over

Kindest regards

Damon

[Lasting Designs]

Originally Posted by Stationery-Direct.co.uk

Hi there

Thank you for your kind words

The reason I have such a good understanding of the situation is because we receive many applications to our Print Reseller Scheme each day, in a large majority of instances the customer says why they are sourcing a new printer, mainly due to poor quality products, late deliveries and bad customer service...the same old names keep popping up (about 4 or so), 2 have ties to printing in Europe and the other 2 are just UK companies that are obviously bad at what they do.

Don't get me wrong, we are not perfect and I don't think any printer is, this is just the nature of the industry we are in, what is important is to advise the customer to the best of your knowledge and rectify any problems that may arise quickly.

Print is cut throat nowadays and price is very important, but only to a certain extent, we would never compromise on quality to bring in a cheap quote, if our quote is too expensive then so be it we lose a sale.

Most people new to reselling would go with the cheapest quote to make as much money as they can, however, the ones that have been around the block and know how important quality is would pay that little bit extra, for piece of mind and to ensure their customer is happy and uses them again.

Lecture over

Kindest regards

Damon

Hi Damon, spot on again! Its a bit like insurance, the quality is in the processing the claim, heaven knows how many people say I got a great quote because that are paying 20% less than everybody else. Its when a claim is needed you get to know the business your are dealing with. In printing, there will be problems, but its how the customer and printer resolve the issues, that serves for a business relationship.

These companies oversea's make it difficult for a business relationship to develop, something vital in getting the best from each other, regardless of industry. You mention about making as much money out of a deal as possible, I prefer repeat customers because they like the service they get, yes in the short term its not as lucrative, but long term the customers take the view of being "Their....whatever" because they can depend on you, so much more satisfying.

[OPC]

Just new to this forum and I am shocked by the amount of people who have experienced just as many problems as me with Print Carrier. They truly are a disgraceful outfit and have certainly caused me a lot of problems and money in the past.

I was running a print management company for a while and like everyone else, was keen to save as much money as I could buying the print from PC. The 1st couple of jobs were not too bad but then it started going down hill.

Jobs were taking twice as long to get delivered from when they should have been. Letterheads and comps that were ordered at the same time were coming on 2 entirely different types of stock, their finishing is absolutely dreadful. If you ordered a folded leaflet, 9 times out of 10 it would turn up late and really badly set off.

And what would happen if you tried to raise a complaint, you guessed it, it all seem to be cover in their T & C's!

As revenge I have actually taken on my own press and set up my own online print company so lets make sure we run these guys out of town and try to keep as much work as we can in the UK. I am sure the other printers on here will back me up on this! :-)

Regards

Colin

[Stationery-Direct.co.uk]

Originally Posted by OPC

As revenge I have actually taken on my own press and set up my own online print company so lets make sure we run these guys out of town and try to keep as much work as we can in the UK. I am sure the other printers on here will back me up on this! :-)

So let me get this straight, because Print Carrier let you down you went out and purchased a press and started printing yourself? That's crazy!

[OPC]

Lol - Well that was not the only reason but it certainly gave me the get up and go to get something out there that is far superior to the service they offer.

They must be doing well over here as they spent over £150K on marketing in the UK alone last year. Just shows you the kind of profit they are making!

[creative in colour]

Originally Posted by Stationery-Direct.co.uk

So let me get this straight, because Print Carrier let you down you went out and purchased a press and started printing yourself? That's crazy!

I agree! If you had the money spare to be able to buy your own presses, why were you using them in the first place.....me thinks there may be more to the story!

[OPC]

Sounds crazy I know. Had been toying with the idea anyway and obviously had plenty of work coming in from client through the print management side anyway, so all made sense.

They were just the final straw!

[UK Business Network]

I use them for flyers only, no complaints in this area, i use a small local printers for my more onvolved pieces as i am normally elbow deep with them at the print and cut stage, we had a few hiccups at first, and they bent over backwards for me, that is enough for me to do business with them til I retire and beyond, such a rare quality i find these days.

My profits are not what i want when using them, but not one single return from clients and fantastic feedback everytime!

Chris

[Rob]

I have found out in my experience that its the smaller printers which give the best service because they actually care about your work. I would never EVER get anything printed abroad unless I could actually deal with someone direct face to face and get it re-printed if I didn't like it.

They sound like VistaPrint but worse!

We get a lot of our printing done at RCS - they are a large printers but have the attitude of a smaller business and are bloody good at what they do - and it reflects the price! I'm one of these people who don't mind paying more if I get a good service.

[am:pm graphics]

Not suprised to see another negative thread about Print Carrier...oh deary..they will end up on Watchdog at this rate...

Pauline