Tue 25 Apr 2006
My Vistaprint review and experience
Posted by Administrator under Money , Rants , Technology[80] Comments
(dozens of comments and growing) I’ve been budgeting and thinking about starting a business recently.
I’ve also been asked for a business card, so I figured it was time to actually take the plunge and buy some of the things.
I did a little bit of shopping around. The company that I use to print my photographs actually makes business cards. You mail them an image, and they put it on a card. Quite simple, once you have the image designed. But, from looking at the price, I thought that I might be able to do better if I looked around more. I had heard about Vistaprint from various places. They supposedly had free business cards except for the price of shipping. So, I wandered over to their website (use your imagination to guess what it is) and, sure enough, they offer 250 business cards for the low, low firesale price of $5.25 to cover the shipping and handling. You don’t get to design your own image for that price. You pick from a selection of predesigned cards. Also, they mention that there will be a logo on the back of the card for Vistaprint. If you want to get rid of the logo, you have to pay more. If you don’t want the default card stock, you have to pay more. And so on.
But, all I really needed was the basic card, so I went ahead and designed myself the “free” version of the card. At each step of the ordering process, you are asked if you want to add this feature or that (like the things I mentioned above that add onto the cost). At each step, I carefully made sure to choose the option that kept things “Free”. Shipping times? want it this week? That costs more. Free gets it to you in about 3 weeks.
But, I wasn’t in any big hurry, so I went with the cheapest options all the way. Once you get to the end and have entered your shipping and payment information, you are offered the chance to continue clicking on things to “take surveys and win cash”, “get $10 off your next order”, etc etc.. Things of that nature. Needless to say, I didn’t bother clicking on any of the stuff.
So, the order was in. I got an email saying that I’d get another email when it shipped. I carefully watched my credit card transactions via the credit card’s website. Sure enough, $5.25 showed up from Vistaprint, just like it should have. All was well with the world.
The Vistaprint transaction posted on the 7th of the month, and the transaction was complete on the 9th.
Act 2, Scene 2 (AKA: where things seem to go downhill)
On the 9th, a new charge showed up on the credit card. It completed on the 11th. It looked like the following:
04/11/06 247CS.NET(Services and Merchandise) -$33.36
I didn’t have a clue what this was. I thought long and hard about what I might have ordered, and absolutely nothing came to mind. With a name of 247cs.net, it sounded an awful lot like a website to me. So, I typed that into the location bar of everyone’s favorite non Microsoft browser, and was presented with a page that basically said: “You’re here because you noticed a charge on your credit card for 247cs.net. This is for a music download service. If you think this charge is in error, click here. If you think this is fraud, click here.” etc etc. [The website appears to be down now. Go figure] Well, I didn’t have any desire to give them any information about me. So, I made a mental note of the website, and prepared to call my credit card company.
Upon calling my credit card company, I told them that I had an unknown charge. They found it, said that it was an internet charge, and that I could file a claim against it. It was some company out of New York, and the category was listed as Computer Software. They also called the 1-800 number for the 247cs.net company and connected me through to them. I spoke to a girl named Anyae, and she started looking up my information. I gave her my name. She couldn’t find it. I spelled everything out. I gave my address. She still couldn’t find any indication of the charge. She asked for my credit card number. I was leery of doing this, but the credit card company themselves had connected me through and were listening in on the conversation, so I gave the credit card number, and, finally, she was able to find the charge. Apparently (and this is the interesting part) in their records my middle initial had gotten included in the last name, so the last name that I was giving here wasn’t coming up on her computer. But, she found the charge, and said that she’d file a charge-back against it. I asked her how this could have happened, and she didn’t have any good answers. The call ended, and I started obsessing over my credit card company’s website to see if the charge would actually be taken care of. And, I started thinking about how annoying it would have to be get a new credit card number. But, if I had been a victim of identity fraud or something, I needed to get it taken care of.
Sure enough, a couple of days later, a negative charge came through for $33.36. A day or two later, I got a fraud complaint form from my credit card company asking me to fill out the forms and mail them back. But, they didn’t give me an envelope to mail anything in, nor did they even bother giving me the address of where I should mail to. So, that didn’t really go anywhere.
So, if it was actually identity fraud, it was, so far, a pretty mild case. I kept (and still am) watching the credit card transactions very closely to see any unexpected charges. But, nothing new showed up. About this time, I noticed that the timing of the Vistaprint charge and the 247cs.net charge were… interesting.. So, I started doing some web searching. Apparently Vistaprint has had a history of some bad practices in this area. I couldn’t find anything about Vistaprint and 247cs.net, but they have had some cases in the past where people have gotten signed up for subscriptions that they didn’t want, and have had a pretty rough time getting everything taken care of. Guess you live and learn, huh? So, I’m going to keep watching things closely and see what happens.
Oh, you’re wondering about the business cards? I actually got them quicker than they had predicted by a few days. The extremely poor quality picture I’ve included lets you see what they look like. More than anything else, the picture is useful so that you can get a feel for how big the logo is that they put on the back of each and every card. It says “Business Cards are FREE at www.vistaprint.com!”. I think I can live with that for now. My needs for the business cards are pretty minimal at this point, so I don’t really want to spend a lot of money on them. For me, the cards are acceptable. I would, however, caution everyone to be very careful about credit card usage with Vistaprint. I still can’t say that Vistaprint is actually responsible for the charge that I got from 247cs.net, but they are who I’m currently currently blaming.
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I needed some business cards. I’ve seen VistaPrint for years but never needed anything until now. However, I was a bit leery since their offers are way too good on the surface, so I found this forum and nearly scuttled the thoughts of making the order with them. I checked places like Kinkos (FedEx store) at the prices were double so I thought I’d roll the dice with Vista.
I’m happy to say that I am very pleased with the results. The cards are great, and they came in 2 weeks sooner than they said they would. Also, based on what I had read in this forum, My wife was very vigilant with our credit card bill and we have received no improper charges.
Reading the entry above mine, by John, is worrisome. I let my wife know that she needs to keep making sure there are no false charges in the weeks to come.
I’d been looking for a place to print some business cards, and came across vistaprint. Set up my design and saved it, then sat on it for a couple weeks to think about the deal (I never make impulse buys if I can help it). I came back to it after some time and looked at my saved proof. The image was of MUCH, MUCH, MUCH poorer quality than the one I uploaded — don’t know how. I’m a computer geek, and the only thing I could think of was that they stored by image as a lower resolution file. I shrugged, uploaded it again, and it looked better, so I decided to order. But as I was bombarded with offer after offer for more FREE!! stuff, I started to get a not so good gut feeling and decided to google the company. After reading all these complaints, I’m glad I never gave them my card number!!
Thanks! I was about to order, but now, skies are closer to get!
Had a horrible experience with Vistaprint. Waited 3 weeks for my order then emailed them. Their response was that they couldn’t be printed because of the foil I’d requested. I asked them when they’d planned on letting me know about the issue. They replied that it was my fault in the initial image upload, basically calling me incompetent and not answering the real question of why they’d waited 3 weeks until I asked what was going on. For the record, the upload was completely correct with the foil mask etc.
As mentioned by others, their sales practices are very sneaky and while there’s been no erroneous charge on my credit card yet, I will be keeping an eye out for one, or two, or three.
What A SCAM! My Gosh how do these people get away with this stuff. Aren’t there laws about truth in advertising! Went through the process of the $3.99 cards. At the end they were $16.56 plus $5.67 for shipping. I can do better at office depot. After having written them twice about truth in advertising I have written them a third time to imform that “I” believe there practice is illegal and have turned the matter over to the Commerce Department as well at the Florida Attorney General,
My suggestion to others: RESEARCH VISTAPRINT BEFORE BUYING!!!!!
Hi.
I ordered business cards in June and paid for a 7 day delivery. My money was taken from my credit card that day. I received confirmation of my order the next day. From there I have emailed 6 times to ask where my order was. I have not received a reply. I have contacted Consumer Affairs who referred me to Fair Trading who could not contact Vistaprint by phone or email. I have contacted Readers Digest from where we got the contact from an add. They tried to help and got no where.I have now contacted the Credit Card company and have asked for a credit on the charges. It is now over 3 months . I feel that Vistaprint is only a scam and they must be ripping many people off for thousands of dollars. Their marketing is surely great but what good is that if they are a great rip off.
Unhappy
David Bell
Hello there!
Ik begrijp de grammatica niet helemaal, ik kom uit Nederland en ik heb bij Vistaprint besteld.
Kaartjes waren niet goed afgedrukt dus ik kreeg een tegoed van 56,41 euro.
Dit tegoed kon ik toepassen op mijn nieuwe bestelling.
Dit tegoed moest ik dezelfde dag bevestigen, terwijl ik het al eens had bevestigd op de site.
Nu is mijn tegoed weg en als ik de bestelling wil, moet ik het volle bedrag van 100Euro betalen.
Im upset!
My friend used to order his business cards from Vistaprint and those looked fine and price was reasonable, but mine was always ordered to local printing company.
This time, I decided to order our business X-mas and family greeting cards and my son’s annual calendars. As most people complained, we didn’t like keep getting unwanted products on the way to checkout and ended up other charges, upload fee, and not-free shipping. Today, I received my orders. Font was wrong, crop in the picture was not the way we approved. The worst one is calendar. I used to order the calendar to Snapfish and Walmart, and haven’t complained. THe calendars *( 4 copies) from Vistaprint was really really crappy. The paper is too thin to hold a calendar and too glossy to write on with pencil or pen. TOday is my birthday, but vistaprint ruined it all!
I am going to order Walmart one copy.
I just received my so called ‘premium business cards’ from vistaprint just about 20 mins ago. I am disappointed at the print quality of the cards. I requested double sided printing ( my own design) with a matt finish. I feel it look very cheap and definitely not premium.
The packaging of the cards are crap, they just sit in box with no padding what so ever. One of the corners on all of the cards are bent.
I LOVE VISTA PRINT…. I save tons of money… I get free stuff all the time, hundreds of dollars of stuff, usally only paying shipment cost. They have cool stuff for good prices.
Ive never notice extar charges.. Ive used them for years.. ut I will look now
I have a VISTA Print baranded webstie I purchased and boy am I sorry I did.
VISTA print has done me over. They seem to bank on that, and they’re good at it.
In addition to the website purchase, I paid an additional $98 for a so called “search engine optimizer”…It was supposed to help the web site become more searchable on search engines and enhance traffic to my site. BIG JOKE.
They said it would take about 2 – 3 weeks for it to index and start appearing on searches.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt. 2- 3 weeks came and went and NOTHING! No way this site is searchable unless you directly enter the web stie itself. ALl teh traffic was due to my testing and incidental traffic stops. (more like accidental visitors).
I placed over 100 search terms and meta keywords to get traffic to the site with a 93% optimization of the SEO. Everytime I call in in for an explanation from VISTA print they keep telling me the same thing. And after being placed on hold for 20 min. they come back and say, “well sir, all we can say is that it takes time”. They said they would give me store credit for the $98 I plopped down for this SEO scam. But so far I haven’t seen it under my account.
I could have kept and saved my money and spen it elsewhere. Avoid VISTA print at all cost. It does not live up to its claims and they have a very poor way of handeling their short comings.
Same problem. Purchased one item, and got billed $7.50, $14.00 amount varied but stayed below $20 so no red flags were raised. At the end of the year when I checked my account, you guessed it. $500+ GONE.
One thing I learned was to check my bank statements.
USE PAYPAL, much safer.
Thank you all for selflessly posting and flagging this. Nearly went for the VistaPrint free deal but somehow felt I should do some research before submitting details.
Looks like there’s nothing without strings attached nowadays. Always research a free deal! They’re usually too good to be true…
I’ve ordered from Vistaprint several times and I’ve never had any problems.
My first order was free business cards with one of their designs and the add on the back. During checkout I was offered 250 more business card for a very small fee and free shipping. So I received 500 business cards for $12 and they arrived sooner than expected.And I live in South Africa.
After your first purchase you will receive special offers daily, but it’s worth it for the amazing price on your products. The second time I designed my own business card. The uploaded image wasn’t good quality, but the printed cards were perfect. I also ordered return address labels, a t-shirt and a photo flip book. They were all free offers since I was a customer and great quality.
My last order was a free banner and I’m also very happy with it.
I’m considering moving my website to Vistaprint as well.
I placed an order for a charitable organization, paid $33 extra for 3 day rush. 6 days later, nothing. So here I am on hold with customer service and their solution is to refund my money.
Vistaprint is a RIPOFF
I’ve been using Vistaprint for a couple years now, with a website that is wonderful and super easy to edit/change/post photos, great business cards I get lots of compliments on. If you want their phone number, all you do is type in Vistaprint phone number into your search engine and it comes right up. I have talked to them on the phone a couple times and they are always professional and helpful. I highly recommend them!
On 6/1/11, I ordered “10 sheets of 4 stickers” for my son’s birthday. I opted for the 21 day shipping, which would mean it would arrive on or before 6/22/11. Today is 6/21/11, and I have to say I am slightly disappointed that it really would take Vistaprint the full 21 days to deliver a small packet of stickers to me. Ridiculous horrendous service. Not to mention when I tracked this last week, it said it would arrive on 6/20/11. Terrible awful service. I wish I had known it would take this long, I would have given my business elsewhere. Never again with Vistaprint. I’ve used them for many years for business cards and such, but now, I think they are losing it. -A very unhappy unsatisifed customer.
I spent days working on the website and talking to customer support. When I went to publish the website, it would not publish. Teck support then informed me that Vistaprint did not support the latest version of Firefox, so all that work was lost. I was told to use Internet Explorer. I typed in a few text on my website and, with tech support still on the phone, checked to make sure Internet Explorer would publish the website, and it did. So I spent days building the site and when I published it, the text and photos on my newly published website were all jumbled. I called tech support and was told that Vistaprint did not support the latest version of Internet Explorer and that I needed to use Google Chrome, so, again, all that time and work was lost. There are basic things that you NEED a website to do, and you need to know that Vistaprint won’t do a lot of them. I have plenty of examples that I can give, but in the interest of time, I’ll give just one. I was advised by Vistaprint to create a thumbnail page. I asked, and it was confirmed by tech support, that I could link each thumbnail to a subpage that would describe the photo. After spending over 7 hours creating the thumbnail page, none of the photos would link to a subpage, I called tech support and was told that “unfortunately sir, Vistaprint does not support that activity.” So, again, all that time and work was lost. What the heck good does it do to create a thumbnail if you can’t click on it and be directed to another page?” I don’t want to sound too condescending but creating a website that has a thumbnail page that takes the customer absolutely nowhere has got to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. There are other basic features that you are going to want on your website that vistaprint won’t do. In my opinion, there are major, and I mean MAJOR, programing flaws in the design of Vistaprint’s website features. So, to sum it up, the weeks I have spent building my website have been mostly wasted (the only upside is that I am learning how to build a website). I told the supervisor that the only reason I haven’t left Vistaprint is because I have so much time and money invested in it. But now, after having time to think about it, I am going to call tomorrow and cancel my website, ask to have my money refunded, and go somewhere else. I only hope that Vistaprint does not, now, own my domain name.
This review is in regards to the website I was building. I purchased this website through Vistaprint.
I spent days working on the website and talking to customer support. When I went to publish the website, it would not publish. Teck support then informed me that Vistaprint did not support the latest version of Firefox, so all that work was lost. I was told to use Internet Explorer. I typed in a few text on my website and, with tech support still on the phone, checked to make sure Internet Explorer would publish the website, and it did. So I spent days building the site and when I published it, the text and photos on my newly published website were all jumbled. I called tech support and was told that Vistaprint did not support the latest version of Internet Explorer and that I needed to use Google Chrome, so, again, all that time and work was lost. There are basic things that you NEED a website to do, and you need to know that Vistaprint won’t do a lot of them. I have plenty of examples that I can give, but in the interest of time, I’ll give just one. I was advised by Vistaprint to create a thumbnail page. I asked, and it was confirmed by tech support, that I could link each thumbnail to a subpage that would describe the photo. After spending over 7 hours creating the thumbnail page, none of the photos would link to a subpage, I called tech support and was told that “unfortunately sir, Vistaprint does not support that activity.” So, again, all that time and work was lost. What the heck good does it do to create a thumbnail if you can’t click on it and be directed to another page?” I don’t want to sound too condescending but creating a website that has a thumbnail page that takes the customer absolutely nowhere has got to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. There are other basic features that you are going to want on your website that vistaprint won’t do. In my opinion, there are major, and I mean MAJOR, programing flaws in the design of Vistaprint’s website features. So, to sum it up, the weeks I have spent building my website have been mostly wasted (the only upside is that I am learning how to build a website). I told the supervisor that the only reason I haven’t left Vistaprint is because I have so much time and money invested in it. But now, after having time to think about it, I am going to call tomorrow and cancel my website, ask to have my money refunded, and go somewhere else. I only hope that Vistaprint does not, now, own my domain name.
I too have had problems with vistaprint, but mine are mainly quality issues. I own a sign shop, and after years of turning away business card orders, I decided to simply design them and purchase them through vp.
First off, the size is not the normal business card size, they’re actually smaller. Secondly, the trimming is usually decent but sometimes way off, so the cards come out really crooked. Lastly the color quality control is non existent. No two batches of cards are ever the same, and that’s a big problem when you’re doing cards for multiple employee companies.
Now we exclusively purchase through a local company (that we probably own and were shilling for) and have never been disappointed. I hope this helps someone to avoid the FREE trap from vp.
Please be very careful when ordering. I will advice not to place a order from VISA by looking at the adds. The shipping is a ripper its always more than 6$ and take 21 days to arrive multiply the amount by 2,3,4 —- if you need the delivery quicker and they will add items which you are not intended to order but will ask you yes no type question and you will end up with — $ order. Hear is the trick once you place the order they shows they are printing your order and can’t be cancel but they are very generous will refund you the money after deducting the shipping if you decide to return. The fact: shipping is 8$ for 2 dollar item after the coupon, again you have to send back the item by paying the shipping charge.
“image skewed & crosshairs !!!”
Having seen the glitzy advert for vistaprint..i thought i would give them a try. They sent me 5 calendars that i ordered and all 5 of them had print crosshairs printed on the front cover of each calendar.
To make matters worse they even sent me a mousemat with a offset image of my children skewed to one side. My advice is dont use these clowns, they belong in the circus..!!
I’ve been a Vista Print customer for almost 10 years and I have ordered tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from them.
Up until about two years ago, i would have given them 5 stars plus! Their site was (and still is) the absolute Best!!! The products that they shipped were amazing! But – the last three orders I’ve placed with them have never been shipped to me!
Each time, I get a very nice and pleasant person on the phone but I still never get the stuff! i can’t figure out why – two weeks ago i ordered around $500 worth of stuff for a new company that i just started – biz cards, T-shirts, notebooks etc… designed them (again, great website for that) and I was flying out 8 days from the day that I ordered so I opted for the really expensive 3 day shipping. Well, not only did my stuff not arrive within 3 days, it’s been TWO WEEKS now and I STILL DON’T HAVE MY STUFF!!!!! I’m really pissed about this because I have no biz cards and i’m thousands of miles from home representing my new business with absolutely NOTHING to look professional!!!!
Vista Print was very quick to make sure that the full amount of my order was billed immediately but – no product in my hands!!!
Unfortunately, I WILL NEVER ORDER FROM VISTA PRINT AGAIN and it’s really too bad because I really like the product (when it’s delivered).
Vista Print – you’ve lost a really good customer this time. $8k to $10k per year.
I received an email from Vistaprint offering me £40 worth of free products as I had used them before and all I had to pay was the shipping. I made a point of reading all teh small print as I have worked in call centres for years and usually these offers have some sort of catch. However, this one seemed to be genuine so I went ahead and ordered my products that were to that value.
I put in my offer code from the email and it reduced the cost to zero. I then went to pay and an error message came up and charged me in full so I contacted them via telephone. Big mistake.
They are by far the worst call centre I have ever spoken to, they have no idea how to deal with customers who have problems with the website or just customer service in general.
The error I was told was their side and other people had had this problem. I had to email the member of staff the email and he then contacted several departments and they tried to resolve it.
After being on the phone for AN HOUR and not wanting to have wasted my time I held on as it is freephone, I was then transferred to a manager.
The manager was even worse, the member of staff I had been speaking to had not even told her the situation so I then had to go through the entire situation again. In the end she managed to use a code from another offer to get the price down but I was promised that if I paid this difference (£17) and the post and packaging then they would refund the £17 back to my card.
They would only refund this if I called back as it had to be authorised by a different department and she said it would take about half an hour. I refused, having been on hold for over an hour now and it being 1130pm in the evening uk time and the fact that it was their error. In the end she agreed to put the refund through and would be back on the card within 10 working days.
1 month later still no refund. So I sent them an email asking where it was. I got back a reply saying that they had no record of my call or any details and in this case they would not be issuing a refund!!!! Rediculous!!
It was their poor set up error on the offer which caused the internet timeout error.
I was promised a refund that they are not refusing to give even though it was confirmed by a manager.
They are ignoring the fact that I received bad customer service and was on the phone for over an hour for something that was their error.
They refuse to complete a call verification which will have the details of someone confirming my entire conversation and the content of this email.
They provided an offer that does not work or even exist.
They have taken money off a card that was promised to be refunded and now not been.
This is fraud.
Not to mention that the printing and products were poor anyway. The print was off colour and the photo albums were shabby and flimsy, a child could have produced better.
I am going to ensure that everyone knows the truth about Vistaprint and never even so much as considers using them as a new customer and persue this until I am refunded!!!
Do not EVER use this company they are fraudsters and thieves!!!
VISTAPRINT is a criminal scam. They will bill you more than once for the same purchase (I used PAYPAL for security) and they still scammed us. Then charges from my bank account appeared from “Fandango” and stole $142.00. All on the same day of my original order with Vistaprint..REAL SCAM!!!!
I ordered notepads and a t shirt that I uploaded myself and was I disappointed at the quality on every level. The material of the T shirt is awful . It was thin as could be and shrunk about 2 sizes. The notepads were low end as well. This was my second time ordering and I feel ripped off completely.
Vistaprint did me wrong charged me 18.00 for the advertised price of a stamp of 3.97 the shipping should not have been so much for a 2 week shipping and the product was inferior was much smaller than expected, i will never buy anything from them again.
I have experienced many problems with Vistaprint after signing up for Vistaprint Plus, which costs £5/month, but supposedly gives you £10 credit per month, yet I have never received the credit. After complaining, they gave me £10.50 credit, but then repeatedly didn;t give me my £10/month credit since!
I was about to place an order when suddenly I took a moment to look for reviews just in case. Readind this changed my mind. I never leave comments about my personal bad experiences, but I’m wrong. I really want to thank all the people in this world that take the time to do it in an effort to help us all. Thank you very much.
hi i ordered fromm vista print and they gave me 2 order when all i wanted was 500 business cards they charged me 55 pounds when it was really ment to be 20 pounds.i emailed them and they said they wpou7ld refund me . but 4 weeks later they still have not done so. i phoned them and it was run buy indian people and i could not undrestand them that well but he was not intrested in what i had to say so really they are conning people and please be AWARE that they can con you tooo