Overnight Prints is Anything but Overnight Printing
- Comments: 41
- Written on: February 22nd, 2008
I normally don’t make posts calling a company out like this, but Overnight Prints has royally messed up a component of the marketing I was planning on doing at Affiliate Summit West so please bear with me as I work my writhing anger out through my keyboard.
If you are not a big reader and want the short version, check out this video. It pretty much says it all:
We wanted to have some post cards printed up about Top Affiliate Challenge so we could distribute them at Affiliate Summit West in Vegas. Kimberly spent a couple days designing and tweaking them so they were just right.
Overnight Prints did our business cards, and although they arrived nearly a week later than when they were promised, we have received many compliments on them.
I know things go wrong sometimes, and I was willing to chalk up the late business cards to a fluke. We ordered the post cards from their website on 2/20/2008 and paid an outrageous $65 for Next Day Air Saver UPS shipping just to make sure they got here on time.
The cards were supposed to arrive today, so we logged on to our Overnight Prints account and checked the status of our order just to make sure (thank God Kim is thorough). Shockingly, the cards have been printed, but not shipped. We leave for the Summit on Sunday, and today is Friday. We called their customer service line to see what could be done to get them here Next Day Saturday Delivery.
Now, we ship things from California all the time Next Day Saturday delivery. Its nothing new, and we know it costs more and we were prepared to pay. But the Overnight prints operator stunned us when he said that UPS does not ship Saturdays from their warehouse.
WHAT?!? The UPS website clearly shows that Saturday Shipping is available.
It turns out the only thing we could do was change the shipping address to our hotel in Vegas and HOPE they get there on Monday while there is still a little time to hand them out.
I decided to do some Google searching (I know day late, dollar short) and see what other people are saying about Overnight Prints. Lets just say it is not good.
I was able to find multiple complaints just like mine dating from 2004 to present. This is the email I just sent to Overnight Prints expressing my displeasure with their service and shipping policies:
I found this email address on a blog, and I wanted to email you to let you know how disappointed I am with your turn around time, shipping policies, and customer service.
We ordered business cards for a new company we started, and they arrived a week later that when they were promised. I figured that was a glitch, and being in business I know that can happen to anyone.
So now we have ordered 500 post cards to distribute at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas (order #97177934 placed on 2/20/2008). We were given the impression from your website that if we paid for the next day air $65.00 shipping option, we would have our cards by today (Friday).
We checked the website this morning to see that the cards had been printed, but not shipped, which means they will not arrive in time for our trip. We called your customer service line and pleaded with the operator for Saturday shipment – we even offered to pay more for it. The operator told us that UPS does not ship Saturday delivery from your California warehouse.
That is when I started to get mad. We ship things all the time Saturday delivery from San Jose, and a simple check of the UPS website shows that next day Saturday shipping is available from your location. So either the operator didn’t know what they were saying, or ONP just doesn’t want to ship things Saturday delivery.
This is a MAJOR problem for us, and the only thing we could have the operator do is change the shipping address to our hotel in Las Vegas. We will at least have the cards for ½ of the conference.
I understand things happen, but when I Google your company and the word complaint, I see a mile long litany of complaints dating from 2004 to October 2007. I can only assume that late shipping and under delivery are part of your corporate culture, and not a passing problem.
The ONLY reason I am not asking for a refund is that no one else can print these cards before Sunday morning. I am deeply disappointed with your service and will not be ordering from you in the future for anything that is remotely time sensitive.
Like most of the other people online, I don’t expect a reply back. Have you had problems with Overnight Prints? Have you had excellent service from them? I sincerely hope that my experience is unique, but based on what I have read I am not sure how that could possibly be the case.
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- Comments: 41
I recommend ooprint.com! They have some really great business card models: different formats, many designs, and you also have the option of creating your own card.
I’ve had only good experiences with them. They print in 24 hours and ship quickly with DHL.
I also think their prices are very reasonable.
http://www.ooprint.com
I have used them numerous times and have only had one issue with them as i wanted something quickly within 3 days and ran into an issue with them but they refunded the shipping and gave me a credit. I have used them plenty without a hitch.. I think key is don’t use them if you need it very quickly… the crazy thing is several times i have not needed it quickly and done normal ground shipping and got my order in less than 4 days from time of order… I think just be cautious if you need it Quick
I went through something very familiar to this with DHL and VistaPrint.
http://zacjohnson.com/thanks-for-missing-my-package-dhl/
It’s ridiculous how this type of stuff only happens when you really need your cards/product as soon as possible!
I’ve always had good luck with VistaPrint. Usually I go local when I need something ASAP. I can usually lean on one of my customers or partners to pull something off quickly.
I only ordered from O/Nprints because they provided the best design options for my cards but now I wonder if the quality will be as good as my monitor displayed. I say “I wonder” because 5 days later I haven’t received them nor have I had a notice. I tried talking to customer service but I only got the automated service and a busy signal if I tried to talk to a rep. Their system won’t recognize my email or invoice # (although they quickly took my money). I did get a tracking # but what good does that do? I didn’t know about the overnight printing until I placed the order so the time isn’t my gripe, it’s the lousy customer service and making me feel like a victim rather than a customer that really burns me. But hey, I control my future I won’t use them again. I will stick to local vendors that I can see personally.
The problems with Overnight Prints exist into May of 2008. I ordered 4000 tradeshow postcards on May 18. I am a graphic designer so the cards were printable and I know ONP had no problem as I asked. They were printed Monday May 19, shipped May 20 supposedly. I paid for 3 day select and these won’t be delivered until sometime on the 27th. 9 DAYS! After 3 hours on the phone, they refused to reprint the cards tonight and overnight them. I could pay to have them reprinted and overnighted and they would give me a 50% discount on the printing part only. Now that I read all the problems with Saturday delivery, I know they were just blowing smoke up my skirt. (By the way, they may be a California company but they let slip that all the printing is done by another company in Louisville KY, UPS’s home and hub. They are simply middle men.) I talked to Elizabeth in Customer Service then her supervisor Michael. I believe that was his name.
I have used printers for 14 years and have never had such an unresponsive company. All he kept saying was that was not their policy and he couldn’t change the policy just for me. Stay away from them! Every company makes mistakes but the difference between a great company and a horrible one like Overnight Prints is how they handle the problem.
Angelen VanDaele
Publisher
The Wedding Chronicle
http://www.wedchron.blogspot.com
I also recently had a less than satisfactory experience with Overnight Prints. My story is a mere inconvenience, not a near-catastrophe like most of the stories here, but it was certainly enough for me to decide to take my business elsewhere and pledge to e-mail their Customer Care Department a copy of every invoice for every order I place with one of their customers for the rest of my life, just to rub in their face how much their pathetic customer service costs them business. Full details of my experience at http://www.damianhopper.com/blog/archives/152
LOL not at everybody that has post there stories but that I worked for this company and heard this all the time. I start I am on nobody side and most definitely not on Overnightprints side as they have screwed me over also. I have read all the post and would like to help with getting your orders. First lets start by the name of the company. Overnightprints so everybody thinks right off the bat that they print and ship overnight. This is wrong in the fact as they print overnight then ship the next business day as they use UPS. Do not quote me on this but UPS does not count the day they pick up the orders as a day for shipping because it still needs to go through the processing. So a Next Day order and take 3 business days. So you place the order at 8am – 5pm pst with Next Day Air it will go to print that night is 1st day then given to UPS to start transit 2nd day then deliver 3rd day. So if you placed order on Monday you would not get it till Wednesday. As for you Saturday Delivery with UPS does do and Overnightprints has on there site but only on Thursday because it will print Thursday night then go with UPS Friday so that they can deliver Saturday. So his order was finishing print on Friday night or something like that so they could not get it to UPS on Friday to deliver on Saturday. If that was not the case then it was the rep error for not knowing that they could do this. Also note that if you get a tracking number and then want to update your shipping they are not going to as it is place now on the truck and finding you package is like finding a needle in hay stack. Note that you can find all answer on the site. They have put in a FAQ and Shipping questions as this is a problem. The main problem is that people just do not take the time to look into things better they place an order.
Now with that said yes there customer service sucks and the time is horrible wait. But they are opening new Customer Service center in Las Vegas with is going by a different name. This gets to A VanDaele comment they they are the middle men. They are not the middle men I repeat they are the middle men as the owner creates new companies in one. Overnightprints is part of a larger company called Farheap Solutions owned by Brett Heap. Not sure why he creates all this companies if it is for Taxes or just to know who is where? But I know that he is cheap ass. He had a Printer in CA but dump it for everything in Kentucky because it is cheaper cost and pay people out there is cheaper. Now is is opening Vegas because it is cheaper and Tax breaks. Not next thing that is horrible about the company is that they will just put new stuff on the website like greeting cards but not tell the Customer Service or tell them the day it go’s up. Then they are stuck with people asking them how stuff works in fact they do not know how it works. Here is how you get your order or money back.
1st BBB complaint. This company will go out of there way can call you right a way is you file BBB complaint.
2nd if you need a reprint and they are giving you hard time ask for you money back. They will then give you a reprint or discount, ect.. Remember there is a Guarantee on their site and they have to live up to it.
3rd if you want you money back and they will not refund you then chargeback with your card credit. This I can not guarantee will work but will charge them $25 if it does.
On a last note is that if you read the comment above about having the same problem with Vista Prints this just means it happens. unfortunately it happened to you. The only thing I can say is that go with a company that has good customer service as Overnightprints does not at this time. And do not order cards if you need them in a rush or color match. Sometimes they get behind that can delay your shipping. If this happens just ask to get refund on shipping. For color matching go to printer that takes color values or numbers that they enter in the matching to match your color. This takes more time and money but like they say you get what you pay for. Lastly google “overnightprints discounts” if you plan to order again as there are sites to give you discounts they have and they have them all the time.
Overnight Prints has made me so stomping raving pissed off mad over the last week that I decided to create a social network completely dedicated to their demise. It is the clearing the air for all those who now despise this crap company:
http://overnightprintssucks.ning.com/
Went through the same thing. I do a lot of printing…used VistaPrints for a long time (they messed up), switched to Overnight Prints (they messed up), and now I’m using Pixxlz.com. Get this…they actually have great customer services. I call and get a human. Not to mention they’re a green company!
They have free business cards, posters and such. I started by ordering free eco-friendly products first to test the waters.
Happy Printing at Pixxlz!
OMFG!!! you actually took the TIME and focused your ENERGY to create an entire website about your ONLY experience with this company? You know, if you channeled that energy toward something positive like building you business or learning a new skill – you would not have the TIME to create total waste of time sites like this. There is ENOUGH complaining in the world… when is NOW a good time to shut this site down? DA:(
@Rick
TO be technical this is a blog about a lot of things, but there is only one post about Overnight Prints.
Secondly, this was not my only experience with them. My wife also had an order arrive very late. Luckily, hers was not time sensitive, but mine was.
Third, this is a blog about Internet Marketing, so having a high ranking video and blog post about my experience is not a huge deal for me. It gets me traffic and helps other people out at the same time.
As far as shutting my site down, don’t hold your breath on that one.
HOWEVER I do thank you for stopping by and adding some insight to the discussion. Maybe we should do a new video… Order something from them, wait for it to be late, then just reiterate what I already wrote above. We are about to order new marketing materials for one of my businesses, so I think I just might do that
@mnc
Thanks for the recommendation. I might give them a try
@CPA Affiliates
I agree 100%. Their work is pretty good as long as you can wait for it.
@Zac Johnson
You know, if it was a one time thing I would be more forgiving. But I have given Overnight Prints multiple chances. They just can’t be relied on.
@Angel
Did you ever receive the cards? Was the quality on par with what they displayed?
@A VanDaele
I got that impression too. NO company that was actually printing these things would have such horrible customer service. It also explains why Overnight Prints will never reprint even when its their mistake. They have to pay someone else to do it.
@ Damian Hopper
You know Damian, the thing that shocks me the most is that no matter how many bloggers add negative stuff about Overnight Prints to the web, they never apologize, they never refund, they never take the normal steps any regular business would to save a customer relationship.
@WP
Thanks for the inside perspective. I am not going to knock a company for finding the lowest possible cost way to operate. I will venture a guess that Mr. Heap is opening multiple websites to attack different niches in the printing market place. Maybe that is why he doesn’t care if his Overnight Prints customers get ticked off and go elsewhere. He probably owns the top competing websites as well.
@ “Overnight Prints”
That might be a *little* over the top…
@ Amanda
Thanks for the suggestion. Like I mentioned before, I have a *LOT* of printing coming up so I will need a place to get it.
Overnight Prints are guilty of bait and switch and ripping off customers! It is a horrible company. Do not use them for anything!
I’ve used OvernightPrints a number of times and been relatively happy, however recently that changed when I needed to contact their “24/7 Customer Support.”
I needed to call because I received an order that was printed upside down and I needed to request a reprint. I called 6 times total and waited on hold for a total of 3 hours. on my 4th try I spoke with someone who took my name and promised a manager would be calling me back shortly… the manager never did. On my 6th try I finally spoke with a guy in reprints (after waiting on hold for 15 minutes) he kindly informed me that they were unable to reprint them at this time because they’ve been making too many printing errors.
They lost a customer in me. Its not worth your money or TIME. Avoid OvernightPrints.com
Well this is the power of word of mouth especially when a person has their own blog like yourselves. Hopefully they will take a different approach next time, did you send them a link.
you sure do whine a lot, don’t you? they’re overnightprints.com. therefore they have a CRAPTON of orders. if you wanted to ENSURE that they arrived on saturday, you should have called them first. they make NO guarantees as to delivery dates/times. you should do your research first.
DO NOT USE Overnightprints.com
I placed an order on Oct. 22 and paid for 3 day rush delivery. According to thier site when ordering they should have been in my hands by no later than Oct. 29.
I called on Oct 28 when they still have not shipped. I was told they would ship that night and offered a refund of my shipping (I had to haggle with them for that). Oct 29 and Oct 30 were the same as the day before, I had to call and see why they still had not shipped my order. Both time I was given the run around saying “it will ship tonight”. By Oct 31 and it still had not shipped I was pretty upset and called them one more time. I actually got to a supervisor this time. She said the best she can do is refund less than half of my shipping charges “because there’s a handling charge involved” (WHAT?? I should be getting double my shipping due a failure to handle my order!). She also said they would have to reprint my order and the soonest that I would get them would be on Nov 11. So now we go from having paid for 3 day shipping to having to pay extra to get an order over 3 weeks late???
Anyone looking to order a print job, DON’T waste time or money on Overnightprints
I found another thread that mentions a “Danny Kemp” I’ll try to email him at marketing@overnightprints.com to see what he plans on doing to recify the situation before I submit a complaint with the BBB.
Bad turn-around time, terrible and incompetent service.
I placed an order Nov. 18, order finished printing same day Nov. 18 but they did not mail out my order until Nov. 24. They told me the order would ship out Nov. 20 and that i would receive it by Nov. 21. I had next-day air shipping. They had my printed order for 4 business days before mailing it out. I made the mistake of believing their word that they could get this product to me in time.
Their website states:
“”What happens if my order is delayed?
Simply email us at service@overnightprints.com or call our order status queue (option 4) to rectify the situation. Overnight Prints will gladly issue a credit towards a future order.”
I called and asked for credit towards a future order, and they denied the request. Clearly they do not know their own policies and will not make amends for delays.
Bottom line is they are anything but “overnightprints” and orders even with next-day air may be delayed. I would not recommend this business to anyone, ESPECIALLY to those requiring fast printing.
DON’T USE THIS COMPANY, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A RESELLING GRAPHIC DESIGNER WITH CLIENTS WHO ARE PAYING YOU FOR A QUALITY PRODUCT DELIVERED IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME!
I ordered 500 Christmas cards for my client on November 25, 2008, knowing that Overnight Prints (OP) would not be printing or shipping on Thanksgiving Day or the day after. I gave my client a shipping date of Wednesday, December 3, 2008. On the following Sunday, November 30, 2008, I called OP to upgrade the print job to Express Printing with overnight delivery. I paid almost as much for that upgrade than I did for the card order. Since then, I have spoken to OP every single day inquiring about my order, even going so far as to upgrade yet again to Saturday delivery. Today, Saturday, December 6, 2008, I was told that they had not yet been shipped and the earliest I would have them would be Tuesday, December 9, 2008, but that she still would not give any guarantees.
On my last order (another Christmas card order), they did the scoring off-center and I had to cut every single card so that the inside of the card wasn’t hanging down behind below the bottom of the front of the card.
Furthermore, I have been using OP almost exclusively for my client’s business cards, postcard mailers, rack cards, brochures, etc. and at times, have reordered the same exact product with the same exact design file and received a print job with completely different shades of the original color.
You absolutely cannot depend on the quality, consistency or delivery of jobs done through Overnight Prints. If you do, understand that you are taking a huge risk.
I actually used to WORK there! They got more complaints than kudos and generally did not care. I would go out of my way to try and help a customer and then be roadblocked by someone who did not want to lose any money on a reprint or shipping change. The customer service department is full of kids working part time for no money and with very little training. The higher ups only care about themselves and buying expensive boats and fending off sexual harassment suits. It is a disgrace of a company.
Thank you very much for posting your youtube video. It led me to the discovery of thousands of complaints about Overnight Prints. As you may have guessed, I am having problems with this company as well. I posted several comments on youtube as I found more problems with my order. In my case, it’s not only the time issue, but the quality of the finished product as well. I tried emailing them and calling customer service (got a message that they are having technical difficulties with their phone system and can’t get through). I suggest that everyone having problems with them file a complaint on the BBB website (I was shocked to read that they had a B- (or plus, I can’t remember) rating).
I noticed that Overnight Prints seems to have flooded the net with links since last night, pushing many of the complaint links back several pages. Some complaint pages that were on the first few pages have been pushed back beyond the tenth. In a fit of OCD I enabled page rank and clicked every complaint page I could find several times. I believe visibility is important in order to warn potential customers. I still haven’t gotten through to customer support and am so ticked off that I spent about a half hour doing this completely insane thing. Now, if only I can get to pay for my therapy after (if?) this whole mess is cleared up.
Well, thanks to the BBB, Overnight Prints has reprinted my cards and they look absolutely beautiful. I received them today and all problems have been corrected. Now, I still believe OP’s customer service should have resolved this issue without intervention, but I thank OP for complying in a timely fashion. I would advise anyone still having trouble to file a complaint with the BBB and be sure it’s kept open until your issue is resolved.
-Tim
I’ve used Overnight Prints for years, and I dont get what you people are so upset about. For the price (WHICH IS REALLY LOW) you get fast turnaround & decent printing. MOST PROFESSIONALS USE MORE EXPENSIVE PRINTING!
COLORS ON COMPUTER SCREENS ARE NOT THE SAME AS PRINTED COLORS. There is a reason people go to school for 4 years to be graphic designers, to learn these things. If you don’t know how to do it, stop complaining. Like the idiots at kinko’s that yell at the poor $5 an hour employees because their logo for their massage / work at home scam doesn’t look good. DONT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB.
why are you morons so obsessed with this company anyway? do you really want to go to your grave being remembered as the “angry youtube overnight prints complaint guy”????? jesus this world is doomed
Those guys are complete retards, their customer service is by far the worst I have ever encountered, I have no idea how are they still in business. They should change their name to ‘nextyearprints’. Stay the hell away from them.
I also had a bad experience with overnight prints. They printed a Christmas newsletter for me and it was doubly printed, almost looked like it was sent through a machine twice and along the edges of the 81/2×11 sheet there was a green stripe that looks like it was from someone else’s job.
I contacted there email customer service 4x and never did get a response and finally had to send the newsletter out do to time constraints.
When I finally got through to a live operator and explained my problem she told me that I had to return the product and get it reprinted which was too late. Based on the lady’s attitude at customer service she must have to field complaints all day.
I finally disputed the charges on my credit card($456) and was told by Visa to get a written letter from a local printer and that described the poor workmanship. I did this and Visa ruled in my favor. These people tried to ignore and bully me until I went away-but not this time!!
Stay Away from Overnight prints!!
Shipping unfortunately is very expensive, especially overnight shipping. My guess is that they outsourced their work, and there was a time delay because they needed to get the cards shipped to their address before shipping to yours. This could explain why shipping cost you $65.
[...] Original post by Thor Schrock [...]
[...] evidence of their unacceptable business practices, now that I’ve bothered to look: • Overnight Prints is Anything but Overnight Printing | Peanuts to Profits with Thor Schrock • mediabistro.com: Bulletin Board: Designers’ Corner: Topic: Issue with Overnightprints.com [...]
[...] Overnight Prints This is a testament to the power of using video on a blog. A Google search for overnight prints has this post on the second page of the results. However, my YouTube video about how ticked off I was at Overnight Prints ranks 3rd – just under their corporate links.Overnight prints really hosed me when I needed a product by a deadline for a trade show and even after writing this post and cutting a video they did not make a single attempt to make things right. They don’t really need to I guess, since they also own many of the other high-ranking printing websites. [...]
[...] example, about a year ago I had a negative experience with Overnight Prints that motivated me to cut a video and make a post about their service. My bad experience was far [...]