Vistaprint - Anybody used them before - reviews required

[TamworthCleaningSupplies]

Hi All,

We are a new business looking for postcards and other printing to be done, and we have come accross vistaprint.

Before considering using them, I would be interested in any reviews about them and their service good or bad to help us decide on using them

cheers for any advice offered

Jason

 

[BusinessTeam]

Morning Jason,

We have used them before and whilst the initial offering looks very competitive be careful as by the time you have added on all of the 'extras' such as postage etc the prices are a lot higher than you think.

In terms of quality, the designs can be quite amateurish and on some occasions look quite home made. My advice if you want potential clients to be impressed by your brand would be invest a little in a design and good quality print. You can pick up a good graphic designer on something like PeoplePerHour.com for about £40 and printing is not that expensive if you shop around.

Good luck

Richard

 

[Ding Dang Doo]

Hi,

I've used them before... Good point. 1 - price. Good point. 2 - ummmmmm, can't think of any.

Please remember, with printing, generally you get what you pay for, and my experience with Vistaprint, this has been rammed home to me.

Personally, I would never use them again.

There are some very helpful printing co's on here, why don't you make a list of your requirements, and post them on the forum?

HTH

Pete

 

[businessfunding]

In my opinion they are perfectly adequate for basic materials. Of course much depends on what your business is an what impression you are trying to create.

As above, be aware that going for add-ons will bring the price (but not the quality) up to the level of a professional printer.

 

[Nuno]

Avoid at all costs.
They use the cheapest possible stock, the print is often muddy and they have so many add-ons to the price they aren't even cheap.
On top of that they will try and get you to sign up to a recurring monthly charge in the small print, which whilst legal, typifies the sort of business I don't want to use.
On price: I'm printing 20,000 postcards a month with alocalprinter at a cost of £295, delivered. Vistaprint would want £551 plus delivery for this, and supply an inferior product.

Always consider digital print if you want small runs: alocalprinter does these as does Scubaprint, who hangs out around here sometimes.

 

[neildigital]

Thanks Nuno

Always happy to price print, printed inhouse, with standard price better than lots of companies special offers...

 

[TamworthCleaningSupplies]

Thanks everyone for your valued input, think I will give vistaprint a miss

Jason

 

[Paul Norman]

Is cheap. Looks cheap. If cheap is your desired thing, go for it.

Otherwise, no.

 

[british steve]

Quality sucks. Dont waste your money - find a better quality printer - many of which are on UKBF.

 

[emmylou74]

I use them all the time and don't have a problem with them at all and there is nothing wrong with the quality of items I get. I don't use their pre-designed things I have a designer who will design what I want then I upload that design.

There was only one time there was a problem with the printing and they replaced the whole order no quibbles nothing - even though it was only a small part of the order that had a problem they replaced the whole thing.

I guess it depends on how much you need printing, but for me their price is good and the quality is good too. I have compared my things with printing done here and I don't see a difference.

 

[seoswat]

I have used vista print once, and they get you on the delivery, i prefer to use got-print

 

[british steve]

I don't see a difference.

http://www.specsavers.co.uk/

Hope this helps!

 

[B&H Digital]

The quality of print they use is far from good.

Also, be prepared to be added to their offer email list which is sent out quite regularly.

Like a few people have suggested, invest your time in a good design, a good print company and in result you'll get a good end product and a good service.

If you need anything, feel free to get in touch with us

 

[10032012]

My Vistaprint experience:-

My first order was for some business cards (also a free pen, free rubber stamp etc.)

The site is misleading - postage is excessive (hence the free items to make it worth while) - printed abroad... although they don't say printed in the UK on the vistaprint.co.uk website there is no mention of it coming from overseas.

The business cards were affordable and nice quality - really... I was impressed - for the thickness of the card (thin) etc. The background was blue and was flawless. The delivery timescales (unless you purchase silly upgrades) is a joke. usually they "ship early" anyway.

The rubber stamp was fine. The FREE pen was very poorly printed...

My second order for business cards (I like a good quality premium business card version to impress and professional basic business card version for all else - so use vistaprint for the latter)... this time the background was white (i.e. no print) and the quality was absolutely awful can barely read the writing.

They wont stop spamming me with emails... half the time the cancel link in emails don't load and although when it did work emails get reduced for a few months, but they don't dry up.

I wont use them again and I do not recommend them.

 

[Ding Dang Doo]

My Vistaprint experience:-

My first order was for some business cards (also a free pen, free rubber stamp etc.)

The site is misleading - postage is excessive (hence the free items to make it worth while) - printed abroad... although they don't say printed in the UK on the vistaprint.co.uk website there is no mention of it coming from overseas.

Yes, I seem to remember them coming from Holland...

 

[123Simples]

You get what you pay for.
Basically the best time is to grab the "offers" when they are going, and check everything carefully on the order. I have used both - Vistaprint and professional printing services over the years - the best point to remember is that as nice as you can make a card look, whether it be a business card, or postcard, the reality is that many will be simply discarded into a bin!

If the cards only cost you £25 to £40 then its not so bad - if you have paid a couple of hundred quid then its an expensive bin...

Next time you visit a pub, a hotel or anywhere that has sales literature look at how much is sitting there. The NHS is a great example of wasted promotional material.

The reality is you want to focus on the message and for every 1000 cards you send out, you may be lucky to achieve a realistic 1 to 10% of return, but more often than not less than 5%, if not lower.

 

[MASSEY]

Delivery is expensive. The quality is not the best, the edges of biz cards aren't exactly straight. If the edges were straighter on the cards it would be better.

 

[eventdomain]

Don't like VP's way of forcing you into other offers. The cards are cheap looking and most of the time its wasted money.

This is my version of what happens to biz cards:

I attend 2 to 3 events per year - usually at these things there's a lot of palm pressing, let me sell you my biz and you will buy stuff going on.

So you meet various people, and the usual sales pitch, they drop into conversation eg: here, have my biz card, which provokes the card swap, either party stuffs it into suit pocket or wallet, likely never to be seen for a very long time, if not forgotten, shredded at later date etc.

Problem is I end up collecting about 30 cards per year, and then need somewhere to store them all, so end up shredding all of them. Some of these cards are always nicely produced too, but if you've no use for them, I guess they'll get binned.

 

[Elliottc26]

The thing is also that the designs will be used by hundreds of others, being generic and boring. Not targeted either. There is nothing bespoke in what you receive and the images look dull and without vibrance.

Get somone to provide you with a high-quality design and print it off as many times as you like. For instance, one or two page flyer would print for £115 for 000's delivered in 24/48 hours. Design wise, depends who you use...

 

[businessfunding]

You get what you pay for!

Vistaprint are absolutely fine for simple, basic cards and postcards.

T~hey won't create an identity and beware of add-ons or you could end up more than for a professional printer.

I have personally experienced no problems with quality or delivery.