I use Vistaprint and have had no problems with their service or quality control. Admittedly, I have never looked anywhere else and haven't shopped around. But, I've been very happy with the products that I've received and it's good to know that others have received very good customer service when they've had issues.
Here are a few tips and tricks that I've found for maximizing your usefulness of Vistaprint:
First of all, the emails that they send out are total crap. About 90% are the exact same deal with a slightly different spin on the marketing. They offer the same 250 free business cards, a free small car magnet, etc. in every mailing. If you go with one of these freebies, you are forced to get the lowest quality version of the item and you cannot add your own logo/image to it. Don't bother with this.
Second, you will get charged for using an uploaded image the first time it's used, but it gets saved to your account and you can reuse it (free of charge) from then on out. So, just upload your logo once and then use their images, text and design app stuff to customize your image from then on out. It saves you money rather than developing the whole business card using other software and then uploading that entire image. If you want to order something else (door magnets, pens, etc.), you can't really reuse a single, business card image like you could just a logo.
Third, always Google "vistaprint discount codes" before purchasing. While the emails they send are total crap, there are lots of other discounts out there that can save you a ton of money. For instance, I recently ordered a total of 1000 business cards, 4 large car magnets, 2 large banners, a medium banner, 2 banner stands, 25 pens, 10 bumper stickers and a small stamp for less than $250 (including shipping) because I went through
Retailmenot.com. I did some creative quantity adjustments and item selections to maximize my savings of the "Buy more save more" discount which saves $5 off of $25, $15 off of $50 or $40 off of $100. I adjusted my quantities and items so that I would get as close to $100 w/o going under as possible to maximize the discounts.
Lastly, understand that Vistaprint isn't going to be the one "end-all-be-all" solution for all of your marketing/advertising needs. There are other, better solutions out there for certain things. For instance, I am in the process of ordering my first set of custom embroidered polos and other apparel. Rather than using the limited selection on Vistaprint, I opted to go through
LogoUp.com instead. Feel free to "experiment" with the items that Vistaprint has to offer, but I wouldn't suggest buying a large quantity of something without first purchasing a small sample of it to make sure that it is what you are expecting. It's the concept of "try before you buy". Your mileage may vary.
