Inferior printing/shirt quality

[katz]

I decided to post this in the Advertising, Marketing & Sales section of the forum as I feel it at least indirectly relates to advertising. I recently placed an online order with a printing company for (4) business shirts with my name and logo on the left breast area.

I know, I know, support your local business, etc., but as many of you know the cost is almost astronomical for that (especially in regards to printing) and I'm just one guy trying to struggle along...enough said about that...

These are sleeveless, casual shirts; It gets quite hot/humid in my neck of the woods in the summer and folks don't seem to mind if you show up with casual wear like this, in fact they sympathize most of the time. These shirts appear to be good quality material - 100% cotton and run $25/ea. - printed/shipped.

Anyway, the print quality turned out quite bad...they have a claims form on the website & I was instructed to fill that out, so here is what I submitted. I am told it may be up to a week for a reply.

I called and spoke with (name withheld) today in regards to this order. I am quite unhappy with the quality of the print; All of the shirts appear almost "iron on" decal quality, and you can actually see some ink artifacts outside the logo in the unprinted part of the shirt fabric. In addition, the wording appears blurred, somewhat difficult to read.

I ordered these shirts to wear on business calls, and I feel the quality is too inferior to use for that purpose. If we could possibly reprint them at a higher quality I would be open to that option, otherwise I believe I would like to request a refund for this order.

I have withheld the name of the company pending the outcome of the claim, but I will have no problem posting their name if we cannot come to an amicable resolution so my fellow techs may not fall for the same inferior quality goods.

To add to this, when on the phone with them, I felt "rushed" and I got an "off" vibe from that as well. I also have shirts on order from VistaPrint which are embroidered, so I assume they should be of much higher quality.

Questions/comments welcome.

Do any of you guys have a good online source for high quality garment printing/reasonably priced that you would recommend?

 

[colonydata]

I've never done screen printed T-shirts. Personally unless I knew I was going to be doing a dirty job at a client site I would never wear a T-shirt when dealing with customers. And I'm in Georgia so I know all about Hot and Humid summers.

What I've found really works is the Polyester Moisture wicking shirts. something like Nike Dri-fit or Adidas or Under-armour. I order mine from Logo-up.

 

[katz]

I've never done screen printed T-shirts. Personally unless I knew I was going to be doing a dirty job at a client site I would never wear a T-shirt when dealing with customers. And I'm in Georgia so I know all about Hot and Humid summers.

What I've found really works is the Polyester Moisture wicking shirts. something like Nike Dri-fit or Adidas or Under-armour. I order mine from Logo-up.

Thanks for the recommendation on the company, I'll check into them. As far as wearing casual/T-shirts, this is largely the norm in my area. Not a "T-Shirt"- per se, but a step above that, coupled with dress type shorts. I'm not just some guy that shows up in a Hanes T-Shirt, lol.

This might be the type of wear we use for the sticky/humid July-August days, other wise I'll dress in a nice Polo shirt. Definitely not a suit/tie unless I was in an air-conditioned business all day.

 

[barryt]

I opted for polo shirts think they look reasonably smart and used a company called clothes2order not the cheapest but very pleased with the results. They are based in the UK but think they do a worldwide delivery service.

 

[Martyn]

I opted for polo shirts think they look reasonably smart and used a company called clothes2order not the cheapest but very pleased with the results. They are based in the UK but think they do a worldwide delivery service.

I used them a couple of years ago and was pleased with the results. 2 sweatshirts and 6 polo shirts still in use.

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

This thread just reminded me it's time for our bi-yearly polo & gilet/bodywarmer orders.


for those who never thought about logoed gilets here is ones we use http://www.resultclothing.com/product.php?prod=R123X (although we buy from a local company who brand them for us) we found jackets hardly ever get worn since we bought them.



not wanting to hijack the thread but what is everyone wearing for trousers? (especially UK techs)

 

[joydivision]

I tend to wear dark coloured jeans (often inside and out and back to front ). I find they look smart enough, the problem with trousers is they show every dust mark if having to deal with moving desktops etc.

I tend to wear plain long sleeve t-shirts in the summer and jumpers in the winter. I keep meaning to get some shirts printed with my logo on it.

 

[Martyn]

I wear jeans on most days now, when I started it was trousers but after wearing suits for 30 years I wanted to just be relaxed in everything. Clients know me now for what I do not what I wear.

 

[cypress]

I wear polo shirt and jean khakis. Soft like jeans but give it the khaki look? haha.

but to the OP. sorry to hear that! Fight it out.

 

[GeeksInKhakis]

I've never done screen printed T-shirts. Personally unless I knew I was going to be doing a dirty job at a client site I would never wear a T-shirt when dealing with customers. And I'm in Georgia so I know all about Hot and Humid summers.

What I've found really works is the Polyester Moisture wicking shirts. something like Nike Dri-fit or Adidas or Under-armour. I order mine from Logo-up.

+1 for logo-up, I have five shirts, a hat, and a jacket from them. My logo is difficult to stitch and they did a graphic stitch-out and a real stitch-out after some tweaks and it came out great. They have killer deals also, once the logo is on file you can get it on anything.

 

[katz]

I received the VistaPrint order today;

(2) Embroidered Polo shirts (Heavy!) definitely for cold weather wear, and even then...
(2) (printed) Ladies T's for my wife to wear while shopping, etc.
(2) B-Ball caps

All look like a million bucks compared to the other company I initially posted about. So regular screen printing CAN look good if done correctly, no question there.

I knew that, but this recent order received is proof of that. Un-named company uses an inferior/lower quality process, no question. So, I'm most likely out $100...a bit hard to eat, certainly isn't the first $100 I've lost, I guess won't be the last...

Live & learn...

 

[cypress]

That's great Katz! I use vista print for many other things but never thought their shirt printing would work out. I am gonna go try that out. They are always sending me coupons too.

 

[katz]

That's great Katz! I use vista print for many other things but never thought their shirt printing would work out. I am gonna go try that out. They are always sending me coupons too.

I'm sure you will be satisfied.

I was hoping that gotprint.net printed clothing (they do not) as I usually place my orders for postcards/business cards and so forth with them as their prices are great, super turnaround time, etc...

I am going to check my local embroider/print shop(s) again, but the last time I did they wanted an order for at least 12 pieces and that was something like $500.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

I get all mine from Queensboro and have always been extremely satisfied!

 

[frederick]

I've never done screen printed T-shirts. Personally unless I knew I was going to be doing a dirty job at a client site I would never wear a T-shirt when dealing with customers. And I'm in Georgia so I know all about Hot and Humid summers.

What I've found really works is the Polyester Moisture wicking shirts. something like Nike Dri-fit or Adidas or Under-armour. I order mine from Logo-up.

It's hot here, and on good monsoon days, we get some pretty heavy humidity. +1 for the Polyster Moisture wicking shirts.

We do embroidered polo shirts, unless we are doing an installation or something dirty. For the dirty jobs, we had the hanes cool dry shirts done up from customink. Nice company name on the front left breast, and then the big logo on back. They came out real nice. We normally don't do custom ink and go with our local printer for everything, but this time we did. Cheap, fast, and decent quality given these shirts are getting trashed.

 

[Magic Miguel]

I used Custom Ink and the shirt I ordered came out really crappy. They say someone will contact you to confirm the details and make any suggestions and nobody called me or even emailed me. The color of the shirt was way off and it's already faded quite a bit. I'll go local next time.

 

[frederick]

Our local printer does better work by far. But for shirts that are going to get staind and ruined, better to go cheap. We are in the process of getting an event shirt for a charity run we are going to help sponsor, and help out at. Well be wearing them, so want them to look good. Full color and all

 

[dombooth]

I wear black jeans everywhere, and my company polo shirts embroidered with my logo:

Excuse the crap photo..

Dom

 

[cypress]

Had to tilt my head there Dom lol

 

[dombooth]

It's straight on my screen. :/

Dom