I've had just about the worst experience with Ka-blam.com. Ka-blam.com is an on demand print company, they print comics, posters t-shirts, etc. and I have not heard of anyone having sour dealings with them, which makes my experience even more upsetting.
So I ordered 10 posters to sell and try to make some money, the total came to $21.62 shipping included. A day passes and I notice some errors I'd like to correct on the image so I put the order on Hold, they have a "hold" for this reason. I was told this wasn't a problem.
Here's the original file uploaded 08-22-2011:
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| Palin_2012_Original_F |
Here's the new File uploaded 08-24-2011:
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| Palin_2012_Original_B |
On 09-10-2011 I receive a message: "I'm clarifying as there seems to be 2 files in your folder.
Print the 8/31 edition?" I assume they mean the last file uploaded, which was done on 08-24-2011, since I put this order on hold to upload a new file I thought they would know to use the last file uploaded. Days go by and I see my poster on Indyplanet.com and it's the wrong file so I ask it to be removed and I write them:
2011-09-14
I sent you a new file to use while it was on hold, and you still used the old file, please take the poster down from indyplanet.com as soon as possible.
And if the posters I ordered come printed using the old file I will need them redone or a refund.
-Thanks
Two days go by:
2011-09-16
I just received my order today and it is the wrong file, I told you on the 14th it was the wrong file and you sent it anyway, the print came out too dark as well. Can I get a refund
And I got this response:
If you'd like to resend the file, Morgan, then we'll reprint it -- BUT -- we DID print the last file you sent to us. I thought it looked the same as the previous file, but it WAS the last file we got from you. And yes, the print is dark, but your colors are very dark. You might want to take a look at your monitor calibration.
Barry Gregory
Ka-Blam
So from the response I know he not going to take any kind of responsibility for the mistake, instead of arguing I just upload a new file, this time I changed it profoundly and added the date to the file name.
The last file uploaded 09-21-2011:
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| Palin_Poster_09212011 |
Needless to say days later I received my order and it's the same old file! On the plus side, the image is nearly perfect, the colors are vibrant. Which you'd expect. So I message them back and complain:
2011-09-24
I got the posters today and you printed the same file [Palin_2012_Original_F] as before! It seems like you're doing this deliberately now, I think now I need a full refund, this has wasted so much time and energy I'm done with it.
Here's the messages I got back:
2011-09-25
We're wasting YOUR time? It's clear we're just not the printer for you, Morgan. I've sent you payment for the one sale you generated at Indyplanet and I'm de-listing your items. We'll accept no more orders from you. Best of luck.
Barry Gregory
Ka-Blam
2011-09-28
I'm sorry Morgan. We printed from the files you sent--twice. We shipped your order...twice.
Jen
They refuse to take responsibility and refund my money. SO I'll rant about it and warn people thinking of using this company for anything.
Also I found a great company for printing posters and other stuff http://www.printkeg.com/ They printed my Elvira posters and the first one came out too dark and they reprinted and shipped it with no hassle and it came out brilliant.
You are not the only with with a nightmare experience courtesy of Ka-Blam. I've had to deal with several -- mostly with delays and communications, because their messaging system isn't very reliable.
ReplyDeleteThe worst one included trade paperbacks with curled covers that arrived the day after the convention that they were meant for. Barry actually lectured me on how they were doing me a favor by giving me expedited shipment, on an order that arrived a full month and a half late, again because of an error on their end that caused problems with an upload. He was incredibly rude. It was the worst customer service that I've received from a printer.
People do complain, but Ka-Blam checks forums and Twitter to do damage control on a regular basis.
I can't understand how a business can survive running that way, falling short, time to take it out on a paying customer.
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