Recently I purchased some stuff through VistaPrint. While I’m 100% satisfied with the products and price of the printed materials I purchased, I am 100% dissatisfied with a marketing tactic I will call, "Spam gone wild!" (See warning at bottom)
Location:
www.vistaprint.com (The products I received were printed in Western Michigan)
Description:
This is a low-cost online printer. There are a lot of them out there for loads of other things, but they seem to focus on the simple business cards, letterhead, and promotional items.
Service:
This would more accurately be labeled, "Lack of customer service." To keep costs low they don’t have a decent website for customer service. In my case I purchased a product and then realized for the same price I could purchase a better product. So, within 10 minutes I placed a new order and tried to cancel my original one. Needless to say, I wasn’t allowed to cancel it and got stuck with the worse product as well as the charge. What a crock! (Yet it was still so cheap that I don’t care all that much.)
Cost:
Cheap. Nice packaging, fast delivery. I paid for the upgrade to overnight delivery so I actually paid 400% of the printing cost in shipping and handling, but it is nice to have an option to get stuff printed and delivered in 24 hours.
Rating:
I can’t give VistaPrint a good rating. In fact, they must receive a "bad" and "avoid" because of their spam practice. After checking out you are asked if you’d like to receive a coupon for 50% off your next order. It is masked so well that you would gather that it is an opt-in coupon from VistaPrint. However, it is not. It is from a scam that uses your personal information to charge you $15/month for access to coupons online. Since I purchased 2 separate products from VistaPrint, I accidentally opted into $30/month in coupons.
No problem, right? Just click the link and cancel it. Treat it like any other spam. This is where the "Spam gone wild" comes in. They have already recieved my credit card information from VistaPrint… which I didn’t authorize, and will bill you within 30 days if you do not call their 800 number to opt out. I did this before the deadline, but the process of doing so was not easy. I’m not sure how this practice is legal, but clearly they are getting away with it. Can you imagine how many corporate buyers don’t notice the spam attack, or worse… how many spam filters pick up the notice and you start getting billed $15/month. For most corporate credit card users it would take a few months to notice that devious practice.
This is why I am recommending my friends to avoid VistaPrint. Their customer service represents the worst in predatory practice. While their actual printing services are good and the prices are excellent. Their company has no way to cancel unwanted items and shares information with a scam.
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