I'm going between 4 and 5 stars, but either way I highly recommend. Here's my story.
I am not a professional publisher or designer or anything. Two weeks ago I was overseas and learned that two friends, UN workers, had been killed in Somalia. After a couple of days of shock and grief, I decided I wanted to do something with a t-shirt commemorating them - and I wanted to wear it in a race I was doing that Sunday. Granted this was a tall order. I contacted probably a dozen printing tee shirt places and most of them weren't interested, said it couldn't be done, or couldn't even understand what I was talking about. I spent about 2 days back and forth playing phone tag with Kwik Kopy because between the time change and traveling back to the U.S., I was never able to phone when they were open. But I was pleased with their patience and persistence.
We ended up emailing quite a lot on the Friday before. I sent the designer the names and dates of my friends' birth and death dates, and the UN flag logo and a broken heart. The designer was fantastic. He made the broken heart more subtle and placed it inside the UN logo instead of the usual continents that are usually in it, with my friends' info below. It was absolutely beautiful. They originally were going to deliver it but this process went too late into Friday so they couldn't. I ended up hiring a courier to pick it up on Saturday so I could wear it Sunday. I should also note that their prices were much cheaper than I would have expected for a design, printing of one single tee shirt.
However, they had a problem with the printing apparatus and emailed me after-hours Friday, letting me know. They weren't able to correct it by Saturday morning, so, disappointed, I cancelled the courier and asked them to also contact the courier to let them know (I wasn't in an area of cell phone access during the business hours so I wanted to make sure all bases were covered). I understand - these things happen, and I appreciated their keeping me updated. They told me that since I had the design I could just take it somewhere else and get it printed. I didn't want to do that - it was their design and their work, and I didn't feel it was right to do that. Later on, I saw an email that they had been able to fix the apparatus and had printed my shirt. I saw it too late - I was out of email range for most of Saturday - and so I didn't get it in time to wear on Sunday for the race. But I emailed them and told them I wanted the shirt anyhow, even though I didn't get it until after. They delivered the shirt personally to me downtown in my office, and told me they weren't going to charge me for it - I didn't think that was right either. They did end up cutting me a break on the price because they didn't come through in the (very abbreviated) timeframe that we had agreed upon.
But that's not why I am giving them 4-5 stars - it's because from the beginning, they were willing to work with me and treat me just as an important client would be treated even thought I was just little old me. And they came up with a beautiful design, and moved heaven and earth to fit the basically impossible timeframe I needed the shirt in. And then felt bad when they promised it and it seemed like they wouldn't be able to deliver. And throughout excellent communication. read more