I had a poster that my dad became attached to. It was no longer available commercially, so I decided to get a copy made for him as a gift. My mum is an artist and recommended this place.
I live out of the area and they warned me it might not be done until the end of day, so I returned the following. When I arrived they handed me the pair of posters rolled and wrapped in rubber bands. I could just see the edge of the poster and was pleased that the colors looked rich and the quality of the paper was heavy.
I did not open it up and look at it until I got home, and at this point I discovered that the copy was considerably darker than the original and a lot of the detail had been lost. I live a half hour away from the printers so agonized over whether or not it was worth returning to request the brightness be adjusted. Ultimately I was too dissatisfied with the duplicate to present it as a gift and decided that for cost I should be happier with the result.
I returned at next opportunity and apologetically requested the correction. They said that the lamination of the poster was the source of the problem and quoted me a cost for a reprint which was greater than the original price. I questioned this and inquired why no one had warned me that the lamination could be an impediment. In response they offered to run it again with the caveat that it may not look good. I asked that they make the attempt and thanked them profusely for the effort.
The next time I returned for the posters, they unrolled the reprint for my inspection. I noticed immediately that the color was now very washed out in parts, but that the detail had been recovered. I was undecided in the moment how I felt about this, but I didn't want to trouble them further so thanked them and left. I planned to compare the two prints on my own and decide if either would be good enough to gift.
It was not until I arrived home that I realized they had taken away print #1 and sent me home with only print #2. And looking at it away from the scrutiny of the clerk, it was painfully clear that this was not an improvement. I immediately contacted them to determine the fate of the first print, and they informed me that they had already recycled it.
In the end, I am angry with myself for having decided to request the adjustment. Not only did I spend more time and gas money returning to the shop, but I am left with nothing for my efforts. The degradation of the dark print was negligible, but the light print is really of no use at all, and I should have said so at the time. I am deeply uncomfortable requesting changes when a product does not meet expectations, so I was never going to complain if the reprint was inferior to the first, as they warned me it might be. I just wish they had let me keep both copies, rather than throwing it away. read more