I have been printing my own photographs for a couple of years now and have used Red River papers fairly regularly, as well as several other papers (e.g., Epson, Moab etc). Until recently, I've had good experiences with Red River in terms of product quality, shipment speed, value-for-money, etc.
Recently, however, I had a shopping experience that left me very disappointed. I wanted to place a large order (for at least $400 in paper) for a solo exhibition I'll be printing. The exhibition is a fundraiser for a local charity, so every penny I save in production costs is a penny that will be turned over to the charity (and in fact, I'll be donating some of the prints themselves, so I'll be out-of-pocket). I contacted RR to ask if they offered any discounts in situations like this, whether there were some coupons available I'd overlooked or whether they had any imminent sales planned for the premium paper I was ordering. I know that a business has no obligation to offer a special discount or share such information, but almost every other business I've dealt with in connection with the work I've done for charities has been helpful in this way (e.g., letting me know of an upcoming sale, etc.) I gave the rep my account information so they could see what was in my shopping cart and take note of the fact that I was a regular customer with reasonably large and fairly frequent orders for a consumer.
The customer service rep told me there were no offers or coupons applicable to the paper I wanted and that they couldn't offer a special discount. Since I was up against a deadline, I decided to go ahead and order the paper - I couldn't wait for a sale. The order went through, and I ordered enough products to at least take advantage of their 5% off price for Rewards Points members. Meanwhile, I had somehow managed to save a near duplicate "cart" under a second email address - I had forgotten that I have two accounts with RR. 24 hours later, I start getting "we see your cart is full, how can we help" messages from RR. And within about a day, I started getting promo offers - the last one was an offer for 15% on my order. I called RR and asked if they would consider either: (a) retroactively applying that discount to paper in my order that was intended for the exhibition,r or (b) giving me a credit for the difference in price to apply to a future order. Again, I explained that the paper was for a show to benefit a charity. Again, the customer service rep demonstrated no flexibility.
Red River is of course entitled to run its business as it sees fit and it's entitled to offer coupons selectively, to not apply them retroactively, etc. Their inflexible customer service doesn't detract from the quality of their products.
But there are other providers of high quality paper for photographers. Previously, I recommended RR products to other photographers and until this experience I would have expected to continue buying from them. But this experience was a turn-off. I will take my business elsewhere and cease recommending them. read more
