If you need a printer for your BUSINESS needs for standard print jobs (business cards, brochures, flyers etc) = good place. They are quick, responsive, fairly priced and have good equipment. I think their target market is other businesses and they are not a good fit for the public with smaller print needs.
I have used this place for a few personal projects the last 2 years for printing invitations to events and I have had mixed experiences. Sometimes it was really good and others it has been like pulling teeth. There is one gentleman who has a can-do attitude and is super helpful. He listens to me about what the end goal is that I am wanting and helps to make that happen. The other guy has a very tunnel-visioned mindset. He will get you what you need only if it can be done in the way he always does it and he doesn't take the time to listen. He tends to over complicate the situation. I have been waiting to write a review for them because I was wanting to give them another try but after my experience yesterday I feel that my overall experience is accurate. It is very hit and miss, it depends on what your project is and which guy you work with here. I used them for my wedding invitations and they came out great BUT i used paper from Paper Source because I didn't like the quality of their paper that they use for invitations and also it took some adjustments getting the proof right. The file was a digital file so the colors should have been fine but for some reason the yellow was printing with a lot of green tones so they did some graphic design on their end to get it to print correctly. A professional graphic design artist did my file so I don't know why it was printing like that but after adjustments Guardian was able to get the proof to look perfect and my invitations came out great. Yesterday I took in some hand drawn "artwork" (the invitation wording was done in special handwritten fonts and in Purple and Aqua) and I wanted them printed on 110# matte paper in 5x7 sheets and then at home I would glue on the details and add stickers (I am hand making the invitations for my daughter's first birthday party). My home printer isn't working well so this should have been a really easy and simple job for them. It apparently wasn't. First, the guy wanted to use sheets of glossy paper and I didn't want it. he was really focused on "well that's what we usually use for invitations". Ok, that's fine if you do that but I don't want it. Also, I have done many professional events and very rarely have I seen glossy invitations. Glossy can really make it look tacky and matte looks more upscale. High Gloss is great for real estate postcards etc but is not a great choice for invitations and there are various degrees of "gloss" so a semi-gloss can be OK. Anyhoo, so then the guy wants the digital file and I explained that this isn't digital this was hand written (he is holding it btw) and so needs to just be photo-copied. With an attitude, he said it wouldn't come out the same. Firstly, I understand that and am not looking for an exact duplicate in this situation. If it comes out remotely the same of aqua and purple I will be happy. My expectations are pretty easy going for this project. And secondly, before making such a judgement why not just do a quick sample and see if the customer will be ok with it before being so quick to decide that it should be done digitally? That's how I would have handled the situation.... So anyways, he really wanted it to be scanned. Ok then scan it if you don't want to color copy it b/c I don't care how I get the final product. But then I remembered they have a "graphic design" fee. And so I just asked if they would charge me the $15 for that and he said YES. Why on earth would you charge me $15 just to SCAN it? So that was my breaking point. Also, because they usually use digital files for invitations or anything else that same size, they do multiple copies on large sheets of paper and then trim them so i think THAT is why he wanted to scan it. He kept saying he could do it other ways but this is the easiest for him. So in essence he was going to charge me an extra $15 graphic design fee to scan the piece of paper to then do HIS job EASIER? can I just bang my head against the wall now???? That is not how a business should do business. So I left and went to Office Depot which has a copy center. In 20 minutes I had my final product in hand and out the door for a total of $37 (50 COLOR copies of my handwritten invitation that turned out VERY close to the same color they were handwritten in on 110# cardstock matte paper). I chose not to have them do the cutting down to 5x7 because they charge $1+ per item so I used the paper cutter I have at home to cut them myself. However, they had paper cutter there I could have used for free if I wanted to.
I REALLY strive to give small mom and pop places my business but unfortunately in this situation I will just continue to go to Office Depot/Kinko's. read more