I generally don't write reviews, but this last time around with Starfish has been so awful, I think it's important to do so.
Over the years we've purchased thousands of shirts from these guys. We order them in large batches for our field crew. It's a relatively simple, single-color, screen-printed design. The last order began in early June, when I was working with their general manger that was initially very friendly and helpful. I explained to him that I wanted to change the logo on the back of the shirt and I sent over my new art. I placed an order for a few hundred shirts, ranging from women's XS to men's XXL. Cost was about $12 per shirt. Starfish didn't ask any questions, so I assumed it would turn out like all the previous orders. A few days later the shirts were done, kickass. I sent my delivery truck over with a check and he came back with the shirts.
I didn't get a chance to open the boxes until the next day. Upon doing so I noticed that the logo printed on the men's shirts looked really small. (On all earlier orders, the logo fills most of the back of the shirt.) It looked like they had sized the screen for the women's small shirt, and had then used the same screen on all sizes, through men's XXL. I immediately contacted the general manager, who gave me a call. He explained that they had never needed to use more than one screen before. I said that makes sense, because I had never ordered women's shirts before. He apologized, and offered me a discount on my next order.
As the next week came around, suddenly it was like I was dealing with a different person. The starish general manager was hostile and condescending. (He was saying things like, "We've been doing business long before you worked there"... Uh, I'm the owner buddy. ) The general manager said it wasn't their fault because they were reprinting a shirt they had printed thousands of time before, and that it was impossible for them to make this mistake. (Much of this was in capital letters via email). I figured that there must be some confusion, so I took pictures of previous orders and the current order to clarify that this was a new logo, not the old one as he claimed.
Weeks went by. The general manager was taking lots of time off at this point for personal reasons, and it was really difficult to get a hold of him or to get him to respond to me via email. He would also never respond to my current email, as if he was trying to leave information out of the email thread.
Eventually he said that he would not honor the discount as previously offered, and that Starfish was too busy to reprint my shirts. At this point, I was trying to salvage a business relationship that we've had for more than a decade. I told him I was willing wait until after Starfish caught up with their orders, and that I was also willing offset whatever costs for the new blank shirts. More time went by, eventually the general manager tells me to take my business elsewhere. He says that he will send me my films and a refund for the printing cost of the shirts. (About $1.80 per shirt)
Now we've been at this for months, every few weeks or so I'll contact him and ask for my stuff and the first few times he responded and said that he was out of the office, but he would get them to me. Now it's DECEMBER. He doesn't respond to my request for my films/refund, I only get out of the office replies for one reason or another.
It's sad really. When you have a vendor mess up, and then lie to you, and then dick you around for six months, and then blow you off completely. Starfish was once a good company. They used to be reliable and we never thought we'd ever have to take our business elsewhere. I hope everyone else has a more positive experience, because this was simply awful. read more
