I had been a customer for a few years now and had always really liked working with Swag Northwest. However, last year they expanded their business, and really dropped the ball on my order.
From the moment I submitted my cross country team's order last fall, I was not impressed. The communication was terse, and confusing. I was told variously that my order would be done at the Lake Oswego location and at the new Swag Small Orders in SE. I had to tell them multiple times that my order was to be screen printed, not hot pressed. The first proof I was sent looked awful; the image I had designed was horizontally squished and looked really awkward. Brooke told me it was a "good catch" but it was pretty obvious, honestly.
When I picked up my order at LO, Randy was the one who helped me. He pulled out the box, pulled out a shirt very rapidly, said, "Cool, it looks good," and went right back to his computer, obviously not paying attention at all. I looked over the shirts, and realized they in fact, did not look good.
The ink on the sweatshirts was very thick, and very textured. A lot of the small details in the design were lost due to the thick ink. A couple of shirts also had inexact registration; you could see where multiple runs were, and they did not line up.
I pointed this out (politely) to Randy and the other employee who was there. Randy then took the shirts back to the other employee, sitting at the back table, and they looked over it and discussed it quietly among themselves, without involving me in the conversation. Awkward. Then Randy called across and said they agree, it doesn't look quite right. I asked if it would be OK to come into the back area, and they said yes. I pointed out the observations I detailed above. At some point, Randy went back to his computer and did not continue to participate in the discussion. He did not excuse himself or anything; he just walked away like he didn't care.
The other employee who was there said that there were some imperfections in the printing, but that it was normal, and to be expected. He said that especially with a dark blue shirt and a white print, it is hard to print well. He was also on his computer, not giving this his full attention.
I pointed out two things:
1.) That I had ordered exactly the same navy blue sweatshirts for my team before, and that we had white printing that turned out fine.
2.) That I am not an expert, but I have taken printmaking classes, screen printed on sweatshirts with multiple ink colors, on large areas, and my prints looked better than this. Sorry, but it's true.
Finally, Randy and the other employee acknowledged that this was not done well, and it sounded as though I would get a re-print. It was not specifically expressed to me that it would be free, though. I was concerned about cost, because I don't exactly make a lot of money, and wouldn't want to ask my team to pay for shirts twice.
Randy also expressed that it would take another 10 days to print my new sweatshirts, and that it would take an additional couple of days to figure out what went wrong with production the first time. I was never told "sorry," "we'll do our best to get this done quickly," or any of the standard customer service statements one should probably make under those circumstances. (I'm also saying this as someone who has worked retail.)
Randy offered to let me take the poorly-printed sweatshirts to my team to "tide them over" and so "we would have something for our event." (NOTE: It's not an event, it's called a sports season.) I declined and said we would wait for our reprint.
Randy said he would follow up with me the next day. He didn't, so I called him. Randy said that no one had gotten to addressing it yet, but that by the end of the day he would let me know more. He was not apologetic. The closest that he came to acknowledging my concerns was, "I know you are unhappy." I was getting very frustrated.
At this point, I still didn't even know if my reprint would be free, or if I would be charged. I pointed out that they should probably offer me a discount of some kind. An apology would have been better, but I wanted at least something at this point! Randy, and I quote, simply said, "Wow." Everything he said after that was extremely patronizing, and the conversation ended quickly.
I then reported Randy to Todd, one of the owners, I believe. He expressed concern, but ultimately did not give me a discount on my order or take a lot of responsibility for the problem. Rather, he chose to try to make me come back to his store. He said, and I quote, "I would like to offer you a 25% discount on your next order if you are willing to give us another chance."
At that point, I was not willing to give them another chance. I am taking my business elsewhere this fall. read more
