I was a graphic design student with a group project when I came to Typecraft and I believe my partner and I were treated differently because we were students. This was a real surprise since the company claims to have a "special relationship" with our school.
Here's what happened:
We brought our project in about a week and a half before we needed it and asked if they could complete it in that short a time frame. We were told that not only could the project be finished, but that we would be able to see a proof before the pages were bound. Though we were never contacted about the proofs, we made the mistake of assuming that the project was still going to be completed. We started to worry when none of our phone calls were answered or returned in the days leading up to the due date. On the final due date we were still completely unable to get in touch with anyone who could help us and on the day that our project was due in class, an hour before our final presentation we finally received a call that the project had not been completed because the cover had been outsourced to the binder whose printer was apparently broken. At least that was what we were told. This left us without a full presentation for our class final.
Typecraft's attitude was that these delays were a normal part of production and that it was not their fault. This happened not only to my group but also to another group in my class that used Typecraft. What was so frustrating about this experience was that if we had simply received one phone call about the problem we could have prepared something for our presentation. Also if there had been some indication when we dropped off the project that there was a good possibility that it would not be done we could have had a back up plan. Instead we were totally blown off by the staff because we were students and therefore not important, or so it seemed to us.
We received a call weeks later that the project was complete. Though we were not offered any discount for the late project, now two weeks late, (we had already received a grade for the class) I asked for a discount none-the-less. At this point I was told that in "the real world" (meaning I supposed that since we were students we do not live in the real world), such a discount would not be offered but they would accept it this time. I began to research other printers and collect quotes for the same printing and binding services and found that the price Typecraft had quoted was much higher than other printers. When we picked up the final books they weren't even printed correctly and the staff seemed annoyed when we pointed out the problem. In the end we were so frustrated and fed up that we accepted our book with the pages out of order.
I'm sure some students have had a positive experience with this company, but my friends and I did not. If you're thinking about having a book made I would strongly recommend that you spend a little extra time researching other printers and find a printer who will not treat you differently because you are a student and save yourself some money as well. read more
