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July 12, 2005

Further Explanation

Spike's post regarding Spinn Print deserves further explanation, and I guess it's up to me, since I was the one who had to deal with them directly.

I contacted these guys last week with a small order for a couple minicomics (low print runs, no bindery, just double-sided color and B&W prints). We were assured they could print this order in one day, and then have it shipped to us overnight. Their prices were great (even with next day air), and they came recommended to us by some good friends, so everything looked totally cool.

What followed was a tragicomic saga of broken promises, missed deadlines, escalating Comic-Con anxiety, and literally the worst customer service I have ever experienced from any sort of business, anywhere.

Spinn Print's various representatives repeatedly misinformed me about the kind of files they needed from me, repeatedly weaseled off the phone with promises of call-backs in ten minutes that they forgot about completely, claimed our job would be printed "tonight," then claimed that it had printed and even shipped . . , only to later inform me--days after the original promised ship date--that it hadn't actually been printed at all.

Maybe this shoddy service was because ours was a mere $89 print job and they are, as they told me, "a million dollar operation." This is an interesting claim, however, because they were also repeatedly telling me that their staff was late for work and thus the people I'd been dealing with were unavailable.

Also, the difficulty that had finally prevented them from printing the job--not that they bothered to tell me about it before I called them two or three times today--was the fact that, apparently, it would take them "two and a half hours" to assemble all of my 26 separate PDF files into one multi-page file for printing.

I just did it myself on my creaking dinosaur of a computer.

I timed myself.

It took me two minutes.

In short, Spinn Print appears to be a "million dollar operation" that couldn't give a rat's ass about small jobs like ours, staffed by people who can't be bothered to show up for work and don't know how to use the most standard software in the industry. They're certainly cheap, but I guess the thing you're paying for at other print shops is reliability.

Posted by Matt at July 12, 2005 04:09 PM

Comments

Holy Christ-Child, that's awful service.

My student paper is forced to take the lowest bidder on printing, because we're a state school, and they still manage to be 100% reliable. It sounds like this place just doesn't give a flying fuck about it's customers. Unforgivable.

Posted by spookable at July 12, 2005 09:22 PM
24.136.188.160

PS: Did you have to prepay? I hope not.

Posted by spookable at July 12, 2005 09:23 PM
24.136.188.160

Jesus monkeys... BOYCOTT SPIN PRINT... I'd keep passing it around until they offered you A. a full refund... B. Double your order C. Overnight shipping...

Chuck, if you want, you can have it shipped to my address if they can get it there by Thursday, I can drive up here and pick it up. Either that or try and have them send it to your hotel addy.

Posted by Karen at July 13, 2005 02:47 AM
68.231.211.81

The fucked thing about Spinn Print in this instance is that they're like Evil Spinn Print, wearing a goateee, because I know Lisa's previous two experiences with them were uneventful.
So, this is just plain freaky. And annoying as shit.

And, BTW, Spinn Print's a mom 'n' pop.

Posted by Lea at July 13, 2005 08:14 AM
67.11.143.251

I realize that most of the posts are now close to a year old now. I am the new owner of the Spin Print Express in Albuquerque, NM, formerly Spinn Print. We are not affiliated with the California location any longer and would like to offer you the service you want and deserve.

We have heard similar stories from other clients and have take care of them.
Here is part of an email from one of them.

“ A million thanks for the energy you continue to put toward doing a great service to us. Autumn & I truly appreciate the time, care and talent you offer to provide a high quality product at a reasonable price. We were beginning to think that didn't exist....ANYWHERE! You come highly recommended in our book! Take care.”

Best regards,
Jen
http://www.autumnteneyl.com/

We hope you will consider us in the future.

Posted by susan at March 5, 2006 01:21 PM
216.223.234.31

I have a mighty pen. Is that mighty enough for printing?

Posted by Heero at July 19, 2006 09:13 AM
68.239.121.90

We had similar problems, we ordered table tents and we were told on 4 different occasions they would be here, three of those they were suppose to be over-nighted. They were not. The first order was completely wrong and the quality of print was extremely poor. Use gotprint.net

I cannot believe they would do this to a church, they have a lack of integrity and will repeatedly lie about the status of your order.

Posted by Garrett Drake at October 6, 2006 06:34 PM
24.238.190.162

I too am a victim of their crappy service. I ordered with them because we needed a lot of press packs to send out to college, venues, labels, etc. Brett specifically spoke with me about the order while taking my money. Nov. 1st the order was placed and according to Brett, the order would reach my doorstep (PO BOX) on Nov 7th. Nov 7th came and went. Nov 8th....Nov 9th. Finally, I called them. Some chick answered the phone to figure out where my order was. She never called back. I called again....nothing. Finally, I reached Brett. Asked him why I had to call over and over to get my order at least looked at as to why it wasn't here. He told me that because of the weight, it couldn't come to a PO BOX even though he assured me that he was going to send it that way. I'm in a touring band and all we have while on tour is a PO BOX that our management collects from. Finally, Nov 16th, our order arrives.

I uploaded PDF files (front and back) to his company that were done in 300 DPI. What I got back was the most horrible print job I've ever seen. I'd be suprised if the job was printed at 72 DPI (web standard). The color had a horrible yellow overtone and hardly any of the images were able to be recognized as most of it was too dark to tell anything.

Brett and I both spoke about what type of paper I'd need for my job, which was 80 lb text weight. What I received was just ordinary copy paper from what you could get from Costco.

I called Brett with an open mind hoping he'd correct the issue. He blasted me from the beginning. He said I "faxed" a print off that said I didn't want 80 lb text weight and then he lied to me saying that it was my signature on the fax. For one, I never faxed anything, secondly, my signature is not legible, so it's impossible for him to know I signed it. He then belittled me about the "fine print" I was supposed to have read about orders. He said the only way I'd get a refund is if I mailed him back the prints. No problem, I don't want this crap taking up space here, but I'm PISSED I have to pay for shipping back to him. He said, "You can't expect a refund from WAL-MART and not expect to return the merchandise!" Silly me, I must have gone with the WAL-MART of printing companies. Brett then lied to me and said the reason the printing was so horrible was because I sent him a file that was "severely grainy" at 300% magnification. Bullshit. The file can be magnified to 900% before any type of pixilation occurs. If you'd like to test it yourself, download the file:
www.everydayjones.com/edj_pp_back.pdf

Magnify that up to 300% and tell me if it's "severly grainy". I told him over the phone that it looked fine and he said, "Well, you sent me a different file then." This is completely rediculous as I only have one set of PDF's created in 300 DPI.

Brett then told me something I've never heard from a company before. "You're the type of customer we don't want!" I'm the type of customer he doesn't want? Doesn't that ass clown realize it's people like us that keep food on his table?

SPINN PRINT IS A SCAM! DON'T USE! YOU WILL GET RIPPED OFF!
SPINN PRINT IS A SCAM! DON'T USE! YOU WILL GET RIPPED OFF!
SPINN PRINT IS A SCAM! DON'T USE! YOU WILL GET RIPPED OFF!
SPINN PRINT IS A SCAM! DON'T USE! YOU WILL GET RIPPED OFF!
SPINN PRINT IS A SCAM! DON'T USE! YOU WILL GET RIPPED OFF!

I hope Google picks up "SPINN PRINT" "IS" "A" "SCAM" so that when/if others want to use this shady business, they'll learn from our mistakes.

My next step is a Chargeback from MasterCard, contacting the BBB and the Internet Fraud Dept.

Posted by Jason Green at November 19, 2006 08:58 PM
67.183.145.221

Don't use Spinn Print. Same complaints as above. Brett is a liar - no call backs, no returned phone calls. My last call the mail box was full so there are a bunch of folks who are waiting to hear back from this dishonest business man. Don't make the same mistake I made - buy from somewhere else!!!

Posted by Bob Michel at April 3, 2008 03:07 PM
71.133.37.94

re Spinn Print, Brett Spinn, Brett Spin conman .... He is a psycho!!! I ordered from him because he had good pricing. I asked for COD. The product arrived with no regard to quality control. 50+ pages were wrinkled (evidence of a jam) and printed on. To boot, the order was short buy a few hundred pages!!! Needless to say, I was upset. I reversed the charge and asked to return the product. No dice. "All sales final" I say whatever... No returns... NO PAY! He freaks out and STARTS TO STALK ME! I am really weirded out by his behavior. He has threatened me several times. THE SCARY PART is that he is threatening me in the strangest way. HE KEEPS SAYING THAT HE WILL REPORT ME TO SOME IMAGINARY ENTITY. I keep telling him to take back the product. He agrees, then without notice THREATENS ME AGAIN!!!!!!! THIS GUY IS CRAZY! HE HAS A SERIOUS MENTAL PROBLEM!

Posted by PopaP at January 24, 2010 03:05 AM
76.88.89.102

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