Nearly a year after an unpublicized, discreet posting of my not-so-positive experience with Overnight Prints, I am still getting regular correspondence about it ranging from praise to disbelief. Mostly, it's people who wish to thank me for steering them clear of a potential printing disaster. Truth be told, when these guys get the job right, the prints are on beautiful stock with great color and clarity. It just doesn't happen very often. So without further ado, here's a proper blog-style republishing of my original emails.

On Jun 13, 2006, at 9:21 PM, Customer Service wrote:

Hello,
This is in regards to your order, **INVOICE** . As you might already know a tracer was started with UPS for the lost package. The investigation has closed and paperwork was just received honoring the claim for the missing cards. At this point we are able to reprint or refund the order depending on your request. I will be awaiting your response before I make the appropriate transaction.

We appreciate your business and hope that you choose Overnight Prints for all your printing needs. If you have any additional questions, or you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to email or call as advised below. Please include all previous correspondence and your order / invoice number when contacting Overnight Prints.

Thank you,
Mayra

--
Shipping Representative
Overnight Prints
Email: service@overnightprints.com
Support Line: (888) 677-2000

Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.overnightprints.com/main.php?A=faqs

From: Bobby
To: service@overnightprints.com
Re: You suck.
Date: June 14, 2006 2:26:16 AM PDT

Dear Shipping Representative Mayra,
Please tell me that this is a joke. You are just NOW getting to this order? Let me give you a little rundown of this order so that perhaps you can realize how absolutely absurd this is.

May 18, 2006:
I place the order for 2 sets of 250 cards, with "Ground + Priority Printing (1-5 Business Days)"
Invoice #(number removed) (By the way, thanks for not even bothering to put the invoice number in your canned email. Apparently just "appreciating" my business is not enough to type six numbers. That's for the big spenders.)

June 2, 2006:
My order finally arrives. Although I placed the order after hours on Friday, it should have been printed by the end of Monday. I was informed by a customer service rep. that this order did not ship out until Wednesday! Not only is Wednesday NOT Monday, it's two whole days AFTER Monday!

June 3, 2006:
My client informs me that their order was shorted (in a non-cheerful voice), and I call Overnight Prints to complain. The customer service rep. I spoke with tells me that he has CONFIRMED the shortage, and that the order will be reprinted THAT DAY (that day being Saturday, June 3rd, 2006). I also informed the customer service rep. that I cannot accept ground shipment for this reprint, as my client is getting extremely antsy for the rest of her business cards, and that I want my order to be RUSH DELIVERED. The customer service rep. CONFIRMED that my shipping status was going to be upgraded to rush status, and that you would be contacting me later THAT DAY to confirm the details with me (again, that day being Saturday, June 3rd, 2006). Nobody called me.

June 13, 2006:
TEN DAYS after you were supposed to print and ship this order, you finally contact me asking me for a decision on the reprint. If there was any communication going on at your print house, you would have known that the order was CONFIRMED shorted already, and there was no need to waste my client's and my time with an investigation of UPS. The shorted portion of the order was shipped along with the other portion in a teeny tiny little box that was half the size of the other box holding the right amount of cards (both of these boxes where packed in one larger box, and that's how it arrived). Obviously, the different sized box was deliberately packaged short at your print house. I could have told you this if you had bothered to pick up the phone and call me, or better yet, if you had talked to the gentleman that CONFIRMED it for me on the phone, who incidentally said HE was going to contact YOU immediately, so that YOU could contact ME immediately. Also, I don't know why you're even asking me what to do with the order when I made it perfectly clear that I wanted the reprint of this order RUSHED, which was CONFIRMED. Again, wasted time on an order that is beyond late.

So to answer your question, YES I WANT THE REPRINT!!!! I want you to print and ship that thing as fast as humanly possible! I want that thing shipped on a Concord! I want that thing shipped before you even finish reading this email! I PLACED THIS ORDER NEARLY A MONTH AGO! Are you guys on some sort of special calendar where "Overnight" means "several weeks and/or until you completely lose it"?

I have tried to keep my cool throughout this whole ordeal with your inept company. I've been polite and professional to your customer service reps, and I've even agreed to stick with your company for future prints. But it is abundantly clear now that you don't WANT my business. It must take an actual effort to botch up an order this bad. By the way, I didn't even MENTION that the cards that DID arrive all have a big green smudge running across the front of them. I DON'T EVEN CARE ANYMORE!

I now have to explain to 8 clients with which I have card, flyer, AND brochure orders with that I have to start the bidding process all over again, because I would rather trust a monkey with a scalpel than trust you guys with a simple order. I obviously cannot make something like this up, but I'm including previous correspondence as proof. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone that you feel DESERVES the heat, if it's not you. But since you're the "Shipping Representative" and I would classify this as a shipping problem (although I don't think "problem" nearly captures the mind-numbing frustration), I'm pretty sure it's you. Regardless, I'll be looking for more emails and phone numbers to people in your company so that everyone can get a slice.

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm not happy. Don't write me back to confirm. Don't call me back to confirm. Just print those cards and put them on a bolt of lightning.

Like... NOWISH.

Hugs and cuddles,
Bobby