problem dealing with Impression (desperate)

[louisaho]

hi all,
i have recieved invitations which i ordered from impression, but i am extremely disapointed about their service, because
1- the style is wrong, i chose cinderella, she gave me snow white (she said she put the wrong number to the printer, but on the box of the invitation, she signed it with "quality checked) )
2- invitation does not have our name on it (she said that she missed it)

therefore, we request to have this corrected, and we kindly asked her to change the ink, since it doesn't really look good. we thought that it will be the same price for all the colors(from silver to pink)

Shelly then replied that if we have to change the ink, it will be a new order, which we have to pay 50% plus shipping charge. she also said that we will have to ship back the wrong invitations to her which again, we will have to pay for the shipping.
do you think this is fair? i think that by charging us as a "new order" just because we change color of the ink is not fair.

plus, it 've been more than 3 months that we put the order, and yet now we still are not able to mail any invitation to our guest (our wedding is dec 2004), since the problem has not yet been resolved unless we pay again.

i am really disappointed wiht Impression, and also their attitude toward the problem. they have to udnerstand that it is not our fault in the first place. AND i never understand how can she consider changing the color , is a new order!!!

sorry.... i am exhausted once again

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Well here's my take -

Ceratinly it's not your fault that your names were missing or that you were sent totally the wrong invite (Snow white instead of Cindy). I agree that Shelly would be responsible for that mistake and she should rectify that at her cost i.e. pay for the shipping of the return of the invites and fulfill the order correctly and as quickly as possible to prevent any further possible delay.

On the issue of the ink colour, sorry Louisa don't flame me but I can see what she is saying about the new order because effectively that is YOUR decision to change the order and she is only obliged to fulfill the original order as you requested it back then and she has shown that she is preapared to meet you halfway on this and give you 50% on that new order. Her argument would also be that she sent you a proof (I think I remember you mentioning that you'd received a proof on another thread) and you should have been able to have notice that the Silver ink didn't look that good at that point. Like I said don't flame me but this is just my impartial view from a business point of view.

BUT that said if it were my business, in order to ensure damage limitations to my business then I would have given a better deal and certainly not said that you should pay for the shipping of the return of the wrong invites (that's just plain wrong in my opinion) after all the news of bad service always spreads like wild fire.

I do see how you feel miffed by this ink colour issue Louisa and I feel for you but sadly Shelly can say that's not what was wrong with your invite - the silver ink fulfilled the original order. I do think it a shame that Shelly isn't prepared to strike a better deal with you.

 

[louisaho]

THANKS SAM
i understand your point.
but we only recieve the proof by fax, therefore we never actually see the color printed on the invitation.
if changing color is really considered as a new order, 50% is fine. however, why do we have to pay the shipping charge both for returning the wrong invite and the right one.
i feel like she is not easy to solve problem as she only replied to our email like 3 days after...
and i also think that she should "pay" back for the delay too, as we are really getting late of sending the invitation...

in the worse case, i think i will have to cancl the whole order, and order it thru someone else....

ops, just to give you an idea, inclduing the shipping, plus 50% of the cost of invit, i will be paying more than 150$ US... which i am really not ready to pay...as we already spent 400$ on invitation already

 

[Fantasia Sam]

In which case Louisa it would have been hard to see the ink by a fax proof but again she'll have you over a barrel on that one because you still signed off the proof.

But holy cow that is some shipping charge and yes I deffo think that this is outrageous of her to be charging you for both shipments when the mistake is clearly her responsibility - what a cheek.

Yup and poor poor customer service - I say go back to her and say you'll pay the 50% but why should you pay shipping - I hate to use this line but in this case I would have no hesitation in reminding Shelly that other Disney brides who you may be in contact with may be interested to know the level of service that you are getting. Of course a better way to say this is to call on her better nature and say :

"Shelly I do see where you are coming from on the ink colour change and of course we would be prepared to pay the 50% but I do feel that your company should take the brunt of the cost of the shipment of invitations as that was not our fault that we have to return same shipment. I hope that you can agree these terms with us Shelly I ws very pleased when your company was recommended to me and I would like to feel that despite these mistakes I will be in a position to recommend your services to other Disney Brides that I may come in contact with"

LOL What do you think ?

 

[ellieb]

Very Nicely said SAM!!! LOL!!!

 

[louisaho]

wow, sam
thank you so much....
if you don't mind, i will just copy and paste of what you said
thanks a lot

 

[Fantasia Sam]

LOL thanks Ellie and Louisa.

Yeah sure sweetie cut and paste away I just like to be able to help where I can

 

[louisaho]

thanks for all your help.
i don't want to be rude to the company, but i am feeling frustrated, as she replied today:
"on sending back the others, they don't need to be traceable. (***ie , we still have to pay!!!+++) I just need to get them to the printer once they come back. The printer is making an exception(***who cares? they don't need to make exception, as it is not my fault originally, she should be the one absorbing the cost, why us?, i wonder if i am not changing my ink, what will she say?***) in your case for me with discounting that I'm passing on to you and they will take it in good faith that the bad ones are coming back. Inexpensive is just fine. As cheap as possible. For the other shipping, I am taking the majority of the shipping (***meaing the good one, if i am not changing the ink, aren't they suppose to pay the shipping as well, how come i have to pay??)--although what is on the current invoice is half of what you were billed before, the cost of shipping from Minnesota to Florida and then to Canada (***but i paid once already for the wrong invite to canada, why should i pay twice when it is her fault?)were higher and I absorbed the cost before. Does that help?
"

they are still not willing to pay the shipping charge to return the wrong invit, or lower any cost
pls advice what i should do....
from a deserpate bride

(sorry that i must have been sound rude.... but the weather today is not good, it is raining all day, and this is the first email that i recieved this morning)

 

[scarlett873]

i wish i could remember what company i ordered the invitations for my first wedding...we never had to send the wrong ones back! (the printer had misspelled the street name of where the church was)

i certainly hope you get this all straightened out! best wishes!!

 

[louisaho]

yes, i think it is funny that we have to send them back and we have to pay the shipping charge. honestly, i would not use the cheapest way to ship as i am sure if the package got lost, she might ask us to pay again for the wrong invit....
i have really enough with them. now they have my money, my order, but i never have my invitation

 

[Amberle3]

I have no idea who this company is, but here's my advice:

First of all, stick with whatever ink colour you had originally chosen. Okay it might not look the prettiest, but if it's going to hold things up even longer and increase the costs then just go with it.

Second, tell her that you absolutely are not going to pay to have them fix their mistake. This is their resonsibility, not yours. If she still insists that you pay to send back the cards, then tell her you have no option then but to CANCEL YOUR ORDER, and register a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. If you've paid by credit card, dispute the charges. You have not received what you contracted for. And a wedding invitation without names on it is useless.

In the meantime, look for another invitation company. There is no reason to have to go through this kind of grief.

 

[louisaho]

yes, i have been also thinking to cancl the whole order, but i think she won't refund to me, at least the shipping that i already pay for the wrong invite. and she will ask me to send those wrong invite back to her which again, i have to pay for the shipping
i will try to contact my credit card to see if i can get this refund, but this was two month ago that i paid that.

i still hope that she can find a better solution for us, as we have been wasting so much time on this.... and everyone is asking us for our invitation.

and Shelly (impression) is getting more rude than the first email we recieved long long time ago.
i understand that she has to pay for all these, but can't she see that i am not here to cause any problem, i just want my invitation...

 

[louisaho]

just to give you an idea, the price for 50 invit originally is 138.70. since WE request to change the color of the ink, shelly ask us to pay 100 soemthing to reroder!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ypmurg]

We found a good price on candles for favors we asked shelly if she can match the price, since disney recommended them. Plus we want to order a few other things like name cards, table names, etc. She matched the price then raised the prices on everything else to make up the difference. Shelly sent us a bill for $1500 for things we could have paid $800 if we did not go though her. Do yourself a favor go to a party city of whatever kind of party supply store you have in your area and disign them yourself. We went to party city and they had a nice disney selection. Then instead of giving shelly more money reqest your money back for the mistakes. Also tell your EM because if they get enough complaints they will stop recommending these people.
Good luck

 

[louisaho]

i just filed a complaint to Best Bureau... and i also sent an email to my EM
i can't believe that they are asking me to pay that much to reorder , and she never ever let us know what is the shipping charge that we will have to pay in order to reship from usa to canada!!!


AND i also asked her long time ago, probably 2nd email after realizing the invit has some problems. i told her that it is not right to charge the shipping charge and the charge to reorder just to cover up her cost. she said she is not, she said something like it is expensive for her to reorder, and the theory about changing ink is just like a new order and that she already is giving me a discount!!!
and now i have a new thought, since this is just like new order, should i better off ask her to cancl the order? as we are paying anyway a new order charge


*********************************************
SORRY TO ANYONE that feel i am rude... i hope you all can accept my appologies

 

[louisaho]

after i send an email to my EM about this. Shelly sent me back an email immediately:
"I haven't heard back from you, so I wanted to check in. I got the e-mail from Kim, so I wanted to make sure everything is ok. I also called the printer again and explained that you are in Canada and sending back the invitations is really expensive, so they told me to tell you not to worry--no need to ship those back.

I will be going on vacation this Saturday and I'll be gone for a week, so let me know if you'd like to have me reprint the original order in silver at no charge, or just fill out and fax back the form I sent you. I want to make sure your order goes into production before I leave so no time is wasted"

- now i don't have to return those wrong invit
-but i still have to pay the shipping charge for new invit to canada
-and i still have to pay the $100 somehting to reorder, till now, i still don't think that changing color considers "reorder"

please give me some advices
thanks

 

[Amberle3]

Because you're changing something on the order, even something as small as the colour, I can see that it would be considered a new order.

I still say go with the silver, and have her redo the invitations with the correct information. You should not have the pay any additional fees for shipping the corrected cards to you.

Look at it this way - if you keep the colour as silver, is it something that's going to really bother you 50 years from now? I mean, will you look back at your wedding and say "everything was perfect except for that ink colour! It ruined the wedding!"

If the answer is yes, go ahead and pay for the new order with the pink ink colour.

If the answer is that no, it's not going to bother you 50 years from now, you're not going to cry every time you think about the silver ink, then leave it as silver and have the invitations reprinted at no cost.

 

[marn913]

I agree with Amberle3, if you can live with the ink color, then don't pay the extra money to make the change. As silly as it seems to you that they are charging you to make a small change, on the business end it is very logical... you can't just have them reprint all of your invites because you don't "like" them. They would go out of business really fast if they didn't stick to their guns on that one across the board for all customers. However, the fact that your invites were the wrong style is their fault, and they should replace them for free (without making you ship back the originals -- what are they going to do with them anyway?) Although the ink color may really bother you today, in the grand scheme of things, it will become irrelevant! Keep in mind that most guests will eventually throw them away (other than your very closest friends and parents). Spend the extra hundred getting a massage to relax instead... it will probably go a lot further and get your invites out that much faster!

-Marne

 

[hmgolden]

I agree. The invitations should be reprinted because they were wrong. The reprinting should be done the way you originally ordered them. Changing the ink color would consitute a reorder, and Impressions should be under no obligation to 'cut you a deal' should you choose to go with the pink ink. (that being said, it would have saved her a lot of bad publicity to have come to a compromise with you). Look at it this way, if you had gotten the invitations, and they had been perfect, other then you not liking the ink color, you would have had to chance of getting them reprinted for free.

I am glad to hear that she's not going to force you to send the incorrect invitations back. Really, does it matter who it is that throws them out?

 

[MickeyCrazed]

I didn't read all of the posts but here is my opinion...
2 items on the invitation are wrong.
Bottom line that is the companys fault not yours.
You should not have to pay to send the original invitations back.
Why do they want them back? What use would they have for them?
It simply does not justify the cost.
I can see if you cancelled the order, they would want them back because they want to be assured your are not going to use their product for free...but this is not the case. You asked for corrections.
Also, if you agreed to pay the cost of sending the original order back, the company should be flexible and let you change the ink color.
It just makes good business sense. Always please the Customer.
Word gets around quicker if you are unhappy with a company versus being pleased. Any reasonable business person knows that.
Finally, you should still be able to dispute the charge even if it is 2 months old. You just received the product that you ordered.
Keep all emails and documentation that would be useful for the dispute. You are almost 99% guaranteed a dispute resolution given the circumstances. (I work for a major credit card company)
Good Luck, and I hope your wedding is a magical day!