Printful Review (FAIL) - Towels, Embroidery, Totes
Вставка
- Опубліковано 17 сер 2018
- Printful Review (FAIL) - Towels, Embroidery, Totes
Hey everyone! I am reviewing the towel, embroidered shirt and tote bag from Printful (drop shipping) today. This is the first time I was majorly let down by Printful and due to this, pulled all my printful products from my etsy shop. If you want to see my other reviews here are the links:
#1 - • Printful Review and Tr...
#2 - • Printful Review and Tr...
The link sent by the Printful employee in the emails I shown is here:
www.printful.com/landing/fabrics
However it shows the difference in white ink on fabrics - not the placement of printing which was my biggest issue. It seems like they chose to ignore that.
SHOP: sarahtypes.etsy.com
SHOP TOOLS I USE: www.amazon.com/shop/sarahtypes
FIND ME:
Instagram - / sarahtypes
Pinterest - / saraheveryw. .
Blog - www.sarahtypes.com
SUBSCRIBE FOR MONTHLY FREEBIES:
eepurl.com/cufuVP - Навчання та стиль
Slight variance!? Thats so annoying. As someone who's about to launch my own store, this worries me. Also, thanks for the towel review, big help!
100% can vouch for the customer service. With printful you can also see exactly whats going on with your order. My order for 9 shirts all had been completed and sat in the "packaging/preparing to ship" stage for 3 days. Each time I called I was told it would be shipped later that same day. On the 3rd day I was told if I upgraded from express to overnight shipping that I would be sent even sooner and my customer would get it in time (my customer was leaving the country the following evening and the shirts should've been sent already)I paid $30 for overnight shipping which is taking a pretty nice chunk of my profit because of their mistake. Fast forward.... it wasn't shipped overnight. The following day I called extremely pissed. The shirts have been finished for DAYS and you guys just have them sitting around in your warehouse meanwhile my customer has now purchased these shirts SPECIFICALLY for her trip and she will now not be able to get them as shes on an airplane. They ended up shipping her shirts to where she was traveling to but my fucking goodness who wants to deal with that for every order. I'm done with printful
Oh wow! That sucks, I'm glad they solved it but yes I agree.. it's such a headache and so not worth the small profit you make.
Who do you use now to create items?
Do you have a better company to recommend?
@@robertbauer9230 gooten
This is probably the best/most useful printful review i've seen. A bit concerning, as i'm new to the process, and just finished uploading art and data for 75 products.... Hope printful has ironed things out in the near year since this review.
I hope so too! Good luck :)
So how did it go?
@@JDFelda I opened a standalone store with Shopify+Printful in July, with 4 different 'brand' lines, and then a separate Etsy shop which now has 115 different t-shirt designs. I haven't had any issues with uploading art/setting up products. It's sometimes a clumsy process, especially with the two different but similar forms processes for both printful and Etsy, but i haven't had any problems. No returns or requests for returns from customers, but there haven't been a lot of customers. Things are starting to ramp up a bit now, but i don't understand the marketing aspect yet. I just want to do design-but that's only a small part of the business. // Do you have specific questions about how things are going? I don't even remember what my original comment to this video was about.... There aren't any issues with printful that i feel need to be "ironed out." There are some things they could do to make the UI and experience better, but maybe i just now know how to do things with familiarity, and have a work process/scheme so that i do things the same way each time, and haven't therefore encountered any new problems.
CentaurusRelax314 I just wanna make tshirts with a little embroidered text on the center. Seems that’s not an option as the “embroidery area” is just a small box in the left breast pocket area.
CentaurusRelax314 Funny you say that because I’ve been doing great on the marketing front but I can’t seem to find a website that will make what I need!!
Very informative! Thank you for doing real printful review videos! They’ve all been helpful. I’ve been using printful samples to get my brand started but I’ve been a bit skeptical about their printing as well. I also don’t like the strong vinegar smell on the products with DTG printing 😒.
ooh- this is the first I have heard about a vinegar smell! Good to know! That would definitely be a turn off for me.
Cool design on the towel!
Hi Sarah, I came here in search of a Printful Beach towel review. I had my design printed on a Teelaunch towel and was a bit disappointed. Looking at your review I don't see that Printful is any better; Teelaunch then has the advantage of being cheaper! I'm curious as to the black you used in your design. Did you use a rich black? The black in my towel turned out fine. However, like you, the see-through to the original underlying white towel is disconcerting. I'm getting used to the idea that is the best sublimation can achieve for towels . I liked my towel better after i washed it. It seemed to fluff up a bit and the threads appeared better blended. The friend I gave the towel to LOVED it! So, as designers, we are the worst critics. I have had totes printed by Teelaunch as well and they turned out great! I am very pleased. My racerback tees, though, another story. :{
It makes sense that the design part that receives the ink is like that and that the other side is "Smushy" bc you will dry yourself with it, people will pay 35 for an artistic towel, bc we are not a big brand to reduce the cost of production.
Yikes. Terrible response, super helpful even 4 years later. Thank you.
Thank you, Sarah, your videos are so useful! I also had similar experiences with Printful, most the time I was able to get a refund on personal purchases, but it does make me wonder about what customer may think if it happens to them. Having a bad review for a few $$ profit isn't worth it. Hopefully, Printful will have a better QUALITY CONTROL before sending product out!
agreed! I'm trying out a new company called Printify - so I'll post info on that too soon :)
@@SarahTypes hello, I use both for my store. Printful & Printify and I have to say the print quality I prefer Printful...but Printify allows me to make slightly a bigger profit.
Pretty much the same but they have some extra products.😉
Do your customers complain about these print errors? @@AnnamarieVolley8
@@8DeaD7 Hello, no so far no complains about the prints. Not sure if it is becuase it didn't happen to them yet, they do not notice or they can't be bothered to let me know. I did have however a comparison of print quality with Printful and Printfy from same customer and definitely Printful quality seems to be better!
@Danny T if I could find something better, you have any suggestions?
I got a beach towel a few months ago in a bookish subscription box from a creator I adore on Society 6 & it's the exact same type of towel. I was kinda like wtf at first. Overall, I don't think it's that big of a deal especially after it's been washed. It's still a lovely towel even though I'm not a micro-fiber fan BUUT the towel does kick ass & both sides are pretty absorbant but the white side is slightly more so from my experience with my towel of the same type. PS- I LOVE THAT TOWEL DESIGN!! It's sooo gothy & perfect!!
I agree! At first I was also like WTF.. but I've grown to love it.. it's a great beach towel! And thank you :)
Hey Sarah, have you tried Art of Where yet? I'm wondering how you like them vs Printful. I'm currently using Printful for some of my stuff, but I don't like the inconsistency others have reported as well, and their customer service wasn't the greatest with your issue clearly. The quality of their prints on clothing does seem to be the best out of them all though (vs the other big pod services) based on reviews I've seen on youtube. So I'm staying with them for now for some things. Would like to see what you think about Art of Where - I've been thinking about trying them for certain products. Your reviews have been very helpful! I love getting to see samples in a youtube video like this, so I don't have to order a million samples myself.
Wowzer. I'm shocked by their customer response (or complete lack of). Complete and total blowoff, almost sounded like you received form letters from them. I'll definitely not ever be using them, especially at those prices. Thanks for the info!! Let us know if you find a good replacement for them!
P.S. I'm totally bummed about the towel. I was in love with the design since I saw you talking about it a couple of weeks ago...it's so awesome!
Ugh I'm so bummed about that too!! I'm going to find a way to use that design some how.. I won't give up! haha
Hello thank you for the video, when creating a print file if I leave a coloured border outside of the red line for the sides and back will the canvas print still come out normal or will the border come inside the safe print area and be crooked ?
Thanks
not totally sure what you mean
Thank you ! For the informative video. Like your vids 👍👍🏽👍🏻👍🏿
My pleasure!
Oh my, that tote and the response are very concerning! It looks like the bag got stuck in the machine or something. And that's just the way things are? Courtesy credit? Oh dear...
I am currently in the process of finding a decent print on demand company that delivers to Canada and have been looking for a good review of printful for, well, quite a while now. Yours is by far the best, so thank you for sharing! I am starting to think that there might not be any good options out there for printing on demand. If anyone reading this knows differently, please let me know. Thanks again!
No problem! I have to agree that I think they are all probably the same. I hope to try printify soon just to check it out for curiosity sake.
i see your bird in the back, super cute!
Thank you :) He was a lovebird.. unfortunately recently passed away :(
Have you ever had to deal with returns? How does this work with POD? Thanks
From what I understand they don't do returns, in my shop it was all final sale. I could be wrong though as it was a while ago.. but it makes sense because they can't really re-sell or save your item in their warehouse
what's a better place to get dye sublimation beach towels printed?
haven't found one yet!
you have such a ¨can I speak with the manager¨vibe
hahahaha thank you?
Sarah Types wasn’t a compliment but ok :)
Seems to me she has the vibe of a professional designer who cares about the quality delivered to her client/customer. Exactly the kind of person who should be doing reviews of print vendors.
@@CentaurusRelax314 thank you!
@@CentaurusRelax314 truth. as a designer I understand too. especially if you're literally branding yourself or starting a streetwear brand. honestly if I can I'd do it myself but I don't have the money and resources.
FWIW - I just got a sample towel from Printify and had exactly the same reaction to their towels. Mushy and not worth it, I removed the product from my store after seeing it.
ya and their customer service isn't great either
Do any of these print on demand companies get things placed correctly. Designing shirts by computer does not seem accurate when viewing the resultant design online. I notice when I hit the center button for text or images it does not appear centered, visually.. How does the printer look at the finished design.
I am not sure.. it's definitely not accurate. I do want to try another one just to see how they compare though so hopefully that will happen soon
Thanks for the review. I'm considering ordering some T-shirt samples from Printful tommorow. I'm an artist and photographer and would like to have my work on Tshirts. Thanks for the review. They totally dropped the ball on the bag print with the placement. However I used to work quality control for a screen printer and DTG company and you should cosinder screen printing for a canvas bag. DTG you only get one pass to transfer the image. Screen Printing would give you multiple passes and a more vibrant color. Did you ever find a printer for the bags?
I do prefer screen printing but it's hard to find for on demand and of course more expensive. Haven't found the perfect bag yet!
Returns are a part of any e-commerce business. Hopefully, the print errors will not happen very often. I'm just starting with Printful myself, and I'm trying to figure out how to present the value to the customer given that they have to wait a long time for their product and the price is not competitive at all.
I agree.. returns happen. The thing is, I've spent years on my etsy shop and my brand that I didn't want to ruin it's reputation with not great products because I would never send out a misprint. So if I were to do something like printful again, I would open a totally different shop
Hi! Do you still use Printful for your store? I used to use Printify but was not at all happy with the quality or customer service. Seeing your experience scares me a bit, so just curious on if you still use them now.
No, I don't. I didn't have any need to contact customer service until my last order and based on how they treated the situation I was definitely not happy and decided not to use them any more. I'm going to try out Art of Where so I'll post a review on that soon!
@@SarahTypes Any news on this? How did the test go?
Please let us know about updates and if you found better alternatives to Printful.
Really helpful video... towel quality looks cheap
Hey Sarah, thanks for a valuable feedback! We're sorry about your experience and we're sorry for not providing you with a faster and better service! Currently we're a bit backed up and that results in longer response times but we're working to fix this. If there's anything you need help with, don't hesitate to reach out to us! We recommend using the website chat for faster assistance. :)
Printful Custom Printing
Personally I thought all of the items were very good quality.
Actually, the first two items weren’t worthy of a complaint. However, the off-centred image is absolutely unacceptable. As someone who is about to launch a store selling nothing but Printful products this is very concerning. Please increase your level of quality control!
How can you guys just ignore the fact that her image was off centered? And thinking a "courtesy refund" will fix the problem? Would you guys rather lose a customer then to handle your production team and have them do things right? C'mon, if you're going to run a business, do it right.
Are yall always backed up? This isn't the first time I've seen printful saying this. I just ordered samples and they are 7 days late
that "Variance" is unacceptable. that's just plain sloppy work. the product needs to be placed on the platen in a certain way so that the printed art matches the print file, otherwise what's the point of the mockup generator and what's the point of us artists spending time making sure our artwork is just right? super disappointing to hear that. a proper response would have been: Yes, i see what you mean and yes, that artwork is WAY off. We'll be happy to re-print this for you at no charge and we will also provide express shipping at no cost to you. this makes me nervous about using Printful.
I do think printful needs to lower their prices a notch, we're paying the full price for printing and everything and makes sense, however, there's no real benefit for the POD user to have to find someone willing to pay $35+ for a freaking towel lol. I mean even the shirts $15 for a shirt is high enough, what do you sell your shirts for? 20-25? that's high for a shirt.
I do understand they do everything and POD is more expensive because it's not volume what they sell but single pieces, I get it, but the margin the seller gets is close to none.
I wonder how the towel was after you washed it.
It's been great! I take it on trips or to the beach so I don't use it as a bath towel.. definitely more of a beach towel but it's still in great condition.
I think, if somebody wants super cool International Brand quality, that will cost $200 usd to seller and $300 usd to customers just for a shirt, and that´s it.
great reviews but maybe wash and use the towel several times to test absorbancy and color fastness, even if you decided against it.
I have washed it a bunch of times and the colour is fine, the absorbency is ok. I like it for the beach because I wouldn't want to bring a thick nice towel to the beach anyways.
that "Variance" is unacceptable. that's just plain sloppy work. the product needs to be placed on the platen in a certain way so that the printed art matches the print file, otherwise what's the point of the mockup generator and what's the point of us artists spending time making sure our artwork is just right? super disappointing to hear that. a proper response would have been: Yes, i see what you mean and yes, that artwork is WAY off. We'll be happy to re-print this for you at no charge and we will also provide express shipping at no cost to you.
yes 100% exactly.. to me that is the bare minimum and if they can't do that then there isn't a point.. it's not exactly cheap either so I don't believe it falls under 'you get what you pay for'
@@SarahTypes have you checked out Printify? one of their providers, DTG2GO (formerly ArtGun) has a strong commitment to quality, as per their website. i haven't done too much digging yet, but their mission statement is exactly what i want to see to feel confident in using them. also, i think their prices are better than Printful's. when i get a chance, i will look for Printful's Mission Statement and their commitment to quality, if any. i think we need to use this in situations where they really fuck up and don't take ownership. your case is a disaster and the response was an insult to your intelligence. will let you know when i find out more info :) if it was me, i would edit down this video to just the placement error part and use the before/after as the thumbnail. upload that with a title like Printful Fail - Artwork Placement Way Off, or something to that effect. www.dtg2go.com/
That response is terrible; it was their obvious error, and they should have given you an apology and refund, no questions asked. There are bound to be the odd hiccups with printing and whatnot, and human error, but when given a chance to fix things and keep everything running smoothly, they totally ballsed that up. Do you use Printful now?
Ya, I 100% agree.. I totally get mistakes, I don't expect perfection but it was their solution that made me angry. I can't possibly sell using their products when that is how they operate.. so no, I stopped using them after that situation occurred.
@@SarahTypes What a shame! Do you use Printify or any other drop-ship service now, or have you abandoned that side of your business? I'm just researching who to use, so curious about other folks experiences! :D
Printful is horrible. C grade product. Would never sell to customers.
Wow. THIS is the problem with the easy of being a merch supplier these days. YOU need to do your research on printing methods and capabilities. I think it’s completely unfair of you to be reviewing printing methods you know nothing about or how it’s done. You will NEVER find a printing method that is 100% perfect (especially by your insane standards), fortunately for you, you’ll never see that because you never actually handle the products you sell. You def lost a viewer.
customers would expect the same thing and also have high standards and don't give a crap about how it's made. I actually do know about printing and maybe there isn't better out there for direct to garment and that's why i'm not going this route. I care about quality products and the customer's experience. I guess people can't have different opinions and that's fine if you don't wan to follow me, doesn't matter to me - I do this for fun.
If you don’t regulate your product quality, just say that hun.