Packaging Lessons Part 2

For the great packaging design, we approached a local print shop to get thousands of these printed. (We're optimistic about holiday sales.) I have been waiting to get these pretty ones in so we could ship some out to Art Van Furniture stores in Michigan. They placed an order earlier in the week.

I stopped by on Monday, and they said they'd have things ready by Friday. On Thursday, they call me up and ask if I can check the proof. So I rush over during lunch to make sure the sizing was correct for the package. They tell me they will try to have them ready for Friday. On Friday, I was on edge all day, waiting for their call, which finally came at 4:30 to say that they were printed but not dry. Without them, we couldn't spend the weekend packing like I had planned. So I wait until Monday. They called up and said that the color wasn't right and asked if we could stop by again. So we went over (3rd time) to check, and it was too blue. So we wait until Tuesday for a reprint. Late in the afternoon, I drive over again to pick up what they had. It was printed and cut, but not folded. So I only picked up a hundred pieces. That night, we folded, packed, and shipped 7 boxes. On Wednesday, instead of making me drive out a 5th time, they offered to send their courier van to drop them off. I waited all day long because we just received another order, and I was about to give up when the doorbell finally rang at 5pm.

While it is ultimately less expensive to have the printers do large printings, it was certainly a lot of hassle. We have been using our own laser printer with nice HP paper to do most of the printing up until this point.