Hello All.

Our special offer on the full colour solid plastic cards has definitely interested a lot of people. It really is a great offer and customers can obviously tell this!

Unfortunately a few people have got a little mixed up regarding the offer and seem to think it will include optional extras such as holes or signature strips.

We are sorry but at the moment the special offer does not include any optional extras.

Any optional extras on an order mean that the order takes longer to process and longer to produce. So unfortunately we are unable to offer the special offer prices with optional extras. Some customer have got quite upset over this. We have tried to make the webpage for the special offer clear however if anyone has any suggestions as to how we can take it clearer please do let us know.

We hope you understand & welcome any feedback regarding this area.

Hi,

A customer emailed for a quote today for 250 full colour solid plastic loyalty cards with a signature strip. They attached to there quote request various low quality logos and photos and asked for a price and feedback regarding there ideas.

Unfortunately we are unable to offer free design advice (other than fixed technical issues when customer send over artwork which has in the main been submitted to the correct specification).

We provided this particular customer a quote which clearly stated that it included artwork however we received an email back saying that it was a lot more expensive that the price quote on our website. If we are to get involved with a customers artwork this takes up a lot of valuable time and resources and hence why an additional charge is payable. Customers may consider the artwork charges expensive but please bear in mind that the equipment, software and designers time are all expensive.

We are obviously more than happy to receive finished print ready artwork from customers, see specifications /here, obviously when this is supplied no artwork charges will apply.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

We produce plastic cards that have various optional extras.

The picture below is taken from our website which illustrates the various options available.

We are going to update our website shortly to include information about each extra as we have found that customers are often confused on ‘how they work’ often we get ask how a signature strip works.

We hope to make these updates within the next few weeks.

We recently printed a black plastic card with a large gloss black pattern in the background.

When we received the artwork from the customer, we thought it would look good when printed but not this good!

The gloss black ink when printed on a satin black plastic card gives a very subtle watermark type effect. It can be seen more clearly as the card is angled in the light.

We are still amazed by the number of people that try to get free postal proofs from us by claiming that it will lead to a big order. We have heard this story so many times over the years.

We had a customer try to do this today (a Manchester based Design company) and didn’t want to make an order – just wanted a postal proof (finished plastic card).

Customer got rather stroppy and got on his ‘high horse’ and next thing started complaining about everything (its amazing what people do when they simply don’t want to pay)

They were speaking to a member of our staff (Catherine) by asking half a dozen or so questions but never allowing Catherine to answer any. When Catherine could finally get a word in edge ways she said “I would like to answer your questions but you wont let me speak, how would you like me to help you?”

The customer then emailed to say our staff are rude!

We simply deleted his email and proceeded to concentrate on our many many other, polite and respectful customers.

This kind of ‘customer’ we can all do without!

On Wednesday 12th August 2009 a repeat customer made an enquiry for some more plastic cards that were needed for Thursday 10th September 2009.

We provided a quotation and were told that they needed to wait for approval before sending the order over.

On Friday 21st August we contacted the customer regarding their possible order as we were aware of their deadline and were told that they were still waiting for approval and will be in touch asap.

Today, Monday 7th September, the customer has contacted us wanting to proceed with their order.

Unfortunately, due to current high workload (which is always the case this time of year due to lots of schools, colleges and universities starting the new academic year and requiring their plastic cards)

Our unfortunate reply was:

Thanks for your email, I am sorry but we can not meet your deadline.

Realistically we would be looking at approx. 21st September based on your order being placed and paid for today

Unfortunately there is nothing we can do for you as we are just simply swamped with work.

We could have met the deadline if we had received your order last Monday

Really sorry we cannot help you on this occasion but I do find it is best to be honest

Please just be cautious if you are promised the earth from another plastic card supplier regarding deadline

With all the snow around the UK at the moment it is causing problems with deliveries of some plastic cards orders for some customers, especially those in more remote areas where the roads have not been gritted at all. It is very disheartening for us as we always put 100% effort into every order to ensure it is printed to high quality and on time but we are always at the mercy of the courier companies when it comes to delivering the plastic cards order on time.

The process to order our full colour solid plastic cards can be summarised by the following:

1) Customer emails artwork over to us

2) We provide a photo-realistic proof for checking by email

3) Customer approves the proof

4) We produce a postal proof actual finished card with the customers design on

5) Customers approves postal proof and we print the full order OR new artwork is submitted.

We offer the postal proofs so that customer can review the printing of the cards before we print the whole order. Occasionally customers will notice a typo or other mistake when viewing the postal proofs. Really this should have been picked up before they submitted there artwork to us or even when we send a PDF proof back to the customer to double check. However occasionally it takes until the hard copy proof doe these mistakes to be noticed.

We have noticed that when this happens it is amazing the number of customers who do not want to see the 2nd postal proof, although it took until this stage first time around for the mistake to be noticed. We do politely try to point this out to customers and most times they agree to the 2nd postal proof.

An example of this situation is below which happened this week:

“I collected the proof this morning and noticed that I got one of the telephone numbers wrong on the file I sent you.

I’ve attached a new front for the card which changes the mobile number from 07xxx xxx xxx to 07xxx xxx xxx.

As I am happy with the quality of the cards, I’m happy for you to email me a proof just showing the new telephone number etc (just so I know you’re using the new PSD file and not the old one).”

This customer is having 2nd postal proof!

We just wanted to point out that the proofs are a good idea to have!