Why do many Vistaprint customers leave bad reviews? If you’re looking to print business cards, brochures, postcards, or promo items, you’ve probably seen Vistaprint show up in your search results.
That’s with good reason. As a printing services provider for small businesses, Vistaprint has seen some explosive growth in recent years. They may have started their business giving away business cards for free, but that early altruism has yielded $289.9 million in revenue from printed materials in 2016.
When you move that much product, problems are bound to pop up. Even though Vistaprint offers design templates for each of its products, problems and mistakes still occur. (Just don’t complain about the price, because we can save you 50% here!)
First, Most Reviews for Vistaprint Are Positive
Before we talk about things that went wrong in customer reviews for Vistaprint, we have to mention that most reviews are positive. Also, many complaints, (like slow shipping or low-resolution images) could have been avoided by properly using the free design templates and by checking their shipping speeds.
Even though most Vistaprint customers write positive reviews, about 14% are negative. Because they process thousands of orders each day, that’s a lot of bad reviews! Let’s find out what customers complain about, and maybe it will help you with your own order.
Top 10 Vistaprint Complaints:
Here are the top 10 Vistaprint customer complaints from bad reviews, and how to avoid them yourself.
1. My Business Cards Aren’t Legible:
Customer review: “The business cards I received were of such poor resolution that my contact information was not legible.” – Matan of Santa Ana, CA
Imagine you put a lot of work into designing the perfect business card. You place your order and wait for a preview to arrive–only to realize you can’t read it!
This is one of the most common Vistaprint complaints out there. That’s because people don’t always consider how a design will look on a 3.5-inch-by-2-inch card.
If you have small type in your logo, for example, keep that in mind when you scale it. It’s better to showcase something a little too big than something too small.
You’ll also want to make sure you go with white paper stock, unless you have planned ahead for what your design will look like printed on darker paper, like their brown Kraft paper stock.
This complaint is most common with customers who upload their own designs, so make sure your image is 300+ dpi and the text is clear!
2. My Colors Don’t Look How They Looked Online:
Color is one of the hardest things to visualize in the printing world. That’s because your computer doesn’t mix colors the same way ink does during a printing job.
On-screen, your colors are in RGB. They’re made up of light-emitting pixels of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) mixed up in different amounts.
In the printing world, colors are in CMYK. Printers create each hue by overlaying dots of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K).
Some colors look roughly the same across RGB and CMYK, but light blue, green, and orange can change dramatically.
For the best results, use an online color converter to get the CMYK values you want. Make sure your final design is in CMYK, not RGB.
3. My Border Is Off-Center
Customer review: “Whoever stretched the canvas over the frame did not center them and it looked like a 3 year old did the work!” – John of New Castle PA
This is a common problem with custom designs. If your design goes all the way to the edge of the paper, you’ll need to design with bleeds to get it spaced right.
Most printers will include measurements for the bleed, trim, and margin. You need to meet these for your product to print correctly.
Here’s a quick primer:
- Bleed is how far your design should extend off the page. You won’t see this in your final product.
- Trim is where the printer will cut your design. Anything outside of the trim line will be cut off.
- Margin is the safe zone. All of your important elements need to be inside the margin.
It seems that a number of negative reviews could have been prevented if the customers had properly used the free design templates provided for each product.
4. The Paper Is Too Flimsy for What I Need:
Customer complaint: “The quality of the invitations was very cheap! Thin floppy paper was of the worst quality!” – Margaret of Tacoma, WA
You always need to keep the purpose of your project in mind when you choose your paper. While a thinner stock might come at a discount, certain projects might need a heavier weight. Heavier is usually better, and a lot of customers who wrote bad reviews learned this the hard way.
As a general reference, 20lb text paper is generally used for copier paper, while 80lb cover stock is great for business cards.
With free or free or economy business cards you’re going to get their thin paper. Ok for dropping into fishbowls to win a free lunch, not Ok at an industry networking event!
5. Complaint: My Design Came Out Blurry
This is another of the most common Vistaprint complaints from customers who design their own products.
In the print world, an image’s resolution needs to be extremely high to come out correctly. While online images can get away with a resolution of 72 ppi–or pixels per inch–printed goods must be at least 300 dpi–or dots per inch.
Anything less will turn out blurry.
If the image you’re uploading is smaller than 1MB, triple-check that it’s at 300+ dpi.
6. The Colors On My Business Cards Don’t Match the Colors On My Brochure
If you’re trying to print an array of branded materials using your color palette, problems can sometimes crop up.
That’s because different paper weights and finishes can make colors look a little different. If you’re printing apparel or promotional goods, the difference can be pretty noticeable.
Your best bet here is to work closely with customer service and order preview prints of each product you want. You may have to tweak your color values a bit to get them to look correct on each item.
7. Complaint: My Preview Doesn’t Look Like My Project
Customer review: “Cards arrived with multiple errors, I.E. Director, misspellings, incorrect address, and phone number!” – BJ of Scottsdale, AZ
If you receive a preview and it doesn’t look like what you had in mind, it’s time to get in touch with customer service.
Go over specifically why you aren’t happy with what you’re seeing. It could be the item doesn’t look like how you imagined, the size won’t work, or the colors ended up too dark.
The worst of what I found in the reviews are accounts of misspellings, which seem to be the fault of Vistaprint. I’m not sure how it’s possible, but I read this in several reviews.
Whatever the reason, work with Vistaprint until the problem is fixed. There’s nothing worse than receiving a full order of goods you’re not totally happy with.
8. My Design Doesn’t Look Good On the Product
Even if you did everything right during the design process–and Vistaprint handled the print job perfectly–some projects just don’t work. Some materials aren’t well suited to certain designs.
This is especially true for promotional goods and apparel. There’s a big, real-world difference between how an image looks on a flat, white surface and how it appears wrapped around a coffee mug or printed on a t-shirt.
That’s why it’s important to keep your materials in mind when you plan. If you’re printing on a specialty item, choose a simpler design to showcase.
Tiny, intricate details can get lost on clothing in particular, so try to keep things scaled up to a readable size.
9. Negative Review: Billing Problems
Customer review: “Decided to purchase 500 business cards for $10 from Vistaprint, but when I went to place the order there was a $6 shipping charge… misleading to say the least!” – James of Atlanta, GA
With Vistaprint (or any other company) always double-check your credit card bill to see if what you were billed matches what you expected to pay. There are a lot of reviews online that complain about being overcharged.
This is especially common with people who used Vistaprint for website hosting, as they were not expecting a monthly charge, or may have started with a free trial that automatically billed them after 30 days.
Some customers who elected to add upgrades to paper quality, shipping speed, or selecting add-ons (like address labels) at checkout also ended up spending more than they bargained for.
10. The Shipping Was Slow
Review: “The business cards came AFTER the day I need them! When they did arrive, I refused delivery because it was too late.” – Marcus P. of Los Angeles CA
While reading through reviews, issues with shipping were very common. I actually would have put it higher on this list, but it seems that many times it’s the customer’s fault for not researching the shipping times and costs.
It seems that with most print orders people can’t wait for the “economy” speed delivery, but are angry at paying more for having to pay for one of the expedited options.
A lot of people complained that shipping cost was too high, or didn’t arrive when they needed it. Out of these reviews, a high number of them were for international orders, which seem to be less predictable, as delivery speeds vary greatly by country.
Avoid a Potential Bad Review: Request free samples
Did you know that Vistaprint offers free samples? If you have the time, consider requesting their free sample pack to feel the paper options and hold a few of their popular printed products yourself.
Getting married? Don’t take chances, request free samples of their wedding invitations so you feel more comfortable placing an order.
Do You Have a Print Job? Get 50% or Free Shipping Today
Vistaprint offers a 100% guarantee on every one of their products. If there was a problem with your order, reach out and let them know.
It’s a good idea to contact Vistaprint customer service before writing a negative review, because they’re usually happy to reprint and reship your order or offer you a full refund.
At Mighty Printing Deals, we have the best sales, promo codes, and discounts for your next project. Visit our site today and get up to 50% off and free shipping on your next Vistaprint order.
This article actually helped me understand the difficulty behind printing, so thank you. I even made sure to check off your list of “what not to do” for my card. However, my complaint has to do with the lapse in communication between the vistaprint staff , myself, and the thousands others. I have paid for two designers to change hardly nothing, and right off the bat they use a business card that I did not even include in my design brief, how they got it, I don’t know? On one occasion I paid for a designer to add a detail and I received my card back exactly the same as I when I submitted it. I reached out and discussed what I wanted and it was completely changed with things I did not even request. I have been beating my brain trying to figure out how I can get my message to the Vistaprint team. What I found out, is that I can’t sadly. After multiple edits of things I didn’t even request, I am convinced that there is a major breakdown in the communication between the clients and staff. I don’t believe that Vistaprint is all bad, but I do hope the CEO really looks into how he is servicing his clients, training his staff, and providing them with the tools to do their job successfully, because I am not seeing it in all aspects. My experience screams one thing, poor management.