How much does cheap printing cost?

In spite of over 28 years in design and print, I still made the mistake of being enticed by a really low price for some printing.

There are so many websites advertising printing at prices that are too good to be true. The one I fell for looks like a UK website, but in fact is based in mainland Europe. I'd used them before for a leaflet for my daughter-in-law's hairdressing business and the results were fine. This time, I'd used them for some business cards for a client.

The file upload and payment were easy enough, but the finished results - oh, dear. I'd grown accustomed to business cards arriving in plastic boxes, but these arrived in a cardboard box. Not too much of a problem, quite eco-friendly in fact. The real problem was in the trimming of the cards. They should have had a full colour image bleeding off all four sides, but these came back with a 2mm white edge at the top. I used to use a guillotine in my printing days and know it would take just a glance and a very tiny piece of common sense to cut them correctly.

After some discussion with the printer, they refused to do them properly, but offered to re-print them for half price if I returned them - but only if they agreed they were faulty. There was a more practical solution - a trip to a friendly, local, helpful printer who re-cut the offending cards.

Yes, they were cheap, but the potential cost in damaged reputation would have been far higher than the money saved. So beware the 'too good to be true' price. Despite my years of experience, I still fell for it.

Support your local printer. Your reputation is far too important to buy cheap.

Newsflash

After 26 years at Kirby Towers, we’ve decided to use the fireplace for its intended purpose – a real life open fire. After so long a time in a disused state, we had to get the chimney swept, so we called in Burnham Sweeps.

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address
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CM0 8BX

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email
colin@kirbymarketing.co.uk