Business Cards Gone Bad

I’m a big fan of online business card printing. When it’s done right, the process of ordering full-color business cards online is fast, easy, and the price can’t be beat. But when things go wrong, as my buddy’s recent experience shows, you have to persevere …

Earlier this spring, I helped my pal knock out a new full color business card design in CorelDRAW. He did all of the design work ... I merely set up the template, did some tweaking, and exported the 300 dpi TIFF file.

My friend submitted the file and requested an Acrobat PDF proof. When the PDF file arrived everything looked cool and the job went to print.

When the printed business cards showed up on his doorstep about a week later, he wasn't pleased. The color was all wrong. He went back and looked at the proof with dismay. While the color was perfect in the PDF file, the batch of printed business cards appeared to be washed out ... there was no contrast and the full black areas were merely gray. It looked like there wasn't enough black ink on the press.

So he contacted the business card printer and complained about the order. The printer admitted their error and offered to reprint the job. A new batch of cards showed up at his place shortly after. Upon inspecting the reprinted cards, my friend was immediately disappointed. The second batch was far too dark ... it seemed as if there was too much ink on the press this time.

So once again, he brought up the issue with the printer. And once again, the printer reprinted the job.

The squeaky wheel got the grease and the third time was the charm. The third batch of business cards were printed perfectly.

The moral of the story?

Don't settle for an inferior print job. If the printer makes an error, it's their responsibility to make it right ...

Related: business card printer comparison chart