Posted

Aug 4th 2009

Mood

Stressed

Music

Peacemaker, Greenday, 21st Century Breakdown

I have a parade coming up soon and I bought a booth so that I can sell my prints and art to people. I needed lots of frames and lots of prints, so I stopped by Michaels first and bought a big old frame and a buncha tinier ones. ($120.00)

Then, I went to Kinkos to start having my photos printed. I gave them one file and told them to print it on simple mat paper and I'd come back tomorrow to see how it looked. Depending on how good it looked, I might have upgraded to better paper or kept printing on the mat paper.

When I came back the next day to look at the print, the lady behind the counter asked for my name and I told her. She then scanned some shelves and then looked under the counter and hastily pulled out a bag with a rolled up print in it. She read the tag and said, "This is it." She then slapped it on the table, making a big kink in the roll, (I winced painfully) and pulled it from the bag. She tore the rubber bands off and then unrolled it in front of me. I was so horrified by how she was treating my print, I didn't know what to say. I stood there in front of her for a good minute and a half, just stunned, before she spoke up.

"This good?"

I slowly looked up at her. So many things were running through my head. You ought to be fired you freaking moron. You're working in a COPY STORE where you manage PAPER and professional PRINTS all day! How can you be so rough with what your customers are paying too much money for?!

The paper had wrinkles all down it, it looked like an accordion. It also had a line of kinks down the length of the print where she had dented the roll. I asked her why it was so wrinkled.

"Oh, this happens to all the stuff printed on mat paper."

And Kinkos hasn't thought of a way to solve this problem by now? And why the hell didn't you warn me my print would look like SHIT before I paid for it?

I told her it wasn't going to work and that I'd need it to be printed again on glossy paper. I also gave her three other pictures to print (13x19 inches each) and told her that I'd like a preview print before I had them officially printed. She agreed and I set off. The next day, Kinkos called me on my cell and told me the preview was ready for me to look at. I told them I would be there at 4:30 to look at it.

When I arrived to take a look at the preview, a different lady pulls out three full sized prints and lays them in front of me.

Me: "I thought I was just looking at the preview."
Lady: "We went ahead and printed them anyway."
Me: "And if I hadn't wanted them?"
Lady: "... Do they look okay?"

I look at them carefully. I see dents in the paper from being carelessly handled.

Me: "Well... no not really. I don't want to seem like a nag or an irate customer, but I plan on selling these prints professionally and I can't have kinks and bends in the paper."
Lady: "Okay, we'll reprint them and take extra care this time."

And why didn't you take care of them the first time you buffoon?

Me: "Okay... What's going to happen to these prints?"
Lady: "We have to throw them away."
Me: "..." *stunned again*

Kinkos is Satan reincarnated into a crummy office building.
I'm sick of dealing with their crap, but they're the only choice I have at the moment. It's excuse after excuse and the service is unbelievably bad. They hire apes to work in there I swear. I'm really pissed and I don't have time to be worrying about, "Will my prints be okay? Will they turn out alright? Or will I have to start thinking of another way to have my art printed in two days?"

I should have started this way sooner. That's my one big mistake. That, and trusting a printing company with my prints. You'd think you'd be safe, that a PRINTING company would know how to handle PRINTS, but they don't. You'd think my prints were the first thing this Kinkos has EVER printed.

Screw all this. I need to find a booth tent within two days. I'm so stressed right now. Just wrote this to sort my thoughts out.