Furious with Hallmark

[nancerama]

I ordered some christening invitations through Hallmark this week. When they were delivered I realised that I'd had the wrong date printed on them. Totally my mistake, so I placed a new order with the correct date on.

The new cards were delivered yesterday, and whilst all the details are correct, the new ones look awful. They are all grey and faded - the printer was clearly running out of ink.

I have contacted Hallmark to complain, and sent a photograph of the two cards side by side so that they can see the huge difference. This is apparently not good enough for them, and they have asked me to return the two versions of the invitations so that they can see for themselves if they think there is a problem.

The problem for me is that I need to send the invitations out pretty urgently, but that they refuse to do anything to help me until they have received the 2 versions of the card and have conducted their own internal investigation.

What is the point of advertising 24 hour turnaround when they seem to have no quality control in place, and no sense of urgency in putting things right when they go wrong? I am furious with them.

Can you not buy them ready made in shops anywhere?

The number I was needing to send, it's much easier to have them printed with all the details. I really don't have the time to be writing the details in the boxes of the pre printed ones.

I've ordered personalised cards from them before and always been really happy. I feel very let down by this experience though. They have unfortunately lost a loyal customer.

Ahh, I see. It does sound rubbish that a) they send out substandard merchandise and b) don't seem willing to rectify their mistake. Surely they should realise that invitations need to be sent out on time for them to be of any use and investigating the problem is just causing you more stress and more time lost. Is there another company you can use to get them quickly while Hallmark dart about like farts in a sieve? Hope they can refund you asap anyway.

I think I'm going to have to hunt for an alternative and then try and get a refund from Hallmark once they've investigated whether there is a problem with their printers.

Any fool can see from the photo I've taken that there is a huge difference in quality. I'm amazed that they don't seem to have processes in place to check quality before they dispatch an order and annoyed that they won't help until they've investigated. They are treating me like I'm lying even though I've sent them proof.

I think you're right - use a competitor and demand a refund (and possibly the cost of using another company).