Last Wednesday I ordered the "Worst Unlicensed Merchandise Ever" (OK, I'm a sucker for obscure Simpsons references...) from shirt.woot.
I chose the free Smartpost option (which I assumed would take forever) so I was a bit surprised when the package arrived on Saturday. It was in a nice customized shirt.woot envelope. So far, very good.
I opened the package, put the shirt on and looked in the mirror. It was crooked. And off center. Badly.
OK, given the nature of the "Worst Merchandise Ever" design, you might think it was supposed to be printed crooked. It was not. That was not the way the mock-up looked. It looks goofy. See pic below.
Then I took a closer look at the print. It's horrible. The navy color of the shirt shows through the print, and the surface of the print looks "scaly." I got the best pic I could and attached it below.
Anyway, I'm gonna email them and tell them about the problems and just see what their response is. I'll let ya know.
Last edited by AustinJeff; July 30th, 2007 at 11:37 PM.
That should not have left our shop. It is way below standard. Image should be square and centered. We did have some trouble with the hand of white ink on the navy shirt being heavier than I would like, but not bumpy. customer service should take care of you and we will send a new much better printed shirt.
All of that being said we are very new to the craft of screen printing and will suffer the usual technical challenges. anyone got some amazing tips for printing plastisol white on a navy or black shirt without the thickness getting out of control.
(currently using wilflex bright tiger as base and topcoat 156 mesh screens for both with a flash in between and getting pretty good results but with occasional texture issues.)
I chose the free Smartpost option (which I assumed would take forever) so I was a bit surprised when the package arrived on Saturday. It was in a nice customized shirt.woot envelope. So far, very good.
I ordered the Sore Thumbs t-shirt (second shirt.woot) and I still haven't received it yet. I'm in no hurry since it was free shipping, but it's interesting that you got yours first even ordering a day or so later. Maybe because you live closer to their shop.
I like the custom shipping bags. I wonder where they got those printed?
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anyone got some amazing tips for printing plastisol white on a navy or black shirt without the thickness getting out of control.
(currently using wilflex bright tiger as base and topcoat 156 mesh screens for both with a flash in between and getting pretty good results but with occasional texture issues.)
I ordered the Sore Thumbs t-shirt (second shirt.woot) and I still haven't received it yet. I'm in no hurry since it was free shipping, but it's interesting that you got yours first even ordering a day or so later. Maybe because you live closer to their shop.
I like the custom shipping bags. I wonder where they got those printed?
Thanks for the tip .. not sure if its something we can apply over 500+ shirts but will give it a try.
Proximity seems to be the main factor with smartpost. The tracking info is often strange with packages seemingly going to lots of diff hubs all over the country. here is a graph we have from some of the early smartpost data Woot: The Community: SmartPost: Who, Why and Where's The Feet?
The bags are available from a bunch of places that make custom poly bags but big quantity is required to get them 20k+ at a reasonable price and you need a bagging machine to work with them efficiently.
Thanks for the tip .. not sure if its something we can apply over 500+ shirts but will give it a try.
That was just one I remembered off hand. There are plenty more tips like that in the screen printing section of the forum that are more geared towards high volume printing (or you can just post the question over there to get specific answers).
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Proximity seems to be the main factor with smartpost. The tracking info is often strange with packages seemingly going to lots of diff hubs all over the country. here is a graph we have from some of the early smartpost data Woot: The Community: SmartPost: Who, Why and Where's The Feet?
Thanks for the graph. Looking at my tracking and the graphic, I seem to be in the 5-6 business day range.
Well, I emailed customer service yesterday and told them there was a problem with the shirt, and rather than rewriting the whole description and sending pictures, I directed them to this thread. I also included my username so they could look up the order.
Apparently its too much trouble for them to click on the link I sent. They replied and asked me to send a description of the problem. But maybe the customer service people don't have full web access. Fine. Apparently it is also too much trouble for them to take the username I gave them and look up the order number, so they also wanted me to send the order number.
I'm not sure what the point is in having someone addressing problems on the forums if the people actually providing the customer service can't be troubled to look up an order number when the info required to do so is provided.
I think part of the problem is that it looks like they have the regular woot.com customer service people dealing with the t-shirt customer service. I'm sure that all kinds of problems arise when you are selling ultra-cheap consumer electronics, and a lot of them have to do with limitations of the product or lack of knowledge on the customer's part, not necessarily defective products. And of course, you are going to have a percentage of electronics that just don't work, and the retailer has no way of determining which ones before shipping. In this realm, complaints aren't necessarily an indication of a larger problem.
But when you are selling t-shirts, you really shouldn't be getting complaints about your product (except perhaps sizing issues with the American Apparel shirts.) When you get a customer service complaint about the quality of a T-shirt, you have a real problem, and you need to be extremely responsive both in addressing the customer and resolving the problem or you will quickly develop a reputation of selling cheap junk, if you haven't already. I mean, how many people received the same quality of shirt that I did and didn't bother to complain and just wrote it off to "you get what you pay for."
Anyway, I emailed them the info. We'll see what happens.
I got my "Sore Thumbs" t-shirt today. Nice touch that they relabeled them (although that's another cost cutting into the already small margin)
The shirt I got is just white ink screen printed on a black t-shirt.
I think they did one pass of white ink, instead of white flash white.
I'm sure as they do more tests and runs, the quality of the prints will improve.
Most of the criticisms I have are probably overly critical, since I'm not a "normal" t-shirt customer. Many of us here will probably see little things that other t-shirt buyers will never notice.
Thanks for the tip .. not sure if its something we can apply over 500+ shirts but will give it a try.
Proximity seems to be the main factor with smartpost. The tracking info is often strange with packages seemingly going to lots of diff hubs all over the country. here is a graph we have from some of the early smartpost data Woot: The Community: SmartPost: Who, Why and Where's The Feet?
.
nice graph - but not understanding why you have Buffalo with Seattle? - when we do fulfillment, we do it by UPS zones. - seems to give a better indication where the majority of the shirts are being shipping to.
So, I got an email this afternoon that simply said, "We have shipped out another shirt." and gave the tracking number. Not the way I would have handled it, but it works.
I assume that are sending another of the same design, but you know what they say about assumptions...
In the end though, it's still an American Apparel shirt shipped to my door for $10. With that deal, it's kinda like pizza -- even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.
And actually, in this case, it will be 2 shirts for $10 since they didn't make me go through the whole RMA return business, which I greatly appreciate.
something about this seems a bit backwards to me - they're screen printing the shirts themselves, despite just starting out, but they're using American Apparel stock and selling them for $10?
they could probably spend just as much (or less) money getting runs of Gildans or Anvils or something done by an actual printshop, and have a lot less to worry about. obviously, I don't know much about woot, but that's just my opinion.
also, as someone who used customers to learn how to screen print, I can tell you that it's a good way to lose what could be repeat customers. first impressions are important.
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They clearly state that they are using American Apparel on the shirt.woot page.
They also have the sizing charts linked to on the page.
I'm happy with the quality of the garment (I prefer an American Apparel over a Gildan). I'm not thin at all, but I still like American Apparel shirts (although I'm suprised they aren't carrying it up to 3XL on their site).
something about this seems a bit backwards to me - they're screen printing the shirts themselves, despite just starting out, but they're using American Apparel stock and selling them for $10?
they could probably spend just as much (or less) money getting runs of Gildans or Anvils or something done by an actual printshop, and have a lot less to worry about. obviously, I don't know much about woot, but that's just my opinion.
I agree though. 500 black t-shirts with a 1 color print from an established print shop would probably be about $4 per shirt (not using American Apparel).
The AmericanApparel garment alone brings the cost of goods sold pricing up to about $6, although, it's possible that woot worked out some deal with American Apparel to buy in bulk and get better pricing.
One interesting difference between shirt.woot and threadless is that woot is doing it all themselves whereas threadless outsources to a local screen printer.
Some wonder why threadless don't print in house just as some will wonder why shirt.woot does.
Worst shirt.woot ever! 
Re: Worst shirt.woot ever! 
