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trishtaz · July 18th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by T-BOT


	They may be busy trying to get orders out for their regular clients, or there may be other reasons. But, referals do help. Think of them as "Transfer Doctors" lol, serious, you would be surprised what a referal will do in any Industry.

As a small businessperson I try to cut other small businesses extra slack, but ultimately it comes down to: do you want my business or not? If they are unresponsive because they are taking care of their current customers, I guess that's an indication of my priority. If they are just inefficient and slow ... again, an indication of how they do business. I will give small businesses extra chances but sometimes I don't even get that far.

It's July and I had a similar experience with Versatranz in June, well past the times of these other posts. I actually contacted them asking for a quote on a specific job, not just asking for their marketing kit. The salesperson responded with a credit card form for the marketing kit and said they would be happy to do my job (3-color, 600 transfers, not a small job), and then I never heard from him again. I even followed up a week later asking if I was ever going to get a response, and I didn't.

I have been dealing with First Edition and the customer service there is good once you get hold of them, and I'm happy with the transfers, but I have to admit that I don't like the way my job enters the workflow. I send the artwork directly to the artroom, THEN it gets put in an in-basket for sales. It's a different sales contact every time, and it always takes several days for someone to e-mail. I wish they had a confirmation as soon as the artwork was received, and I wish we had the same salesperson. When I have a general question I don't know whom to e-mail.

I am now waiting on that same order that I offered to Versatranz; the artist uploaded it Sunday and here it is Wednesday, not a peep from FE. I am sure they will eventually get to me, but I sure would prefer knowing where I am in the workflow. This job does not have a tight deadline, but when I do have one, it sure involves a lot of sweating. Despite FE's good product, I will switch if I find a vendor with a better system and an equally good product.

Twinge · July 18th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by trishtaz


	I have been dealing with First Edition and the customer service there is good once you get hold of them, and I'm happy with the transfers, but I have to admit that I don't like the way my job enters the workflow. I send the artwork directly to the artroom, THEN it gets put in an in-basket for sales. It's a different sales contact every time, and it always takes several days for someone to e-mail. I wish they had a confirmation as soon as the artwork was received, and I wish we had the same salesperson. When I have a general question I don't know whom to e-mail. I am now waiting on that same order that I offered to Versatranz; the artist uploaded it Sunday and here it is Wednesday, not a peep from FE. I am sure they will eventually get to me, but I sure would prefer knowing where I am in the workflow. This job does not have a tight deadline, but when I do have one, it sure involves a lot of sweating. Despite FE's good product, I will switch if I find a vendor with a better system and an equally good product.

When I was first going to try First Edition, I asked them up front if they'd be able to do a small order fairly quickly with what I had (300dpi raster, 2 weeks). They said they'd be able to do it, but needed it in vector; so I take the time to convert it all to vector and get back with them, and I get no response.

I finally had everything ready mid-afternoon on a Friday, so I figured maybe they weren't able to get back to me yet. The next Monday I sent them another e-mail, and never received any response back from them, and didn't get the order in in time because of it.

Now I'm using Howard Sportswear, which has been better. Turn around time isn't usually that important to us, but they're very quick if you need it - usually less than a week. Quality is great, BUT the prices are a bit higher than most vendors. Might be worth a try if FE is giving you problems. (To be fair, of course, Rodney had problems contacting Howard for samples, and no problem with FE; every good company screws up occasionally it looks like ;)

Rodney · July 19th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by trishtaz


	As a small businessperson I try to cut other small businesses extra slack, but ultimately it comes down to: do you want my business or not? If they are unresponsive because they are taking care of their current customers, I guess that's an indication of my priority. If they are just inefficient and slow ... again, an indication of how they do business. I will give small businesses extra chances but sometimes I don't even get that far. It's July and I had a similar experience with Versatranz in June, well past the times of these other posts. I actually contacted them asking for a quote on a specific job, not just asking for their marketing kit. The salesperson responded with a credit card form for the marketing kit and said they would be happy to do my job (3-color, 600 transfers, not a small job), and then I never heard from him again. I even followed up a week later asking if I was ever going to get a response, and I didn't. I have been dealing with First Edition and the customer service there is good once you get hold of them, and I'm happy with the transfers, but I have to admit that I don't like the way my job enters the workflow. I send the artwork directly to the artroom, THEN it gets put in an in-basket for sales. It's a different sales contact every time, and it always takes several days for someone to e-mail. I wish they had a confirmation as soon as the artwork was received, and I wish we had the same salesperson. When I have a general question I don't know whom to e-mail. I am now waiting on that same order that I offered to Versatranz; the artist uploaded it Sunday and here it is Wednesday, not a peep from FE. I am sure they will eventually get to me, but I sure would prefer knowing where I am in the workflow. This job does not have a tight deadline, but when I do have one, it sure involves a lot of sweating. Despite FE's good product, I will switch if I find a vendor with a better system and an equally good product.

You may also want to try out Transfer Express. They have a pretty cool online upload order process that allows you to keep track of your order.

mikeinbmore · July 30th, 2007

Rodney, I just read through all the pages in this post and was hoping to see some further mention or update of your order from F&M. How did they turn out?

VinnyYak · July 31st, 2007

Very informative. Thank you. It's now almost August and members are still posting about it. I wish you had sent those 8 plastisol transfer screen printers an identical design to make the comparison more fair. By the way I'm not saying it's not fair.

Rodney · July 31st, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeinbmore


	Rodney, I just read through all the pages in this post and was hoping to see some further mention or update of your order from F&M. How did they turn out?

My first order with F&M turned out OK. They were still perfecting their "Freedom" transfers at the time and they hadn't published the list of colors they could do spot colors in.

So we had a bit of miscommunication on what I was going for. I got sort of a halftone look (I posted about it here), but I was going for a spot color look.

They fixed the order right away and were great with communication the whole way through.

I'd order from them again.

Rodney · July 31st, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by VinnyYak


	Very informative. Thank you. It's now almost August and members are still posting about it. I wish you had sent those 8 plastisol transfer screen printers an identical design to make the comparison more fair. By the way I'm not saying it's not fair.

The comparison was based on the samples that the printers sent to me, not a graphic that I sent to them.

So it was fair in the fact that each transfer company had the chance to send me their best work for me to test to decide if I wanted to become their customer

Mad River T · August 2nd, 2007

HI
My first experience with plastisol transfers was a disaster with uneven application of the design. The solution was preheating the garment. 10 seconds of preheat and 10 seconds on the design at 400º and hot peel. Perfect every time. Transfers supplied by www.silvermountaingraphics.com

robinschroder · August 4th, 2007

Based on this thread, I tried Versatranz. As I don't have a heat press, I got them to press the designs onto the shirts. Unfortunately, despite giving them clear and full positioning instructions and to-scale drawings, all the logos were printed too high on the shirts. Many of the transfers started to peel after 1 normal wash at the recommended wash temperature. When I emailed them to mention these problems, I never received a reply. Nice!

IdleMedia · August 4th, 2007

Try calling them. As Rodney even mentioned in this thread, it's insanely hard to get a hold of them. It actually took 2.5 months for me to get an account setup.

In any case, once you get someone on the phone, they should be able to take care of it.

jshade · August 4th, 2007

i still havent got word from any of these places and iv contacted all the
companies you have mention. Is there any faster way of getting a hold
of sample transfers from these places. Iv tried e-mailing but still no word.
I guess i should try calling.

trishtaz · August 4th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by robinschroder


	As I don't have a heat press, I got them to press the designs onto the shirts.

Robin, is there a reason you decided to go with heat transfers rather than having the shirts done by a local screenprinter? It would have been much easier to talk to a printer in person and indicate exactly where you wanted your design placed ... plus, a local printer might have agreed to show you the first shirt before s/he started the run, if the placement was that crucial.

Did you e-mail the placement instructions or did you talk to someone on the phone? I found out with my last job done by First Edition that the specific account information and instructions that were appended to the artwork were never printed out by the artroom guys, hence the sales rep didn't have half the information she needed.

... Checking the Versatranz site, I noticed that they will do contract screenprinting, at least if I read it right. They say that they will pick up the shirts from Broder next door, print them, and send them out. Sounds as if they screenprint them directly rather than print transfers and apply via heat press.

Either way, the designs should not have delaminated after the first wash. Send one to your sales rep -- I'm sure they'll make it right.

Along those lines, I should report that after my post blasting Versatranz, Mark Bova, the sales rep with whom I originally had contact, e-mailed me saying he had seen the post, and asked what had happened. I sent him copies of my follow-up e-mails and told him that there is a bug in the system somewhere since I'm not the only person who has faulty communication with them. He was very apologetic and hoped for a chance to make it right. They may be hard to get hold of, but it's apparently not because they don't care about our business. Later I e-mailed him for a quote on a new job and he was very quick to respond. They still have some kinks to work out but I think they're trying.

hearsay · August 5th, 2007

Like many of you, I chose to place an order with Versatranz based on the positive feedback I read in this forum. I called them to get the process started and Mark was very helpful. Standard production time is faster than most (placed an order Thursday and it shipped the following Monday), and the proofing process leading up to production gave me peace of mind that my order would be completed exactly to my specs.

HOWEVER, that is where the good news ends. I was supposed to receive the package by Friday 7/20. On Monday 7/23 I sent them an email asking for a tracking number/status on my package. They responded and told me they had accidentally sent it to my Billing address- a PO Box- and UPS does not deliver to a PO Box. He then asks for a physical address to "re-route" the package to (which I initially provided when I set up my account).

I re-sent him this address on 7/24. I check my PO Box to find a note from UPS saying my package could not be delivered, but thankfully it had a tracking# on it (something Versatranz had a difficult time providing me with). When I tracked it, I learned that Mark in fact never re-routed it. Instead, the package was now being returned to sender. I tracked it yesterday, and saw that it had arrived back in Michigan Friday 8/3.

Despite several emails and a voice mail, I have heard NOTHING from Versatranz. They charged my credit card on 7/13, and I have not received any response to my communication attempts since 7/24. They dropped the ball on the shipping end, and have made absolutely no effort to remedy their mistakes. It's not so much the shipping debacle as it is the complete and total lack of communication from them that upsets me the most.

I am EXTREMELY disgusted with my experience with Versatranz, and I would not recommend them to anybody.

mrgeezteez · August 6th, 2007

Thank You Rodney for this very informative thread
We are a new business still learning all the ropes!
We have had a few small orders that we have been able to do ourselves,
we have been asked if we could do larger orders and because of this thread
I am now able to figure out who,what,when and where!!!!
Thank you again Rodney
This forum ROCKS
Chrissy

Rodney · August 8th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by jshade


	i still havent got word from any of these places and iv contacted all the companies you have mention. Is there any faster way of getting a hold of sample transfers from these places. Iv tried e-mailing but still no word. I guess i should try calling.

Depends on when you contacted them.

Also,

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