Discuss the various t-shirt fulfillment services in this general fulfillment forum. Newer companies like RedBubble, etc can be discussed in this main forum.
Companies that have been around 2+ years (CafePress.com, Zazzle.com, Spreadshirt.com, PrintMojo.com, PrintFection, etc), may have their own separate subforums below (as demand permits).
Has anyone here done business with High Style Productions? I currently have a 250 shirt order with them and am waiting for my test print. I am being told that they do almost all of their shirts with side seams (something I didn't know, or even consider when I sent the down payment) and that the fabric order has already been placed. When I insisted that the shirts be tubular in style, I was told that they would cost more to make. I am one person, starting out with a very small stipend to invest, and would like to know if anyone else has had problems with this company.
If you didn't specify that the shirts be tubular in the beginning, then it's reasonable that they wouldn't know that you wanted that in your specs.
It makes sense that there it will cost them more if the fabric has been cut.
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I am one person, starting out with a very small stipend to invest, and would like to know if anyone else has had problems with this company.
It doesn't sound like your problems are with the company, per se, it sounds like you had a problem with communication.
If you didn't communicate that you wanted tubular when you placed the order, how would they know?
It sounds like they are willing to accommodate what you need, but since these are garments that are custom made from scratch, it's sort of a big deal to change the specs halfway through the order.
Yeah, it is very important for the client and the seller to spend time in the pre-production stage of the job to explore and try to eliminate every error possibility, including the communication factor.
The trade lingo is sort of general but there are always those situations that what one may think it is, may not be and then its too late to hit the stop button.
This is one of the reasons why some companies may charge more etc...thats because they spend more time in the pre-production stage. First time client is like a new *lover* , you need to feel each other out before you.... sorry. You know what I mean.
Anyway, contact them and talk it out. Thats what I would do.
If you didn't specify that the shirts be tubular in the beginning, then it's reasonable that they wouldn't know that you wanted that in your specs.
It makes sense that there it will cost them more if the fabric has been cut.
It doesn't sound like your problems are with the company, per se, it sounds like you had a problem with communication.
If you didn't communicate that you wanted tubular when you placed the order, how would they know?
It sounds like they are willing to accommodate what you need, but since these are garments that are custom made from scratch, it's sort of a big deal to change the specs halfway through the order.
Maybe I'm new in this business, but I've never seen any other kind of tee except no side seams. I didn't know they made them any other way. That's why I didn't even think that was a consideration when I placed the order. Also, shouldn't they ask me if I wanted flat or tubular? I sent them a physical prototype of exactly what I wanted, and that was a tubular shirt. But they told me they had already made the fabric before they received the sample. It seems that maybe they jumped the gun a little instead of clarifying the order. I'm still willing to do business with them, it's just somewhat difficult to conduct business online with a product in mind that is sight unseen. I would have preferred someone in my area, so we could do a face to face, but the only guy available is turning down orders.
Maybe I'm new in this business, but I've never seen any other kind of tee except no side seams.
Ok, its been a while since hanging out at cut and sew places but a lot can go wrong there. Even the different size of the tiny sew needles can make a difference and this difference means a screw up.
I would imagine that the shirt maker would confirm the cut/sew job with the shirt type discription. I mean, side seam and tubular ARE very different in the way the shirts are cut off the pattern yield dotted paper. Also, the fabric rolls for tubular are way less wider than the fabric rolls side seam shirts are made (generally).
Again, Rodney was SPOT ON when he posted that this hang up sounds like it was born out of communication error. It does happen.
Maybe I'm new in this business, but I've never seen any other kind of tee except no side seams.
Yes, unfortunately, being new, this may have caused some incorrect assumptions about how all t-shirts look.
LOTS of t-shirts have side seams. From top name blanks on down.
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Also, shouldn't they ask me if I wanted flat or tubular?
Like you, they may have made the assumption that most t-shirts DO have side seams and that if you as the customer thought that it was an important aspect, you would have specifically mentioned it.
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I sent them a physical prototype of exactly what I wanted, and that was a tubular shirt. But they told me they had already made the fabric before they received the sample
Did you tell them that tubular was one of the aspects of the t-shirt you wanted reproduced?
These are really things you should work out with HSP, because only you and them know the specifics of your order.
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It seems that maybe they jumped the gun a little instead of clarifying the order.
It doesn't sound like that to me. It sounds like you really didn't give specifics on your order until after it had started.
Sounds like both parties made incorrect assumptions, but as the customer wanting something completely custom from scratch, it would be up to you to really lay out the exact specifics for the order.
It also sounds like even though that didn't happen, that they are willing to work with you, even though they already cut the fabric, but you don't seem to want to work with them to get the issue resolved.
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I'm still willing to do business with them, it's just somewhat difficult to conduct business online with a product in mind that is sight unseen.
Many business deals for thousands of dollars are done online for sight unseen products. Email can be a very effective method of communication if you can be very specific about what your needs are.
When both parties understand the communication medium and use it to it's best abilities (to quickly send specs, pictures, clarifications back and forth), it can be much faster than phone calls and in person meetings.
But if you aren't comfortable with handling business via email, it can be a challenge to get things done.
Some people are just better in person and via phone and others can work more effectively via email.
I can outline a few details about your specific order to maybe help you understand (as well as others) how this happend.
When we confirmed your t-shirt order it was for an all over print without any physical samples to go by. In emails prior to the confimed order you had sent pictures of a print that you wanted done. It was determained that it was an all over print and needed to be done by rotary.
I asked for high resolution artwork in the beginning stages (before deposit and sampling stage). After some time went by with no communication, you had decided to move forward with the order and wanted to start the sampling stage. We confirmed order, you made the deposit and we started fabric.
I then asked again for the high resolution artwork so screens can be prepared and you were unsure how to convert your artwork as you had actually "hand stamped" the shirts. I then asked for the physical shirt to see if we can match the print on the sample.
After receiving the sample, we determained we would use a method that would give you the look and feel similar to yours but our techs noted that on your original sample it was tubular whereas the print method we were going to use was not going to work on tubular tees. Not to mention, tubular fabric was never mentioned before hand and now all fabric has been prepared.
This is where we are in the process and as discussed Mell, we are committed to working with you on this and will try to do what we can do give you a favorable outcome. Most of our customers are small, start up companies with a limited budget so we definitely understand your situation.
It is costly to a factory to have specs changed in mid production. I can't say enough how important it is to confirm all specs with us first, especially artwork.
As far as tubular shirts being more expensive:
We custom knit fabric per order, so when we receive an order for 250 t-shirts that is why we like to confirm measurements, sizes, quantaties. Then we know how much to knit so we reduce wastage.
The more fabric we knit at one time reduces costs because a large batch going through the machines once will have that cost divided my amount of fabric. Now, for tubular each size has to be knitted individually. Break that down into each size for a quantatity of 250 and your price goes up.
While I appreciate and don't mind at all the questons about any issues that may come up in production from any customers, I do encourage customers to contact me privately to handle. You will find that I am easy to work with and very understanding and will help you along with the process. And we can certainly be reached by phone, but you will find that emails work better in some cases due to the fact that we need to keep a record of specs or changes to specs so we can access them easily.
High Style Productions 
, you need to feel each other out before you....
sorry. You know what I mean.
And we can certainly be reached by phone, but you will find that emails work better in some cases due to the fact that we need to keep a record of specs or changes to specs so we can access them easily.
