Hey, Liberty-
I agree- my 'overseas' comment was off-base and far too U.S.-centric, and I apologize for that. I should have said, don't be quick to run to the cheapest digitizer you can find. There are amazing digitizers all over the world, and quality, artistic expression, and production friendliness is not limited to geographical location. Moreover, when there are quality problems, sometimes it has to be recognized that when people are forced to work with small profit margins, that they just won't be able to spend the time it takes to make a masterpiece of every design. So, in that much, I'd like to clarify that I don't think that any country has a stranglehold on good digitizing. There are more than a couple digitizers overseas who I respect and keep in touch with, so I'd like to make it clear that I had a certain subset of sub-standard, cut-rate digitizing houses in mind, not a geographical region. We should reward good work from anyone in any region, and if my off-handed comment made anyone think different, I apologize.
That said, the truth of the matter, at least when it comes to folks I deal with regularly in the U.S., is that the cheapest work is usually sourced overseas (from our perspective), and that we often have problems with consistency when dealing with those designs. Many is the time I've had to rehab or replace such a design for a frustrated customer (though I do tell them to think carefully about what they really expected for so little).
I too am an in-house digitizer, and we are in the same boat as you are, where our digitizing makes a difference. Among the benefits we tout are not only our quality and consistency, but our ability to be responsive to quick changes and to provide one-on-one consultation with our clients so that we can create exactly the design they want. Our customers get educated in the process and can help us to steer the embroidery in a way that can't easily be reproduced by any kind of outsourcing.
I have to say, I agree with you about their marketing. The constant telemarketing, hijacking of blog comments, inappropriate spam posts, and the endless stream of e-mails from these companies also gets my goat. As a digitizer, getting constant emails talking about how useless I am and how my company should switch over to one of these companies is no fun.
Moreover, I do think it is disingenuous that there are companies who deck their websites in the stars and stripes, list their businesses as being located in the US, but actually maintain only an organizational office here and actually have digitizers overseas doing their work. It takes advantage of those who do want to stay local, whatever their motivations.
I'll do my best to remember not to paint with too wide a brush- let's all respect the good work that our peers do, but let's also encourage our fellow digitizers to compete on quality rather than race to the unprofitable bottom of the pricing scale. I want to see us all become better craftspeople, not cheaper commodities.
Erich (and all)
The articles author and the website/magazine are from the UK. Yet they chose an "overseas" digitizer as the "winner" Tom from Strawberry stitch in the US. "Overseas" is a matter of your perspective... and did you notice the trashing he took for the terrible customer service?
...
Now if you want to know what REALLY ticks me off, it is the ridiculous number of telemarketing calls I get from offshore digitizers. Three to five calls per day on average. We keep a list, you telemarket me more than once and you will NEVER get my business... and I don't want to "hear" how good you are, show me the money. If you don't have a drop dead design that showcases tight registration and small lettering that you can send me as an ice breaker then don;t bother.
