Stay away from this DTG Fulfillment Company!

I've been on both ends of this situation. As someone who provides DTG fulfillment at wholesale prices, I regularly and weekly fire customers.

Why?

Because wholesale customers can not expect retail-level service. Period. Yes, every shirt should be individually QC'd and reprinted if there is a problem of any sort. But in a high volume environment, where we see dozens if not hundreds of pieces of artwork, there is absolutely NO WAY to confirm every design on a shirt looks identical to the design on the screen. It just can't be done.

That being said, I tell my fulfillment wholesale customers to send me a "punch list" if they have problems. The punch list should include the shirt brand, size, color, artwork file name, and a general description of what is wrong. We just expedite a reprint and reship right away.

If we get an email tearing us up, I'll reiterate that we are providing wholesale pricing and wholesale services. I can sell to you at wholesale for $12 (say $4 profit) or I can sell to retail customers for $24 for an identical product, with $16 profit. The $12 difference in price allows a LOT more service to be provided. But if a wholesale customer all of a sudden demands retail level service, I will raise their prices or give them a competitor's business card.

That being said, the company dropped the ball. BUT, if the rest of the order was acceptable, then I would give them the benefit of the doubt. If you burn through all the fulfillment houses, you're going to find yourself up a creek without a paddle.

Again, I suggest expecting wholesale level service for a wholesale price. If they screw up a job, send them a detailed explanation and request a reprint -- don't be aggressive. Mistakes happen. I recently did a job for a customer for 64 shirts, ALL DIFFERENT DESIGNS. 2 of the designs were placed 2" higher than she had requested (not in the order, but in a follow up email days after submission). She demanded a full refund for all 64 shirts because she didn't have time for us to reprint.

I fired her and told her she's welcome to shop around. We don't need someone calling and yelling because of a problem that isn't 100% our fault by any means. After asking some of my competitors about her specifically, most of them fired her months ago. Now she's going to have to pay retail to get her garment line launched. Good riddance.

As I agree with both of you this was an initial order of 5 items and 3 were incorrect and had issues. I called attention to one item as it was form another person, the other I found while wearing and the last one I did not even mention as I knew that this company had issues.

From what I saw the company owners did the printing. So regardless I feel and will give no pitty to anyone who runs a fulfillment service and make a 3 mistakes on a 5 item order! And yes I expect retail quality because! Who in their right mind would start a brand and strive to sell wholesale quality print job items! PERIOD! If you say quality and claim to be experts in what you do then your work should reflect. A simple email from them back saying that they would pay more attention and fix the issue would of been fine instead of taking a simple email which was not rude personal!

So I will never side with excuses of "High street production environment" yes if I print 50 shirts and more than 5 have issues we are going to have a problem! QC it, fix it, and move on! If I hurt other fulfillment companies feelings then tough, I run a business and will treat it as such!

Honestly, I think the tone of your email would have caused a bad response from most companies out there. I understand that you expect quality service, and by all means you should receive quality service. That said, if a mistake happens, which it no doubt will eventually, you have to deal with it respectfully.

The email you sent seemed aggressive and rushed, and even though at the time you probably didn't think your tone was an issue, as it feels justified to be angry when mistakes happen, reading something like that will not make a company want to fix the mistake for you. In this case, the company did exactly as they should have, and issued you a refund. I know many business owners who would not do the same for a customer who sent them an aggressive email.

I know it's easy to get really angry about this kind of stuff, but I have found that it is always best to keep a level head and think about how you would react if you were in their shoes. A simple notification of the mistake and a request for a fix is generally enough to keep you on their good side and get the problem taken care of. Cost free most of the time.

Once again, I completely understand why you would have been upset...but sometimes it's best to keep a cool head and handle it nicely.

I want to second this. Had I gotten an email like that I would have reacted badly too. I know people sometimes think you have to be tough when you run a business, and you do, but you have to able to communicate with someone and understand that the people running a business are just that. People.

You made it sound like it was a bad thing that the owners of the company were the ones printing your shirt. I own my company and I do most of the shirt printing. I see that as a good thing because the person pulling your shirt of the platen has a vested interest in keeping you happy and they will probably work harder for you than a large company that will siply dismiss angry emails to some business school drop-out.

If I got that sort of an email in that tone from someone I was just starting a business relationship I would have dropped them as a client too out of the assumption that the relationship was just going to go south from here.

I also think that it is not just classless, but perhaps even potentially slanderous, to put this kind of post up telling people not to do business with someone then posting emails which were never intended for public consumption.

Anyway, take it for what it's worth. Please not that I offer DTG printing and fulfillment services if only to save you the trouble of ever reaching out to me.

ETA said:

Honestly, I think the tone of your email would have caused a bad response from most companies out there. I understand that you expect quality service, and by all means you should receive quality service. That said, if a mistake happens, which it no doubt will eventually, you have to deal with it respectfully.

The email you sent seemed aggressive and rushed, and even though at the time you probably didn't think your tone was an issue, as it feels justified to be angry when mistakes happen, reading something like that will not make a company want to fix the mistake for you. In this case, the company did exactly as they should have, and issued you a refund. I know many business owners who would not do the same for a customer who sent them an aggressive email.

I know it's easy to get really angry about this kind of stuff, but I have found that it is always best to keep a level head and think about how you would react if you were in their shoes. A simple notification of the mistake and a request for a fix is generally enough to keep you on their good side and get the problem taken care of. Cost free most of the time.

Once again, I completely understand why you would have been upset...but sometimes it's best to keep a cool head and handle it nicely.

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Hello All,

This is Christopher from INDYworx, just wanted say I'm not sure why Mr. JC Dollar is going out of his way to try and hurt my business. I'm sure as the other DTG owners who have commented can attest to that 100% perfection is impossible to attain. In the month of February, we printed 7500 shirts and we only have 3 mistakes.

I thought I did the honorable thing and refunded his purchases and gave him his commission immediately and even through in some extra for his trouble. We work with thousands of clients and I can easily say this is the most aggressive email I've ever gotten. All of our customers realize that issues sometime happen and INDYworx always makes good, by either a refund or a reprint.

Before anyone out there makes a decision about myself or my business, I would urge them to reach out to me at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.