An Open Letter to Vista Print

I’m not a huge author. I don’t sell out individual book signings or have a massive following of rabid fans. But, I’m an author none the less. My writing is my business– as in, I write as a job. And, as part of that job, I market my writing to attain more readers.

This is done through a myriad of ways, but Author Events tend to be very important to authors. These events, held in large cities, bring a group of authors together in one large ballroom, and many readers attend to meet their favorite authors and learn about new ones (like me). The crux of this entire marketing adventure– is the pop up banner.

You need one. It tells people as they are circling the ballroom who you are. It lets them know, by your branding, what kind of books you write. And, it reinforces your name, branding, website, social media hangouts and other important information.

I am an attendee at Phoenix Rising Author Event, tomorrow– September 16th. It was a hard decision, going back and forth trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to put on this banner– so I needed to pay the extra money to have it rush shipped here.

I have spoken with THREE Customer service people in THREE days. They ALL ASSURED me that my pop-up banner would arrive TODAY, since my event is in exactly eight hours from now.

Monique told me on Wednesday that “Absolutely my banner was shipped”
Nicole told yesterday that the delay email I received “was an error and they showed my banner on the UPS route and planned to be in Phoenix by today at 7”
When I spoke today with someone on the phone– she put me on hold to CALL UPS and ASSURED me that my banner was ON THE DELIVERY TRUCK and would arrive WITHOUT QUESTION tonight. That because it was on the truck they HAD To make a delivery attempt.

This did not happen. I told EVERY ONE of these customer service people that I paid for expedited shipping and rush processing because I had an event Tomorrow (Saturday) that the banner NEEDED to be here for.

Why would they all lie to me? Why not be upfront and tell me that it’s not going to be here, so I could try to find some kind of alternate solution instead of stringing me along with soft assurances.

I am LIVID. What kind of company stands by this kind of dishonesty to their customers. Honestly, I would be a whole lot less mad if someone had just been upfront and said, its not being delivered to you in time, let us refund your money to you — then I could have scrambled to try to find something else for my event tomorrow.

Now, at almost midnight the night before the event, I literally have NOTHING in terms of vertical marketing for my table.

You have good coupons, I use you for my 9-5 quite often, but honestly, after this experience, I question the quality of your company. Seriously question it.

What terrible customer service you have.