Annoyed, misadvertising

moonrakerz

I was actually recommended the Vistaprint website as a good place to get some calendars printed.

The "headline price" look good - but as I went on it became more and more "Ryanair-ish". There was an additional charge for me to upload my photos; then another charge of 99p which wasn't explained anywhere; then the postal charges were absolutely eye watering, the "cheapest" one (certainly NOT cheap !) being described by them as "slow": I gave up - I still didn't get far enough to find out if their prices included VAT or not !
The price of the calendar had more that doubled when I quit anyway...............

Rather like the "convenience fee" I was charged by Salisbury City Hall to book and collect some tickets myself - convenient to who ??

Fiddlestick

Sid_Wolf wrote: »

Just feel a bit cheated really, the advert we got didnt say anything about delivery, and did make it out like you got a mug for 99p

But you DID get the mug for 99p.

The delivery was extra.

paddyrg

moonrakerz wrote: »

I was actually recommended the Vistaprint website as a good place to get some calendars printed.

The "headline price" look good - but as I went on it became more and more "Ryanair-ish".

The deals are all on teaser/small runs to get you to see the quality of the end product. Yep, you pay to upload, but that image then stays on file forever in case you want reprints, etc. And strangely, some products you can upload for free, cancel, then use the images on another product - it is all a bit random. Printing happens in Germany, and although the slow P&P says 21 days, I've never waited more than a week or so. But for any kind of volume, they can be pricey, and you are better off talking to stressfreeprint (who are a great service with regular promotions, a free printed proof by return post, etc).

If you just want a few prototypes/handful of business cards/etc Vistaprint can be extremely competitive with lots of free and deeply discounted items for small runs. I wouldn't use them for volume.

Azari

Fiddlestick wrote: »

But you DID get the mug for 99p.

The delivery was extra.

I you have to pay £5+ for postage and £0.99p in order to get your mug in what way did you 'get the mug for 99p'?

moonrakerz

paddyrg wrote: »

The deals are all on teaser/small runs to get you to see the quality of the end product.

That was exactly what their pricing structure was NOT doing.

I have been asked to help a local charity investigate producing a calendar for 2012.
I was told about Vistaprint, so went to their website, where I found that I could buy a "small run" of 1 ! Great idea, great price - until I went (part way) through the ordering system - the price had more than doubled, and I hadn't reached the end even.

We are looking at an order of approaching £1000 - they are in danger of making me go elsewhere.

If there is a poster outside Tesco say "loaf of bread 10p" - that is what I pay - I don't get charged for the use of the trolley, the heating in the building, the cost of shipping the loaf from the manufacturer, etc, etc.

I have long been cynical about some pricing methods. Last time I went to Spain, I went with BA. Their (up front) price was cheaper than the budget boys (at the end of a long list of additional charges - but NO fuel surcharge !) - and I got full service on the flight.

Vistaprint's calendars may be very good value, but so far they have not done a very good job of persuading me to try their services.

vuvuzela

moonrakerz wrote: »

If there is a poster outside Tesco say "loaf of bread 10p" - that is what I pay - I don't get charged for the use of the trolley, the heating in the building, the cost of shipping the loaf from the manufacturer, etc, etc.

Strange analogy. Tesco aren't sending it to you, you are collecting it from them.

Azari

vuvuzela wrote: »

Strange analogy. Tesco aren't sending it to you, you are collecting it from them.

That is completely irrelevant to moonrakerz's analogy.

BlueAngelCV

Azari wrote: »

That is completely irrelevant to moonrakerz's analogy.

No it's not. If you are buying something online the price is (nearly) always exclusive of delivery.

If it doesn't say delivery free then you assume that you have to pay it in addition.

Yes £5 seems a bit steep but I wouldn't expect delivery to be less than £2.50 and when you are getting such a good deal on the mug it's still worth it.

Storck

moonrakerz wrote: »

That was exactly what their pricing structure was NOT doing.



If there is a poster outside Tesco say "loaf of bread 10p" - that is what I pay - I don't get charged for the use of the trolley, the heating in the building, the cost of shipping the loaf from the manufacturer, etc, etc.



Vistaprint's calendars may be very good value, but so far they have not done a very good job of persuading me to try their services.

Ask them if you can go and collect the stuff, then it would be the same as your Tesco example. If you wanted Tesco to deliver your 10p loaf then there would be a delivery charge that is added at the end of the order, so no different to VistaPrint.

Azari

BlueAngelCV wrote: »

No it's not. If you are buying something online the price is (nearly) always exclusive of delivery.

If it doesn't say delivery free then you assume that you have to pay it in addition.

Storck wrote: »

Ask them if you can go and collect the stuff, then it would be the same as your Tesco example. If you wanted Tesco to deliver your 10p loaf then there would be a delivery charge that is added at the end of the order, so no different to VistaPrint.

You two are completely missing moonrakerz's point.

That is not about the delivery charge, it is about all the other things that are added to the basic price.

What Vistaprint are doing is perfectly sensible when you are dealing with large runs because it ensures that people are only paying for the particular services they are using - rather than have a headline price that is fixed so that everyone pays the average cost of producing the item.

The problem is that that method rather falls apart when you tell people in advertising that they can get something for the base price when they evidently cannot.