Wrongly Printed Personalized Goods

Lutravel

We bought personalized adloops for our small business but when they turned up the font was so small we almost had to squint to read it.We phoned the company and said that the font was not to the size of the proof which we had agreed to. They said that we had asked for the name to be printed 7 times along the length which we had, but the size of the proof they had sent via email was almost 50% longer than the actual size of the loop so when they tried to print 7 onto it they had to shrink it right down.

We said that we want the proof we had agreed to but they now say that the proof is only for colours and nothing to do with font size?? There was no mention of this before we placed the order.The proof they sent us which went to and fro a couple of times was to get the correct size of the front and position of logo.

The company is run by 2 partners, when we first contacted them one partner told us that he could see there was a problem and that they will sort it, then suddenly the other partner got involved and we were told that they are not correcting the problem and stopped returning emails or calls.We are genuine people and if it was our fault would hold our hands up but in good faith we have trusted a company who have ripped us off.

We can't afford to lose this money, does anyone have any idea what we can do? Is it worth taking through the small claims court?

Thank you for your time for any replies

d.ylan

What does the wording on the proof say? It would unusual to receive a Colour Accuracy Proof for a promotional gift, was it a hard copy, because the cost of producing one is high. If they claim it is a proof for colour matching ask them how this was the case when:
1) if it was a digital copy, the on-screen colours dont actually represent the final printed colour
2) if it was a hard copy, for evidence that it was produced using a colour matched system (like a Pantone or RAL matched ink/paint or print produced from the actual screen printing ink).
If there was no colour matching it simply wasn't a colour proof IMO.

I'd be tempted to argue that it was a visual proof which was indicative of the product you expect to receive. You've both entered in to an agreement to manufacture and purchase based on this. As the goods do not match the approved visual in such a substantial way and are in fact illegible and not fit for purpose, they have therefore failed to perform and breached the agreement. They should offer a full refund (unlikely, the set up costs for these things are high) or replace (probably more likely). They probably outsource the goods to a bulk promotional company, but I wouldn't accept this as an excuse, it's not your problem.

They should have advised you and sought your permission to change the artwork immediately upon noticing a problem with the approved copy. That's industry standard practice.

chalkie99

With our business we always send a scaled proof for acceptance, even where the customer has supplied the artwork, so I would say they are in the wrong.

Send a letter, recorded delivery, stating that the goods are not as approved and threaten them with a County Court claim if they do not refund within 14 days.


That will show them you are serious at least and you can see where you go from there.

How did you pay?

paulwf

OP do you get free legal advice with your business insurance or through the FSB? I think you have a good case here so it is worth getting some advice to back you up.

Lutravel

We paid by credit card and we have explored that avenue but the card company have said that they do not get involved in 'quality issues' basically we paid for 250 Adloops and the company delivered 250 Adloops.

The wording on the proof says 'By signing off this proof you are confirming that you are happy for us to print the above details. We cannot be held responsible for spelling errors or mistypes once your details have been approved.If you are not happy with the proof provided we can provide a total of TWO additional proofs at no extra charge.

Because the proof had no size on it we presumed that that would be the size we would receive - the printable area of the proof was approx 230mm x 8mm, the printable area on the loops delivered were 120mmx6mm .

Acc72

How much did you pay for the product ?

If less than a couple of hundred quid at least, it probably isn't worth the bother of pursuing it legally - not just the cost (probably £40 to file a claim on-line), but also time (and the opportunity cost to your business - as you will be spending a lot of time arguing you case when you could be promoting your business and selling your products/services).

Just google 7 day letter / Letter before action / LBA etc. to give you an idea of the wording and send one final letter to the printer by recorded delivery.

patman99

I deal with quality control as a job, if an item such as this was checked by me, it would be rejected as 'not to required spec'. They should have told you that the font would be unreadable if they printed the adloops as requested and maybe even sending you a one-off sample for approval.

This would have given you the chance to revue the order and make changes before committing to the final order.