A day in the life of a stationer attempting to have their portfolio printed quickly. I went to staples because it was conveniently close to my house. I arrived at staples at about 11am to drop off my files to have printed. The sales associate gave me such attitude and proceeded to tell me she couldn't access my dropbox link because she didn't have internet on the computers. Meanwhile I hear the facebook messaging sound in the background.........no phone in site. It took her all of 20 minutes to write up my order, verbatim. I had to explain to her what a "bleed" is, and then she asked "how do we know where to cut it?" and I explained along the crop marks and she looked at me and said "is that supposed to be funny?" then I said "Huh?". I mean, was I missing something or was she? Apparently, staples doesn't train their copy and print center staff to learn anything about printing or copying. She thought I meant "crop marks" from alien landings!!!!!!!! Seriously. She told me it would be ready by 4 and that she would call me if it was ready earlier. I decided to check in at 3pm and it was ready. Or NOT! Not only were the pages with the bleed cut larger than the rest of the file but the spiral bind was not centered on the page. Now, I know I am picky, however, it looked like crap. It took them almost 2 hours to print and bind one decent portfolio after several attempts. In one instance the associates tried to sell me my portfolio where all of the images were crooked. The next attempt exhibited their lack of knowledge in printing when they gave a product where the second side was upside down. At that point I had had the manager come twice! He was completed dumbfounded and looked like he had never pressed print on a computer in his life! I was so flabbergasted by the whole situation that I told the manager that he needed to hire people who know how to spell print. He ignored my comment and tried to convince me to have the portfolio shrunk to fit an 8.5 x11" rather than printed on an 11x17" and cut down. I was so angered by his incompetence, so I explained to him that I have worked in customer service most of my life and was appalled at how I was being treated. The associates literally took care of every client that had come in before they attempted to reprint my work. Having me wait their for another 45 minutes. Suddenly, a middle aged disheveled woman runs into the store and asks if she could please have her mothers funeral programs copied as soon as possible. The associate told her that she would have to wait about an hour, I looked at the woman and back at the associate and couldn't believe it. I told the sales associate to go help her, she refused, so I grabbed the woman and explained to her how to operate the do it yourself copy machine, and how to double side her copy. She was so grateful, and was very relieved. I should have been paid for the two hours I was there for! Anyway, I was still waiting for my portfolio another half hour when I get a call from a family member. I explain to the relative that if you see me on the 10 o'clock news, headline "girl runs rampant with staple gun in staples" don't be surprised. Finally after the most stressful two and half hours I finally have one portfolio, all in all it took 6 total hours for staples to print a 10 page portfolio, double sided, color, and spiral bound. The topper on the story is that the company I was showing this portfolio to didn't even look at it......
What I have learned from this experience: DON'T HAVE ANYTHING PRINTED AT A STAPLES!
No comments:
Post a Comment