I decided to try Tuscany (part of candid2000), as we needed a couple more albums in a hurry for a bridal show, as they have 3 day turnaround and ok sample pricing.

Ordered Sunday night, they were here by wed morning. The 10x10 we ordered is fine, not my favorite or best quality, but it works. But the 8x8 has some issues. It appeared fine, but a day later it went to hell.

The prints are coming off from the pages at the top and bottom, the inside pages coming off from the leather, all of the pages are severely warped.

They responded right away with:
Corey,

I apologize for the album warping. Sometimes when you go from one humidity to another this does happen. I will have the album remade. When I send the new album I will enclose a label for you to return the album. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Thank You

But after seeing this I can't ever risk using them for a client.

So you're saying mistakes NEVER happen in manufacturing?

You've NEVER returned a product to a store because it was faulty and you NEVER returned to that store again?

You've NEVER made a mistake with a client?

Hmmmm, interesting place you live in. Please let me know where it's located so I can buy a plane ticket to join you

Seriously, they responded quickly with a solution to fix the manufacturing problem. There is a reason manufacturers provide warranties; things are not always perfect.

And that's the real world.

Your message is spewing something bad for something that the company is willing to correct without questioning. You still choose to make them out to be bad. What about the good details of the good album, shipping, service, etc? It's only fair since you give details and photos of the bad.

Peace,
Cordell

cordellwillis wrote:
So you're saying mistakes NEVER happen in manufacturing?

You've NEVER returned a product to a store because it was faulty and you NEVER returned to that store again?

You've NEVER made a mistake with a client?

Hmmmm, interesting place you live in. Please let me know where it's located so I can buy a plane ticket to join you

Seriously, they responded quickly with a solution to fix the manufacturing problem. There is a reason manufacturers provide warranties; things are not always perfect.

And that's the real world.

Your message is spewing something bad for something that the company is willing to correct without questioning. You still choose to make them out to be bad. What about the good details of the good album, shipping, service, etc? It's only fair since you give details and photos of the bad.

Peace,
Cordell
so you'd be ok if the wheels fell off your new car on the drive home?

sure mistakes happen, but this many in a day of receiving it? Come on, its their job. If you got one in this bad of shape would you ever use them again? Its not just one problem, the whole thing is poorly constructed.

They are a good company that stands behind their products. They're also only a mid-high range company quality wise.

How do I know? I live in the town where they're based, and I pick up my albums personally and proof them on the spot.

I too had an issue, they were notified, and within 2 days had a 42 page album perfected.

Good customer service!

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

I've never had a problem with them. In the few instances I've heard of someone getting a defective product they've always been extremely quick to correct it. A lot of the higher cost book makers seem to have more frequent issues and are much slower at correcting them.

YRMV

I live 2 miles from the lab and print all my stuff through them, they are great people to work with and have helped me out on more than one occasion. I have seen tons of albums come through them and I would swear by their product. I have had an issue with quality once, but within 24 hours i had a reprint in hand.

drew.bowser wrote:
I live 2 miles from the lab and print all my stuff through them, they are great people to work with and have helped me out on more than one occasion. I have seen tons of albums come through them and I would swear by their product. I have had an issue with quality once, but within 24 hours i had a reprint in hand.

Drew where do you live?? I'm down off of Kearney. You hang a Right turn at the Kum & Go gas station on the Glenstone/Kearney side of Kearney.

Small world... maybe we should meet up sometime, I'd love to have a Springfield, FM'ers group meet up.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

The "Kum and Go" gas station.............now thats hilarious.........is that where Gomer and Barney Fife hang out ?

hassy501 wrote:
The "Kum and Go" gas station.............now thats hilarious.........is that where Gomer and Barney Fife hang out ?

I don't know.... many would consider a city of 170,000 podunk, but this is the Ozark Mountain Area... e.g. Hillbillies, etc.

I'm from Dallas, Texas originally... everything's small comparied to Texas.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

Great to hear both good and bad on Candid 2000. I will be using them to make my first album. Did any of you guys use their ROES software templates to design the album?

CEPS wrote:
Great to hear both good and bad on Candid 2000. I will be using them to make my first album. Did any of you guys use their ROES software templates to design the album?

I did... and I won't again unless I'm in a speed bind. Basically the JAVA can and will tank and crash when it hits a high enough memory number. Get's CHOPPY, and I have a very fast system, etc.

Next time, design program, exported into jpegs, which will be inserted into their program, which is required at some point, and then onto the printers.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

Looks to me like they have serious quality control problems being covered by capable customer service reps. It would be much cheaper for them to fix the quality. I really thought they did good work.

Aaron Fowler wrote:
Looks to me like they have serious quality control problems being covered by capable customer service reps. It would be much cheaper for them to fix the quality. I really thought they did good work.

Do you seriously think there is no such thing as a mistake? Better yet, you've never seen a product fail due to whatever Warranties were invented because sh!t happens.

Perfect anything and anyone would be nice, but neither exist. I've ordered albums and prints from several different companies through the years and each has had some form of error. If you take 99% error free you get what people would call perfect. You find someone on the end of that 1% and they complain and say the thing/company/person is horrible and has bad quality control. Dude, quality control is not about perfection. It's about lowering the error rate. What is their error rate since you know they have quality control issues?

the replacement arrived, in better shape thus far than the previous, but still not good. the edges of the pages are sticky and weren't clean cut. some pages appear to be of different thickness as well.

we also noticed that one mage on the first was placed correctly so there was a white stripe where the page had no image showing on the inside gutter. thats way too many mistakes.

Sure Cordell mistakes do happen, but out of 3 albums I've received this month from them, all have problems and none are great.

Fast turnaround is not worth the poor quality IMO.

cordellwillis wrote:
Aaron Fowler wrote:
Looks to me like they have serious quality control problems being covered by capable customer service reps. It would be much cheaper for them to fix the quality. I really thought they did good work.

Do you seriously think there is no such thing as a mistake? Better yet, you've never seen a product fail due to whatever Warranties were invented because sh!t happens.

Perfect anything and anyone would be nice, but neither exist. I've ordered albums and prints from several different companies through the years and each has had some form of error. If you take 99% error free you get what people would call perfect. You find someone on the end of that 1% and they complain and say the thing/company/person is horrible and has bad quality control. Dude, quality control is not about perfection. It's about lowering the error rate. What is their error rate since you know they have quality control issues?

Are you seriously arguing with a dissatisfied customer becuase you think a defective album is no big deal?

Let him rant, jesus christ. Does it even matter? Does it matter one freakin bit?

Ok as I see it cordellwillis seems to be defending the hometown company which is fine, but I do think you might be going a little overboard. If coreypollis had problems I'm very glad he's posting about his experiences as long as there is full disclosure about what went right and subsequent actions by the company to help him solve it. If someone has a bad experience with an album company that is pretty pertinent here on FM wedding board.

I for one am contemplating sending in a sample order to them and want to know if they produce a good product so I would like to hear from both sides as far good and bad experiences. The turnaround time certainly is attractive but I don't want to put in an order in a crunch and receive a poor product in a timely manner.

Best-
Darrin

Sorry- it was TMiller who lived in the same town, my mistake cordell. I thought I made it pretty clear that I'm looking to make a well informed decision based on a number of people's experiences, which is why I requested that anyone who had used them to speak up. I fully realize that mistakes do happen and am willing to accept a reasonable margin of error, just trying to ascertain what that margin might be. I do quite a bit of research into a given company before doing business with them and will continue to do so.

Edited by FoxyLoxy on Jan 28, 2008 at 01:28 PM GMT

FoxyLoxy wrote:
Ok as I see it cordellwillis seems to be defending the hometown company which is fine, but I do think you might be going a little overboard. If coreypollis had problems I'm very glad he's posting about his experiences as long as there is full disclosure about what went right and subsequent actions by the company to help him solve it. If someone has a bad experience with an album company that is pretty pertinent here on FM wedding board.

I for one am contemplating sending in a sample order to them and want to know if they produce a good product so I would like to hear from both sides as far good and bad experiences. The turnaround time certainly is attractive but I don't want to put in an order in a crunch and receive a poor product in a timely manner.

Best-
Darrin


You got me wrong Darrin. I don't live near the company and never even used them. I'm simply not a fan of crying about something that could easily be a fluke and/or fixed. Might as well tear down their building.

We've all disappointed clients to an extent one time or another. Should we be bad mouth because of it even when we make ONE wrong right?

This one experience doesn't make the company good or bad. Count all of the experiences on FM doesn't make the company good or bad.

Again, I just don't care for one sided stories (good or bad), but if that will help you decide for yourself so be it.

Peace,
Cordell

coreypolis wrote:
the replacement arrived, in better shape thus far than the previous, but still not good. the edges of the pages are sticky and weren't clean cut. some pages appear to be of different thickness as well.

we also noticed that one mage on the first was placed correctly so there was a white stripe where the page had no image showing on the inside gutter. thats way too many mistakes.

Sure Cordell mistakes do happen, but out of 3 albums I've received this month from them, all have problems and none are great.

Fast turnaround is not worth the poor quality IMO.





Hey Corey, call them and ask for Tena or Kathy (Kathy works back in production). See if they can help. The software system that "decodes" the .enc files we send in do corrupt at times.

I had to resubmit three orders through ROES, but everything came back the 2nd time perfect.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

I'm trying to present the facts as they've come. Customer service did respond quickly, but they also didn't provide a prepaid packing slip for the old one like they said.


The replacement:

tmiller wrote:
Hey Corey, call them and ask for Tena or Kathy (Kathy works back in production). See if they can help. The software system that "decodes" the .enc files we send in do corrupt at times.

I had to resubmit three orders through ROES, but everything came back the 2nd time perfect.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

Thanks Tim, but I'm done with them. didn't plan to offer them for the future, but I gave them a shot.

but fool me once . . . fool me twice . . .

There's just too many other vendors that have treated my products with the respect they deserve and provide a better product, allbeit slower.

I'm sure if I kept trying to get it right and made a big enough fuss I could get something useable, but you shouldn't have to pull nails.

coreypolis wrote:
tmiller wrote:
Hey Corey, call them and ask for Tena or Kathy (Kathy works back in production). See if they can help. The software system that "decodes" the .enc files we send in do corrupt at times.

I had to resubmit three orders through ROES, but everything came back the 2nd time perfect.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

Thanks Tim, but I'm done with them. didn't plan to offer them for the future, but I gave them a shot.

but fool me once . . . fool me twice . . .

There's just too many other vendors that have treated my products with the respect they deserve and provide a better product, allbeit slower.

I'm sure if I kept trying to get it right and made a big enough fuss I could get something useable, but you shouldn't have to pull nails.


Sure thing mate... be sure to check out the Wedding Resource and Information Thread for companies to use. I can also highly recommend Kiss Wedding Books.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

tmiller wrote:

Sure thing mate... be sure to check out the Wedding Resource and Information Thread for companies to use. I can also highly recommend Kiss Wedding Books.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

Your resource thread on albums was mostly taken from my site remember

We've been happy with graphi, still want to try Picto, but there's a few new places like KISS and Finao and a local one ASAbooks that we'll try next.

coreypolis wrote:
tmiller wrote:

Sure thing mate... be sure to check out the Wedding Resource and Information Thread for companies to use. I can also highly recommend Kiss Wedding Books.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com

Your resource thread on albums was mostly taken from my site remember

We've been happy with graphi, still want to try Picto, but there's a few new places like KISS and Finao and a local one ASAbooks that we'll try next.

A quarter of it was added to the collective conciousness... =o) And credit was given where credit was due.

Give Kiss a ring, Swan himself answers the phones if you goto his website. He'll answer what questions he can. The other fella in California, knows all the production answers. =o) Either way... they rock.

-tmiller
Tim Miller Photography
http://tmillerphoto.com