I am getting constantly disillusioned with the poor standard of service from companies in the UK. I am looking to establish a relationship with a printing firm who I can trust to handle print jobs for myself and my clients.

Firstly I tried to place an order with a print shop/ embroidery shop for a polo shirt with a logo on it. The idea was to get one done to establish quality and then order a few dozen. The company took 2 weeks to produce the design then emailed me. I looked at it and it was good but the colours were wrong. I asked them about it and they never got back to me… that’s over a month ago now.

So, I put that down to a bad supplier and went on with my search. I found a local printing establishment with whom I wished to place an order for some business cards. I went to meet the guy, he was very nice and explained the quality and the pricing well. They required slightly bigger orders than I had planned, but I was still impressed enough to stick with them. I asked the guy to email me some prices and I even emailed him once I got back to thank him for his time and remind him I needed prices… again, nothing! It’s been 2 days now and I am not going to wait anymore.

So once again I put it down to experience and march onward. I found another company whose printing comes with good reviews. I placed an order and uploaded my designs. It all looked good but then I saw their printing presses prefer PDF’s. No problem I thought, I will login to the admin panel. Wrong password! Ok I thought, I will click the “remind me” button, that didn’t work either.

To cut a long story short I emailed several email addresses and even logged a support call detailing the fact I cant login and also the fact I would like to replace the images. This was first thing yesterday and I am still awaiting a reply.

How can businesses in the UK run themselves with such disregard for the customer? I have taken an order, fulfilled a 5 page website and invoiced the customer all in the same time it has taken these companies to “not” call me back.

I guess there is a gap in the market for companies with good customer service and clear lines of communication. I can at least hope, as it’s something I have always prided myself with.

I wonder if this is the same over in the States… somehow I doubt it. Where Great Britain used to be seen as being at the forefront of professionalism I wonder if this is still the case. From what I have seen we are no longer up there at the top. On the contrary, we are mid table at best, and if we are not careful we will be facing relegation.