Promises of Progress

This year, I decided to test out moo.com – and make some friends and family happy with some X-mas cards.

The bad part

October 27. Ordered Holiday Cards+Envelopes and a stickerbook
November 3. Stickerbook ships.
November 7. Stickerbook arrives.
November 30. Holiday cards still marked as “printing”. Wrote to customer service.
December 1. moo.com: “Sorry. Your order was corrupted due to poor cropping of images. Coupon?”
December 3. Me: “Thats okay. Can you re-print the order?” 
December 3. moo.com: “Free coupon! Please don’t put text near the border due to cropping. Retry plz.”
December  4. Me (in a hurry): “I have no text in the images anywhere. I’m okay with white borders. Just print it anyway.”
December 9. Me: “Did you get my mail? Are you printing my holiday cards?”
December 11. moo.com: “We totally trashed your order ok? There – we said it. Coupon/refund?” 
December 11. Me (annoyed): “Refund plz”

The good part

December 13. I order a second batch of Holiday Cards. Being stubborn and all.
December 16. Second order is shipped. Express.
December 17. Refund for the October 30. order shows up on my bank account.
December 19. Second order arrives. Cards are looking great!
December 22. The Christmas Cards show up in the mailboxes of friends and family. They like.

How moo.com could let my “corrupted” order sit for more than a month without contacting me, still baffles me. But I’ll still recommend them. Just remember to check your order status.

Back when I was a child, you had to dig up crayons and glue if you wanted to make a personalized greeting card. Nowadays there are sites like moo.com and zazzle.com, that will let you be creative without getting paint on your finger. Just dig up your favorite photo and upload it – and if your credit card has money on it, you’ll receive your very own holiday cards in the mail a couple of weeks later. Me like. But does it work.

I’ve tried MOO.com, (UK based) which I’ve heard great things about. Their ordering and design interface (great UX and lots of ajax) certainly leaves the impression, that these guys know what they are doing. Received my stickers within 9 days, and while they are not flawless (mostly my own fault), they are most certainly usable. My christmas cards were ordered on October 27, but they are still marked with status “printing” under order status. It seems that the business processes are not as smooth as the ordering interface. I’d better contact MOO.com customer service.

I’ve tried the book-print-on-demand Lulu.com, (US based) which so far has been a disappointment. Only one of my 2 orders have been delivered (now 40+ days under way). It seems that the priority shipping option is a must for international deliveries. I’d better contact Lulu customer service.

I really hope that my luck with these on-demand printers change soon.

Update 2008/12/13: How about a custom propaganda poster