Awkward Styles Print on Demand

If I could give this company a ZERO I would. I have been working with Awkward Styles for over 2 years and they have been ok, but in Sept 2024, there were some serious shipping issues and some of my customers didn't receive their orders until nearly 1 month later. I was one of them. Then I had an influx of orders in Oct 2024 and all of them were at least 10 or more days late to ship. As a result, I lost my Star Seller rating on Etsy and my business' credibility was damaged. Thankfully, I only had to refund 1 order. Awkward Styles should have paid me for that sale they lost for me, but they did not. CURRENTLY, I have 1 order going to Canada and for 5 days now, they have told me that the order will be "shipped today." This order is 16 DAYS LATE and still hasn't been shipped. Their customer service left me on *read* for 3 days where they were reading my messages but just completely ignored me for 3 days when I was trying to speak to someone about this order. I would have made other arrangements for this order long ago if they didn't keep flat-out lying to me about its shipping status. I have also had to scramble to find another supplier to switch the last 2 remaining orders to. This is sad because Awkward Styles was a decent company, but I cannot, in good faith, recommend that anyone use this company as their supplier. This experience has been horrible and they have made ZERO attempts to try to make me whole.

I am trying to get my small business started and AS's shipping is giving me nightmares. Products are getting lost and taking 2-3 weeks to deliver! right now it's the 7th of August and shipping is scheduled for the 19th!! I understand this is no Amazon or anything but my customers are upset with me. The tracking number doesn't update, so I'm left guessing when my package will be delivered. A.S needs to find a carrier that has reasonable delivery times and prices. The only contact is through the chat and response can be slow or non existent. I also had an issue with inconsistent colors and there was no rhyme or reason or response for the issue. There is really not much out there for DTG, they do a pretty good job with DTG, Size and Mock up generator work well but if it takes almost a month for my customers to get their orders then it's a business killer. I really thought I found a great partner when I found AS. I guess I just have to order items 2-3 weeks in advance but that kills cashflow and loyalty from potential customers. I'm hoping this review will help A.S understand long shipping times is so unnecessary and hurts small businesses such as myself. I will be happy to write a five star review when the shipping issue gets resolved instead of ignored.

I also think it would help AS if they could offer DTG and DTF on the same item??. DTG breaths well and is best for large back and front prints. DTF is flexible but plasticky feel and not breathable. AS only offers one or the other. If I could do DTG in front\back and DTF on sleeves/outer & inner labels/pocket prints, then that would be wonderful!!
Good luck!!

I was actually able to meet with Management who took these issues seriously, so I am encouraged and continuing to work with AS. To me they are still the best POD available! I think if they fix their shipping issues and add more performance options, they will remain the top option for POD's for a long time.-HA

Absolutely awful experience. Switched to Awkward Styles and immediately had issues with the shopify integration. Went days without sales until a customer asked why we didnt ship to Chicago. Turns out nobody could order from my store. There was also an inventory issue that caused further problems. Customer service said they fixed it, but the issue has persisted. Then gaslit me saying the address must be wrong. Wont be doing business with them again

Kudos to Wendy and the Awkward Styles customer support team for their exceptional handling of my recent concern. Their proactive, hands-on approach, combined with a deep commitment to understanding and resolving the issue, truly demonstrated the strength of our partnership. They didn’t just meet expectations—they exceeded them, reinforcing my confidence in our collaboration. I’m thrilled with the outcome and even more excited about the future of our continued partnership with Awkward Styles.

UPDATED REVIEW. Since my previous 1-Star review, Awkward Styles' customer support to resolve this issue has been absolutely stellar. They were very hands on, took the time to investigate my concerns more deeply/thoroughly, and were incredibly accommodating with the resolution. They went above and beyond to restore my faith in their services, company perfromance, and were incredibly vocal about how they valued our relationship and are committed to maintaining exceptional rapport and service with me/the brand for the long term. I could not be more satisfied with how AS rebuilt our relationship after this setback and I'm completely reassured in my faith to stay with them for the long term.

*****************************This one star review is specifically about my very disappointing and shocking experience with Awkward Styles regarding their newly available Mesh Foam Trucker Hat.

As a startup I've been working with AS for nearly a year and for the most part have enjoyed them as a POD partner, so I decided to expand my brand with their other products. There have definitely been hiccups and disappointments, but I've been able to resolve them with AS and have been met with professionalism and respect throughout. I've spent substantial money with them to test products, and never before filed for a refund request.

Until yesterday, when my intelligence, awareness, savvy, and expectations for high quality were quickly insulted, dismissed, and disregarded and it looks like it's more about wanting to keep my money than be fair. And now I'm left feeling frustrated, unheard, unappreciated, and losing trust and reassurance from AS as a partner I want to continue with in the future. I filed a refund request for a clearly dysfunctional mesh trucker foam hat I bought for promotional use by my brand. By industry standards the hat I received would NEVER be bought/worn by any customer (we got additional opinions and were confirmed), and quite frankly, I'm bewildered that it was even cleared by "quality control" to be boxed and shipped to me. It's atrocious. First, it was just thrown in the box with no protective bag, as my previous orders were, and it had a brown smudge on the white foam. But that wasn't anwhere near the dysfunction that was the reason for my refund request. A simple Google search CLEARLY shows all pictures of mesh foam trucker hats with SMOOTH foam finishes and clear crisp designs. No matter how big the design is, whether it's a stand alone picture or a model wearing it. I/nor anyone has ever seen a foam trucker hat with big, visible, irreversible, unsightly and permanent line marks, raised bumps, and uneven foam across the entire design area spanning the entire foam front of the hat. It's supposed to be a smooth front, every time.

The second foam trucker hat I ordered had this dysfunction: big creases, visible, irreversible, unsightly and permanent line marks, raised bumps, and uneven foam across the entire design area spanning the entire foam front of the hat. The first one I ordered came with nice, smooth foam finish across the entire front of the hat/design area. The design was vibrant and beautiful and I was very pleased, and excited to begin selling the hats. But this second order was so egregiously variable in terms of poor quality that it made me concerned to begin selling, and I'm incredible frustated.

So I submitted a refund request for the unacceptable quality of the second order. I sumbitted a side by side comarison picture of the first, well done hat order with smooth finish and design next to the unacceptible hat with irreversible bumps, lines, and imprints all over the front so that they could visbily see the evidence o the fact that they themselves have printed and delivered a high quality hat to me already therefore there's no excuse for this substandard, unusable hat.

I got a near- immediate next day rejection: the exact words of the AS rep who responded: "After checking with our team, they mentioned the marks are normal right now for hats since they are using more temperature on the press so the colors can be enhanced and look more vibrant."

What?? This makes absolutely no sense, on many levels.

What does “normal right now" mean, specifically? That the press technique is of a lower quality for the moment until AS implements a better technique, and can’t render images vibrantly unless lines and bumps are left behind on the foam? That I can only expect to deliver creased and bumpy hats to my customers? And if this is the case, why did all my previous hat orders come out perfectly smooth and bump free? Why is there a large difference in foam quality rendering between the two consecutive orders (image 1 & 2 in the claim), if the team is saying that it’s standard and normal for the heat press to leave foam marks/lines/bumps on every order?

Also, what gumption to insult my intelligence to be told that bumps and line marks on the foam that render the hat aesthetically unusable/unwearable and unsellable are the standard. Again, a quick Google search never shows that customers should ever expect this level of severe deformity in foam finish for their hats just becuase the design in vibrant...

How can I reasonably deliver a hat with bumpy foam/lines to my customer without them wanting a refund? How can a tell customers to *expect* lines, marks, and bumps on a product they pay for? For me as a store owner promising /reassuring high quality, that’s unacceptable.

Further, the foam hat mock-ups that are generated in both the Awkward Styles product catalog, and the AS mock ups that are generated for my store clearly show images of a smooth hat with a smooth foam finish everywhere on the hat—no lines, no bumps, no marks anywhere. Giving the impression that the final product is a *smooth* foam finish with no lines/marks/bumps: so that’s the type of foam rendering both I and my customers are expecting.

Nowhere in the file guidelines are we given resolution requirements and told that more color saturation and vibrancy will render the hat with “normal lines, marks, and bumps” that should be expected throughout the design area’s foam. Instead, I had to find that out the hard way without forewarning *after* spending my money with AS.

Furthermore, that just makes no sense. Who's believing that it's normal for a foam trucker hat to be disfigured as a rule of thumb because of design "vibrancy"??

This hat cannot be worn anywhere in public with confidence with these line marks, so it won’t be worn any wager/used for any purpose. Therefore the money I paid to fill the order has lead to an unusable hat for my intended client. So now I’m out the money I paid AND have an unwearable hat that can’t be used functionally? That’s not reasonable, fair, and is very disappointing. I don’t want a reprint for this order.

For the most part I enjoy having AS as a POD partner, and have spent a substantial amount of money all year with AS as a 2023 start up testing products. I’ve enjoyed most of the print experience and I appreciate most of the price points offered to us store owners. So I gave AS priority as a POD partner for the foam trucker hats, and overall I do want to keep AS as my main printing partner.

But this rejection is upsetting.

Where I’ve had print issues in the past, I’ve asked for a reprint instead of a refund, and some renderings I haven’t been happy with and still kept them without asking for a refund. This is the first time I’m asking for a refund and it’s because the product is irreversibly dysfunctional - no one is open to wearing this hat and I do not need or want a reprint, because I have another hat on the way and just paid for another sample due to being originally confidnet that AS would deliver a consistently quality product based on my previous hat order. So now AS has double my money and I’m at a loss with a dysfunctional hat.

This experience is making me lose faith and trust in AS when it comes to investing my start up money in new products from AS and in trusting the POD quality experience I will have with AS in the future. How can one of my hat orders come out perfectly, make me excited to sell them and trust I can sell them, and another hat order be so dysfunctional, then be told that that’s “normal”, so that now I’m questioning selling them at all? It’s a very stressful experience on the store owner end because of this wide variability in my product quality experience.