Printful: Print on Demand

Anyone giving this service more than a star doesn't sell more than 2 shirts a month.

We spend about $4,000/month with Printful and they couldn't care less about us. Imagine if YOU had a customer paying you $4,000/month and you had a rough 100% markup like they do. About 15% of the orders have one issue or another.

Packages lost, that Printful has refused to replace, because they can't be bothered to submit a ticket with USPS. Designs printed on the wrong side of the garment. Holes in garments. Sending products to your customers from other shops, instead of yours and some of the things they've sent have been humiliating and we've had to explain to the customer how it wasn't one of our products. I could write an entire novel with all of the issues we've had.

I make a point to let them know about every single issue that they cause in hopes of their service eventually improving and they've BANNED us from their live chat, because there are so many mistakes made and they clearly don't want to hear about them.

What used to be a great company has devolved into a corporate brute that is impossible to work with. The end user is at fault for EVERYTHING and Printful cuts corners to earn even more money from any mistake. Rather than putting a system in place to warn the end user of any potential sync issues Printful pockets the additional money spent creating replacement orders. Don't ever expect customer service to be helpful. They are available solely to tell you there's nothing to be done but have you place more orders.

I used to be so proud of Printful and happy with the service, now we're planning on switching as soon as possible.

Obviously, the pandemic has hit every business extra hard, but over the past 6 months, our shop has had numerous orders fulfilled OUT OF ORDER. The worst part is that they were mostly for the same item. One order comes in and doesn't go out for a week and a half, but we would have an order or two (or three) get fulfilled in a couple of days. FOR THE SAME ITEM! At one point we had 5 orders fulfilled and shipped before an older order went out. Did I mention that it was for the same item and no waiting for restocking? We've been very patient with Printful over the last 3 years, but now that our sales are picking up even more, we're starting to get a few chargebacks on items that are taking longer than expected. For instance, we have an order that was placed 9 calendar days ago and still says "Printing." As I said, SLOWER fulfillment is understandable, but OUT OF ORDER fulfillment is a systemic issue that needs to be fixed. Especially since we work with other On-Demand companies that had little-to-no delays during this whole pandemic (except for shipping of course). I'm willing to update this review if we could all get a real explanation on why this is happening because I know other store owners who've had the same issue. If this weren't an issue, I would give Printful a 4/5, but when order fulfillment management causes us to have to spend extra time doing damage control with customers, it takes away a lot of the convenience of using an On-Demand Printing service. They're lucky to get 2 stars. (UPDATE: 12/4/2020)
We're updating our response and taking away a star. We have NOT been in contact with anyone (management/leadership/etc.) who has the power to do anything, give us a real answer, or provide adequate credit for the chargebacks caused by problems you admit are your fault. Everyone we talk to has to "get with their team" or escalate to someone who turns out to be on the same level. Meanwhile we're still seeing orders from Nov. 16th and 22nd that aren't in our customer's hands yet, and some haven't even finished printing. Two of the customers have OTHER orders that were placed after that have been on schedule, and some already delivered. It looks completely unprofessional when you don't give us proper inventory status, so we can keep the customers updated. The main point we've got from all of your explanations of the inventory issues is this: Every single item could be "out of stock," but no store owner would know unless we contact you guys and inquire about each order. You've already looked at our account. Please take a minute and check our order flow and try and tell us that it's anything even close to "FIFO."

Printful has become the worse print on demand I use. I have been having issue after issue with them.

Impossible to deal with them. Way too many shipping issues and they always find an excuse not to send a replacement or issue a refund even though the deadlines have long surpassed the date given, even when the label is the issue which they create. They will always find a way not to help. You are left with angry customers bashing your store because of the greed and incompetence of Printful. They are awful and I am now replacing all my prints. Trust me just don't do it.

Update 1/10/18 This place is such a joke. They screwed up a jacket for a customer then said it was because of my mistake when ordering. I reversed the charges on my credit card and after a week and screen shots of my order being placed correctly, they decided to credit me back after I said not to because I had already reversed the charges. Now I get a note from their fraud investigator stating I owe them the price paid plus $15 to pay for the chargeback. Not happening and i'll dispute that on my card as well.

Update 5/9/16 I took off another star today after another customer complaint (in a string of complaints) regarding the BAD quality of printing. The same printing that i've complained about for years from this company and each time get the excuse that it was a one time mistake.

This place has gone DOWN HILL. I've been using them since 2013 and the quality has gone down, the customer service has gone down, and the response time for emails has gone down. Seriously don't intend on getting a response back within 2-days. They send out "urgent messages" if something is wrong with your order or shipping address but it's not treated as urgent once you update. They don't let you know that an item is out of stock until the very last day of their 7-day shipping window so by that time, you look like an idiot telling your customer that their item is out of stock a week after they ordered it. I occasionally order test shirts just to keep up on their quality and EVERY one has had something wrong with it that they claim is a one time mistake. If their shipper loses a shipment, you get to pay to have another item shipped. Unfortunately, I am stuck with them for now.

All of our orders are taking way longer than the estimated processing time, which caused us to have several marks against our Etsy account. Orders are sitting 7-8 days when they estimate 2-5 days to process. Additionally we have lost orders stuck almost 2 weeks in pre-transit and we're just told to wait longer before offering a solution.

We used to love Printful, but now they've shifted to shipping their items from other countries and making their customers responsible for any charges and taxes that come with that. The worst part is that they don't even tell you. We've had two of the same item in different orders ship from two different countries and were charged completely different prices. This makes it impossible to know what to charge our customers and resulted in us losing money, essentially paying for some of our customers to get a free item. Customer service reps are rude, unhelpful, and even threatening. Printful needs to get its act together.

The orders are taking a very long time to get delivered. No communication from their side and customer support number is no longer working. If I could give zero stars, I would.

I should have checked their company history and BBB rating before ever using this manufacturer! I have had nothing but problems. They have cost me customers, and money. The latest problem was the last straw- I created an item and ordered it as a sample for myself (May 30). I received notification (from printful) on June. 8 that it had shipped. I received notification on June.9 (from DHL) that an electronic shipping label had been created. I waited and waited for the arrival date of June 16- June 22 - still no package. I messaged printful and was told to just keep waiting- it's on the way. So, on June 29, I contacted DHL - they told me that never received the package, and therefore nothing was coming- I should contact the manufacturer. So, on June.29 I contacted Printful again (after waiting in a queu line of 66 people to virtual chat because they have NO PHONE NUMBER)- I was again told to just keep waiting. I told them that DHL never received the package. They denied everything and took no responsibillty and told me to just keep waiting. I finally received a call back from a manager 2 days later- and was told- yes, there was an error-the item was never shipped. Tracking was never updated, I was never notified- nothing- and I had to DEMAND a refund in order to get one. After all of this, i received another e-mail (from a different manager) giving me a completely different story- and telling me to keep waiting. UNBELIEVABLE! This company is shady, has horrible customer service, and is completely unreliable! STAY AWAY!