Printful: Print on Demand

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.

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.

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!

Terrible for Shopify/Amazon/Ebay stores - NO regard for customer service, delivery windows. Dishonest support answers.

I run an Amazon store, a shopify store and an ebay store. I integrated printful to do some of the on demand printing.
When Covid started, there seemed to be a mad rush to get my orders fulfilled as if they wanted to rush production before they got shut down. Then mid April every week a new change would happen with fulfillment times. Constantly changing their "window" on previously existing orders even though the orders were already placed under the delivery windows published at the time.
So I would put an item on Amazon or Shopify or eBay, going with the Covid scheduling, saying "This will ship in 14 business days...".. customer places order thinking this is true. 4 days later Printful changes its policy silently (unless you constantly check their ugly website blog) saying, orders take up to 4 weeks. So now what? 1st off, your Amazon seller metrics take a hit if you do not deliver the order within the original 14 days or if you cancel the order, and your customer can leave you a bad review because they didn't get their shirt on time.... Customer support takes no responsibility for this, simply saying "our blog updates show the timeframe"...
Then when you think it can't get worse, Printful decides to start having orders for the USA printed in Latvia, at which point they sit in a warehouse waiting for other orders to ship to North Carolina where they then re-ship to the customers. Blank garments sourced in Europe are NOT materially the same as blank garments sourced in the USA. And they are not the items I ordered. Printful denies this though my Gildan rep does not. They also tell me that they can't cancel or rush an order as it is already sitting in Latvia and replace it with a USA order, even though I NEVER agreed to such a ridiculous fulfillment method.
There is NO transparancy with Printful, their support tells me it will take 48 hours for a manager to "get back to me" then after 40 minutes of pushing i got to talk to someone in Latvia and then someone in NC all of which are dishonest.
And here is a real unethical issue.
Printful puts priority on Amazon store orders over Shopify and eBay store orders. With 99% of orders I got for all my stores of the same items going to the same places on the same days, the Shopify and eBay orders took 3-5 times longer to process/fullfil. They will NOT admit this, but it is happening internally.

Avoid printful if you don't want to wait 4-6 weeks for your order to start being processed if you have an external store where metrics or feedback are important. You will take a hit and they will do NOTHING to rectify it.

UPDATE: my experience using the warehouse. It quite frustrating. Several times my products from the warehouse simply disappeared. Each time I had to prove that the products existed before and fight to get compensation for lost item. Never believe the amount of the warehouse items is stock that they show on the warehouse page. Double check how many items you had in stock and how many were shipped out to keep the track on your side. Also they have a tricky "30 days deadline" to submit the complaint regarding the item lost it transit. If the item wasn't delivered within 30 days and you sent a complaint before a deadline, they will refuse to pay the compensation until you wait for another 45 days. But if you complain on 31st day they will refuse to investigate your complaint all together, which is very hippocratic and illogical. Customer service. The main issue is that each time you get a reply from a different person, even if you continue to discuss the same issue. That is frustrating since you need to explain the issue each time from the beginning and prove your point over and over again. Original review: Since "location" feature was introduced I have to fulfill all warehouse products manually just because I use printful and other fulfilling solutions simultaneously.
It was semi-automatic before update, but not any more. Developer basically ignored all feedback and there will be no solution for the problem in the near future.
Also "location" feature were activated without any warning or consent, this feature ruined all shipping profiles and created a mess in the store, I had to spend hours fixing everything.

They do a decent job. Turnaround time is spotty, lots of complaints from customers on orders not shipping past the 7 business day timeframe, only to be told items are "restocking" after I've confirmed they will ship on time. Spend more time dealing with unhappy customers and refunding orders than I'd like. Their customer service is lip service at best, and you get 3 different answers from 3 different people. Phasing out this manufacturer as fast as I can.