# Dowling Graphics bad experience



## techaholic (Jun 8, 2015)

After reading all the rave reviews of Dowling I decided to give them a test run of a small order for a special event I did last week. I sent them my design and got a reasonable quote. The transfers turned out very nice but they sent me the wrong quantity and shorted me on 30 transfers. Now this equals about $600 in lost revenue so I was upset. I email them as soon as I noticed the shortage and it took them 4 days to respond. By that time it was too late to replace the shortage because the event was only a couple days out. After I explained to them that a replacement would not fix this issue they ignored all correspondence from that point. It became apparent that if they should have to refund you any money then you should just take a hike. Very poor customer service imo. If you screw up, man up and own it. Definitely not how I would ever treat any of my customers.


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## Gwen (Mar 5, 2007)

James again I can not apologize to you enough for your shortage. I do want to be clear that you were not ignored and I definitely owned up to the mistake. Unfortunately mistakes do happen in any business and sometimes there just is no perfect resolution. We did however make every effort possible to resolve this for you.

Your first mail to us was Friday night and we were closed until Monday morning. I responded to you immediately 20 minutes after opening, after I had the art department and production on schedule to get you the correct amount of transfers.

My email response to you on 6/20/16 8:50a.m. "I apologize you are correct it was to be 2 up of the larger size and 1 up of the smaller size per sheet, and it was printed with only 1 up of each. I am getting these corrected for you and will get them shipped to you ASAP! Sorry for the inconvenience!"

You received 60 transfers and were short 30 transfers, it was very unfortunate but it happened and it was my error. Once I received your email response later that afternoon I knew I could not replace them as they were for an event over the weekend, the only thing I could do was credit your order and refund your money for the transfers you received and were able to use just due to the loss of sales for the missing 30 pieces. At that point it was the only thing I could do for you as the event was over. I had also explained this on your FB review as well and it is listed below. 

James Brown reviewed Dowling Graphics, Inc. — _1 star__June 21 at 5:43pm · __Screwed up my order and would not resolve the issue. Ignored all emails and calls. Beware of this low budget establishment they have zero integrity!

_


_https://www.facebook.com/Dowling-Graphics-Inc-168098666543427/reviews#__Dowling Graphics, Inc. James, Good Morning! I again apologize for the mistake that was made on your order shortage of the 30 pieces. We are open Monday - Friday 8:30am - 5 PM and I was not able to respond to your email until Monday morning @ 8:50a.m.. When I did, I had already put your remaining transfers into production to ship out for you as I had written to you in the email response. When you responded to me later @ 2:46 pm "The event was Saturday so replacing them is of no use for me now." I pulled the transfers from UPS as they were already completed and I have a credit going thru for you on the order. You will see that transaction going thru today. Again very sorry for the inconvenience as it was my mistake I had made when I wrote your order. If you have any additional questions please call me 1-800-749-6933 Thank you! Gwen Moss_


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## lkt1954 (Nov 15, 2009)

James- I can tell you one thing-- Dowling Graphics & Gwen are the absolute best in the business I have ever dealt with!! I have been using them for over 6 years and they are great. Gwen knows her business very well is on top of things.
Yes they make mistakes-- we all do. I can tell you from personal experience when they make a mistake they go above and beyond to do the best they can to fix the problem.

FYI as to your FB review-- Gwen has more integrity in her little finger than most have in their entire body........................


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## into the T (Aug 22, 2015)

you really have to be careful with reviews/complaints

it takes effort, and i hope people look deeper than a solitary negative

i don't even know who dowling is, or what they do,
this is just a general comment
because i would hate to have one customer who is never happy with any service/product,
unduly influence present or future customers


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## techaholic (Jun 8, 2015)

Gwen said:


> James again I can not apologize to you enough for your shortage. I do want to be clear that you were not ignored and I definitely owned up to the mistake. Unfortunately mistakes do happen in any business and sometimes there just is no perfect resolution. We did however make every effort possible to resolve this for you.
> 
> Your first mail to us was Friday night and we were closed until Monday morning. I responded to you immediately 20 minutes after opening, after I had the art department and production on schedule to get you the correct amount of transfers.
> 
> ...



I am happy that this issue was resolved. The only thing I would like to have seen differently is for someone to call me or email me. I heard no response for three days and that leaves me to think that there were no intentions on resolving the issue. 

Thanks for responding to my reviews and getting me a quick refund. But next time if there is an issue I would like to suggest that the customer gets some sort of response within a couple days at least so that no one feels left in the dark.

I would consider doing business in the future as the transfers were of excellent quality.


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

Word of advice James based on many years outsourcing -- use an vendor long enough and that vendor will make a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. What is important is how they handle the mistake and it sounds like they contacted you within a reasonable time. Many companies are closed over the weekend so when using a vendor, Friday late afternoon to Monday mid-morning is typically a wash; very little is going to happen during that time. Also it sounds like your order was fairly small, big to you, but it was a small order. There is only so much a company will do to make a small order right again. That's life, it's unfair, sometimes it sucks, but if you want to be in business then you have to put on your bigboy pants and deal with it. If you want special treatment then be a special customer. Keep using them, become established, be reasonable, and next time there is a problem (might be your fault) they will be on your side. 

Trust me when I say there are some bad transfer vendors out there. There are sizable vendors that will promise the stars and deliver a mis-registered picture of the moon. They will gladly send a replacement order. and promise a refund then bill you for both. Then they will blame you and fight tooth and nail for months on end until it goes into a credit card dispute then lie like the scumbags they are until they win. Then they will contact you, not realizing you are the same person they screwed over, and beg to be added to a certain spreadsheet. Oh wait, nevermind, that last part will probably never happen to you. Anyway, when people ask who they should use for transfers I always suggest using the companies that people talk about using, like Dowling, F&M, Howard, etc. because even though they might make an occasional mistake they apparently do right by people and stay popular around here. If you run into a company that no one around here talks about, think twice before using them.


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## PPRDS (Jun 14, 2016)

Hey Rick aka Wormil whats your take on Versatranz. I am looking to get my feet wet in the plastisol transfer game.


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

I don't remember ever using them. I contacted them once about a rush order and for a reason I can't remember went with a different company. 

Sent from my KFGIWI using Tapatalk


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## jleampark (Sep 6, 2007)

PPRDS said:


> Hey Rick aka Wormil whats your take on Versatranz. I am looking to get my feet wet in the plastisol transfer game.


I've used Versatranz on several occasions. At first glance, their prices seem a bit high. But, they have large (13 x 19) sheets so you can gang your images and reduce your price per image.

Their quality is quite good; the colors pop and the designs are durable. 

I've had some minor hick-ups in ordering but I think that's just my learning curve with a new company.

My suggestion is to order some samples from them and other vendors and see what you like best.

I use:


Versatranz 
Transfer Express 
Seay Graphics 
Semo Imprints 
F&M Expressions
 
One job may be best suited for Semo while another is best served by Versa.


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