# Sharing results of samples received from multiple printers



## babesontees

Hey All,

I've been haunting this forum for a while searching for the answer to my DTG fulfillment service problem, one that we all seem to share: find a company that provides high quality printing, decent customer service and reasonable prices. 

My DTG needs are fairly basic: print on demand as orders come in through Shopify, ship directly to customer - maybe tear the neck label and attached our hang tag if that service is available. That's it! 

Through all the valuable feedback here I've learned a ton, including which printers to avoid, so thought it might be helpful to share the results of my most recent dealings with:

- Print Aura
- Direct Garment Printing
- Silly Rabbit Co
- Printful

And hopefully save you some headaches in the future. It's a bit long winded, but in this case, more information is better I think.

Print Aura
As everyone else has noted, Matt is great to deal with but I figured out he subs out his printing and then charges a premium on his printer's rates so to reduce my costs, I went directly to the source (or one of them) - Direct Garment Printing. (Sorry Matt...)

Direct Garmet Printing
I went back and forth with Direct Garment Printing for months trying to get samples printed properly and shipped out on time. 

Buyer beware: communication is slow and frustrating, turnaround times are the same (sometimes two weeks to fulfill a sample order) and their print quality is dismal. Also, no notifications were sent when orders shipped.

I've had over 30 shirts printed with DGP and the images are dim, off-color and prone to peeling and cracking on dark colors. Likely why Print Aura keeps getting bad reviews for quality. I didn't realize how bad their quality was until I received my first samples from Printful. PM me if you want to see photos - there are too many to post. 

I gave them plenty of opportunity to fix the problems and finally was frustrated enough to move on. 

Valuable lesson learned:
If they can't get it right on the first order, there should be no second chances. If they're okay with sending you a poorly printed sample as a representation of their work and what your customer will receive, that's a REALLY bad sign and not someone to do business with. 

Silly Rabbit Co.
Eric is really quick to respond to emails initially, but that's where the excitement about this company ends. 

The person who takes the orders is beyond rude and unprofessional - I was actually shocked with some of the responses I received from her. I personally come from a customer service background so tend not to be too harsh in my judgement, but yikes. 

To follow up the lack of professionalism, no notification was sent when the order was shipped, I only received one of the two shirts I ordered and the print quality was SO bad I actually laughed out loud when I received it. See the photos (I think my camera makes them look better than they are).

Printful
Consistent with other user reviews, so far Printful has the most user friendly platform and the highest quality prints I've come across. You receive fulfillment and shipping notifications so there's no guesswork. 

Their communication isn't the greatest as has been mentioned around the forum - I waited 4 days for a response to an email and when it finally came, my important questions weren't answered. I realize I'm a small fish in a big pond with them though so didn't bother to pursue it.

Their prices are also really high when compared to other companies BUT the additional cost seems a fair trade to be confident in the quality of product being sent to my customers. I attached photos of their print as well so you can compare to Silly Rabbit.

I initially planned to launch early in the year but without having a reliable printer, it has been nothing but delays. I'm now planning to launch using Printful just to verify the business, even though margins won't be great, and will continue my search for an alternate production option in the future. 
__________________________

Links to Photos:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4id6ayszbwd2evg/Silly Rabbit Print.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ambmwdk46a81e5o/Close Up-Silly Rabbit Print.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rppkhzjoxuidmps/Printful Print.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/unt7giz4ga9p0tl/Close up - Printful Print.jpg?dl=0


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## ehas0430

In the defense of my company,

1) there is one basic rule in DTG and screen printing.. Crap in crap out, you give crappy artwork you get crappy prints its as simple as that.

2) you sent us a email just a few hours ago, just because we don't respond right away does not mean we won't.. it just means we are currently busy with projects in our shop and we have not had a chance to respond to the email yet

3) if for some reason you did not get both packages, then we will be more than happy to print another and send it out to you express.


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## Sefe1125

I used both Print Aura & Silly Rabbit

Matt was awesome and always got back to me quickly, great print quality and customer services

i did switch to silly rabbit for awhile because they were a little cheaper.

I never delt with Eric but i spoke with Kelly who is absolutely awesome and really gave me the best customer service possible, I never had issues with print quality or had any complaints, only issue i had was sometimes tracking numbers for take awhile to update.

i use neither now, i got my own DTG printer it just was easier and i make a much better profit margin on my shirts now than before.


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## SeeSawSin

I've been trying to get some print samples from Sillyrabbitco. for over 2 weeks. Eric H offered to send me FREE print samples. I thought this was such a courteous gesture to gain new clients. 

In the beginning, Eric H was pretty helpful through Skype interview, answering questions and boasting some great stats that made me feel like this is a perfect fulfillment company that I've trying to find for over a month. Here's some example of the claims he made:

They have 5 locations across the US, 1 new location coming to California. 

100 DTG printers
75 Screen printing equipment
400 Staff members
White Label Fulfillment (print, design custom boxes, labels, etc)
They can drop ship anywhere across the world
It doesn't take more than 2 days of US shipping due to their locations across the US
Screen Printing Job 3-4 days
DTG prints out the door in 72 hours
Able to print 100,000 shirts a day through all the combined facilities
Are basically working 7 days, with a skeleton crew on the weekends
BEST prices of all fulfillment platforms I have researched (literally hundreds of print companies)

A major problem for me as a potential client. First impression means a lot. When you go look at their website. It's really plain and lack a lot of the necessary information that Eric H provided. The front page was simply labeling SillyRabbitco as a ink/printer supply company with some printing on the side. So, it made me questioned if what he said was just fluff. By no means a company website need to be lavish website, but something that is informative about what services they offer and provide screenshots/videos proof of their products and company as a whole. 

When you go to search for a business address for SillyRabbitCo, it gave me a residential address. The weird thing is that all the other cities addresses does not show SillyRabbitCo as an existing company. 

I really want to give this fulfillment company a chance, but first impressions are not looking good...


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## babesontees

Thanks for the response Eric. To avoid arguing on this public forum I will just say that I was careful not to make any statements without having photo evidence to back up my claims. This isn't our first rodeo printing t-shirts. The same artwork was submitted to Printful and the samples I received from them were excellent - the photos clearly tell the story here. 

I think it speaks volumes of your customer service that you have taken the time to search and respond to messages in this forum, but yet you're too busy to respond to your customers' emails.

The review I've provided is based on my own personal experience with multiple printing companies over the last several months and is meant to be a source of information for those of us in this industry. I value the information provided here, and if I can save others the wasted time and money I've spent, then great. I'm sure we all have different experiences and I will happily chat with anyone who would like to see photos or email correspondence backing up what I've said.


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## SeeSawSin

Have you tried:

Chicago Screen Printing, Chicago Embroidery, Custom Screen Printing, Direct to Garment Application, full color printing, chicago custom clothing
OR
Custom Screen Printing, Apparel, & Promotional Items (they said that they are about to finish redesigning the website this upcoming month)

I am about to try to get some print samples from them.


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## printaura

babesontees said:


> Likely why Print Aura keeps getting bad reviews for quality


It is great you have done your research, read reviews and had your designs printed at different shops and we encourage others to do research and make a decision that is right for their business. However, that statement above is an unfair generalization. It is easy to find a few reviews that are negative and think that is the norm but you are not reading reviews for the 1000s of shirts printed/shipped each month from our clients happy customers. Are we perfect nope, nor are any of the other companies you listed. Do we have problems sometimes? Yep, but do we resolve them quickly? YES! we do our best to. There are so many factors including the art quality, the style of design, the garment chosen, and all the complications relating to volume manufacturing where one person has awesome results while another not so great. But each day we try and get better and better.


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## tchandler52

This is a interesting review. For you t shirt printers keep it going. I think it is cool that some of you give free samples. That is probably why they ask us if we give free samples lol. We charge full price  We can relate to slow email response times. It can get very overwhelming trying to go through and decipher all the emails from scammers, marketers, customers etc. Same with voices mails and phone calls. It seems to be a good sign that we are growing. Lots of success to all of you.


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## ehas0430

Matt said:


> It is great you have done your research, read reviews and had your designs printed at different shops and we encourage others to do research and make a decision that is right for their business. However, that statement above is an unfair generalization. It is easy to find a few reviews that are negative and think that is the norm but you are not reading reviews for the 1000s of shirts printed/shipped each month from our clients happy customers. Are we perfect nope, nor are any of the other companies you listed. Do we have problems sometimes? Yep, but do we resolve them quickly? YES! we do our best to. There are so many factors including the art quality, the style of design, the garment chosen, and all the complications relating to volume manufacturing where one person has awesome results while another not so great. But each day we try and get better and better.


Agreed,

We process thousands of shirts a month all over the country to many happy loyal customers to judge someone off one review is rather unfair.

There are so many factors to DTG and we do everything we can to give you awesome results but as we are human things do happen sometimes it is our fault sometimes its not but either way we will still try and fix it.

you can be in the industry 20 years and still learn something new every day.

and like *tchandler52* said, things get crazy in a shop with all the emails and phone calls we get. Sometimes it takes time to respond.


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## BandPrints

We tell most customers e-mail is the best form of contact. We are able to go through them as quick as possible (much faster than phone calls with each customer), get direct answers to customers questions, and keep a record of the back and forth. Further, for all the people out there looking for dtg fulfillment or screen printing fulfillment please remember that not all printers will fit your needs and all printers won't fit the vast fulfillment niche market. 

If you are "price hunting" for the cheapest dtg printer you can find you will usually get what you pay for. There are three keys to the average fulfillment company or four if you count time. These are "quality", turnaround time, price, and customer service. I like to tell clients to pick three out of the four. Because trying to get all 4 just isn't possible, especially as said companies grow to accommodate more customers looking for the same experience something has to give. For example, staffing more customer service to quickly answer questions for the large on boarding of customers will usually result in adjusted pricing across the board.

When finding a dtg fulfillment company make sure they fit YOUR needs and make your needs clear to the company or rep. This way the company can honestly say that you fit their business model or you may be more suited to go elsewhere. If quality is your number one concern paired with a realistic and dependable turnaround time even better, you should be able to find a printer. Just make sure you know what your quality expectations are and make them known as best you can. There is a wide range of dtg machines and ink currently on the market all producing varying results. What one customer calls great quality from a Kornit printer another may not like. 

Not to shoot any fulfillment company down (unless they really are not honest) I know as an owner myself I cannot please every potential client and making this known upfront is great. At the same time, as you talk to potential printers also keep this in mind. Price is the biggest odd ball since the machines fulfillment companies use are not cheap along with the heavy learning curve. I tell most customers who wish to haggle on price to please go and buy the same machinery we use and pass the savings along to themselves. 

But if using fulfillment to its great advantage of no minimums, quick turnaround compared to screen printing, and no set-ups it can be a great asset to any up and coming clothing line, brand, or campaign style sales company. Always have a plan too so that as your sales grow you are not "stuck" with one offs but are able to take the risk of bulk screen printing and distributing your own merchandise. DTG Fulfillment can be a great solution as you grow combined with traditional printing.


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## custeez

Wow. If ehas0430 is "Eric from Silly Rabbit", you're not doing yourself any favors with your responses in this thread.


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## Maxcat

I realize there's probably more than one factor but what is/are the primary reasons for the huge difference in the side by side shirts? 

Printer type?
Ink?
Resolution?
Shirt type?
File type?

Could an adjustment be easily made on to equal or get closer on the print quality?

Thanks,


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## tchandler52

Experience with the printer and rip also makes a difference. Our prints today are not comparable to when we first started printing. After time now we know when to adjust our settings depending on the image. So there are alot of factors with DTG printing. The images above look like pretreatment issue and Rip settings played a part in the difference between the two.


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## BandPrints

Maxcat said:


> I realize there's probably more than one factor but what is/are the primary reasons for the huge difference in the side by side shirts?
> 
> Printer type?
> Ink?
> Resolution?
> Shirt type?
> File type?
> 
> Could an adjustment be easily made on to equal or get closer on the print quality?
> 
> Thanks,



There are a few reasons why prints will be pretty far off from the original artwork.

1. If the art file is low resolution (less than 150 DPI) it will usually lend itself to worse detail on the shirt. It is always best to be at 300 DPI and give the printer/yourself all the advantage you can for a great product.

2. Garment Type. If using a low quality garment it will decrease the final quality of the print. Using a higher quality fabric will usually lead to brighter prints and most importantly finer detail.

3. Machine & Rip Type. This is the biggest factor in how the prints will look from printer to printer. There is now a wide range of printers and rips on the market being used. Depending on how the head printer places the settings and such it can change the overall "quality" of the print and how it looks. Some better than others but that is for the customer to decide what looks best for them. The rip software tells the machines how to print, lay down ink, and processes the art files. These also vary greatly from machine to machine and some do better.


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## 23spiderman

i'll echo the previous comments regarding the shirt type, RIP, ink set, and pretreat as potential reasons for the different qualities of the print. but one thing really stands out to me regarding the first pic. at the left side of the print, there isn't sufficient pretreat. that is a simple mistake that should have been caught immediately. i know that we all make mistakes, but there is NO WAY that shirt leaves my shop to a potential customer. how did that pass quality control?


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## sslover85

I am highly disappointed right now with silly rabbit. I have been waiting over a week withno updates unless I ask. Full experience will be coming up..emails and all. Trying to get this right first.


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## sslover85

So full review coming up..order was cancelled. Stay away from this Company..Poor artwork cannot always be an excuse when I had my stuff done by a graphic artist..


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## TheDTGGuys

SSLOVER, the artist you hired sucks because your artwork was 80ppi had pour gradients that printed pure white because it was so poorly done. 

And we made it very clear it needed to be 250 PPI or higher, and you very well we sent you an email canceling the order because it failed to meet our requirements for printing and telling you we needed better artwork.

Your artwork was basically pieces of images from good I was able to google the images you used in the art. People seem to think they can just pull things off google and it can be printed then get mad at the printer when things don't come out good.


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## sslover85

I watched this guy literally make letters from scratch and matched everything to a tee according to your specs. Granted one image was clipart. But you guys fixed that with no problem. You even sent me a pic of the shirt and after that first shirt thats when it went south. You sent me another pic of a shirt that was totally opposite. Im not here to get in a pissing match but consumers please be careful.


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## sslover85

They were sent 300 dpi..


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## TheDTGGuys

If that was true, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

This is the 2nd time we have printed a job for you and we have had issues with your artwork, it has gotten so bad that we literally said hey don't order from us again we don't want your business. Which is pretty bad cause we're in this business to print shirts and make money. 

I am one of the printers at silly rabbit, and I'm the one who tried printing your artwork and whom ever made it for you was full of crap and is not a real artist, It was not the correct resolution there were parts of the image pulled off google and the lights behind the cross were so poorly done it printed as just one very large white box you cannot even see the cross because of the crappy effects.
It actually made me laugh out loud when I printed it.


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## lvprinting

sslover85 said:


> They were sent 300 dpi..


Post the original image. Or post a watermarked version if you're afraid it will be stolen.

Or just PM me the image. I'll give you an honest answer regarding the art.

Sent from my SM-G900T using T-Shirt Forums


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## goodhairtees

As someone who reviewed four DTG companies on this forum last year, I am enjoying all the comments. 

I like Matt from Printaura. I initially did not like the work he did for me, but he was calm when responding to my review unlike the printer I got into a heated debate over his mediocre print job. And Matt reprinted my job with better results. So it might be little unfair to tell folks not to use a service solely based on one print. There are a lot of variables in DTG and the artwork is the most important one, and customer service the second. And as someone said, you get what you pay for. The higher price tee-shirts I reviewed were $10 dollar were more expensive than the lowest price tee-shirt $7.99, but there was a world of difference in print quality. 

If a customer is unhappy with your prints, try to remain professional when responding. I know it’s hard especially if you think the charges are unfair. But when I posted my review of the four DTG I tested, I had no intention of posting it outside this forum. But after a public argument with one of the printers, I posted my review on Google plus. 

So when a customer is unhappy, right the ship if you can and move on. You probably have plenty of satisfied customers to work with. Peace.


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## glamfoxx

I too also attempted to do business with Silly Rabbit Co. PLEASE PLEASE stay away from them. I had to do SO MUCH damage control it was ridiculous. At first Eric seemed like he really had it together, he will sweet talk you, promise things he can't deliver, and the sample shirts he sends probably are not even printed by them. They will blame you for THEIR mistakes. Their facebook reviews are employees so beware. I had SO MANY complaints and have to replace so many orders, many orders were not received. HE IS A THEIF. I have already contacted my bank, as he failed to deliver on many orders because I refused to pay the last invoice (that he also didn't deliver) the reason I refused is because of the obvious. I had orders 3-4 weeks late, and some orders were such bad quality my customers were FURIOUS. I had placed too many orders with him to come out from underneath it. So, now I am trying my hardest to fix. I have had TERRIBLE public reviews from him and my orders hve slowed most likely from the terrible reviews. He acts like he's doing YOU the favor when he's really damaging your reputation and your finances. Paypal dropped my claim because of the way the invoices were laid out, but I have appealed and I will FIGHT IT. My bank should be easier. He's a liar, a theif and a con artist. He is the WORST person I have EVER done business with and I've had some that were quite a doozy in 5 years of being in business. STAY AWAY from this company. I can't tell you how he has almost wrecked not only my business but my livlihood.Luckily I was smart enough to fire him, and hire someone else quickly. I am losing tons of cash though to clean up his messes. Because of this situation I am always looking for my backups upon backups. If you are a printer email me on my website GLAMFOXX (google it)


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## sslover85

Ok I am back from vacation where my reputation took a big hit over these shirts. Since I have been making shirts over this past year I have NEVER missed a deadline.I emailed Eric on the 8th of June about roughly 28 shirts and I needed to have them done by the 21st of June. He stated no problem. I know I worried him because I emailed him all the specifics before I placed the order. I was told 3-5 days no problem I thought I had wiggle room. I asked for a sample and he stated the the cross was not right but he could reconstruct it. He then sent me this. I also paid a designer to do this and was told at that time just the cross was iffy. but anyways after the cross hiccup I was sent this:


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## sslover85

I was a happy camper once I saw this and asked about the design for the back..He sent a sample of the back which the design was a dark purple but his sample looked like a 10 yr old shirt. all faded. That's where communication on his part stopped. He finally responded back about a week after he sent me a pic of the front of the shirt with this. I never saw the back done again. You would think this would be the first pic of the shirt but NOT!!


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## sslover85

So now after this pic I was nervous!! So Daily I would email him until he said he cancelled my order because of crappy artwork and he would refund my money in 3-5 days. So today is day 8 and still no refund. Is the artwork for my refund bad too?? I will gladly email my files to someone if they wanna take a look. I also emailed asking about my refund yesterday but no response. I will probably get one soon after these posts. Oh and I have tons of emails of our conversations.


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## Blastereod

Just thought I would add my experience with Silly Rabbit..... Without a long story, I paid for shirts and printing services and was told it was completed and needed an address to ship items to( which had been several weeks after payment). I was researching on this site and saw this thread . So I started pressing about my order, well after a total of a month or so and after telling Eric I was taking legal action he answered me and I eventually received my money back,(his supposed issue was he was being bought out) for me I lost a ton of time and effort but learned a valuable lesson. One of the reasons I gave Silly Rabbit a go is because as a retired Navy disable vet I wanted to also support veterans , which Eric claimed to be. I do not know if he is or not but I do know that I would not recommend anyone doing business with him or his company. Thorough all this his only comment was that is was not personal it was business.....and of course he offered me his opinion on what to change if I wanted to be successful. Not sure what that means coming from him. Bottom Line is stay away, he is a tool and cannot be trusted in my opinion.


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## glamfoxx

IF anyone wants to take legal action against Eric and silly rabbit please contact me. He is a fraud and a theif and he has WRECKED my company. I lost my Etsy account because of him..by the way that account made $60K a year in sales. I hired my friend to help me with customer service on that account since it started. I paid them based on sales. It was a win win as she was going to school and their family only had one income. This seriously has also hurt MY family. Sleepless nights, fights, wondering about our income our family's money. He's a fraud. and he needs to be stopped. Anyone have any ideas on how to take him OUT of this business and his lies please contact me. I also couldn't get my money back from paypal because I paid my invoices with my paypal AND with credit cards-paypal doesn't cover any paid invoices that are paid with partial paypal payment. It was over $1,000. He took that as paypal was on HIS side and he was in the right. And texted me to tell me this. He was wrong. Paypal just has messed up rules that I didn't read fully. I did however chargeback thousands of dollars so I'm sure my bank will be on my side as I have a MOUNTAIN of evidence.


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## sslover85

I am all in about legal action. I still have not recieved my refund and I am a Soldier in the Army. That is why I trusted him. I just hate thieves!!! I know he sees this post!!


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## glamfoxx

What you need to do is call your bank, and do a chargeback. That will allow you to get your money back from your bank. They will give you your money from 1-10 days and they will ask you what happened. You tell them what happened and show the evidence. Emails etc. if they ask for it.


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## sslover85

Thanks will do..


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## tchandler52

How long has it been since you paid for your t-shirts ?


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## sslover85

tchandler52 said:


> How long has it been since you paid for your t-shirts ?


 
going on a month and received an email stating order was canceled because of artwork which is indeed 300dpi and was told I would get refund in 3-5 days..That company is garbage!!


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## tchandler52

Oh I see. Have they issued you your refund yet ? Depending on your bank it may take 3-5 days for it to post on to your account. Hope everything works out.


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## FiveOneSix

I had one transaction with Eric at silly rabbit. Went smooth, shipped super fast, even got a follow up email asking if I was happy with it...I was!
I didn't talk to anyone else at silly rabbit but as far as his customer service...it was great.
I'm not arguing that others didn't have issues, just posting my experience.
Also, it was different services what you asked from him and what I asked from him.
Best of luck though! I hope you find someone you are happy with.


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## sslover85

Well I got all my money back and screenprinted my bad art work myself.


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## tchandler52

Glad to hear everything has worked out for you.



sslover85 said:


> Well I got all my money back and screenprinted my bad art work myself.


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## ryanb4614

Thank you for the reviews. Very happy I saw this post. Would you say you were most happy then with theprintful.com? I also reached out to greatapparelforyou.com. One thing I don't like about a lot of these sites is, what stops my customers from ordering from them? There has to be a true business to business company out there?


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## antnj81

Hey I'm new here and I wanna thanks to a lot of you in this thread. I made the mistake of working with Eric from Silly Rabbit over the summer and it was a nightmare. I thought it was just me, until I found this forum.
All the stories about him are identical to my own experience: lots of false claims, shirts shipped out EXTREMELY late (over a month) or not at all, wouldn't always respond to questions regarding the order, lied about orders being shipped. It caused a lot of issues and I had to, by my own choice, send a few customers a second free shirt to compensate for the tardiness. I recently found a reliable printing company, but still the damage he caused is done and I'm still trying to work it all out. 

The only thing good I can say about the company (Silly Rabbit or whatever Eric changed it to) is that the price and shirt quality were good, but what good is that if customers are pissed off about waiting a month for their order? 

Avoid anything with Eric Hashagen's name attached to it at all costs! He can talk a good game and will make himself seem like a reliable professional, but he is anything but that.


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