Review

PrinterPix Review

January 2, 2017 /

While reading my daily emails I received a Groupon for a photo book from PrinterPix. There were many times when I thought of creating a digital photo book so I purchased the certificate and started on my first photo book. I also purchased a deluxe puzzle certificate and another for 10 calendars. I created calendars for many years from VistaPrint and wanted to see if PrinterPix calendars were the same quality.

I uploaded a photo for the puzzle, paid for the shipping, and received an email with the tracking number. After almost two weeks I was still waiting to receive the puzzle. I clicked the tracking link in the email and the tracking number was invalid. I tried the online support chat line but could not get a response. I called the support number and waited on hold for about 20 minutes and had to hang-up because I had to get to work. The puzzle arrived a day or two later but having an email with an invalid tracking number is very frustrating. The image on the puzzle was bright and beautiful. The puzzle quality was very good but it had pieces that were identical (which is very odd for a jigsaw puzzle).

I started to create the calendars but my photos were being automatically cropped in an odd way. The ad stated that these were 8.5×11 calendars and I cropped the images to that ratio but they were not displaying properly. I tried the online chat and after waiting for a VERY long time got a support rep. I asked him for the aspect ratio for the photo calendars. He responded that it was 300 DPI. I told him that I did not ask for the resolution but for the aspect ratio. He then said that I could use 4×6, or 8×10, or 5×7. I asked again for the proper aspect ratio for the image and he did not seem to understand. I called the company and after waiting on hold for a VERY long time got through to a customer service representative. I asked for the aspect ratio and she told me that the images are printed as 5×7. I said that the ad showed that the calendar was 8.5×11. She informed me that 8.5×11 was the size of the page including the dates and the image part of the page was 5×7. Every other calendar printing company gives a size that is the size of the image and NOT the size of the entire calendar. I cancelled my order and received a refund a couple of weeks later. Needless to say, I was not impressed by PrinterPix.

I spent hours editing photos for my book. I purchased the Deluxe Leather cover version. I uploaded and pasted the edited photos, added captions and titles, changed page formats, etc. After many hours I had the book ready. I paid for shipping and the premium quality paper and eventually received a tracking number. The book took about 2.5 weeks to arrive. I created a book with some of my road trip photos and I wanted to use the book to showcase some of my best images. Keep in mind that I created calendars and prints for many years and edited the images to maximize their visual appear. When I opened the book I was so completely disappointed with the print quality. The image color was dull and flat. The resolution was horrible. It looked like the images were printed on a low-cost consumer printer that was low on ink. I would be embarrassed to show the images in that book to others because the printing makes the images look so bad. I had another book printed by MyPublisher and the images are bright, sharp, and very nice. I spent $10 for the Groupon and then another $14 for shipping and premium paper. The normal price for this book was somewhere above $60. At the extremely reduced price I was very disappointed. Had I paid the full price I would have been extremely upset.

The bottom line is that PrinterPix is a very poor choice for a printing company because:

  • Support representative could not answer a very basic question
  • Print quality was horrible (on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give them a 2)
  • Email tracking did not work
  • Calls were not answered in a timely manner (took about 20 minutes to get through)
  • Normal prices are high and the quality of the photo books is low
  • My emails to the company were answered by form emails

There are many other companies that provide excellent print quality. I would NOT recommend PrinterPix based upon my past experience.

Follow-Up

PrinterPix claims that want complete customer satisfaction but their actions paint a different picture. PrinterPix was extremely slow to respond and, as of this date, has taken no action to address my complaint other than send form emails. Customer satisfaction seems to be a very low priority. Log of actual events:

  • 12/14/2016 – Ordered the photo book
  • 12/19/2016 – Email shipping notification (tracking link and number did NOT work)
  • 1/2/2017 – Received photo book
  • 1/4/2017 – Sent first email complaint to PrinterPix
  • 1/20/2017 – Received form email that did not address my specific complaint and I responded to that email and included a link to this review
  • 2/11/2017 – Received generic response from PrinterPix informing me that they will investigate further and I updated this review and sent a link in response to their email