valenvitols's Posts

Dear Brian,

Yes, I’m beginning to feel really uncomfortable with this discussion, too. I just want to ask you one thing. Stop and think. I know you work for this company and I understand you have to stand by it, and I respect that. But please, do respect my right to be extremely disappointed and furious as well, and express that. It is my right. There is a First Amendment that allows me to freely express my opinion, especially if it has to do with a product I fully paid for and didn’t deliver. I had to show the book to professors and fellow students because it was a requirement for critique and quality assurance by my committee. I’m NOT the one who printed this book. It was Blurb. I did work my files to perfectly fit any printing standards. I was so astounded with the results, I just brought the book and let people judge without saying a word. They saw the book and the book gave them room to make their own conclusions. As I told you, I didn’t even say a word. You’re wrong when you’re saying I have been pointing my finger at Blurb. Your product speaks for itself.

I’m on a student budget, I trusted your company because I researched in photo blogs and overall people was more satisfied with Blurb than with your competition. I saw a couple of books by Blurb that I thought they were a little dark, but fine. I already said I made a mistake not ordering the proof, BUT I also know that some people has gotten a very different product after getting their proof. Someone even said to me that the proof wasn’t a guarantee for the final product as her book showed considerable differences between the proof and the final product.

Bare with me: I spent $500 on a product that is not of good quality, has color casts all over and now, the cover is completely curled up. I’m sorry, but there is a thing called “keep your promises” and I read Blurb’s promise is high quality book printing. You guys didn’t keep it with me. Despite the fact I made the mistake of not getting the proof (I have some people that bought the book as well and got them shipped form different locations than mine, Seattle) I will be able, for sure, to see if the quality is consistent from book to book. If it’s not, that will confirm the doubts and experiences other had had with proof and final product. There are posts in this very forum where people express their disappointment on this, too.

The printer that is taking care of the book now saw it not because I’m going around showing the book to “point out fingers” at Blurb. As Blurb has a template, I needed to have an opinion on the new layout and the one I used with Blurb. Blurb templates are terrific, and I was SO thrilled to see the book finally layed out and so happy to send it and buy it. I know what you see on screen is not what you get on print, but you have to work out hard in order to give the closest to what you get. Actually, the most I’ve talked about with Blurb has been regarding how easy and great the Booksmart software is. I’m still so impressed with the results, and now with your post, I haven’t mentioned much about your company. You could say I’m speechless. I rather come here, and be honest (which you also questioned) and direct to this company, and make my claims here and not anywhere else.

I do agree with you on my lack of experience on the book making process. I DID NOT come from an art background, it was upsetting you made assumptions on that. I’ve been to art school roughly two years now, and been a wet darkroom printer pretty much until a few months ago. That has made things a little more difficult to me with digital matters, but never as this experience. I’ve developed very good skills as a digital printer now, but it required a lot of hard work, not hard time. Also, I have to disagree on Blurb trying now to put all the responsibility of this failure on my shoulders. I accept my mistakes, but I cannot accept that a Blurb representative is now putting all this problem on my side. That is unacceptable. I’m the client, Brian. I think some of your comments go to the point of being aggressive. I don’t know when things changed, and the person who is paying for a product gets to be censored by that company even when she’s being given a bad one. I paid and I wasn’t delivered what I was promised, a well-printed, good-quality book. So, I think I’m entitled to make all the claims that I want. And yes, this has cost me a lot of money and emotional pain.

If you feel so uncomfortable with this discussion and my right to make claims, I suggest you ask to have someone else to talk to me. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. This is a free country and you also have your rights.

Have a good rest of the weekend.
Valentina

Btw, I’m deleting the book as soon as the sales are finished. I’m recalling the 6 book I’ve sold and giving everyone that bought it a new copy…I don’t want my name related to such a bad looking book. I can’t afford that.

Thanks.

I got my books yesterday…what a disappointment! There cover and back cover are printed to dark there are chuncks of blocked black all over the cover book, and what is worse, I have the same photo inside and you can see in the inside one the file was worked to have details on the black…

But what is unacceptable is that the cover and back cover have a very noticeable green-cyan cast that ruins the book completely and makes it look cheap and badly printed. Inside, there is also a green-cyan cast AND blocked blacks all through the book. I worked my photos precisely to avoid this, and even though, some of them are very dark. Also, the fonts are gray and they look pixelated and slightly cyan!

The worst part of all this: this is my thesis project for my MFA in Photography. I met my comitte and they are so disappointed with the quality they would not pass me!!! So pretty much my graduation is at stake here!!!! I trusted this company and it has become my worst nightmare. Fellow students and professors saw the book and are surprised about how bad the quality is…

They have been very polite so far, I sent them photos of the cover and some of the pages, but haven’t got back from them yet….this has been terrible! :-(