# Get Your Business Cards from VistaPrint!!



## happychick (Sep 20, 2010)

Wow - we just received our order of 1,000 business cards from VistaPrint.com today - they are GREAT quality, and the best part is they were only $20 free shipping! Can't beat that. Great deal to get some new business cards! :nanner:


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## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

Great company. Have used them for 5 years for business cards, magnets, and other business stationary products. Thumbs up.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

Nobody can beat their prices! I have used them for years now. We even had tee shirts and sweat shirts done by them with our store name on it.


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## happychick (Sep 20, 2010)

katlupe said:


> We even had tee shirts and sweat shirts done by them with our store name on it.


Oh! Now that's a really cool idea!!


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## tppletterpress (Jan 31, 2013)

Please don't buy from Vistaprint! They are one of the major forces that are destroying locally owned print shops. Over 1/2 of the print shops in Virginia have closed their doors in the past 6 years, and MANY skilled craftsmen and women such as myself have found themselves unemployed. It can be quite a challenge finding new employment when you have spent 10-20 years studying a craft that is no longer viable. I am in my 30's and have to start over in a new career field, which is a bitter pill to swallow. 

Beyond the print companies, there are a host of local and national companies that service the print industry, each of which is struggling more with every year that passes. In Richmond we have several companies that manufacture custom colors of printing ink, which is a service that may not exist locally for long. There are paper vendors (who are subsequently carrying fewer and fewer lines of paper options), couriers, maintanence and repair persons, rag and floormat services, and so on that rely on local print companies to stay afloat.

To top it off, Vistaprint is based out of the Netherlands, and their customer service line is in Jamaica. I have nothing against either of these locations, but I would rather see my money stay in our hurting American economy.

I know that Vistaprint is cheap, but I promise that it comes with a price.


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

tp - you make a valid point about buying locally.......wherever you are.

BUT - and it is a big but - the local companies have to show willing on this one. It is obvious that they can't compete with companies like vistaprint on price - not really, the economies of scale are obvious really. But if I walk into a local shop of any description here and say "I can get this online for x price, what can you offer me?" the standard reply would be "go and buy it online then!"

If they were to say to me "well, I really can't compete with that company, but I will offer you this discount/offer/deal" then I would stay with them because they are at least trying to offer as good a deal as they can. 

But when I get told to go and buy it at Amazon (we have one shop locally who told me that just because they didn't want the trouble of stocking the product I use) then I am afraid they just lost the right to "local" protected status in my eyes.

This may not be true in every case or every location, but it is certainly true where I am 

Like I say - we all know that no-one can compete with the giants, but they could show willing?

Just a thought


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## tppletterpress (Jan 31, 2013)

Hoggie,

I agree with you to some extent, but it isn't so easy for a small business to compete with huge multinational prices. You wouldn't expect a homesteader to sell a chicken for 99 cents a lb just because that is the price you can pay for a factory farmed bird. It is a tough concept to swallow, but as consumers we are often hurting ourselves (especially our job security) when we purchase the cheapest available products. Money is tight for many of us these days, so it seems counter intuitive, but if we collectively choose to support the less cheap local economies, there will be more job opportunites, and ultimately more money for us to spend.


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

I did say that obviously small local companies wouldn't be able to compete with the giants - but they COULD make an effort with a discount or an offer or something. They need to remember that the businesses that will be dealing with them are also small local businesses and often don't have the money available to just "buy local whatever the cost". I for one, if people like the printers made an effort to give me "a deal", would shop locally. But the businesses I am doing business with need to do their bit too.


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## Irish (Feb 10, 2012)

My problem I had with VP, was after two months, I noticed two charges of $4.99 on my card. After rooting around, I found it was VP charging me for a website under my real name, not my biz name! I called them, talked to a nice lady in Jamaica, and they gave me the money back. I avoid them for this reason. The cards I did get from them were nice and professional looking but I don't like their biz practices. That account only has enough money in it for the next purchase, on purpose. So, it's a good thing I wasn't over-drawn because of them.


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## happychick (Sep 20, 2010)

Hmmm....I've only ever used it for business cards, not websites.


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