I was out of ideas for Christmas gifts, especially to my in-laws. Then, it hit me. Cheesy as it may sound, a personalised calendar with pictures of the boys would go down really well because (1) They would love it, and (2) I don't have to get anything expensive that they wouldn't use.

So when I purchased something from Amazon, an offer from Vistaprint.com fell out. It was something like £9.99 for 4 wall calendars which I thought was a great deal so I went ahead and painstakingly chose 12 cute photos of the boys and uploaded them, ordering calendars, mugs and keychains (ok ok I know how cheesy that can be but wait until you have your own kids whom you think are the cutest things in the world!).

The items arrived on 22 December. I was blown away by the quality of the calendars! Beautiful prints and we were so very impressed, but one of them was missing the final sheet for 'December', so I lost no time in getting in touch with customer service about it. I must admit that I wasn't hopeful of getting a satisfactory outcome (based on my experience with various customer service departments) let alone getting a replacement in time for Christmas Eve.

However, they were so incredibly helpful that they sent one out immediately (although warning me that it might not arrive until 27 Dec). Again, my expectations were blown out of the water because it arrived on Christmas Eve!

I don't normally have great things to say about retailers but Vistaprint.com seem to have a lot going for it:

Prices - Incredibly reasonable, if not one of the cheapest around (and I did shop around!)

Quality - As mentioned above, the calendar prints were amazing (make sure to use 'card stock' so that the sheets have some weight on it and doesn't curl). The printings on the keychains weren't that great though - a low resolution image was printed on a flexible rubber piece. I had expected high res image between clear plastic casing.

Website - Easy as pie to use, very very user friendly
Customer Service - What can I say? Professional, courteous, helpful and they fixed my problem on the spot. No excuses. They just fixed it.

Not only that, but they were careful to set realistic expectations (e.g. about delivery time) and made sure they smashed it. I complained on the 22/12 (Tuesday), they said it would arrive 28/12 (following Monday - 8 days later) but instead it arrived on Christmas Eve two days later!

THe only thing is that I've been receiving marketing emails every day, which isn't the greatest thing in the world. That's about the only thing annoying me, and I've said so in their feedback page so I hope they do something about it. I mean, they've made me a loyal customer already, I'm sure they wouldn't want to piss me off with daily spam emails. Anyway, based on my experience with their customer service, I believe that they will probably listen to their customers.

I think that every company which deals directly with customers and who have a customer service or after-sales service dept should look at this example and learn from it. If a customer is in pain and you fix it, completely, immediately, happily, then you will have bought yourself a loyal customer. And it probably won't cost you that much either.

Big big thank you to Vistaprint Customer Service agents: Devin Gardner and Shellian Simpson for making my Christmas (and my in-law's!) a wonderful one!

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Anyway, here's the email transcript of my communication below:

Dear Pei:

Thanks for contacting Vistaprint, where it’s easy to make an impression for less.

We are expediting the replacement order at no additional cost to you for the Calendar that did not meet your expectations. The order number for this replacement is 39550-10051-2S9 and will arrive within 7 days.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment you may have experienced. Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions or concerns.


Thank you for choosing Vistaprint!
Sincerely,

Devin Gardner
Vistaprint Customer Service

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Original Message:
Date Sent: 12/22/2009 19:00

Hi Shellian

Thank you so much for the prompt reply. I guess I have no choice, will have to make my apologies to my in-laws for their late xmas gift. :( Please can you resend it out to me soon as possible, am hoping it will arrive sooner (my original order had an expected delivery date of 23 Dec but arrived one day earlier).

Many thanks
Pei

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From: UKCustomerCare@vistaprint.com
Sent: Tue 22/12/2009 23:13
To: pei@peiroll.com
Subject: RE: VistaPrint Inquiry Response


Dear Pei:

Thanks for contacting Vistaprint, where it’s easy to make an impression for less.

We can have a replacement order done for the Calendars unfortunately if a Rush delivery is done that would be 3 Business days, so the Calendar will not arrive until December 28, 2009 if the order is done today.

Please respond to this email if you would like us to proceed with the replacement.

We do apologise for any inconvenience caused. Feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions or concerns.


Thank you for choosing Vistaprint!

Sincerely,

Shellian Simpson
Vistaprint Customer Service

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Original Message:
Date Sent: 12/22/2009 18:08

Order ID: 04180-68841

Hi there - calendars arrived sooner than scheduled, quality impeccable thank you very much! However, out of the four calendars, one is missing the last page, i.e. December is missing. The other three are fine. Please can you rush one out to me as soon as possible to arrive before Christmas as it is meant as a present for my in-laws. Many thanks Pei