a little r’n'r

Plot synopsis:

• man gets flyer in amazon delivery for “FREE business card printing.”
• man visits advertised website and fills out details to create new business card, notes offer is for a single run of 250 cards.
• man accepts that there is a standard order fee of £3 (wait, wasn’t this a FREE offer?)
• man is offered shipping options, forgives the fact that free cards take 21 days to deliver. Other options start at £5.99 to receive within 14 days (are these cards shipping sea mail from China???)
• man is prompted to create an account on vistaprint.co.uk
• man is prompted to enter email address and personal details
• man is prompted to choose paper stock
• man is prompted to choose design for rear of card.
• man balks at the fact that free card includes vistaprint.co.uk logo on ONE SIDE OF BUSINESS CARD
• man writes letter of complaint:

I was very excited to receive your free business card offer in the post with my amazon.co.uk purchase. I directly went to your site to place an order, as I have recently been looking at different companies to print my business cards. I assumed a 250 trial run would be perfect for me to decide whether to place a further order.

Unfortunately, your so called “Free” order did not include the shipping (£6 if I want it within a month!) nor did it mention that each card would be printed with a vistaprint logo advertising on the back! Further this was only disclosed to me after I had spent the time on your site carefully choosing the layout of my card and entering in the relevant information, including setting up an “account”!

I am writing to inform you that I will not consider vistaprint for any further business, nor will I recommend your services to colleagues, as you have gone to the extent of printing advertising to ship in amazon purchases that is directly misleading to your customers.

I think that you’ll find your customers prefer honesty than duplicity when you deal with them, and in this regard I find your online services lacking.

A lost customer,
[name omitted]

• man receives automated reply:

Dear Valued VistaPrint Customer:
In order to respond to you as quickly as possible, we are sending this automated response to your recent e-mail. At this time VistaPrint only offers customer service by toll-free telephone. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

We invite you to call us toll-free at 0800-028-8251. Knowledgeable representatives are available to assist you Monday - Friday, from 12 PM to 4AM GST.

Thank you for your interest in VistaPrint. We appreciate your business and your patience. We look forward to being of service to you.

Sincerely,
Customer Care
VistaPrint

[UPDATE:] It seems VistaPrint then take your details and have a history of passing them on to third parties WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT.

I think the threat level just went from YELLOW (mildly annoying) to RED (avoid like Spiderman 3)