A printer's approch to customer service

Last September I came across a printer in LinkedIn and decided to give him a go, assuming him to be OK, as a fellow member of LinkedIn. As you do.

So although I did not yet need new business cards, I asked him to print some new ones for me, and sent his PA the artwork, for printing on front and back. The proofs were OK, and the cards were duly printed, and I paid through PayPal (for two sided printing)
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I was still using up the old cards, so it was some time before I got around to opening the boxes and using the new cards, sending out quite a few in mailings.

One day I suddenly realised that the backs were blank.

I wrote on 21st January and 2nd February, but received no reply, and wrote again on 22nd February. On 1st March I received an email saying they would reprint the cards if I would return all the faulty cards.

If you have been following the narrative so far you will know that that was not possible, because (as I told them) I had already sent out quite a few.

At their request I returned all the cards I still had, leaving myself with no business cards at all.
They refused to reprint the cards unless I returned all the 'faulty' ones (their inverted commas).

The Managing Director wrote to say, "We have attempted to speak to you on several occasions to discuss the situation." They did nothing of the sort.

Now, folks, we are talking about a total of £86.25 (including the cost of returning the faulty cards). Not big money, is it?

The correspondence has become increasingly heated, and on 28th March the man again wrote "I have clearly stated that we will replace them when we have received them ALL back from you. You have failed to do this."

He is right when he adds that I had plenty of time to inspect the cards when they were first delivered, but he has not produced the printing for which he was paid, and has placed an impossible condition on rectifying the error.

It's not an experience I would wish to repeat, and I'm sharing it with you in case you should ever place printing with this printer. Because you will have to check it very carefully as I clearly failed to do. I paid, didn't get what I paid for, and don't even have the faulty cards because I was asked to return them.

As an example of customer service, this takes the cake.

Phillip