Bark Nut review for Fuel: Print on Demand

June 28, 2022

Update 06/27/2022 - Lyman reached out via email and refunded my sample order including shipping. Fuel has also sent out a couple emails regarding production issues and changes - finally. Support remains the most responsive. However while their prices are very good, I remain concerned about quality. They are also adding print facilities to help with their production; however these are third-party printers. It's great they are taking steps with reducing production times however I am apprehensive because by using a network of third-party printers the production and quality will not be consistent (based on my experience with other companies who do not do printing fully in-house). Pros - Support is very quick to respond; Cheapest shirts and mugs (but many other providers now within 50-30 cents and getting much closer) Cons - Poor print quality; Slow, inaccurate production times; Apparently they don’t stock blanks (I was told by support that they order the blanks each time an order comes in, so 1-2 days is wasted here) Poor print quality. It’s the second worst quality of the 5 major POD providers I ordered samples from; the design was “warped” (very odd, no idea how this could happen on a flat t-shirt) and the edges of the design were double lined/blurry. They’re the slowest and most inaccurate (dishonest, in my opinion) with fulfillment times. It took 13 calendar days (9 business days) to process the sample order and ship it out. And this is when they were publishing updates that their t-shirt fulfillment times were 3-5 business days. When I contacted support for an update they said this is due to the supplier that provides the blanks (the blanks are out of stock). So apparently Fuel doesn’t stock either any or enough blanks, unlike other many other POD providers, and spend 1-2 days receiving blanks for the orders that come in. Support acknowledged their backlog/stock issue but had no plans to fix it until the holidays, so another 6 months before it’s resolved and *hopefully* doesn’t happen again. Support indicated another 1-2 business days before my sample order would ship out and it took 3. I suggested they change their production estimates to 5-8 business days for more transparency and reduce inquiries, but didn’t care to and the next day published another production update showing 3-5 business days clearly knowing this isn’t true or accurate. It'd be much more professional to state accurate times, or note that some orders may take longer due to the stock issues they're having, but they didn't seem to want to acknowledge these issues unless asked, rather than put this on that production status update page or even send an email blast out. So in total I waited 16 days for a poorly printed sample order. I'm very disappointed because I choose Fuel based on a reference from a high-volume seller and quality from that order seemed better. So quality is inconsistent. There are dozens of other POD companies and many with quicker time and/or better quality. I do not recommend Fuel.