Fuel: Print on Demand

Dec. 7, 2021

Fulfillment time is usually pretty good. Product selection is decent and support is responsive. However, on multiple occasions, my customers have received the wrong color shirt due to an automated substitution rule they have, which can’t be disabled. This even occurs when multiples of the same shirt are ordered in different sizes, so the customer receives 2 completely different looking shirts. There’s also no notification of this happening, so it’s not until the customer complains that I am aware. For me, the color of the shirt is specific for the design. For that reason, I will be moving to another POD partner where I can be more confident the correct item will get sent.

Nov. 24, 2021

I'm new to Fuel and Shopify, so naturally, there's a learning curve with learning these apps. I've had many questions along the way and I'm happy to say that each time that I submitted a question to Fuel Customer Service, I've always gotten a swift and thorough response. It might have been the answer I wanted, but communication is so important to achieving high goals. Their attention to my questions and concerns show a real professionalism. I'm happy to do business with Fuel.

Nov. 17, 2021

print quality is always great! Price is right! production time is fast! customer service is very responsive! Hector with the customer support team rocks! he has handled all my questions and issues ive ever had with fuel! he should be promoted! highly recommend!

Oct. 20, 2021

I am using this app to add products to my Shopify store, its working good so far. Though I am facing some issues, not sure the problem is at their end or mine. But the integration is good. Looking forward to making Fuel my sole print provider. Do increase your portfolio of products so that I can use Fuel exclusively.

May 24, 2022

Great customer service and very fast response time! I'm happy with all orders from Fuel. I intend on growing my business across my multiple websites with Fuel for years to come! => Update: No respect for customers. Not respecting the Seller. Increase Ship unreasonably. Increase Base cost unreasonably. Austria Long production.. Quality is not good.. Ship is expensive..

Sept. 17, 2021

Shirts are quick. Hats are always out of inventory. still will work on one or two items per order. Bulk order can be risky as updates on inventory doesn't seem up to date.

Sept. 7, 2021

My partners & I have been working with Fuel for about 2.5 years now and the experience keeps getting better. As a company they strive for quick shipping and perfect quality and they hit the mark more often than not. One of the best things about Fuel is their pricing and how they allow you to actually make a reasonable profit margin with print on demand. We intend on growing our business across our multiple websites with Fuel for years to come!

June 17, 2021

Customer service is excellent. I think Fuel will soon overcome the inadequacies in the past time and return to being as great as before.

May 12, 2021

You lost my business. Shame on you for deceiving your customers. We all count on you and you have failed to deliver.

May 11, 2021

This is an update of a 5 star review I gave FUEL more than a year ago. I believe that the rating was deserved back than. Sadly, and rather strangely, in the past couple of months FUEL has gone from one of the best POD companies to one of the very worst, in every way. The biggest problem is extremely delayed orders with no explanation and apparently no caring. I still have two that are over a month old and haven't been shipped yet. Customer service used to be exceptional. Now it is almost non-existant. Yes, they usually provide initial responses reasonably quick, but they are mostly canned and of little use if not downright misleading or false. Print quality used to be reasonably good, not many complaints. But from what my buyers have told me over the past two months - the print quality is not at all reliable any more, many complain that they are washed out looking out of the box, and fade more each time they are washed. And I am aware of at least three situations where the wrong shirt was sent. Right image, but not the brand or style that was ordered, the shirt color isn't the same as what was ordered, and of course what was sent was a cheaper product. I could go on with other issues but the causes are unknown so in trying to be fair I won't mention them. I suspect one of the problems is that FUEL is relatively new, and as they grow it seems that they are incapable of handling increased work load. They aren't even issuing refunds like they used to. Come on, more than a month 'in production' and won't cancel or refund? I've been getting rid of all my Fuel listings - recreating and moving them to other POD companies, which at least thus far have been better in every way - surprisingly, even cheaper. I won't mention names because that isn't the purpose of reviewing FUEL, but if you care about your business reputation, you should use someone else. I'm spending many days deleting and recreating elsewhere, but what choice is there?

April 1, 2022

Update (4/1/2022): Fuel used to be fantastic for its price offerings, but today prices rose as much as 30% on some items. As someone who buys blanks for a living by units in the thousands, I know the rates they can get them for. Super unfortunate that we will be taking our business elsewhere now for majority of our items. Update (1/8/2022): I want to to love this POD vendor so badly since there rates and interface are good, but it seems like every month theres a new issue. Lately they have been sending emails to our already massively jammed email inbox when something is out of stock, and they only give you two days to respond. They used to just put it in the "error" category and it was so much easier, we would swap it for a new garment on our own. Instead, we miss some of the emails, don't realize orders are cancelled, and then customers are mad they have to reorder (and we had no idea for weeks). Also - they are way behind the ball compared to other POD vendors when it comes to adding more variety. For instance, they only have 2 "low tier" hoodie options, when for most sellers those are the most profitable items. I have asked for over a year for them to offer a mid tier/top tier hoodie blank. Also - don't even thick about doing hats or beanies with them - they take weeks to produce and by the time they get to production, the color is 9/10 times out of stock. We just today switched to a new vendor for hats and beanies because this was a daily issue. Update (12/9/2021): Quality seems to have improved, have had under a .5% return request rate over the past few months. My only complaint still is the major out of stock problems we face with items like hats, select colors of blanks, etc. Lastly, and most importantly, they have a very limited selection compared to every other POD vendor. They only offer 2 hoodie blanks... like come on there are hundreds of blanks out there that could easily be stock, especially a "better quality" one compared to Gildan. We still have to use other vendors to get those nice hoodie items, and therefore charge our customers who buy multiple items for shipping twice since it cannot all be done on FUEL. Update (6/19/2021): Quality is not good, had an issue last week and this week. Made a 13 item order, and 8 of them are faulty. Not sure how 8 faulty items are able to sneak by quality control, that must not even exist. Print on them is off centered, front and back, as well as sizing wrong on many of the items. Should not have to worry that my clients are going to make a big order and half of it be faulty. Get what you pay for, now looking for new POD vendor. Update (6/16/2021): Finally, things are mostly back to normal. Shipping is back to normal speeds, MOST items ship within 7 days. Sometimes faster. They did just raise shipping prices which is unfortunate but its the way of the world. Going to keep my rating at 4 stars permanently until they expand their product offering in the categories that matter to the influencer business such as sweatpants and shorts. Also, limited products in the hoodie section (top sellers for influencers). Wish they had a garment like Independent Trading Co or another midweight hoodie, the blanks are only a few dollars more wholesale. A lot of their competition offers it and sadly we have to use them for those products, and therefore have to charge our customers for shipping twice, damaging the customer experience. Would love everything under one roof. Another feature that is needed, custom neck tags. Our business is going to be at the point within the next 3-4 months where we require custom neck tags to uphold the brand identity as we hit new follower milestones, so hopefully they adopt it soon or we will have to jump to a new platform that can accommodate our growth. Update (6/4/2021): Fuel seems to have fixed the MAJOR issues they were having with production, hopefully that does not happen again. If it does, will definitely be my last straw with their service. That being said, they have returned to normal fulfillment times. It seemed like only when I mentioned that I was so unsatisfied that they started to care about giving me updates about the 30 day delays. I had to ask for refunds for old orders when as a company that should be automatic. They need to focus more on being customer centric and I think then they could become a top POD company, but they are long from there. I should not have to ask about refunds for things that should be so obvious especially when we do over 10,000 products a year with them. They also need a wider selection of products to compete with the other POD companies. For hoodies (top seller) they only sell "low tier" hoodies, and do not sell shorts or sweatpants of any kind. Those are major staples in our industry and are now getting those made by the thousands by an overseas vendor and using a 3PL. Wish I could have everything in one platform. Update (5/6/2021): Wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, but we officially hit having orders that are 30 days old, which is completely unacceptable. No clue how it takes 30 days to put an item in a printer. We have started to shop around for a new vendor, but the process of transferring all our orders would be a pain. They refuse to issue refunds for super old orders as an apology which is crazy, so I decided to refund the customers that are this overdue at my own expense, and eat the cost of the item since I still want them to receive it and provide good customer service. Hopefully they can return to normal turnaround times soon or else we will be forced to leave Fuel out of respect for our customers. Original Review: Quality: Not bad for the price. The print comes out right 98% of the time. We have shipped over 7,000 items from them this year and I would say we had issues on about 100 of them. Shipping: Shipping, especially international, can be super slow. Some international shipments take at least a month for delivery. Domestic can be quick, depending on where it ships from and if it is DHL ecommerce or USPS Priority. Turnaround time: This is my biggest complaint. Sometimes they ship stuff out in one day, sometimes it takes a month. We currently have 8 orders that are almost 30 days old. That is not acceptable for any business, and I wish they would recognize that and give some refunds like any other proper business would do. Customer Service: Respond pretty quickly, but sometimes they have a hard time understanding what I am asking for. I think the customer service is international based. The App: The app must be accessed through Shopify, you cannot access it on a standalone website. The system is relatively dynamic, but when you try to change existing items, etc, it gets pretty complicated. Luckily their FAQ gets updated somewhat frequently. Overall: If they could just fix their turnaround time, or at least be sympathetic to their customers when they get promised from customer service that are not kept, they would be able to compete with the big players in POD. I work with other clients that could bring them thousands of orders per year each, but I am refraining from bringing them over to the FUEL because of turnaround times.

April 23, 2021

Avoid this app. There are better POD companies out there. Quality, shipping time, support and every other thing is horrible.

March 19, 2021

Every shirt/ sweater/ hat all came out absolutely perfect. We have unique colors for our brand and they were spot on with our Hue

Feb. 10, 2021

I have worked with many other POD companies over many years. I'm a stickler for quality--that's more important to me than anything else. The ideal is a fantastic quality with a good price--but that's so hard to find. At least, it was, until I found Fuel POD. Their printing quality is some of the best I've ever seen. My designs are complex and detailed, and their prints are crisp, and really capture all of the intricacies involved. Their printing quality alone is enough to consider them a top company to work with. But, then add in that their prices are incredible. They are by far the best value of any POD company I have ever worked with. Their turnaround time is great as well, and they are very receptive to e-mails when something has gone wrong. They are quick to respond, and usually have a solution ready to go. I seem to always work with Luis, and he is incredible. I can't say enough good things about how wonderful he is. He is one of the many reasons I love Fuel POD so much--his warm, caring attitude make it easy to feel like I can reach out for support whenever I need to. Shipping this year has been a struggle with all of the delays USPS was experiencing, but they are always quick to respond and come up with a solution when something has been lost in the mail. This year has been a struggle for so many sellers with global shortages, supply chain breakdowns, and shipping nightmares. But finding Fuel POD in December has been amazing. Signing up with them was one of the best decisions I have ever made for my business. They are an incredible company who cares about their customers, and are a breath of fresh air in the POD world. Thank you for everything y'all do.

Dec. 31, 2020

The only reason they're getting a 2 star is because their prices are really good and I'm hoping the test order I made comes out great as well. It's only been 2 days since I started using Fuel and the headache is present let me tell you. My first issue came from the structure of placing a test order, there isn't any clear instructions on how to do that. There is not button or section where its dedicated towards you placing these kind of orders, its all just in the same place with no detail. Fine, I got through that part but then the most annoying issue I ran into was when my Test order came back with an "error". I messaged customer service and they got back to me the next day with a link to the amount of stock they have. In other words you'll have to personally wake up and check their stock daily and then manually update your items based on the stock they show on their storage link. While you're making the actual product it does not tell you what's in stock and what's out of stock and unlike other drop shippers they 100% allow it to be LIVE and RUNNING on your website without saying a word. What their customer service suggested to me was to replace the color with something similar or another item whenever a customer ordered something that was out of stock. If you don't email them about this they don't inform you either. Again, they do have great prices so I dealt with those issues and updated my items. I thought it couldn't get any worse until today when I noticed I missed out on 4 sales and one of my customers reached out to me letting me know what the problem was. Basically any time an item from Fuel was added to the cart and they attempted to check out it would give them a shipping error telling them they couldn't ship to their area/location. I had to go through Fuel's FAQ section and finally found an answer to this problem, at least I thought I did. Fuel provided instructions on how to resolve this issue by going into my settings and adding fuel to the other shipping settings in your account. I did that but did it solve the issue, no. I also made a shipping profile for Fuel itself and did that fix the issue, no. Now I'm here waiting for a response from customer service but in the mean time I'm going to go look for another drop shipper with equivalent prices even if its a bit higher because these issues and missing out on sales isn't worth a few less bucks. Try at your own risk, Fuel has potential to be great because they do have an advantage with their prices. If they can fix these big issues so many more people would use their services permanently as a first choice, I know I would but right now it only deserves 2 stars and that's me being nice and seeing their potential.

Nov. 29, 2020

So far this app and service has been amazing. The app itself is a little glitchy at times but the quality of products and speed is amazing. I highly recommend you use Fuel!

June 17, 2021

Fuel's customer service is great. I get a response usually within the hour. I can't say enough good things about this service! Great Quality and Fast Shipping

Nov. 10, 2020

Great prices and fast fulfillment. Shipping rates are inexpensive and they ship internationally. Not too much to complain about I have had a few hiccups with their inventory and some small quality issues but overall they are offering a great service at a very low cost.

Oct. 18, 2020

I have used many POD apps and sites but Fuel is the closest I have gotten to a local feeling relationship. When I request certain items being incorporated, a conversation always ensues with Max, and I've seen multiple products introduced because of those conversations. Fuel is focused on their clients' success and their level of customer service surpasses any competitors.

Sept. 21, 2020

Can't recommend Fuel enough. I was spinning my tires with other POD services, but kept running into the same issues. Do yourself a favor: start with Fuel. Their cost is low, the quality is some of the highest I've ever seen in POD. Paired with their *EXCELLENT* customer service, it really is unbeatable.