Gooten: Print on Demand

June 19, 2018

Not user friendly, SO HARD TO USE compared to other POD apps, customer service is slow,

June 6, 2018

Gooten was a nightmare! The customer service issues over the holidays were the last straw for me. Just as in any line of work, you know the holiday is coming, so be prepared for it. Gooten’s prices are very competitive, but the amount of time I have to spend due to all of the issues and not being able to provide good customer service left me no choice but to switch fulfillment companies. I made the mistake of trying them again for an international order last month – which reminded me exactly why I won’t use them!!! And prompted me to finally submit this review. I don’t see them improving, especially with condescending reps. I do hope they can work out these problems, but I’m not sure how I would ever know if or when they get so many and such large problems sorted out. I am happy with my current fulfillment company they just cost more, but it’s worth it for things to run smoothly, so I don’t see any turning back. 1.) Quality: Gooten products are outsourced and there is no quality control like with other companies. T-shirts are taken off the printer hot, crumpled into a ball & sent to the customers that way! Sometimes the graphics stick to themselves as a result and arrive damaged. If you do not choose a SKU with an underbase, they will go ahead and print it without one and send it to the customer even though the design does not even show up on the shirt. They have a good point that some people ‘want’ a vintage look. But in my cases it was obviously not wanted for the graphic to not show up at all - the point is there is no quality control, it is as if nobody even sees the finished product or cares how it looks. Sometimes the graphics are also crooked. 2.) Shipping: The t-shirt vendor for my products only ships DHL express, so it takes customers over a week to get their orders even after the week it takes to make the shirt(s). If you ship international the order just shows in limbo forever and there is no way to track anything about it. This past month my order just sat somewhere ‘unscanned’ for several weeks with no way to know there was a problem. 3.) Platform: I had a pretty good experience with the platform until they implemented their ‘hub’ and now it is a nightmare. This happened as I was taking my Etsy business to Shopify and building a Shopify store. I had to put off launching my Shopify store for months because I either can’t get my products to stay linked or the fact that it now takes hours to build a single product with multiple variants. You can no longer use a CSV with Shopify without it unlinking all the products on Gooten’s end and having to start over linking every single SKU and graphic. It is very error-prone since you have to completely reselect every SKU and graphic without even a heading at the top as to which shirt design you are working on! Product write-ups are overridden when syncing, so you have to copy and paste those every time you make a change or add a variant. I’ve tried working with them but there is no phone number just email and it’s just too much for me to spend hours, days, weeks and months helping them fix their whole business. 4.) Mockup errors: Many shirts are mocked up with the wrong image color. I have learned that since switching fulfillment companies. So I was using the wrong graphics colors at times the whole time because I thought the mockup was the actual color of the shirt. Also it makes the customer-facing mockups misleading, as people think they are purchasing the color shown. 5.) Customer service: Customer support was the reason I stuck it out and gave them such a long time to get things right; they were great up until I had some problems around the holidays, and then some got condescending. One of my customers received a defective product, and they could not do anything at all to expedite the shirt to her…I couldn’t even pay for anything to be done. The production is outsourced, and there was nothing they could do to get the vendor to prioritize the problems. Also the vendor doesn’t offer any shipping except DHL Express, so I was stuck providing a level of customer service that is not acceptable for my business. I made the mistake of trying Gooten again this past month for an international order, and when my customer made a mistake in the address I got another condescending response (the same lady, I believe!) in a very punishing reply. I get it, someone made a mistake, just help me move forward and take care of the customer!! 6.) ‘Expedited’ inconsistency: There is a huge confusion regarding expedited processing versus expedited shipping. I pay for expedited processing every single time I place an order…it isn’t much and is supposed to bump up the processing time from 12 days to 6 days. But expedited shipping has never been an option. I would use it every time if it were! Some people at Gooten use the two terms interchangeably and even tell me that expedited processing isn’t an option…even though I pay for exactly that every single time I place an order! I'm exhausted; which is how I usually felt back when I was using Gooten!

June 1, 2018

I ordered a sample of many products from Gooten and am overall very happy with the wide range of products and high quality prints. There was a misprint on one item, but it was handled so smoothly and they offered a reprint free of charge. Support is always helpful and very nice to deal with. If you’re looking for custom printing, I’d recommend Gooten!

May 25, 2018

The app overall is great! What I strongly didn't like about it was that it left the "Gooten" option under the product's fulfillment section, despite uninstalling the app. It always makes me feel cautious when a Shopify App is unable to fully remove their coding from your website.

May 25, 2018

I've been using Gooten for a few months now and I'm really pleased with their service. Their support is great, as well as the product quality. It's also the only POD supplier that gives me the freedom to easiliy change the design file after an order has been placed.

Nov. 11, 2019

I have been using Gooten for almost three years now and recommend them to everyone interested in POD services. I've thoroughly tested several other services, and while there are definitely pros and cons, Gooten comes out victorious. I originally joined Gooten just for their great canvas options but quickly switched my entire store (8000+ products on 8 different product types) to Gooten. There was a bit of hurdle moving everything over to Gooten, but this is the case for any big switch. What separates Gooten from the rest beside their huge product catalog is their support. Not just their excellent customer support, but their Partner support. If your store has an obstacle, even if it's unique to you, their partner support team will work extremely hard to find a solution. This is definitely the best Print on Demand service for Shopify!

April 17, 2018

I love Gooten. Their variety of products is greater than the other competitors I've seen. I had a few issues with my products because of a mistake I made and they helped me correct it almost instantly for no extra charge. This is probably one of the best Print on Demand services out there.

March 28, 2018

to difficult to use compared to other POD apps. I think they spent to much time on design and not enough on user friendliness

March 15, 2018

I really want to love this app. They have so many items that are not available anywhere else. But trying to figure out shipping costs is a total nightmare. Every product and product variation differs by state. There is no list for shipping costs until you input the specific parameters. Making it really hard to try to build shipping costs into your retail prices. Even one you have entered the product, you have to search each state separately for costs. Shipping to canada is way higher than other POD services. For example, a shower curtain with liner is $43.57 then $25.61 shipping to Canada. Making the cost almost $70 USD BEFORE markup. A basic 14x14 throw pillow costs $7.98 - but shipping to Canada is a whopping $25.61!!! Last example: Throw Pillow-Spun Polyester -36x36 costs $52.61 plus $38.15 shipping to Canada is $90.76 USD before markup. With the exchange rate, is about $120 Canadian - FOR ONE PILLOW. I badly want to use Gooten for so many things... but I also do want customers to run screaming from my store when they see some of the pricing. Hopefully in the future this will get a little better. For now, I can find better pricing on etsy. :(

Jan. 30, 2018

Mockups are hard to use, so I gave up on using this one. Maybe I might give it another try if they come up with a more seamless way of generating mockups.

Jan. 23, 2018

I love them but... Their imaging sizing requirements have always been an issue for me. I even ordered a sample blanket, and even though it met the requirements, it still did not come out right. The customer service is great, just the imaging requirements could be a little clearer or more cut and dry

Jan. 3, 2018

I wanted to experiment with Gooten because they had a great range of product which I couldn't find from other suppliers - turns out they don't supply everything under one roof, all they do is act as a middle-man to manufacturers. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but it means that because a single shopping cart will be sourced from multiple locations, cost of shipping nearly doubled the initial cost of my sample cart - I suspect it would be cheaper to go with a more expensive supplier that ships everything from under one roof (plus the security of dealing directly with the manufacturer and not a middle-man, and the satisfaction/ease of everything arriving in one box). Not a realistic solution for anyone trying to source multiple products through them.

Jan. 8, 2018

Horrible. I've had to contact support multiple times to fix issues with orders. I have about 25-50 orders that should have made it by Christmas, but have some unknown hold on them. I have not been reached out to about this, and new orders continue to be put on hold. It would be nice if they fixed this issue or gave you some sort of reason your order goes on hold. As far as I know, the quality of products is nice, when they actually do get sent. Update 1/8/18: STILL have not fixed this issue. Support finally responded, about 5 days after my initial email. However, did not fix the issue.

Dec. 20, 2017

So far, Gooten's customer service is incredibly satisfying. Responses were made a day top after you email them a question. I am new to online business and the whole dropshipping concept, but with Gooten, everything is made easy, including the whole publication process of your first product. Starting from their preference settings to their UI, everything is designed with convenience in mind. However, I have not reached the ordering stage, I am still uncertain about the finishing product including the printing quality. Yet, with all the positive experience so far, I am looking forward to posting another positive review.

Oct. 29, 2017

It was promising with all the catalogue options since other printing apps don't have a large selection like Gooten. PROS: 1. Shipping is prompt. CONS: 1. The baby bib was really poor quality 2. 3 prints came with creases so if it was sent directly to my customer, I would've had a major complaint coming my way. Not sure I can trust for future usage. 3. The app is hard to maneuver. You have to select all the item descriptions before you can see if the image works with the t-shirt. You also can't see what each t-shirt looks like with the right color options on the product catalogue.

Oct. 1, 2017

When I created a product, It disappeared upon saving. I could only find again after trying to create the product again. Nothing but grief trying to get this app to work. Saving one section on a page meant losing another section on that page. Great selection of products, lots of potential. It just wouldn't work for me, and it wouldn't load pages consistently. (was working with phone cases)

Aug. 18, 2017

There are a lot of options, and the turnaround times aren't bad. But the quality? Terrible. I ordered 2 products that I have ordered from other companies and the canvas mini was printed incredibly crooked and the easel back wasn't attached. The accessory pouch I ordered had a poor print and felt super cheap compared to other POD pouches I've ordered. (I paid for these samples, they were not the free ones - I wanted to make sure what I was getting was realistic) Order samples to make sure the quality is what you are expecting.

Oct. 11, 2017

I was a bit confused on how to create a product at first, but after a short while it was easy to get used to. I've used a bunch of different, but similar companies, and this one by far is my favorite! I love the amount of options and that it actually tells you if the size is correct and fits properly. That is an issue I've had with other apps. I highly recommend it!. I can see how some of the people in a few of the other reviews were confused, but if you give it just a bit, you'll be happy you used Gooten. If I could change one thing though, it would be how they handle shipping for my store. I don't like how I have to manually figure out the shipping cost for each items. I wish they would make it more simple. Their customer service is impeccable! I receive a response back the same day if it is during business hours and they always find a solution to the problem. Overall, this is a great company and every physical product I have received has been awesome :)

July 30, 2017

A Nightmare to use. Let's say I want to create a baby onesie with my own print. I want to offer it in multiple sizes and colors. Any other POD app I have used, lets you see the colors available in a way that quickly allows you to decide whether your print works on a certain color. A few check boxes to choose what you want after uploading your design and you're done. With Gooten, you get a text list of all the different combinations of colors and sizes available, making it a nightmare to choose what you're looking for and sometimes impossible to know whether your print will look good on a certain color because you can't see that color until you select it and move to the next screen. The pricing is all over the place with small variations in garment prices as well as shipping prices. So if you choose to price your product the same way, your margins will be different on pretty much every item you sell. If you price them differently, it'll make it almost impossible to manage later if you want to raise or lower prices. Want to offer a tank top? The company offers 6 types but due to color and size variations you have to scroll through 73 (yes!) pages of tank tops to choose the ones you're looking for. You can filter, which is nice, but what good is filtering by name of product if I have no idea what this product looks like. The reason this app gets 2* instead of just 1 is that it looks very promising. They do have A LOT of options and the base prices for some of the products are decent. Sometimes I wish other POD apps had some of the customization options Gooten is offering. I will check it again in a few months and hopefully they'll improve it by then. Until then, I'm sticking with other services.

July 14, 2017

FANTASTIC program with great customer service! Very easy to use! and the products are top notch! Could not be happier!