Gooten: Print on Demand

Of all the POD companies I have worked with and received samples from, Gooten is the most difficult to work with. The specs required are difficult to work with (making repeating patterns wasn't possible), making uploading images for a sample very trying. Then, once I finally got the files approved for printing, there was an issue with billing - which I was not notified about whatsoever. Consequently, I had an order sitting in "billing" for well over a week. Rather than a quick resolution, even that issue (a simple address update) had to wait in their system for another 12 hours before approval. At last the order shipped and the colors of the blanket were muted, the blanket thin, and it was shipped in a polymailer that arrived ripped. Perhaps other products might be better in quality, but after the initial order and the difficulties in getting it made, I am less motivated to try other products from Gooten.

I have been using Gooten for a year. The quality of the products is great, and it integrates well on whole. However they do NOT do well when it comes to addressing valid and fairly significant issues, such as needed original shipping information passed from their manufacturer to the original carrier, then on to USPS, so that I have what I need to file a claim with the carrier for losses when packages are lost. Gooten's response? "Not our problem - explain what to expect to your customer." When I mentioned that their system had no way to note a VAT paid by a UK customer via Etsy custom order, so that the customer wasn't billed for VAT twice, I was told they hadn't heard any complaints yet from their manufacturers, so there was no issue to address. I'm sure customers billed for VAT twice and anyone ordering via Etsy would disagree. The list goes on. Plus, CS is only available via email and can take days. Slowly but surely their refusal to address major problems and deficiencies in their system are outweighing the quality of their product.

Their mug printing and the size of prints they can do on garments is really nice. The biggest problem is their customer service. It takes forever to get a response and if you don’t respond within 12hrs of their response your ticket gets closed. This wouldn’t be a big deal if it happened once or twice but it happens every time. There was one particular issue that really made me rethink their platform, was when I had a T-shirt up for sale. I had a customer buy it but noticed nothing happened on the order for a few days. I emailed 3 times before getting a response. After finally getting a response almost a week and half later, they took an additional week just to tell me the item was discontinued and i would have to make a new item to replace the discontinued item. When asked why no one told me that products where being discontinued I got a “we don’t know” reply. Anyways If you just want to make mugs then use them. If not be willing to deal with a lot of issues