As you might have guessed I chose to get the photo shown below printed. It is one of my current favourites afterall. I'll start with the points that most people are likely to care about before moving on to the points that I really like to consider.
Overall:
Overall, for a new company that appears to have used a TreatMe special to launch itself and possibly push itself beyond its comfortable capacity (contact on an unrelated topic suggested that the people in charge were overwhelmed with demand), PixelPaint have done an exceptional job. In fact if they can fix the issues with their canvas's unidentified gsm (weight) rating and add some kind of reporting to their my orders section they'll be able to score a solid 10/10. If not they still deserve a high 8.
***Update***
The canvas weight has now been confirmed as 240gsm - reporting of progress in the my orders section still leaves a lot to be desired.
Placing Your Order:
Uploading the file was simple and ran exactly the way you would expect it to if you are used to snapfish or even facebook. Completing the ordering process was also hassle free.
Print Accuracy:
The colours and edges are exactly as I expected them to be. Full marks here and some solid back-up to their claims about their obsessive nature.
Assembly:
The frame is strong and the canvas is thoroughly stapled in place. Additionally the canvas is strong enough to withstand solid knocks (while I have seen some canvas suppliers punch their demo canvases at full strength I'd rather not subject my baby to that particular test).
Usability:
Somewhat unexpectedly the canvas comes ready to hang with a band across the back. While some may suggest that this is unnecessary (you can just hang them using the wooden frame) it is nice to have the extra option available.
Packaging:
The canvas was well packed in a good-fitting box. It was also wrapped in bubble wrap fro added security. It should be fine if the package gets caught in light rain. I am unsure about heavy rain.
Brand:
The pixelpaint site has a really refreshing and clear voice. It makes you want to be friends with it (or at least the person who wrote the content). However the best thing about their brand is that they are aiming for quality and they are prepared to take responsibility for producing quality results.
Technical Info:
The information they provide is enough to put your average punter at ease but the lack of information on the gsm rating (weight) of the canvas is unfortunate. It would be great if this could be tested and updated. Even a rough estimate would be nice (and would be in line with the languag-branding of the site).
Customer Service:
While these issues are vaguely addressed in the FAQ section on the site it would be great to see this kind of reporting integrated into the My Orders section of the site. From the time my order was submitted to the time it arrived this screen remained unchanged in my account.
The key reason that the lack of information on the my account page is frustrating is the vague timelines supplied in the FAQ section. Canvases take 8-10 working days to process but may take longer if a defect is found in the canvas. The FAQ provides no indication of how long this additional delay is likely to be and, once the 8-10 day limit passes, you are encouraged to not contact pixelpaint staff as it is probably on the way. Once again this issue of doubt could be resolved by adding a progress report to the my orders section of the site.
Extra Notes:
Order placed: July 12th, 2011
Order Received: August 1st, 2011
Postage Date: Unmarked
Thanks for the review of our service and product, it is absolutely fantastic to hear feedback from our customers and we’re glad to see that your overall ‘mark’ was so complimentary.
ReplyDeleteAs you mention, there is still some work to do in some areas to ensure expectations are being met, so what are we doing about it? Well, our primary goals are to speed up production and remove the single points of failure that can jeopardise the scheduled dispatch of your beloved canvases. Some weak spots were highlighted the week before last when we had a printer problem, a compressor break down and a double mitre saw collide, all in the space of two days! This put us behind with production which then had a knock on effect to customer service, which was compounded by lots of enquiries from the Auckland customers with vouchers that were about to expire. It was an interesting week to say the least and all this excitement would have been enough to push out the delivery time you mention by a few days.
Needless to say we replaced the broken compressor, fixed our printer and our double mitre saw. We have also purchased an additional printer and a grunty PC to run both printers at full speed, a rotary sander for sanding the corners of the frames, set up another canvas stretching station and fixed a long standing bottle neck with our laminating. We are also about to upgrade our packaging to a branded box which will speed up packaging times (and make it look prettier, we all know that’s the most important bit). So production is pretty much scaled up now and should run much smoother.
On the communication front, I totally agree that needs work. Step one was to hire a customer service person, which we have now done. Emma starts in just over two weeks and until then we have Janette helping us out. Step two is to reduce the need for customers to contact us, by providing them useful updates on what is happening with their order and a tracking number for their parcel. Our initial intention was to provide this via email, but in reality this was not a workable solution due to the way our batching works and the impact of reprints (I won’t bore you with the details). I met with our developers yesterday and they will be working on this with our couriers for the next couple of weeks, and we’re hoping to have some sort of barcode system in place soon which feeds into the My Account page. Your suggestions here are all sensible and make perfect sense.
Fair comment on the vague turnaround times. Things have changed as we’ve got more orders, but we are trying to bring all of this into line with an easier to understand ‘14 days’ and this is now be rolled out on our website, confirmation emails and on all new Treat Me deal pages.
As for the gsm rating, we’ll get onto this and update the FAQ. Even if it is to say it’s a three quarters grandmother and one quarter pig skin.
We are dedicated to bringing the vision and promise to reality, and whilst we have often been pushed out of our comfort zone with orders, it has forced us into making decisions that we may not have made otherwise. This in turn has helped to grow the business for the better. It’s all a learning curve and we’re glad to hear from supportive and constructive customers such as yourself.
Cheers!