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Review 7/2/2010
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Terrible! Bad! Dishonest!------I'm starting a t-shirt company and I'm very new to this industry. This is turning out to be a very expensive learning experience.Our artwork, to be printed on shirts, is detailed with shadows and I've been told that can be very difficult to print using a four color silk screen process. After a failed attempt by a company called Broken Arrow (the artwork came out nearly black on the shirt) I went to the ISS Convention that was held in Long Beach to see if someone else could tackle the job or recommend a better way. All of the silk screeners I talked to wouldn't touch the project citing the artwork was too detailed. However, the heat transfer companies said they could do the job.I hired Art Brands and now have more than enough transfers in my possession. Another obstacle I encountered was that one of the illustrations meant for the back of the t-shirt was over sized measuring 16'' X 23''. Finding anyone who can press a heat transfer that big was challenging, but I found one.Special T's stepped up to the challenge... sort of. Brent Komorous of Special T's said he could do the job for $2.00/shirt. There were 48 shirts of different sizes and on each shirt I needed the over sized transfer on the back, another different transfer on the front, and a label inside the collar. After an unsuccessful attempt, Brent referred me to a gentleman named Alberto Flores of Art On Giclée.I talked to Alberto and told him my situation. He said he'd see what he could do and offered to pick up the blank shirts and transfers that were located at Special T's approximately 15 minutes away. We talked price. He originally wanted to charge me $6.00/shirt. That's almost twice the cost of the blank t-shirt. I talked him down to $4.50. Alberto cited that it would take him at least 3 hours and that he works at $75/hr. There were now a total of 47 shirts to be pressed since Brent with Special T's ruined one. That comes to 3.82 min/shirt if that's how long it truly takes.Alberto ran into problems with the over sized transfer as well. The middle part of the transfer was not adhering to the shirt. After about 4 shirts and him talking with the people who sold me the transfers I get "good news" that Alberto has figured it out. He sends me a pic of a shirt via his cell to mine. It looks great from what I can see.I go to pick up the t-shirts, about a 45 minute drive, and he shows me a shirt. It looked good. I think I looked at one more off the top of several that were in a big box. That one looked good as well. At the time I didn't think I needed to inspect the whole box. The full chest transfer on the shirts I inspected looked good. The small logo over the right chest area looked good. I thought for a sec that maybe the small logos were a little too low, but dismissed the idea because it was hard to judge without someone wearing the shirt.Alberto did a count of how many shirts were in the box. he counted 43. The total of the invoice came to about $300. The rate per shirt was more than what we had discussed. He said he had factored in a "set up" fee. That set up fee was the time he spent trying to get the transfer to adhere correctly to the shirt. I asked him what about the money I lost for the four shirts and transfers that were ruined while trying. He said he'd deduct it from my next order and not charge a "set up" fee since he now knows how to press the transfers now. I also questioned a sales tax that was added in. He took that off.The final invoice was for a total of 47 shirts at a rate of $5.32 for a total of $250.00. Again, four shirts were ruined out of the 47, but yet I was still charged for those shirts. I guess he factored in the "set up" fee to cover those as well.The next day I started to deliver my shirts to my customers. I brought the whole box with me since I didn't have time to go through the box and separate the shirts by type and size. This is when I realized not only were the logos that were supposed to be over the left chest area were below the left breast, but also, that the illustrations on the back of the shirts were spotty, faded, and/or pealing. Also, some shirts were dirty and/or stained. Alberto warned me about some stains, but said it wouldn't be any trouble to get them out. He made light of the issue, so I didn't think anything of it.Out of the 43 shirts that Alberto was supposed to give me ready to sell, I was able to use only five of them. I sent him a text stating that most of the shirts were "spotty" and the logos were way to low. After not hearing from Alberto that day (Friday), I sent him an email explaining that it didn't surprise me that I didn't hear from him. In summary I told him it was a combination of black stains, spotty transfers, and misplaced logos well below the left chest area that lead me to believe he does not want to see me again. Alberto never offered to reimburse me or do the job over. After such poor results and being sick of the whole thing, I didn't ask. Here's an email I sent Alberto:
Bryan Zardenet to Alberto show details Jun 18 (13 days ago) Albert,Out of the 43 shirts that you worked on, I only feel I can use five of them. I sent you a text concerning this matter, and as expected I didn't get a response. Sending sub par work like this is not a good indication of good work ethics. The combination of black stains, spotty transfers, and misplaced logos well below the left chest area says in itself you do not want to see me again. Mission accomplished. This last email, and a rating on yelp; you won't hear from me again.Bryan Zardeneta CEO Hard Garb LLC HardGarb.comThis is Alberto's response via email:
Alberto Flores
to Bryan show details Jun 19 (12 days ago) Brian,I never received your text. Sorry, I left to Big Bear yesterday morning for the weekend and been on the mountain all day no phone here., Iam an adventure Racer and I use the weekends for training and family, not expecting any phone calls from work.As I told you the first time when I saw your work is very complicated, You know is the wrong way to produce any T-shirts, even that I have put my time on your project more then 6 hours total since we spoke the first time, I went to pick up your shirts from Specilt's, I was honest with you from the first time, I put more time on your project on top of that you dont want to pay the price.I understand you dont have any idea on how to get this business going and you know you start on the wrong way.After reading this email from you tell me what kind of business person you are, the only thing I did is helping you for a minumum fee and with a big heart, Im an honest and proffesional on what I do, reason Iam on business for the last 20 years. Can not beleive a no answer or a text the I didn reply is going to break a business relationship and a rating online. Remember, I do lots of business with the Marines Corps, Air force etc. and know many screen printers out there.Bless.H Alberto Flores
Art On Giclee, Inc. a división of Flow Media & Graphics, LLP
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