Prints on Canvas

Okay, so coupla weeks ago I was telling you about the deal on canvas prints at Staples and I said I was having one done and would get back to you.

So, I’m getting back to you.

Disclaimer: I have had a long standing grievance with Staples. I tried to buy a laptop there a few years ago and was so rudely treated I swore I’d never do business with them again.

Of course that was all hyperbole cause Staples is the only game in town and you can’t quit doing business with them unless you plan on traveling to another town to buy your office supplies.

So I had a mad on at Staples and that’s enough about that except I wanted to warn you cause I’m going to say some things and I wanted to be sure you understood where I was coming from.

I took am image to Staples.

You’ve seen it before and have probably wished devoutly that it would go away and never show its ugly head again. My guess is Staples wishes exactly the same.

I left the image file with the Print department and went about my business. In less than the two weeks they said I had a call from Staples. They said, something had gone wrong in the printing and would I please come down to the store and bring the original file.

Just what you want to hear right? I had visions of art terrorists taking a bucket of vermillion paint to my image file and doing all manner of nasty graffiti and saying horrible things until I realized that it was an image file and they couldn’t throw paint on it even if they wanted to so that part of my daymare was wrong and I copied the file to a jump drive and went to Staples.

I got a look at the image they had made and it truth it wasn’t even close to what I gave them to work with. The color had made a radical shift into the green range and instead of being a greyscape it was more of a greenscape.

The print shop folks were very nice and apologetic and they offered to send it back and have it reprinted at no additional charge. I thought this was a good idea cause I’ve dealt with color shifts on my own printer and they just happen sometimes so I said sure and gave them the jump drive and went about my merry way.

No I was not making a commentary on my lifestyle just a traditional saying and don’t read anything into it that wasn’t there cause you’d be making a big mistake and just because I am an artists does not mean I have to have a deviant lifestyle, no matter what the House Republicans think. So maybe I should say I went off on my busy way and leave the other adjectives strictly alone until such time as they have been rehabilitated by Tarsus the Good and have been cleansed of all connotative implications.

Again in less than two weeks I had a call and this time it was the Imperial Omnipotent Stomper Print Meister herself and she said. “It happened again.”

So off I went to Staples to have another look. And sure enough the second print was almost exactly like the first one. Peggy, the Wizard of Oz for printing at Staples was very apologetic and without so much as a questioning look gave me a full refund and the canvases cause they aren’t the sort of thing you can resell and hoped the experience wouldn’t sour me on Staples or the Staples print shop.

The very opposite was true, rather than souring me, the experience was so pleasant I have a new attitude toward Staples. They did they job they were paid to do, in the time frame they said it would be done in and they made the prints as described in so much as they had control of the process. The fact that the printer could not match my color scheme was way beyond their control and they made all of the proper corrective measures to insure I would not be out any money even if I did not get what I had originally asked for.

So there is the story of my experience with Staples prints on canvas. The process and the people at Staples were as nice as you could want and made every effort to ensure customer satisfaction that they did not completely succeed was not their fault.

I would say if you have a piece which you want printed on canvas and it has a normalish color scheme take it to Staples. They will do the job and their printer can get the colors right if they aren’t too far from normal.

Me, will I try again? Yes. I’ve had a few days to grow used to my greenscapes and I find that they have grown on me. I may even do a comparison shot so you can see exactly how the colors shifted.

For the price you can beat this offer and you should still try it even if my first experiment wasn’t a rousing success. Just talk to Peggy and she’ll see you right.