| FAQs
(Frequently Asked Questions)
How do I place an order?
For accuracy & cost efficiency, all orders should
be placed within the secure on-line e-commerce portion
of the Business Card Source website. When you click
on a price or "add to
cart" button, you will be taken to the
ordering forms (verifying product, tax & shipping),
then to your secure area for billing and shipping information,
then to final checkout. New orders now have 2 skus instead
of one (one for product [which is taxable] and one for
design [which is not taxable]). For more info about
secure ordering you can read more at On-Line
Security & Privacy.
If you are using our on-line design studio,
you will create your design, see it, approve it and
order it from our studio site. All terms and conditions
of our studio site will prevail.
How do I place a RE-ORDER?
You may place a re-order in a number of ways:
- If it is a business card or punch card order, place
the order within the secure on-line e-commerce portion
of the Business Card Source website at http://www.businesscardsource.com/reorder.htm
and putting "on file" in the ordering instructions
OR
- Call us and tell us that you want to reorder the
job (tell us for who/what). lf you have multiple jobs,
please specify which job you want to reorder. If you
leave a message we will call you back if we need clarification
or current credit card information OR
- Send us a message via
email stating which order you wish to reorder
(company name or person's name), the volume (# of
cards), and we will respond within 24 hours to your
email.
After
I submit my custom order, what happens next?
After you submit your order via the secure on-line
ordering portion of the main Business Card Source website
(not the on-line design site), you should send us, via
email, your photos, logos, or other images for the
job. We will contact you if we have any questions about
your job or if your order is missing anything.
When we are doing your
design (when you are not using the on-line design site)
and we have everything we need from you, you will receive
a proof, via email, within 24 hours of a complete order.
You will have the opportunity to either approve that
proof or request changes to it (and get another proof).
Once you approve the proof,
the job is transmitted electronically to a high volume
press for print sequencing. (See Turn-Around Time below
for more information.)
What
is your TURN-AROUND TIME compared with others?
When you order custom design cards (where our designers
are involved) and provide all of the information and
or photos we need, you will receive a proof,
via email, within 24 hours
or less. (The
industry standard for professional proofs is 3 business
days.)
See Turnaround times for
a complete listing. Certain products, order sizes, or
paper takes longer. If
you need the fastest turn-around, you should purchase
the RUSH
SERVICE option and/or ask about faster shipping
options by sending us an email.
We currently ship all
jobs via UPS. (The
industry standard is Ground; usually 3-5 business days
of shipping -- depending upon where you want your product
shipped -- once your job has actually printed.)
RUSH
ORDERS?
If you need your business cards faster
than regular processing, you have the option above to
add RUSH service to your order which will decrease the
total PRESS turn-around by half (except during holidays
when "rush orders" are not physically possible).
See Turnaround times for
a complete breakdown.
Be advised that orders
for 1000 cards receive more priority in press print
sequencing than orders for 500 or 250 because
1000 is a standard run and 500 (or 250) is a "short
run".
You also have the option of requesting 2nd day shipping
if you are using our main site and you send us an email
request for pricing on that option - (with the appropriate
increase in shipping charges). If you are using our
professional do-it-yourself site, that system has more
shipping options built into it.
One of the key
ingredients to getting your order DONE
is to monitor your email
often after placing an order. If we
are doing your design (i.e. you are not doing it yourself
on-line or you have not sent us a "print-ready"
file from your designer) we WILL be sending you an email
within 24 hours with your proof. You
have to approve the proof before it is released to the
press for print sequencing.
You can request (via email) pricing on next day Air
from the press but few clients want to pay that kind
of shipping cost.
It is currently not possible to rush POSTCARD and MAGNET
orders.
How
can you provide FULL COLOR business cards so inexpensively?
Utilizing brokered "Gang Printing" at multi-million
dollar presses, we are able to provide our clients with
professional full color printing at a fraction of retail
store-front cost. This method combines your job with
24 other jobs on a high speed high volume digital press.
This reduces set-up cost. All work is carried out by
skilled professionals, on state of the art equipment,
to assure you some of the best printing the industry
and today's technology has to offer.
Can I combine orders to save money?
While you can NOT combine 2 orders
of 500 to get 1,000 pricing, you CAN
combine two 500 card jobs to get better pricing
on shipping (the "print rule" is each separate
press run is "a job"; but (in shipping) twice the weight
does not currently translate into double the shipping
cost -- as long as you are shipping both "jobs"
to the same address).
What card stock is used on business cards and post cards?
Our full color business cards are printed on professional
quality 14 point white cover card stock using a full
color (CMYK) digital printing. (14 pt is approximately
140#.) Using CMYK color, we can make your cards
just about ANY color.
Do you do FOIL or EMBOSSING on business cards?
No. Our full color business cards are printed using
CMYK color processes in gang type printing processes.
i.e. your job is one of 48 jobs on a single sheet. Using
CMYK color, we can make the text on your cards just
about ANY color. Additionally, some marketing experts
no longer consider foil or embossing as an effective
gimmick to increase sales. We would suggest you
check with a small hometown business that does lithography
printing as they may still have the equipment to
do these kind of jobs. Be aware that special plates
will need cut do do either of these processes (and at
an extra cost).
GLOSS
coatings?
Yes, we CAN do it. You need to indicate that you want
a gloss coating if you are ordering single or double
sided cards. Be aware that you can NOT write
on the side of a card that has a gloss coating on it.
If you order Full Color Front with nothing
on the back (4-0) or Full Color Front Black text on
the back (4-1 ) cards or on Full Color Both Sides (4-4)
cards as long as you select "gloss front, no
coating back", you will be
able to write on the back of the card.
My
proof's color looked fine on my monitor at home, but
when I received my product, the color looked different?
Why?
There is no current color standard or calibration methology
for manufacturers of monitors, scanners and printers.
This is true even if you view the same file on two different
monitors. Also, most monitors display color in a RGB
format. Our printing is done in a CMYK
format (the same as professional magazine printing).
For this reason, we can not guarantee the final color
of your digital image (and neither can any professional
printer). For the best results, you should always send
us the best possible photo and thoroughly read our photo
guidelines and specifications
informational page: it contains some great tips for
the best professional results.
What
do I need to know about sending you my photo or logo?
All photos and images MUST be 350 dpi or greater
to look good in professionally printed output. On digital
cameras, set your camera to a 1200 x 600 or better resolution.
(For example; a 3.1 mega-pixel camera set on it's highest
resolution will be fine.)
TRICK:
If you have your folder options on a PC set to "Thumbnail"
view of your images, when you move your mouse button
over an image a little info screen will appear and tell
you your image's dimensions and size. The
greater these numbers, the more likely we can use that
image. Example: Dimensions 700 x 700 Size
122KB
On scanners, use a scan resolution of (CMYK) color,
350 dpi or greater AFTER you clean the glass of smudges,
dust, etc.
We can use images in
.TIF, .EPS, .PSD, .JPG &/or .PDF formats.
The example below is
HOW THE SAME PHOTO OR LOGO would differ in the format:
EPS 449
kbytes (good)
TIF 204 kbytes (good)
PDF 180 kbytes (good)
JPG 40.7 kbytes (maybe)
GIF 6.7 kbytes (bad - wouldn't look good)
PNG 6.1 kbytes (bad -- wouldn't look good)
We can NOT use .PUB (Microsoft
Publisher) files as "print-ready" -- we can
use it if you save it as a .PDF file (with 350 dpi resolution).
It is best if you send us the original
photo without any modifications to
it by your software programs. It is fastest for your
to email us your photos or logos and you may do so by
clicking on the link towards the bottom of most of our
web pages. NOTE that you should always reference your
order number in the subject line of your email to us
so that we can match your photo or logo with your
order. If your images are too large to email, contact
us and we will send you easy to use FTP instructions
so that you can upload your files to our server. If
you are unsure if your image is acceptable, email us
the image(s) and we will advise you accordingly. For
more tips & information about photos; see photo
guidelines.
Can
you use my designer's files?
Yes, if you have a professional designer, we will work
with them to ensure that they send us your files in
a format that we can go directly to print from. We
have posted file specifications on our web site specifically
to assist designers in doing so; see design
specs. We use Adobe PhotoShop software
in all of our professional design work. We typically
do NOT send proofs out to people who send us their own
"print-ready" files unless you specifically
request that we do so.
Can
you send me proofs before I place an order?
For all existing clients who are re-ordering
and changing their on-file design or layout, YES.
ALL NEW CLIENTS MUST PLACE AN ORDER TO SEE /
GET A PROOF if you are using our designers'
time. Due to the amount of designer time (i.e. $ in
cost) it takes to produce a proof and our volume of
paying clients, we do NOT provide "samples"
other than what you see on our website.
If you have questions about client satisfaction, please
see the testimonials page
of our website. 75% of our clients approve the 1st proof,
15% approve the 2nd proof, 8% approve the 3rd proof,
and 2% approve the proof after paying for more extra
proofs because of changes to their original concept/request.
During the past 3 years, we have a client satisfaction
rating of 99.5%; exceeding, by far, the printing &
design industry standards.
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