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Invitation & Design Reviews
Started good but ended badly
This is a review of:

Sproullie Designs Invitations

Detailed Ratings
Communication:
0.0
Performance:
3.0
Value:
2.0
ceneuman

By ceneuman, · 1,254 Views · 8 Comments

Pros: Quality product, beautiful designs
Cons: horrible communication, does not respond to emails, does not give contact phone number, does not stick to start dates, very stressful to deal with

We initially began working with them to make our save the dates, ceremony invitations, receptions invitation, and place cards. We later added program fans and bridal shower invitations. Everything was to be custom designed except for the bridal shower invitations. Our save the dates and ceremony invitations turned out beautiful. Sarah and her team responded promptly to my emails and stuck to their start dates. We also had a great experience with our bridal shower invitations. However, after that the problems started. Our next big project was the reception invitations. Our start date came and went without any emails from Sarah or her team. I emailed them several times asking the status of our order since I had not even received a first draft and our final deadline was fast approaching. Finally, almost 3 weeks after the start date, we received a draft. Ultimately, our reception invites turned out great regardless of the added stress.

 

Because of that, we decided to continue to work with sproullie designs for our program fans and place cards (even though I was nervous at this point, but I wanted all of my paper items to match). Our wedding was on August 5th, 2012. Once again, our start date for our last paper items came and went with no emails from Sarah. Once again I emailed Sproullie Designs every couple of days asking what the status of our order was since we had not even received a first draft. Cut to three weeks before the wedding and still not even a response to any of my emails or a draft. I began looking into other vendors when Sarah finally sent me an email back on July 12th (the last email I had received from anyone at Sproullie Designs was June 6th) saying, "didn't you get the email about me being on vacation all summer? You must not have - because I see about 20 emails from you in the last week. I'm checking emails remotely from my camper while on vacation right now. I'm planning to finish up your order next week. I am taking very limited orders this summer and doing everyone's projects in order of wedding date"

 

I found her email very rude. Obviously I had not received any message saying she'd be out of town ALL summer, and 20 emails was definitely an exaggeration. Of course, it being that close to the wedding with no response from them was making me very nervous. Also, why would you take any projects if you were going to be out of town all summer? And what is the point of a start date if you are all of a sudden doing projects in order of wedding date? Needless to say, I was not happy at that point. Soon after, I read a review from another customer of their etsy page that gave them negative feedback and complained of several of the same things (lack of communication, no response to emails, not sticking to start dates) so I decided to go with some of the other vendors that I had been speaking to (who actually wanted our business at that point). I emailed Sarah to tell her and she was more than happy to watch us go. After already spending 1000+ dollars with Sproullie Designs, they let us go without even blinking an eye (how nice?).

 

Overall, when you actually do receive their product, it is fantastic. But the added stress (especially right before the wedding) was definitely not worth it

8 Comments


There are many false statements in this review that I needed to address:

1. “Sproullie Designs keeps taking down their bad reviews” – Caitlin is referring to a review on Etsy in which there was a major miscommunication with one of our brides and an email the client never received. We reached out to the client and she voluntarily took her review down.

2. “Our start date came and went without any emails from Sarah or her team”. What she fails to mention, is that during that time, we squeezed in another order for her, which normally has a 5 week turnaround. We completed it from receiving the order to IN HER HANDS in 10 days. We exchanged several emails during that time. Yes, her other invitation order was put on hold during that time, but the second order was expedited at no additional cost.

 

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...continued...

3. Re: program fans and place cards order. We took a very limited design schedule over the summer to accommodate a couple of vacations for myself and my three assistants. We work over 90 hours a week from January to May and take some family time during the summer. I sent an email in late June to my clients that had projects going on in early July to let them know that I would be in and out of the office for the next 3 weeks and that I would be occasionally available by email, but would be working on their projects remote from my office and would be in contact upon my return. Apparently she did not receive this email. I don’t know what happened to it, as I can see it in my outbox, but over the next week or so she sent several emails checking on the status of her order, which I did not respond to as I was not in my office, nor did I have consistent internet access where I was vacationing. When I did receive her emails, I immediately responded to let her know we were out of town, but there was plenty of time to complete her project. She responded and as far as I knew, everything was fine. I began design on her project.

 

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...continued...

4. “I emailed Sarah to tell her [about cancelling the order] and she was happy to watch us go.” This is also not true. I’d already begun design work on her programs and never had received a deposit for them as I provide program design as a complimentary service to my previous clients. This is the email I received from Caitin, out of the blue, after we had exchanged several more emails and had continued moving forward with her project: “Sarah, At this point, we’ve decided to order through another company for our wedding programs. Thank you again for all the work you’ve done for us. We absolutely loved our save the dates, bridal shower invites, ceremony invites, and reception invites. Thanks again, Caitlin.” As a side note: Caitlin decided to cancel her order for seating cards before we cancelled the program order as the type of seating cards she wanted were out of her budget. I figured she’d just decided to go with another vendor who might be doing them cheaper (happens all the time) and I responded with: “OK. It’s been great working with you. Congratulations! All the best, Sarah”. I wasn’t “happy to watch them go”, especially since I’d done design work I wasn’t going to get paid for. Nor did I send her a bill for the program design. I felt bad about the missed email a couple weeks earlier and rather than try to recoup anything for my design time, simply wished her well.

 

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...continued...

I have several emails from Caitlin in which she’s very happy about the 3 sets of invitations she received from us. I thought we’d parted ways pleasantly. If I’d had any indication otherwise I would have been happy to work something out with her. Unfortunately I was never give the opportunity, as her review was the first I’d heard from her since she cancelled her order.

 

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This sounds similar to my experience with Sarah and her company. I knew that 100% positive feedback on Etsy was too good to be true. I will be writing a detailed review on my horrific experience with this company when I get a chance.

 

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It seems silly that this is still going on months later...Even though you have now asked me to remove this review, I do not feel that I should take it down because I think people have a right to know what my experience was like and make decisions for themselves.

I was referring to the etsy post that was removed, but I was also referring to my weddingwire review which was taken down by you.

If adding my additional orders was going to be a problem (specifically, if it was going to affect my previous orders or "put them on hold"), it would have been nice to know. You could have let me know that things were going to take longer because of it. Instead, I had no idea why things were taking longer than expected.

Also, I did not go to another vendor because I couldn't afford your place cards. I had been told by you or someone from your company what the price was going to be for seating cards. When it finally came around to designing and paying for the seating cards, the price had more than doubled. You stated that there had been some sort of miscommunication with the price, but it was frustrating to me to find out how much the price had increased. And yes, at that point I had found another vendor who would do what I wanted for cheaper, but if it wasn't for all of the communication problems, I probably would have stayed with your company despite the more expensive price because I was happy with my previous paper products, and I wanted everything to match...

You've stated before that you sent an e-mail saying you'd be out of town, but I never received it. When you finally did respond to me, I felt that you were rude. And I truly think that that was uncalled for. Overall, I think that all of these problems came down to communication issues. If there had been better communication throughout this process, there probably wouldn't be a bad review up for your company.

I am not saying anything bad about your designs or your products. They are both great, and I was incredibly happy with the products that I did receive from you. However, the bad review is for all of the added (and unnecessary) stress that my husband and I had to go through so close to our wedding day.

 

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