Thia & Co

Dan Gerber _{on Google}

Mar 21st, 2013

I would not trust Dan to print the lottery tickets that are routinely created in convenience stores countless times a day.
Starting in December, my fiancee and I met with him. After selecting fonts, designs, colors, and paper, we decided to bring back her mother to go over the wording. Two weeks later, Dan "couldn't remember" and "couldn't read his notes" regarding our choices, forcing us to go through everything again. At this point, he told us that "there was no reason our invitations should not be ready by mid-February." He prepared an invoice, noting also that he had additional services, such as assembling the invitations. Both my fiancee and myself thought that would be best, and he rewrote the invoice to include the price of assembly. Her mother indicated that the assembly was on the original invoice, but Dan noted that the assembly was not included. He gave us a the final estimate, which included assembly and took our deposit in mid December.
Within a few days, I contacted him inquiring about meeting with my parents, who would be visiting in mid-January, for possibly doing invitations for the rehearsal dinner. Over the course of a month, I sent him three emails. He contacted me the day after I sought to meet with him, at which time my parents had already returned home. Throughout the entire time, he had contacted my fiancee via email, but apparently decided that he did not need additional business. This was a blessing in disguise.
Come mid-February, we contacted him asking when we might be able to pick up the envelopes to having them addressed in calligraphy. Despite initially stating that "there was no reason the invites would not be ready" by then, Dan had not even ordered the envelopes yet. Albeit, the proofing process was onerous and lengthy, but that should not have had any effect on his ability to order the envelopes. Further, the process was lengthy because Dan had decided that he knew better than the customer as to what should be included on our invitation. Despite making our intentions and desires clear, Dan felt the need to draw up the invitation he wanted to print, and only assent to our wishes after we stated that his proofs were not what we wanted. He further stated that he would "look up" the contact information of our venues, but would not be heard from for over a week at a time.
Finally, on March 1, Dan said the envelopes were ready to be picked up. When we did, he said that the invitations would be ready in "10 days, 14 max." An astute reader will note that this is one month after they were supposed to be ready. 20 days later, my fiancee emailed him, which he promptly ignored. After another several days, she called him, where he finally told us that the invitations were in fact ready. When we picked them up, he had not assembled them. Despite the ordeal regarding the pricing, his adjusting his invoice, and having his handwritten quote, Dan neglected to note for himself that he was supposed to assemble them. Fortunately, he did so within a few days, and at a slight discount.
After finally mailing the invites, an invited guest noted that the phone number that was listed for the hotel was actually the phone number for the church at which we will be married. Although Dan did refund the price of that card, we would gladly have paid the money to have the invitations done properly, in a timely fashion, by someone who exhibited some sense of customer service and any semblance of communication skills.