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Vistaprint Still Sucks (pt 3)

I swear, you just can’t make this stuff up.

From VistaPrint’s privacy policy:

Deactivation of Your Account. You may also request deactivation of your VistaPrint account by contacting Customer Care at customercare@vistaprint.com or by writing to the address below and requesting account deactivation. Please note that some information may remain in our archived records after your account has been deactivated.

VistaPrint Address for Written Requests. If you choose to indicate your preferences by mail, please be sure to include your exact name, mailing address, telephone number and specific preferences and send your written requests to the following address

VistaPrint Limited
c/o VistaPrint USA Incorporated
Customer Care
95 Hayden Avenue
Lexington MA 02421
USA

So last night (Tuesday the 7th at 6:51pm) I sent this email message to the email address customercare@vistaprint.com (one of the two ways to deactivate my account):

Greetings,

Please deactivate my Vistaprint account. I do not want to get email message from Vistaprint. Or you Partners. Or your Affiliates. I do not want you to continue sharing any of my personal information with Anyone, any other entity. This includes my name, telephone number, email address, and postal mailing address. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Michael

This morning I received a spam sent to my Vistaprint email address. See Vistaprint Still Sucks (pt 2) for details.

I have just received an email from Vistaprint with a time stamp of Wed August 8th at 7:31pm. This message was sent more than 24 hours after I sent my note to them. So they either have a horrible email infrastructure, or this was not an auto-response message, it was sent by a person. Here the message (I added line breaks for legibility):

Dear Valued VistaPrint Customer:

In order to respond to you as quickly as possible, we are sending this automated response to your recent e-mail. At this time VistaPrint only offers customer service by toll-free telephone. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

We invite you to call us toll-free at 1-800-721-6216. Knowledgeable representatives are available to assist you Monday – Friday, from 8 AM to 12 Midnight PM EST.

You can also find answers to many commonly asked questions by visiting our online Help Section at http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/customer_care/help/default.aspx

Thank you for your interest in VistaPrint. We appreciate your business and your patience. We look forward to being of service to you.

Sincerely,
Customer Care
VistaPrint

So, Vistaprint has now put in writing that they do not follow their privacy policy. A privacy policy is a part of the contract that a customer is expected to read and follow when they make a purchase with the company. Is it too much to expect that the customer should expect the company to actually follow their own privacy policy?

A report has been filed with the Federal Trade Commission and the Virginia Dept. of Consumer Affairs only accepts telephone reports, so I’ll call them Thursday morning. The VA DCA web site suggests I also contact the state of the company as well, so I’ll call Massachusetts tomorrow.

19 Comments

  1. Sean Lane says:

    I work there…if you email me I can help straighten it out…

  2. Hi Sean,

    Thanks for the offer, but at this point it is much more important that Vistaprint fix their significant legal issues. A misleading contract is a big deal. If you can have a high level executive contact me, that would be nice. Mike

  3. Just a Thought says:

    You do know that all websites have outages in various systems from time to time. It is possible that due to technical difficulties they are temporarily deactivating some important services via their e-mail. Technical issues are par for the course when you are relying on software, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they are in breach of their privacy policy.

  4. Hi “Just a Thought”,

    Yes, outages occur. But the email response to my deactivation request contradicts their privacy policy. “At this time VistaPrint only offers customer service by toll-free telephone. ” while the privacy policy says “You may also request deactivation of your VistaPrint account by contacting Customer Care at customercare@vistaprint.com” If they were having some kind of technical problem, the message I received should have been a different message.

  5. Geoff Roberts says:

    Wondering if you have heard anything back from Vistaprint… I have recently purchased some stuff from them and am concerned about the ‘affiliate programs’…

    I am in Australia… and you will love this… I received the same ‘automated’ email when I wrote to them… but they are not answering their phones either… just a message that says they are on holidays. It doesn’t say for how long but I am not happy… I cannot get through to them at all…

  6. Hi Geoff, No, I never heard back from them. Good luck. Mike

  7. Lyn says:

    I would never use this company again. Since using them, I found that two websites [affiliated with them] have been taking unauthorised payments from my bank account. It’s a lot of money to pay for so-called * free business cards.

  8. Ralph B says:

    Today I started getting 3rd-party spams at the addresses I created for and gave to vistaprint only. Rather a shame, as I’ve happily ordered 100 or so Xmas cards with them for the last 3 or 4 years. Now they’ve lost me as a customer, all for the sake of the couple of bucks they got for selling my address to a spammer. An odd way to do business.

  9. Clowe says:

    In checking my online bank acct today I found a charge for “passport to fun” for $14.95. It was charged by way of my debit card. In goggling it I found out that the charge was connected to VistaPrint by way of a marketing company called Adaptive Marketing LLC.
    When I got “free” business cards I thought that was great. Now I may have to cancel my debit card. If anyone ahs had success in having such charges reverse please post info.

    Thanx

  10. Lynette Rees says:

    I’ve had no end of problems with Vista Print. If anyone is interested you can read about my dealings with them on my blog post today:

    http://nettiesramblings.blogspot.com/2007/10/vista-print-warning.html

    I wish I had never come across this company, their business practice is totally unethical in my book.

    Lynette

  11. Noelina A. says:

    I would never use this company in a million years. Their customer service is the worst. They should include a tracking number for the packages they send in the email notifications, but they do not. So there is no way for you to find out where your package is if, for example, they are closed (on weekends). They’re terrible!

  12. Vanessa says:

    I had problems with them as well. Although it was due to not getting enough envelopes with my order. Luckily I also caught the vista print premium email I received after ordering from them, and cancelled it before they could do monthly charges (saved cancellation email just in case) The first time I called their 1-800 number it told me that they were experiencing difficulties and no representatives were available, and to call back later. I think I called back in 10mins to see if anything changed. Amazingly enough their difficulties were resolved and I spoke to customer service rep. named “Oneal” After a few times on hold my issue was resolved and I was told that my correct envelope count would be sent in 7-14 days. I then asked if there was anyway that they could be sent sooner since In the first place I paid for priority shipping. He then again put me on hold and then told me that he would get them out sooner to me. I kept records of this conversation, so hopefully everything will turn out ok. I will be giving an update as soon as I receive these envelopes. I believe that from all the complaints I read about this company, I may have been a lucky one…but time will tell.

  13. Vanessa says:

    Here is my update, I recieved the envelopes as promised thrusday. So they did stick to their word. Although I most likely will not be using their services in the future because of all the bad reviews. I’ll pay a little bit more for a reliable service. I believe the lesson in all of this is… If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

  14. yvonne henry says:

    Hi, I was trying to contact customer care , but with no joy .
    My problem is , that money is now being taken out from my credit card, after i stoped them takeing money from my bank acct, i’ve tried to cancell this new one today but with no joy ,,, Help aneyone out there,,,

    regards yvonne

  15. Allison says:

    As a designer I have been a frequent user of VistaPrint, however, NEVER AGAIN! I designed and ordered invitations for a client. She needed them quickly, so the expedited shipping was paid to get them in 1 week. When the product arrived, there were 3 very large printing errors that were not acceptable. I called on May 8th and a reorder was placed free of charge and expedited for 3 business days because of the time sensitive nature of the invitations. I never received a sent confirmation e-mail, so I called last night, the 13th….they were supposed to arrive on the 13th. I was told that DHL would deliver the package today, on the 14th. However, for some reason it was determined that only 20 invitations were printed and shipped…not 40??? Those were reordered and rushed again…to be delivered on Friday….well over 2 weeks from the original date of the order. I insisted that I be credited at least some of the shipping because my client has had to wait beyond the week that was requested.

    When I clicked on the DHL tracking number this morning, no such number existed. Once again, I was back on the phone (on hold for 20 minutes each time). As it turns out, the product will not be delivered until TOMORROW. So, they just made me out to be a huge liar to my client. I had to pay extra to have the cards printed elsewhere and rushed today because she just couldn’t wait any longer. The customer service supervisor (that I insisted on talking to) was hesitant to offer me any money back…I had to fight for every cent I got and she still just wanted to give me a store credit. Why would I EVER use them as a printer again???? I insisted on a full refund. Of course they can’t compensate me for the future business I’ve lost because of their incompetence.

    To top it all off, a neighbor just brought me the cards…they were delivered to her address today??? And the EXACT SAME ERRORS are still there as on the original piece. It was confirmed that these were PRINTER ERRORS so I am right back at square one except I’ve lost valuable credibility and hours of time on the phone. Of course I know what good customer service is, so I have completely refunded everything my client paid…I just have to eat all the cost, stress and frustration….not something a woman that is 7 months pregnant needs to deal with!

    VistaPrint….NEVER AGAIN!

  16. Candis Ferguson says:

    Vista print took money from my checking account without authorization from me. They did this after I paid for a item. They took out the money for some type of reward program they have that I never agreed upon. They did give my money back but this never should have happened. I am trying to get a hold of anyone from this company. They are wrong.

  17. Lucy says:

    OMG. With all these feedback going around, it says a lot about the company already. I think that a good reputation is more valuable than money. I used to work for Customer Service. Should there be technical issues or anything similar, customers should know about it. They should not be mislead or given any false information. That reflects an excellent customer service. Just my two cents worth.

  18. Graham Johnstone says:

    I just bought 250 business cards and they offered me another 250 with free shipping but when I went through checkout I was still charged shipping and also they sent order before I had agreed to order. I am in New Zealand and will never use this company again they are dishonest.

  19. Geoff Adlam says:

    Vistaprint is sending “special offers” to our fax machine. Unfortunately they do not appear to have a fax themselves to which we can reply and tell them to stop wasting our paper with their spam, and their invitation to visit a site called “stopfaxing.me” does not work with the information they provide.