A CafePress Surprise

Last month's eBay Live! in Chicago was the first I've attended where I was not part of the hired staff. eBay always provided the "Staff" shirts for us, but this year I had to buy my own.

I wanted to advertise my humble blog, but I didn't want to spend a fortune. Then I remembered CafePress. In case you haven't used CafePress, it's a site where you can create designs and slogans, have them placed on shirts, mugs, clocks, hats, aprons, and offer them to the public. If anyone buys an item with your design, you get a commission. They even offer a store to feature your stuff. It's free to create the designs and list your items.

In any case, I created a logo for my shirts. I ordered two polos for eBay Live! with plenty of time to spare. I received confirmation of the order and shipment and eagerly awaited my shirts. By the time I was leaving for Chicago, it was obvious there was a problem with delivery. I was leaving and still no shirts.
Needless to say, I was a bit ticked-off. I email Customer Service and asked them to fix the problem, at least give me a refund since I would not be able to use my shirts (unless of course I'm still a XXL in 2010).

To my surprise, within about 30 minutes I received a reply. I expected the canned "We've received your email and we'll get to it when we can." message. But no. It was from a real human. Support Associate, Santana J. apologized and said a refund was definitely in order and they'd remake the shirts at no extra charge.

I wrote back explaining that there wasn't time for all that - unless they could ship them directly to my hotel. Then I left for the mid-west. When I arrived at my hotel in Chicago after a three-day visit with family - my shirts were there. It isn't often nowadays things go so smoothly - but CafePress pulled it off without any hitches.

It's nice to see that even though I'm a small first-time buyer I was treated as an important customer. I will never forget that service and I will be back.

PS - For Sellers...

In February when I was playing around with CafePress, I created this mug:

I was really just trying to figure out how it all worked, and basically forgot about it. At the time I purchased my shirts, my account had over $40 in it from sales of that mug. I KNOWWW!! Surely you could think up something way funnier than that. It is definitely a proposition any seller with creativity should look into. Shop or Create What's On Your Mind at CafePress

Popularity: 58% [?]