WATKINS LITHOGRAPHIC INC

Started great - Watkins was not my lowest bid, but they had a great reputation in the Kansas City community. They operate with a "soft-proof" process, so any press proofs you see are done via pdfs on your computer. When I got my first proof, I noticed large chunks of text that were missing. I immediately called and emailed my service rep - Tom Daniels - and he promptly had another proof prepared and emailed to me. On the second proof, the large blocks of text were in place. He reported that a MAC operator had a font problem, and that it was now fixed. Upon seeing that the large blocks of text were back, I approved the proof for printing. A week later, the completed job arrived at my office, and there is another problem. Everywhere in my brochure that I had the letters "F" and "I" next to one another, there was now a blank. Instead of "finally" the brochure read "__nally." I had 25,000 brochures with blanks where the "fi"s had been. I immediately began calling and emailing Daniels, and was unable to get a reasonable answer as to the cause of the trouble. He blamed it on the odd font that I had used (Times) and eventually cursed at me on the phone. I continued to email and call Watkins, hoping to pay a reduced amount for the botched job and negotiate a reprint. They were unwilling to deal with me, refusing to return my calls and emails. I now have six boxes of unusable printed material, and Watkins is suing me for payment in full. My "company" is a small Baptist church, and we don't have the financial resources to fight this issue in court. If you're considering using Watkins Litho for a print job, think again. There are plenty of other reputable printers in the Kansas City area who do far superior work and who stand behind their claims of customer service. (I ended up purchasing the brochures from Boelte Hall, using the same file I had sent to Watkins...no problems...better product...$400 cheaper.)