RapidPod -stay away!!! (from my personal expierence at least)

[Axcreations]

I emailed Ken from RapidPod two days ago giving him one last chance to respond, but since I still haven't heard anything, I figured I state my experiences with him to warn others.

On Aug 18th I uploaded files to him, and got a response that he would love to print my book. I wanted 20 samples of a 62 page full color book to be printed, with a proof to look at before putting the full order through.

Due to wanting the book ASAP, I offered to pay for the sample, as well as enough for overnight shipping, and told him I would pay the remainder for the 20 once I gave the book a look over.

On 8/22 he said a proof would be done. He sent a paypal for the full amount.

I again stated that I have no problem paying for the sample, but I'm would have to wait to remit payment on the full order until I actually see how the book will look, and decide if it is of good enough quality. The invoice was for a couple hundred dollars, and after reading about some of the posts about Ken, I was hesitant to pay the full amount without seeing a sample first. Is this asking too much?

On Sept 2nd, I sent an email asking the status to no reply.

On Sept 5th, I received another invoice for the full amount. A sample had not yet been received. I sent another email asking about the status to no reply.

On Sept 9th, I sent an email as well as called to see if a sample would ever be sent, or should I just move on. No reply.

On September 11th, I sent another email stating to respond with something or I would be forced to let other know my experience. No reply.

I have most of my emails saved, and was nothing but professional in each. I just want my book printed!

Being the size is larger then what Ka-Blam handles(which made a great 32 page book for me), I was hoping RapidPod would be the answer. This obviously isn't the case. I would go with Comixpress, but the way my book is set up, and the amount of trim they require, it cuts into the panels & balloons.(I'm foreign to all the files set up stuff, so I have to go on what I was told. The person helping me with the files explained that Comixpress requires more bleed then necessary or something, and he would have to resize & reletter the whole book to meet their requirements. I believe him, because he is a standup guy, and I also sent the same files to Ka-Blam as I did Comixpress, and it turned out fine. This is not meant to be a rip on Comicpress, as there quality was good, it just my book was not set up to there requirements)

Anyway, sorry to throw this out there, but I'm extremely frustrated, and would like to save others the same frustration if possible. I only ask for decent customer service from a company, and Ken won't even give the courtesy to respond with an excuse or something. If he is to busy at the moment to do the job, or just doesn't want my business, that is that is fine....just say so! I'll move on. The fact that he can't send a simple email or make a phone call stating what is going on with my order is just unexceptable...especially when he has the time to post on DW that he wants more business!


Ken, if your reading this, and decide to finally respond feel free. I would LOVE to see a sample from you. Having multiple POD printers can only help creators. I'm just trying to find one that works for me.

By the way, does anyone out there know a POD that can handle 62 color pages, that doesn't have the same requirements as Comixpress? I really want to print some samples off ASAP.

Thanks!

Chris Dearman
www.blackout-drunk.com

[D.J. Coffman]

hmm. Sounds to me like maybe the guy was just busy with paying orders and yours was sort of out of whack. Playing devil's advocate here, I think Rapid requires some payment up front, which, it was likely nothing personal, just him focusing on other jobs that took priority because they paid up front like they have it set-- your not always getting ripped off or it's not necessary to publish a dread pirates warning whenever someone doesnt' e-mail you back.

If you paid for a proof though, and he said he'd get back with you, that is kinda bad business and he should at least refund you.

[L Jamal]

At worst you've lost time.
I'm more interested in knowing why your book can't be printed with ComixPress.

[Axcreations]

Originally Posted by D.J. Coffman

hmm. Sounds to me like maybe the guy was just busy with paying orders and yours was sort of out of whack. Playing devil's advocate here, I think Rapid requires some payment up front, which, it was likely nothing personal, just him focusing on other jobs that took priority because they paid up front like they have it set-- your not always getting ripped off or it's not necessary to publish a dread pirates warning whenever someone doesnt' e-mail you back.


If you paid for a proof though, and he said he'd get back with you, that is kinda bad business and he should at least refund you.

I wish I had your patience! The guy tells me (copied directly from his email) "yeah a proff should be done i think. I will try to get one done for you tommorrow " on Aug 22, and you then never hear from him again, even after sending more then a half dozen emails asking about it, as well as calling and leaving a message, and you don't see a reason to tell others?

Imagine your extremely hungry(Waiting over two years to finish a graphic novel) and going to a McDonald's drive-through, having the guy take your order, telling you to pull around to pick it up, and then never coming to the window to collect your money, leaving you without food....for over three weeks. Would that be something to keep quiet about? Would you keep your experience with them to yourself, knowing that there are numerous people in your same situation, and people on this board ask all the time about their experiences with different PODs? I'm not making anything up. Maybe the "stay away" in the title was a bit much, but wasting three weeks of my time waiting for a response, on top of the time it took to get the book ready & uploaded for him to download, then reading his request for more work, got me riled up. I wouldbe more then happy to delete the post if I would get a response from him already.

Maybe I'm way off base here, but I work full time, and have a dozen other endeavors going on in my life. If someone tells me there going to do something, especially something I more then willing to pay for, then doesn't come through, I'll be disapppointed, but the fact that it takes literally 10 seconds to write "I'm sorry I'm too busy" to someone on top of that...I felt the need to let other know. Especially after I see he had the time to post on Digital Webbing asking for more jobs two days ago! Send an email, it's plain common courtesy.

[Axcreations]

Originally Posted by ljamal

At worst you've lost time.
I'm more interested in knowing why your book can't be printed with ComixPress.

But these days I value time more then money. (New job, long commute, got married out of state last week, with an instate reception next week, and trying to fit in creative projects on the side leaves time scarce these days)

As for Comixpress. Long story short as I understand it.(Like I said I'm foriegn to all the file size/formatting stuff) My colorist gave a little larger then normal sized color files to my letterer. My letterer made all the balloons and whatnot fit on those larger files, one that Comixpress doesn't handle.(Like one size to big or something) so that they are cutting off too much around the edges. Ka-Blam had the same files, and the cutting off balloons & part of the panels around the edges wasn't as noticable. My letterer said that to fit everything in a size Comixpress requires, he would have to redo all the pages to make it fit, which takes a lot of work. I have had him do so much work already, I'd rather not have him have to revist each page again.

Does that make any sense?

[jimmycakes]

If they are flattened TIFFs with the letters you an just automate the proper page size with an 'action.' It'll do all the pages in a few minutes.

When I dealt with comixpress, I paid for my proof, recieved it, said "hey! I like it!" Then I paid them and they sent me my books. I would imagine it would be the same for any company. From your story it sounds like he wanted you to pay for the whole run before you get the proof. If that is true, then it's weird.

I asked Rapid for a sample package of their work a few months ago and never heard back. That bugged me a little because every other company I dealt with got me samples within days and then I promptly used them. But they're pretty new, so I just brushed it off.

Originally Posted by Axcreations

But these days I value time more then money. (New job, long commute, got married out of state last week, with an instate reception next week, and trying to fit in creative projects on the side leaves time scarce these days)

As for Comixpress. Long story short as I understand it.(Like I said I'm foriegn to all the file size/formatting stuff) My colorist gave a little larger then normal sized color files to my letterer. My letterer made all the balloons and whatnot fit on those larger files, one that Comixpress doesn't handle.(Like one size to big or something) so that they are cutting off too much around the edges. Ka-Blam had the same files, and the cutting off balloons & part of the panels around the edges wasn't as noticable. My letterer said that to fit everything in a size Comixpress requires, he would have to redo all the pages to make it fit, which takes a lot of work. I have had him do so much work already, I'd rather not have him have to revist each page again.

Does that make any sense?

[D.J. Coffman]

It's sounding more and more like you just don't know your way around file specs. Like jimmycakes said-- flatten your tiff files-- Hell, I send Comixpress just 300dpi files, 6.75 wide by 10.5 tall, even though it's not the EXACT size in their specs, it's what I've always sent them and they print it no problem. Bleeds? no problem, just keep it within a quarter inch of the borders if you dont want text cut off, BAM, you're done.

Most of these places are using VERY similar machines-- it's not like there's really a dozen ways to do things.

-- let me get this straight though. You paid him upfront for the proof? Or you were waiting on the proof to then PAY him. If you paid upfront, you should have definitly got some service and you got some beef. If you didnt pay anything, well, the case is moot.

[Gonzogoose]

Originally Posted by D.J. Coffman

It's sounding more and more like you just don't know your way around file specs. Like jimmycakes said-- flatten your tiff files-- Hell, I send Comixpress just 300dpi files, 6.75 wide by 10.5 tall, even though it's not the EXACT size in their specs, it's what I've always sent them and they print it no problem. Bleeds? no problem, just keep it within a quarter inch of the borders if you dont want text cut off, BAM, you're done.

Most of these places are using VERY similar machines-- it's not like there's really a dozen ways to do things.

-- let me get this straight though. You paid him upfront for the proof? Or you were waiting on the proof to then PAY him. If you paid upfront, you should have definitly got some service and you got some beef. If you didnt pay anything, well, the case is moot.

As I understand it, he wanted to pay for the proof upfront, but got billed for the entire order instead of just the proof.

Regardless of whether he's trying to stiff you, or if he's just busy, it does sound like bad business.

As for the lettering problem, I can't imagine it being that hard to fix either by resizing the pages or if need be adding the letters to pages at the correct size, unless of course the letterer didn't save any AI or EPS files. Doing either one doesn't take a whole lot of time.

[L Jamal]

I'm still waiting to hear back from Rapid. I think it's 3 + months now. I don't expect to hear from them at all. They just won't get my money. No sweat off my back.

As for the file issues, send one my way ljamal77@gmail.com and I'll see what can be done to help you get printing with ComixPress (who have been responding amazingly fast recently).

[Biofungus]

I'd like to hear from people who DID go through Rapid and see it through to the end. Yours may be a bad luck/crappy case, but there's always two sides (or more)...

[Jake Estrada]

I've used Rapid POD and it has turned out well and I will continue to use them until it blows up on me. lol

[Scott Story]

I have only used Comixpress, and I think highly of them.

I think if you are going to send files to a printer, you better get self-educated on file types and setup.

I too flatten my letters onto the pages, because then you don't have issues of dropping out letters or baloons after compositing. At the 300 dpi standard, you can't really tell that letters are raster and not vector.

[Ron Phillips]

I thought this post was amusing after, Ken updated the last RapidPOD thread with a big promotional (causing it to be moved to pimp it here!) only a couple days earlier.

http://www.digitalwebbing.com/forums...1&postcount=88

[MrGranger]

I've used RapidPOD and on the books that I got everything went smoothly. I met Ken in San Diego and I thought he was a nice guy, just got way more orders than he was prepared for. I think he's done 60K books in the last three months. I have been using a new printer since he got too busy to meet my deadlines, he says he's back and quite frankly for the price and quality RAPIDPOD is great. Hopefully he's got everything back in order, I plan on sending some of my preview orders through him again. (I print a limited run first to send to reviewers, stores, etc. and POD has been great.)

[Axcreations]

Originally Posted by Ron Phillips

I thought this post was amusing after, Ken updated the last RapidPOD thread with a big promotional (causing it to be moved to pimp it here!) only a couple days earlier.

http://www.digitalwebbing.com/forums...1&postcount=88

Honestly, I was going to chalk up my experience with him to just one of those things that happens in life and move on, but after I reading the above pimp for more business, it was the thing that caused me to take my experience public.

I'm sure he does great work, I would just love to see it without begging for him for it. Over a half a dozen emails & a phone call without hearing anything in return is rediculious. Especially after telling me he would do it in the first place.

Like I said before, a simple email stating he was too busy or something would have been more then enough for me to move along and keep quiet.