Let me share with you my experience of utter delight with Vista Print this week. I have always loved the value for money and beautiful quality work that they deliver, but this experience has converted me into an advocate for life!
My company with the support of Rotary Club Burleigh Heads is leading the charge with a project to raise much needed funds for a beautiful school on the Gold Coast, Currumbin Community Special School. The project involved an art competition that the students participated in and 5 winning pieces that have been transformed into Christmas cards.
The graphic design and all the initial print costs have all been funded by Loanezi, so that 100% of all the money raised from the sale of the Christmas cards would go straight to the School. I worked out that at the minimum we would raise $3000, and hopefully there will be enough interest that we could even do another print order and raise even more than projected.
The project has been beyond heart-warming and even outside the fund raising endeavours, it has had great impact on myself, my staff and all involved. The kids at the school have also enjoyed being part of a competition and the educators and principal have expressed how much they appreciate the support of locals, and the community connection.
The much anticipated Christmas cards arrived via mail on Friday and I was so excited to see the results that I could not even wait to leave the post office, I took the box to an open table in the corner and ripped it open right there and then. To my horror, I realised that I had made an error with the order and instead of fold open cards, we had hundreds of brochure style prints. I instantly knew that it was my mistake, and a misunderstanding on the item description that I had instructed my graphic designer to order. I was so disappointed because this would mean that I would have to pay for a reprint of the correct order and basically I may have just as well donated the $3000 minus the project.
Feeling very deflated I took the box to the office and stared at the extremely beautiful prints for a while, they had turned out brilliantly, just not in the right format. I tried to be creative to work out if there was any other use for the brochures, but as they had full print on both sides, there was no room to write anything, not even a to and a from.. I just could not come up with any re-use for them at that moment.
I contacted my sister who is my confidant and she encouraged me to contact Vista print and see if they may give me a discount on my next order. I sent an email into customer care, explaining the full story including links to blogs around the fundraising project asking if there was a way to please discount the next order for me. Only a few hours later, I received an email from Vista Print, who were touched by the scenario and refunded the full amount as an online credit towards my next print. On top of that they said that we could keep the prints and hoped we could find a use for them. It was such an unexpected and generous gesture that it actually brought me to tears.
What is even better is that my sister has since come up with an innovative use for the brochure prints, and we will be turning these into stunning bookmarks, and selling them too. What a beautiful surprise that what was first a catastrophe has now been turned into more good works with the potential to raise double the originally anticipated goal! God is good.
