It’s nearly our first wedding anniversary, traditionally, this is a ‘Paper’ anniversary, so we decided to buy a wedding photo album as we didn’t buy one at the time. I’d had a look around at a few places where we could buy a photobook, and Vistaprint looked pretty cheap.

So I went ahead and used their online tool to build one. It’s taken me about three hours in total, possibly more to get it just right, and it looks great. I’d added a few more pages to the standard layout (as there were around 120 photos we wanted to put in). The site was reporting the book would be £23, bargain.

Then I came to check out.

£52 quid?
Where did that come from?
Right.. I see it now, they whack on £13.98 for the extra pages – they don’t show you this until you check out, it only ever shows the price of £23! Obviously it’s not earth shatteringly expensive, but I don’t like the ‘bait and switch’ nature of it all.. If they’d shown the price ramping up so quickly I probably wouldn’t have continued with the purchase, but seeing as I’d invested three hours of my time getting it right, it seemed daft to throw my toys out completely. Still, I won’t be using them again. 
Update.
Well fuck me.. In possibly one of the fastest turnarounds in the social media world @vistaprinthelp – their customer services team got in touch asking for my customer account number. About 30 mins after that I had an email saying I’d had a refund of £35.36 back, with an apology. So that’s the whole book for £17.10, I’m literally gob smacked. I do appreciate the gesture, but I think JumblyMummy got it bang on when she said of Vistaprint –

‘I’d say that their whole business strategy is around subterfuge and bombardment. there are as many hidden extras as a ryanair flight’

So very true! Anyway, I’m pleased they sorted it so quickly and am amazed they took that much off!

3 thoughts on “Vistaprint.. Shady Bastards. – Updated

  1. JumblyMummy says:

    love the tags on that post!  I have vistaprint business cards and I'd say that their whole business strategy is around subterfuge and bombardment. there are as many hidden extras as a ryanair flight (don't get me started) and once you're on their mailing list the only way to get off it is to close your email account.  Saying that, the business cards rock.

  2. accidentallykle says:

    Next time you make a photobook, try out blurb.com. Surprising value for money and such great quality!

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