Zazzle T-Shirt Review - $43.91 and all I got was this lousy t-shirt
It took me a long time to get around to buying a t-shirt at Zazzle. Last month I decided to order a t-shirt for my t-shirt packaging review and to check out their print quality. In general I prefer to wear simple artsy t-shirt designs without slogans or brand names so I had to dig pretty deep at Zazzle to find a design that I liked. I came across this simple design made up of grey and white arrows that start in the middle of the shirt small and get bigger as they move out.
I chose the Edun Live organic t-shirt that is made in Lesotho from 100% African cotton. The total price for one sided printing of these standard black organic t-shirts was $35.95. It was officially the most I have ever paid for a t-shirt.
The shirt arrived in a fancy shiny dark silver packaging with a small Zazzle logo in the top left corner. The packaging is indeed eye catching and the dark colored bag almost makes it look like you have ordered some type of suspicious.
Inside the package was my Edun live t-shirt, an invoice, a $5 off coupon and a card with a short letter suggesting that the t-shirt may have a film on it until it is washed.
The shirt itself was nice and fairly thick but unfortunately the print was a complete disappointment. Before I show you the printing here is what the image looks like on the Zazzle web site. The left is the design view and the right is what it looks like zoomed in at high resolution. The design has different colored arrows in two different shades of grey and white.
Below is the design closeup of the actual shirt printed by Zazzle. As you can see it has white outlines over almost every single arrow.
One more closeup to see how bad the white outlines are. When you compare this image with the design preview there is no suggestion of white outlines. It just looks plain sloppy when printed.
The design was created by one of their members so it is hard to know what the original resolution of the image is but it doesn’t matter. The “high resolution” preview showed one thing and the final print was not the same.
If this shirt was $12 I would be disappointed but not as disappointed as I was after spending $43.91 with shipping for a badly printed t-shirt. And yes, I did submit for a full refund and I am waiting to hear back if the “Zazzle Promise” will be kept.
What is so funny is that the t-shirt has a 5 star review based on 12 votes but who was voting? It was obviously rated by people who just thought the design was kind of cool but never actually bought the shirt. It is ridiculous to have and center design ratings from people who haven’t even seen the shirt before. People should vote with their dollars and not with a left click on the mouse.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Wow, those are two pretty bad experiences. The white on the shirts could be attributed to the difficulty of printing on dark t-shirts but my Cafepress t-shirts dark t-shirts came out well.
Wow…I’ve ordered quite a few things from Zazzle and have only had one bad experience. They are usually really good about returns and refunds though.
That printing totally sucks! Try going in the forums and bashing them a bit…..they will respond….very quickly! 
Unfortunately this is par for the course at Zazzle. I’ve tried many different types of images on the shirts there and they always look terrible. Getting resolution through their customer service is just as bad and hardly worth the effort. As an online POD designer myself, I’ve resorted to completely removing my shirt designs from Zazzle and only have them available at redbubble.com now. The only things I use Zazzle for are basics… cards, magnets and mugs. Even the buttons and keychains are junk - not even close to being worth the $2-$3 you pay. You can get the same quality of stuff from a gumball machine.
They are notorious for that. The voting system is based on how the image looks on the site and not on print… There have been complaints of images printed on mugs upside down… colors not coming out the same as the image uploaded… a lot of different things… you email or post complaints, they go unheard…
Wow, I actually own a Zazzle shop and I have ordered several things there myself. I have ordered mugs, Magnets, Greeting cards but no T-shirts yet. So far I have not had any problems with the quality of the things I have bought there, nor have I had any complaints(As in returns) from customers who bought my wares. Unfortunately, my biggest problem with Zazzle as a shop owner is that there is absolutely NO WAY to contact customers directly or vice versa. If someone buys a T shirt from me and it looks like crap I would LOVE to know about it so that I can contact Zazzle myself and raise some holy hell. This is indeed disturbing however, and I guess I will have to buy a few T shirts for myself and see whats up with this.
wow! 
now i wish i didn’t order one of mine for the first time.
I must admit i’ve had problems time and time again with Zazzle. Products not being printed as shown in the preview (badges) printed upside down (profile cards) poor quality product (first time i got postcards) …… besides the fact they have ZERO quality control, i’ve even had products arrive dirty and smelling of cigarettes.
DO contact them you deserve a whole lot better!!
Wow! I was once considering opening a shop on Zazzle! I think that we all have to realize that designs displayed on the screen will always differ some from the design printed on the fabric. However, the quality should still be reasonably good on the fabric. The process used to print a design on fabric is very different from the process that displays it on screen! It is extremely difficult to get them to match!! This is why it is important to proof all your products on the real thing!
My “base” stores are all parked at Printfection, but also have some of my designs available on Zazzle. Hey, why not? I have picked-up some random Zazzle marketplace sales, without sending anyone specifically in that direction, as my marketing and domains direct towards Printfection.
Anyway, I’ve seen mixed results with Zazzle vs. Printfection printing on darks. Overall I’d say Prinfection wins, but have seen cases where Zazzle is superior. It seems to be contingent on the nature of the specific design, as two companies have different printing processes.
Over on http://www.podentrepreneur.com, he (or she) did what i think a lot of us would do, if we had the budget: have the same design printed on a dark tee, by the four different leading POD companies. They declared Zazzle the winner…
…but remember, that’s based on printing one particular design (it was big solid color lettering).
The best test to run — if someone had the money to burn — is to choose at least five different designs with different levels of detail, color combos, etc, and then have them all printed at the four different leading POD companies. That’s at least 20 shirts to produce / purchase, but would give a much better story of which POD exceeds at printing what kind of design, etc. Perhaps there would be a clear overall winner, perhaps not. I do think Printfection would take it, though.
To stay on target, yes, that “arrow” shirt should be returned or replaced. I think all of us know and accept that the printed shirt can never truly be dead-on with what is shown on-screen…
…so, we have lowered expectations. But the question is, will the product FALL BELOW those lowered expectations, which this clearly did. It’s a sloppy job, and the “top” print obviously didn’t align correctly with the white underlay (commonly referred to as “flash” in traditional screenprinting.)
The point is, the shirt should have never been shipped like this. Did the Zazzle employee shipping it not care? Didn’t notice? Do they have a “cross your fingers, should be okay, most customers don’t want to go through the trouble of returning it, and accept it as-is,” mentality?
Well, if so, that’s a real problem for shopkeepers, trying to make these stores into real businesses…product might not be returned, but sure as hell won’t get repeat business or good word-of-mouth.
Sorry to drone on for so long. My last note is about digital POD printing vs. traditional screenprinting. Some of the POD companies — ESPECIALLY Zazzle — trumpet their new-ish printing process on darks is as good as, or superior than screenprinting…it’s not. They were too quick to thump their chests about it. Let’s not kid ourselves. It’s not as good as screnprinting…YET. The reason I’m so interested in the POD stuff, is because I’m banking on continued leaps in technology where it WILL get there, in a year or three. For now, most of it is good ENOUGH…these guys are all still working out the kinks!
It’s still notoriously difficult to do good printing on black. Clearly Zazzle hasn’t mastered this art yet, and neither have the other POD companies. (The white outlines on all those arrows are, I assume, the white layer of ink that is laid down on dark before the actual correct ink colors are applied.)
I would never expect the absolute crispness that one sees on the computer when looking at a t shirt design, but frankly what you got is pretty abominable.
I have a Zazzle shop, and have ordered one black tee from them, and I was relatively pleased with how it came out. But it was larger blocks of bright color.
Hope you get your (exorbitant) money back.
That’s really disappointing. I listened to a podcast by the founders of Zazzle at the Stanford Entrepreneur lecture series. They were introduced as a company that hires people out of Stanford like Google used to. I haven’t bought any t-shirts from them yet but I have been following them for awhile. That is a huge mistake on their part.
The best t-shirt company right now is a company based in Boston called Johnny Cupcakes. Johnny has people lining up outside his shop for days waiting for the new releases of his shirts. You will have to read his story at http://www.johnnycupcakes.com/the_story/
Anyway, I bought my second t-shirt the other day and it arrived yesterday. The amazing thing is the way he packages his shirts. He sends it in a box that you can see on his blog. I wish had a picture. In it he sent me a pin with he logo (a cupcake with cross bones) on it, a trading card of Save by the Bell the college years, a pink mint in a Gold wrapper with his logo on it. It’s all about the little things and he understands this.
Not only are his designs unique but the shirt itself is top quality. He even sews in an oven mitten as the tag. He focuses on all the little details and makes for a great experience.
I’m not affiliated with his company in any way. I am just a huge fan and want other t-shirt companies to take note because it won’t be long until they don’t have a choice.
I received my replacement yesterday so I will be doing a followup post soon (with the good and the bad).
Matt
Wow! I’ve order items from Zazzle before and never had that problem. I wonder if this is a growing trend over there?
43 bucks is a lot of money for that shirt.
[...] two weeks ago I posted a Zazzle t-shirt review and expressed my disappointment with the print quality after spending over $40 for a t-shirt. After [...]
I don’t like Zazzle either but that t-shirt you got is not Zazzle fault in the sense that they didn’t create the desing, it looks like the person who uploaded the designs was an amateur and left and added some glow or semi-trasparent edges to the arrows. Direct To Garment can not handle translucent colors, of course, Zazzle doesn’t teach anyone how to upload correctly, so it is their fault in the end.
Hi, you have a digital print…..Zazzle doesn’t offer screen printing. The digital process, since it’s start-up, has issues with printing on anything other than white shirts. Zazzle makes a big deal out of explaining that they use the newest digital technology (on their “intro benefits” page). Their statement is that they don’t charge you for printing more colors like other printers do (there are no screens in the digital process). The digital process allows the multi color print without additional work but, as you see, it produces an inferior product. White tshirts will look pretty good until you wash them several times (the solvent ink that is used also has kinks to be worked out…we’ve tested these products and keep a watch for hopeful improvements in this technology.
The real culprit is the digital press technology which cannot produce a quality print on a dark shirt…only on white. Even on white, there are issues with the solvent inks not holding up. Zazzle is not screen-printing any garments (info is on their introduction and benefits page).
I’ve had 2 accounts with Zazzle for more than 2 years. Last month Zazzle contacted me about my images, saying that my images were not copyrighted and that I should give them the links were I took the images from. As far as I know, I did not steal images from other websites, everything I’ve made with the pictures was approved for me to use them. Today, they closed both my galleries and I get nothing out of it, they get all the money that WE make for them. Plus, a few of my customers/close friends, had told me that the printing was really bad and they had to return it for a refund. A couple of times I sent them questions, it takes them days and days to get back to me, poor customer service. Stop using Zazzle and don’t buy from them!
RE: “Comment by Guest2 on February 3, 2009 @ 6:42 pm”
I have had the same problem but I just responded to their answers honestly and everything was fine. It does not seem as thought they would close an account just because.
I have copy and pasted their user agreement, so it is entirely possible that your account was deleted just because, but this does not sound like a business practice anyone would use:
Termination - You agree that Zazzle, in its sole discretion, may terminate your password, account (or any part thereof) or use of the Site, and remove and discard any Content you may have contributed to the Site, at any time for any reason or no reason. Zazzle may also in its sole discretion and at any time discontinue providing the Site, or any part thereof, with or without notice. You agree that any termination of your access to the Site under any provision of this Agreement may be effected without prior notice, and acknowledge and agree that Zazzle may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all related information and files in your account and/or bar any further access to such files of the Site. Further, you agree that Zazzle shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of your access to the Site. Should you object to any terms and conditions of the Agreement or become dissatisfied with the Site in any way, your only recourse is to immediately discontinue your use of the Site and/or terminate your account.
I completely sympathize with your plight. I recently ordered 8 shirts from Zazzle, and every single one of them was grossly defective in the images printed on the shirts.
On most of the shirts, the front image was very noticeably rotated from level. Also, some of the front images had been enlarged to 150% of the size that appear on the Zazzle galleries from which I selected the shirts. These enlarged images are so huge that tucking the shirt into my pants cuts off a large part of the design!
Also, on every single shirt the logo on the back is rotated so much that it’s very obvious even at a quick glance. Most of the logos are also much larger than appear on the shirts in the Zazzle galleries from which I ordered the shirts.
Clearly, Zazzle has NO product quality control whatsoever. The printer’s drunk/stoned/lobotomized and nobody at Zazzle seems to give a damn.
I’ve requested my money back but have yet to receive an RMA number to enable it to happen. I hope I don’t discover that Zazzle has screwed me even more than I already realize!!