The Bane of my Existence: Printing
Several days ago I had the pleasure of visiting a random FedEx Kinko’s for some necessary flatbook printing. Many illustrators/designers who have to deal with printing places on quite a regular occasion will surely understand where this entry is going…
Now I’ve been to quite a few Kinko’s in my life. I’ve learned from the many visits the subtle nuances that can help your printing experience in such a large chain go even just a little bit more smoothly. I know to bring my own paper because it cuts cost by half and I know that some places will allow you to print with your own paper on the self-serve printer and some places don’t. I usually try NOT to go to a Kinko’s and instead find a more pleasant local chain. As this is not my familiar local area, that was unfortunately not the option.
Nevertheless, I took my PDF file to the young man at the Kinko’s counter and kindly requested for a double-sided print of a 27 page flatbook. When I say double-sided, I of course mean as in printed on both sides, like a book. The man then proceeds to tell me that he needs to put it on an order as printing on a double side is TIME CONSUMING and it will not be ready until 4PM (it was about 10AM at the time). Now I am rather confused as I was the only customer at that time and even if they had some crazy back order requests that I did not know of, IT IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE TO PRINT DOUBLE-SIDED. You open up the PDF file, click ‘print odd pages only,’ then flip it over click ‘print even pages only.’ OK, I understand maybe someone who has never print double-sided before may take an additional five minutes to figure out how to flip the paper, but honestly, if you work at Kinko’s, THIS SHOULD TAKE SECONDS. I proceed to tell him I don’t understand why he can’t do it, as I’ve had it done at other Kinko’s (hell, even at 3AM at one point) with about eight people in front of me. And you know, the fact that it takes about maybe several minutes more than if he would just print it normally, single-sided. He still tells me he can’t do it. The only reason I could find was pure laziness as it would take two steps to print double-sided as opposed to simply clicking print once on single-sides.
I end up going to an Office Depot so I can buy double-sided tape, and I taped two corresponding pages together so that it looks as if they were regular double-sided pages. Now I understand that this may not happen if I just printed it the day before but honestly, from the lack of customers at that Kinko’s and the simple request that I had, I am once again absolutely disappointed by their service.
TL;DR: FedEx Kinko’s MAKES ME RAAAAAGGEE!!!
