How good is Kinkos

[Jedirampage]

Hi all,

Is kinkos decent in printing CP Art.  I have one right around the corner from me and it would be very convenient if i got my art printed there.

[shardian]

Well, they are usually buttholes, usually ignorant to what you are trying to do, will use an inkjet printer, will print on substandard material, will charge you more than our in-community online suppliers, etc.
www.mamemarquees.com will sell you a superior product, understands what you are doing, will help you get what you want/need, etc.
But if it is convenient, go ahead.

[leapinlew]

I built 3 cabinets - all with kinkos artwork.

Sharidans right - they are buttholes. Finding a kinkos person that knows what they are doing is tough - ESPECIALLY for CP art. The prices are around $15 a sq ft. Their backlit vinyl is pretty good - I've had no problems with it.

After all this time, I just made my first purchase with mamemarquees. Holy smokes... want to talk about convenient? I did my artwork at home, uploaded it to his FTP and it'll be showing up to me just about as fast as Kinkos could turn around my artwork. Not to mention the price is very reasonable.

[Jeff AMN]

Kinkos is great for marquee art, but not for anything else.

I love my marquee.

[Hawk Daddy]

Sorry to hijack, what are the round about prices for a marquee printed on the back lit vinyl?

Hawkw

[leapinlew]

Sorry to hijack, what are the round about prices for a marquee printed on the back lit vinyl?

Hawkw

$15 a sq ft. Heres the trick though - if you go over 1 sq ft, they'll try to charge you for the next sq. ft. I've disputed it and they quickly pull away from it, but everytime they want to charge up to the next sq. ft.

[GAtekwriter]

And I always take a chance to kick this horse...

I hate Kinkos.  HATE HATE HATE that organization.  That company possesses some of the WORST customer service.  I'm a freelance writer and frequently need services such as those they offer for those odd printing needs and sometimes my clients use them and I'm forced to deal with them.

Their employees frequently are under-trained.  They'll have 1 person working the desk while a line of 10-20 people queues up.  They'll open up that kiosk/island to take away some of the line but they'll come and grab the people at the back of line and whisper "I'll take you over here." while #2 in line waits and waits...

They may be able to perform the work, but I'll gladly pay a little more for better service.  And if anyone on here works for Kinkos, please pass the word up the chain that Kinkos sucks.

Thank you.

Jim

[Jedirampage]

mamemarquees it is then, thanks guys

[Crowquill]

I'm one of the guys working at FedEx Kinko's who would be printing the stuff.

The machines are fully capable of printing really nice stuff. You just have to find someone who knows what they're doing to print it for you. If you can find a store that has a full sign and banner department you're probably better off. You stand a much better chance to find someone who knows the ins and outs of the printer. Yes, it's an inkjet, but it's not your average HP you buy from Wal-Mart. It's a $20,000 6-color HP that can print up to 60" wide.

I think my biggest gripe that I have with the multiple stores I've worked at is that they want all of the employees to have their designated areas where they focus their training (meaning that they don't know how to do a lot of other things). It's hard as an employee to help people the way they should when there are two people in the store and you're the only one who even knows how to take an order. This doesn't happen that often, but it does happen. Many times I get stuck with complicated jobs since I'm one of the few who knows most everything in the store.

The backlit material works great for marquees. I've had great results with the couple I've printed. Sometime soon I'm also going to be printing a new CPO there. The "floor graphics" should work well for this. The texture of the laminate is a bit different (kind of a leather-like texture), but it should turn out nice.

Is it worth the trouble? Probably not for what we're doing. I think the biggest plus dealing with mamemarquees is that they know what the expected finished product should be. Surprisingly, they don't seem to concerned with printing copyrighted artwork either. I've yet to read a bad comment about them really.

For those of you unhappy with FedEx Kinko's, you might want to check out this game. There's even a Mac version.

[BobA]

Apologies to Crowquill wants to do a good job and probably does.  I think the question should be how BAD is Kinkos?   Mamemarquees has my vote.

[telengard]

Kinkos is great for marquee art, but not for anything else.

I love my marquee.

Totally agree.  My marquee came out great (ended up doing a new design somewhere else though).  I believe it was the backlit vinyl.  Side art I had done there was horrible and EXPENSIVE.  Have had much better luck w/ mamemarquees or the small "indie" printers.

~telengard