Gordaen's Blog

Thinking I was clever last month, I ordered a Flying Spaghetti Monster shirt to give to my dad for his birthday. I decided to go for a nicer long-sleeve one. The following image is what the shirt should have looked like:

Of course, if there’s an image of what it should look like, then there has to be one of what it really looks like:

Yeah, that’s the Flying Spaghetti Monster Blob shirt that I received. I am sure glad I opened the package because I had thought about just giving it to my dad in the plastic mailing envelope. I immediately filled out the RMA form on the CafePress site, adding the following comment:

The printed image quality on the shirt is terrible. Even in the small preview image of the shirt (480px × 480px), you can make out the lettering, but none of the text is legible on the actual product. It is all blurred/pixelated. I assume there must have been a problem with the printing that no one noticed.

A day or so later, I received a reply:

We want you to be 100% satisfied with your CafePress.com experience. I have processed a refund for you in the amount of $28.99. Please allow 3 – 5 business days for the refund to be reflected on your credit card statement.

I know the item received is not up to your complete satisfaction but as our way of an apology please go ahead and keep it. There is no need for a return!

Their way of apologizing (letting me keep the shirt) is really just because they print on demand and don’t keep a huge warehouse of all the printed shirts, so it would be useless to them.

A few days passed, and I received the refund on my card. Of course, the $28.99 is the cost of the shirt. Adding in tax and shipping, the total order was actually $39.01. I suppose I should be happy that I received any refund at all, but I feel that the service falls short. I can’t say I’m 100% satisfied, maybe more like 3-5%.