Mug quality question xpres - just a bad box? (lots of wonky wobbly mugs)

[GoonerGary]

Here's a few pictures of typical rejects

Cheers, Paul

I've moved back to Xpres mugs after ditching the 10oz Orcas from MDP and Neil Bros due to being badly warped for the last 6-9 months.

There will be a fair few Xpres mugs with chipped/ bad bases, I would always reject those because the customer will complain. The odd dimple on the handle I would let pass. Any deep dent or dimple in the print area, I would normally reject too. I would only attempt to reuse as a last resort if my design allowed it.

I would say that Xpres mugs are the best of the bunch at this time.

[socialgiraffe]

I would say that Xpres mugs are the best of the bunch at this time.

I agree, had one customer send in 14 boxes for me to print and found them to be spot on. So much so that had a sweet order of 2808 units and decided to get Xpres mugs as there wasn't much difference in price to the SW ones.

Also worth noting that I had a small issue with the delivery (some were the wrong type). Called Xpres and they dealt with it immediately which involved sending a same day van to me with more boxes so I could get the order done over the Jubilee weekend. I always maintain that it is how you deal with a problem/error will show the true mark of a decent company. So hats off to them.

Just gutted that the 50p production mugs are sold out. I only got 1 pallet and could have done with another 10 of those

[Andrew]

Just gutted that the 50p production mugs are sold out. I only got 1 pallet and could have done with another 10 of those

When you say 50p I assume you have done some serious rounding down there? I usually have a spare pallet or 2 of production mugs if you are ever short. We have a monthly allocation so could even possibly pull from that if urgent as long as our buffer allows.

[socialgiraffe]

When you say 50p I assume you have done some serious rounding down there?

Nope

They had a bucket load of mugs turn up that were not to their usual standard. you could not print edge to edge (vertically) and if put against a brilliant white mug they looked a bit off white. They had a "grey" version and a "cream" version. I took a pallet of them (1296 UNITS) which cost £648 including delivery. I sold them within a week and could have done it again and again (obviously). But sadly they do not have anymore and as it was an error they will not be getting any back. Just peeved with myself for not grabbing atleast a couple more pallets...

[Andrew]

I see. I know the mugs you mean. They had major problems for a while on their new supplier. Not their standard Production mug price then.

[Paulprints]

I wanted to add although I'm trying to resolve the high number of rejects I'm getting I've had nothing but great service from Xpres since starting using their mugs. Also I find every single mug I print with them is perfect and really sharp even without any preheating. The mugs I reject are all before printing.

Working on the assumption that we are all getting mugs from the same stock in the warehouse(when ordering boxes) it may be the different markets we sell to render some mugs unusable for me that would be be perfectly fine for others. By this I mean that if I was sending a large batch of corporate mugs if a few had small visible pinholes or little bumps I doubt the client would mind if the print was razor sharp and the majority had zero flaws (I've never done this type of order so apologies if I'm wrong on this)

For mugs I sell the customer takes a bit of time to personalise every part of the design - picking outfits, hairstyles, pets etc. So once they have the mugs then tend to really stare at them a lot! Probably not the type of relationship people normally have with a mug!

I did a small run of 40 mugs this morning I definitely used a couple I would have maybe not in the past. I still ended up with 6 I just couldn't use. This might just be the cost of selling the type of product I currently do where customers seem to really notice flaws and I'll need to price it in to my costs (not counting for really messed up mugs )

I'm going to take the time to go through every box of rejects I've got in storage and see if maybe on some I've been too strict with and can try using them. I might even sort them into other categories such as fine for some other types of order etc

Thanks again for all the replies on this I would never have been able to get the quality of prints I get on the mugs without all the information I got from this forum.

Cheers, Paul

[socialgiraffe]

You are spot on with your "assumptions" Corporate mugs tend to be a lot more forginving than retail

I'm going to take the time to go through every box of rejects I've got in storage

You could always consider selling them...

[UK Printed Mugs]

Coincidently we have just had our Xpres Account Manager drop in an hour ago to say hello AND we found one mug with a dimple in the handle coating so showed it to her as she knows people are talking about the mugs on the forum. This is literally only one of two we have found in weeks but seeing one example will hopefully mean she can feed that back to HQ saying she has seen proof.

[Paul]

Coincidently we have just had our Xpres Account Manager drop in an hour ago to say hello

my one phoned last Friday and said he will pop in Thursday (today). Never showed up! I think I don't spend enough... Roland printer, epson f500 printer etc... I wast happy as waited for them. Sorry for off topic rant, you just reminded me lol