FedEx-Kinko's

This is a review of the FedEx-Kinko's online print service.

Theoretically, you can email a document to a print center and it will be ready for you to pick-up at a later date.

I have used this service three times.  Here are the results.

The first time, I sent in a document near the airport in Cleveland.  My plan was to pick it up on Sunday, Labor Day, and then drive the hour to a client that I was working with.  My business partner told me about this service and he was using it to get his own printing done.  He was also picking his up on Labor Day. 

When I got to the airport Kinko's on Monday, they had a big sign on the door saying they were closed for the holiday.  I called my business partner and he didn't have the same problem.  Apparently, different Kinko's sites have different policies.  I checked my confirmation email from Fedex-Kinko's and they did give me a date for pick up.  It was the Tuesday after Labor Day.  It was my fault for not catching this.  They could have made it easier to notice.  They gave me a date, not a day.  Additionally, there was no mention about them being closed on the holiday' no warning.  Finally, since my business partner's Kinko's was open on the holiday, I wrongly assumed mine was.

The second time I tried to use this service, I fought with it for about 45 minutes before finally calling the site and saying, "I give up."  It seemed like every thing I entered was accepted wrongly.  If I back spaced to change one thing, the site changed everything else, like defaulting to the more expensive "color" option.  The FedEx office said, "Oh, sorry about that. We are working on the website."  It would have been nice to know before I wasted my time.

The latest time was this Friday.  I got everything entered and then got an error message that simple said there was an error processing my order.  Once again, all that time was wasted.  So I called the site and then emailed in my documents.  It was about noon.  I got an automated response saying that they got my order and someone would be calling me.  No one called.  I called them on Saturday and they are closed for the weekend.  So now I am just hoping that my order will be ready when I fly into town on Monday.

I give this service 1 star out of 4.

Jim