What caused this issue with printing?

Question

Dear all,I have recently received a shipment of new titles from my printer. The printing run comprised 3 titles of 25 units each. All titles were packaged and shipped in the same way. One of the title had ink stains on all 25 units, with 5 units being unusable (see the kind of damage in the pictures below, one picture per damaged unit). The printer saw the pictures and said that the damage is caused by rubbing during shipment and they refused to issue a credit note for more than one damaged copy. They also insisted that this is due to the non-laminated covers. Please note that none of the titles had laminated cover, yet only one title contained significantly damaged copies. Everything was shipped in the same big box with four smaller boxes inside.Their price for laminating the covers for less than 50 copies is 200% the single unit cost, which makes it unviable.  Two questions:(1) what do you think caused this damage? (2) what good printers are available in mainland Europe? These are musical scores, so either saddle-stitched booklets up to 80 pages or perfect-bound books above. Each booklet usually has one or more inserts, also saddle-stitched but without cover.I can also provide the PDF of the cover file for you to check whether this was something that I could have prevented with specific settings within InDesign.  Thank you very much!

Inélsòre · Accepted Answer

"They are still blaming the shipping ..."It's nonsense! You should scratch it with a razor or something to achieve such an effect. "Can you—and/or others—suggest a good, reliable printer for short runs (12, 25, then if a title is successful 50, 100, etc.) in mainland Europe (or with good shipping conditions to Italy)?"I could recommend digital print shops here in Ukraine, for whom reputation is more important than money, but shipment is problematic: planes don't fly because of the war.Thank you for your honest opinion. They once again confirmed this being due to rubbing during shipment, but they eventually accepted to refund 5 copies and to pay for the shipment of the damaged copies to their office. Please take care!

Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Answer

I'm going to guess these were digitally printed due to the small quantity. This looks very much like the toner is being rubbed off (like they are trying to say,, it could have happned in shipping, but could also have happened in their bindery and they didn't notice). It's typical to shrink wrap product before it's boxed, especially when shipped.

Regardless, THEY are responsible for getting the product to you undamaged. Any reputable printer would have accepted this, so I'm sorry you had this experience, but they are making excuses for a bad product.

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