Proper Gooses Print on Demand (POD) Technical Support
This is actually a UK based company, printing very nice high quality things. If you're here because you're wondering if 'PROPER GOOSE' is okay then you'll be fine. It's perfectly okay. If you're here wondering what its like to be a 'BOTTLED GOOSE' customer then in my experience things are a tad different.
Bottled Goose is Proper Goose's Print on Demand (POD) arm. It has a separate website of its own but is managed and supported by the same UK team. The main issues are their 'customizer' tool (used for customising POD products) and technical support which is truly dreadful. Sales support and everyday support are great. I've been waiting THREE WEEKS for technical support.
Support calls are always extremely positive and very friendly, but support queries get passed from customer services to technical support; where almost absolutely nothing happens.
Today I was told that my emails (to the address they publish) had gone into their spam folder and that's why questions hadn't been answered. But at least two questions were discussed over the phone and at least one message submitted via their website contact form so I'm not sure what happened to those.
Promises have been made to get back to me with answers by the end of the day, today was another one of them. Unsurprisingly, this hasn't happened. There hasn't been any sort of communication either. I rang the support line towards the end of the afternoon and left a message. Maybe they'll be something next Monday.
ORDERING
Bottled Goose can process and send out orders from a simple Etsy product without variants. The quality is good. I haven't tested variants.
CUSTOMIZER
1 - Cannot export variants to Etsy.
2 - Etsy variants to be configured manually.
3 - No image management system - directories.
4 - Layers cannot be renamed.
5 - Renaming layers leads to image path loss.
6 - Image path loss leads to pink boxes instead of images.
7 - Its very very slow.
8 - Cannot set up product bundles.
9 - Unusable and unstable at times.
The customizer wasn't actually usable this afternoon - it displayed a critical red error message. Work done inside the customizer on a product could not be saved. Sent a support message for help, no response happened.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
1 - Questions encouraged but not answered.
2 - Communication is not forthcoming.
3 - Very frustrating when you need help.
4 - Falsely told image URL's had been fixed.
5 - Questions outstanding.
There are three outstanding key questions:
1 - Broken image URL's creating pink boxes in my product listing artwork.
2 - Product variants not uploading to Etsy.
3 - Products not saving.
A previous issue was lack of visibility on shipping pricing for POD. Although there is a link to this in the footer on every page now, there wasn't one previously. Having received no answer I had to ask someone else to email them from a different email to ask the question! They still have not responded.
It's such a shame because the products are so good. But for a business looking for a reliable POD partner this is very tricky. The customizer feels like its still in beta and that Bottled Goose POD customers are testing it. If you have a small number of simple products without variants and not many images to manage then you'll likely be fine. If you're used to working with professional level design software, excellent fully tested UI and best of breed Etsy integrations, then this customizer could lead to a low level of frustration. If you're used to working with reliable tech support then this customizer could create a LOT of frustration. I'm going to hang in for a few more weeks and see if it gets better, it might be worth the wait. They did make a big song and dance over the Etsy integration initially.
Two well deserved stars for excellent products, excellent printing and sales support. Minus 3 stars for the clunky customizer, broken Etsy integration and poor technical support. This isn't a reflection on the product itself, both Proper Goose technical support and Vercels' Personify Visual Editing tool could do a LOT better!!!