David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting Reviews 

Reply from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting

Mar 23, 2016

Thank you, Aimee, for providing this valuable feedback. You are absolutely right: There is no one who is going to know better the intended meaning and audience of a document than the one who wrote it. As editors, we understand this, and for that reason always encourage our clients to review all of our recommended changes carefully and thoughtfully to make the final determination as to whether they should be incorporated into the document.

We also always encourage our clients to follow up directly with the editor who worked on the document with any questions or concerns. It is for this reason that we provide you with the name, and direct phone number and email address of the editor who worked on your project when we return the edited document to you. Hearing specifically from you what your concerns are allows us to have a better understanding of how you like your documents to be edited so that we can grow as editors and in the quality of service we provide to you.

Reply from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting

Mar 21, 2016

It is regrettable that the TrustPilot review service does not allow for companies to leave reviews of its clients. If there are any entrepreneurs reading this, we would fully support your creation of a bilateral review system!

If we could give this client 0 stars, we would. This client hired us for our Professional Bio Editing & Feedback service. In doing so, he provided no other indication of the approach he wanted us to take in our editing. We therefore used the same approach that we have used on thousands of similar documents over our 8 years in existence as a company.

We found that there were significant opportunities for improving the bio, particularly areas: (1) lacking narrative cohesion, (2) containing inconsistent or contradictory information, and (3) descriptions that were out of order. We made all our recommendations, as we always do, using Track Changes, so that the client would be free to accept or reject the recommendations as he saw fit.

Following our return of our work to him, using a similar attitude as the one he used here in his review, he complained that all he wanted was a few proofreading adjustments and nothing more. This is like someone who goes to a hair salon and asks for a shampoo and cut, and then after the service is completed, complains and demands a refund because all he had wanted was a trim. The difference here, though, is that unlike with a haircut, our changes can be rejected.

In response to his request for a refund, we offered to answer any questions he had about our recommendations in full compliance with our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. He refused. We asked if he had found any errors in our work. He had not. We showed our refund policy to him, stating we would be happy to provide a refund in any situation adhering to that policy. Because his case is one of having selected the service that was different than the one he had wanted and of having given no other indication regarding the approach he wanted taken with his bio, and of his being unable to find any errors in our work, there is no indication a refund should be given.

It can hardly be said that we ruined his bio. This is his reaction to learning our opinion that his bio is not as great as he thinks it is. If he really thought he was justified for a refund, why not just make a claim with his credit card company and let them decide?

Reply from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting

Jan 5, 2016

Thank you for sharing this feedback about your experience. Depending on the project type, word count and time of submission, we do offer same-day turnaround time with our Express and Rush Delivery options. However, we do not offer delivery times on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Our holidays are: Memorial Day, Independence Day, the first Monday of November (in place of Labor Day), Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday, Christmas Eve and Day, and New Year's Eve and Day. In those cases, the delivery times are offered for the next business day.

In this case, the client wished both to submit and have her document edited on New Year's Eve. While this is something we would not normally do, we made an exception and offered to the client that if she had the document to us first thing New Year's Eve morning we could have it to her later in the day.

Instead of submitting her document first thing in the morning, she waited until the afternoon. Because it was so late, we at first thought we would have to cancel the project and refund the client's money. However, one of our editors was able to go to the office just to edit her document that same afternoon.

We received an email from the client, after her initial submission, with an updated version of her document for editing. However, as stated on the FAQ page of our website, we are unable to accept updated versions of documents once they have been submitted for editing.

Reply from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting

Dec 9, 2015

Thank you, Wai-Ka, for sharing your experience. We are glad you mentioned it, since the question of what is covered under which service is one we have aimed to address by providing a clear description on our website but nonetheless still comes up with relative frequency. Will you let us know of any suggestion you have for improving the visibility of this information so we can implement a better solution?

Currently we have multiple ways to access the description of what is covered under which service. First is by clicking on SERVICES in the main menu. Next is that every mention of a specific service on our Pricing, Free Sample, Quick Quote Calculator and Document Submission Form pages is a link to a description of that service.

We strongly encourage all clients to review these service descriptions and to ask any questions about which service is most appropriate for what they are looking to accomlish before submitting a project. We are happy to answer any and all questions by phone, live chat or email, and endeavor to provide timely responses to all inquiries during our business hours.

Reply from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting

Aug 13, 2015

In every project we work on, our number one goal is to achieve the most successful document possible, and we devote our full effort and attention to achieving this goal for each and every client. There are two reasons for this. First is that we are personally committed to helping our clients obtain whatever they hope to accomplish with their documents. Second is that when others ask our clients who helped them with their documents, we want that to be a positive conversation and not a negative one. We find that the most effective way to accomplish this is to communicate clearly and directly the improvements to be made to every document.

With this in mind, we are not surprised to see this one-star review. This review refers to a project in which the client asked us to change the way we had edited and critiqued his document in a way that would require us to compromise on our standards, from which the only result would be a poor-quality document. Our editor in chief explained why we would not do this. Our preference was to run the risk of a poor review for our high standard of excellence rather than aid in the production of a document that would lead to our embarrassment when it was shared with others.