Shanghai Chenxi Printing Co., Ltd.

Buyer’s Nationality:
China

Seller:
Shanghai Chenxi Printing Co Ltd

Seller Website:
http://www.chenxish.com/

Seller Address:
Shanghai Chenxi Printing Co Ltd – Seat Bing, No. 5553, Hutai Road, , Shanghai, Shanghai, 201907, China

Initial contact with the supplier:
Introduced by a 3rd party

Type of product(s) being purchased:
Printing

Value of the Purchase Order when the incident occurred:
25,001 to 100,000 USD

Destination market of order in question:
US or Canada

Type of Complaint(s):
Lack of Labor, Contract Violations, Scams & Other Unethical Activities

Stage of relationship with the supplier at the time of the incident:
Order #3-5

User Experience:
Initially, beginning in 2014, Shanghai Chenxi Printing Co Ltd printed two children’s books for us. The first book arrived with the dust covers askew, badly gouged, very badly folded, so badly that the name of the book was not down the spine, but appeared somewhere in front or in bad, making sale of that book with the dust cover impossible. The printer said, “Too bad for you, you should have ordered extra dust jackets.” They offered no remedy. We had had to hire people to come and slightly heat up the covers and refold them at great expense to us. Many of the dust covers had to be thrown away. While we were waiting for the arrival of the first book, and before we knew of the dust cover problem, we ordered another book and it was beautifully done, arriving in January 2015. It was the only good printing job from this printer. Then after that everything fell apart.

We dealt exclusively with the director of marketing, Shannon Niu. After we received the good children’s book in 2016 we ordered two coloring books; one was a workbook with wiro binding. The production folks decided to substitute a different paper in a different color than what we ordered. The paper was grey and completely unsuitable for a coloring book, and the illustrations actually changed color in printing. The wiro binding marked the inside of the cover, although we had specified ways to avoid that problem, which they ignored. They did reprint the books but only after first denying that the paper was a different color, then admitting the problem, then attempting to blame it on us. My end client was terribly unhappy with the experience. She won’t do business with us.

While the coloring books were being printed, we ordered another children’s book for one of our clients at nearly the same time in 2016. We thought it would be an okay decision given the one good children’s book they did deliver, and because we didn’t know of the deceitful paper substitution in the coloring workbook. This children’s book, the third one we had ordered, was so badly bound that the books literally split open in our hands the first time the book was opened. Chenxi’s director of marketing, Shannon Niu, suggested we just tape them all up, after suggesting that we were tearing them apart with our hands!! This children’s book also had permanent black smudges and marks, pages bound while folded in half, had pages that were crooked, and many that were upside down. There were gouges on the covers and the inside pages. Glue was spilled through out the book. Out of 2500 books only about 500 were even slightly usable. There was absolutely no quality control at all. They did replace the bad books but did so very, very slowly, causing the author to miss nearly the entire 2016 holiday season. We asked them to replace the entire print run, but they refused to do so and refused to pick up the bad books from us, which they promised when we first reported the issues to them. This is only one in a long string of lies and broken promises. The bad printing job of this book was simply jaw-dropping.

A second children’s book ordered concurrently with the terribly produced children’s book and also had the same binding problems, along with scratches and mars. We caught the problem when they sent us a production sample before shipping. When we asked for replacements, Shanghai Chenxi Printing Co Ltd printed the books on cheap, lightweight paper — not the paper we ordered. This author also missed the entire 2016 holiday season, as her reprints did not arrive until mid-December.

Six months earlier we had begun a dialogue to print a deck of wisdom cards, right after we had received the single good children’s book — the only good printing that they ever provided. We also mailed copies of our current card deck product so Chenxi could see the quality, weight of cards, colors, paper, paper color and weight, etc. They promised to give us exactly the same product, everything exactly the same. On arrival with the bad children’s book these cards were a terrible, unspeakable disaster, arriving six months after they promised us an exact match, with peeling lamination, a booklet printed on cheap paper, boxes that were falling apart with the paper wrap peeling off, colors on the static side of the cards that didn’t match, corners cut with jagged edges as if a first grader had cut the corners (we found out later that they didn’t have the capability to do machine-cut rounded corners) and the shrink wrap so full of wads, tears, mats and holes that we could not use them; this product was our main flagship product and our primary source of income — facts well known to Chenxi. This time they refused to make new boxes, sent us replacement cards and booklets six months later after we reported the issues (!) where the booklets were actually printed and bound in at a slant! We had to throw them away. They also refused to pay the customs fees that were a part of our contract, refused to deliver them to us at our business address, refused to pay for shrinkwrapping them after the contents were replaced and we had to hire another companies and pay them for all of this.

Then Shanghai Chenxi Printing Co Ltd promised to give us reimbursement for the Customs fees, at $500, but when it came time to send us the money, they refused, and Shannon Niu, the marketing director said, “Boss don’t want to do it.” So their promise was just another in a long string of false promises and lies. They never intended to fulfill that promise, which was a term of our written contract. This was a dishonorable, horrible breach of trust, another in a long line.

This terrible printing company has nearly bankrupted a small publisher. They are bad beyond words, dishonorable, do a terrible job and will lie to you with all sorts of false and pretty promises. Run away as fast as you can from them and find any other printer in the world — they would be better than Shanghai Chenxi. This is a company with absolutely no honor, horrible quality control, a history of substituting materials instead of what you ordered, and a habit of hiding or failing to respond until you call and call them, adding to your loss. I can’t find enough words to articulate how bad our experience was with Shanghai Chenxi Printing.

User Recommendations:
Never, ever, ever use or trust Shanghai Chenxi Printing Co Ltd — they cannot produce quality printing.

They lied to us repeatedly and continuously, violated contract terms, tried to avoid us by not answering emails, refused to put us in touch with their company president, refused to make all the problems right, refused to fulfill the final part of their contract promise, refused to pay for all fees associated with reprinting, refused to reimburse us for fees they promised in writing to reimburse. Don’t do business with them, ever, and don’t believe a single thing they say or promise. They have no honor at all.

The Director of Marketing, Shannon Niu, will promise you everything and then come back and say that “Boss won’t do this or that…” or that “Production don’t want to provide you the paper you want (or card stock) or particular color” or whatever. Then she will stop replying to you. Then they will attempt to hold you hostage, saying if you book another job, they will give you a discount. Don’t believe anything she says. Nothing she promises is true. She and her admins will act offended if you are upset about your printing job, saying that your words “hurt their feelings.” Meanwhile you will have no product you can use, you will be out lots of money and they will take no responsibility for anything.

If you print in China, use a company with a US presence.