Acme Bookbinding Co

This place is a joke. For starters, they claim that you will be charged if you walk through the door. I had to go there for my thesis book binding because they were chosen by the school. It took 2 weeks for 2 books, which seemed like a lot. I called ahead to make sure the books were ready. Upon arrival, they tell me that it is cash only. I easily had one of the smallest orders there and my bill was still $ 100+, but its cash only? You couldn’t have told me on the phone? No one carries that much cash on them. And to top it off, I am pretty sure that it wasn’t done correctly. Since its the school picked them, the school can deal with that issue. The whole process was sketchy and unpleasant. If you have a choice, run, do not walk, to another business.

Without question this was the absolute worst customer service experience I’ve had with any company in any industry. I can’t comment on the quality of their work as I was never able to even get a simple a price quote for a book binding service. Here is a quick summary of my experience with the company:
November 25^th — I sent a detailed email to Manny, who is listed as the ‘customer service’ contact, in which the project I needed done was described. I specifically asked if this was something ACME Bookbinding could do? No response back, not even a simple ‘No’ we don’t handle projects like this. Okay.
December 16^th — After letting a couple of weeks pass, I decide to PERSONALLY go into the ACME office since I live only a few miles away. I thought that maybe my email just got lost or forgotten. Not a big deal since I live close and it would be better to speak in detail (in person) about what I wanted done. I met with Manny, who seemed a genuinely good guy, and went over what I was looking to do. We talked about cover, page layout and printing options. After about 20 minutes he said great, I have everything I need regarding the project, I’ll have a price quote emailed out to you in a day or two. I never received any email.
December 23^rd — I made a follow-​up phone call to Manny and left a voicemail. I basically just reconfirmed my email address to ensure he hadn’t written it down incorrectly and reminded him that it had been a week and still no price quote had been sent. No response or call back.
December 30^th — I made another follow-​up call to Manny and actually got him on the line! Even though I was losing patience at this point, I remained extremely polite saying that ‘I know you guys are probably crazy busy with the holidays, and my project is small, but I just haven’t received the price quote we spoke about’. He seemed somewhat apologetic and said ‘I can definitely get that to you later today’. Great! Finally making some progress. Well it turned out not so great because again no price quote was ever emailed.
January 6^th — I made another follow-​up call. I was told by the secretary that Manny was not available to take a call. I told her I would try back again.
January 9^th — At this point I basically knew that this project was never going to get done by ACME and I had just wasted a lot of time with this place. I made one last call to Manny and again got a secretary who said, oh he is just going into a meeting. I could almost visualize in my mind Manny standing there shaking his head and saying ‘Oh no not this guy again! There is no way I’m taking that call’. I left a voicemail basically saying how I was failing to understand why I couldn’t get a simple communication back from the company. And guess what happened next? No response back.
So in summary, over the span of seven weeks I sent two emails (never a response), I made one 20 minute personal visit to the office in which I met with Manny, I had one follow-​up phone conversation Manny and I left three voicemails (which never received acknowledgement or a call back). And still I couldn’t get a simple price quote. Pretty amazing!
At the end of the day, I’m most annoyed by the fact that this company had zero regard for my time. Absolutely zero regard. Honestly, it’s okay if you don’t want my business (which I was expecting to cost anywhere from $ 500-​$ 1000), but why wouldn’t that just be communicated to me from the very beginning? A simple, ‘No we don’t handle that kind of work’ at the start would have sufficed. Instead, I waste time and energy thinking that ACME is going to handle this project (I had a personal meeting and follow-​up phone call with Manny going over the project in detail!!!) and then there is no follow thru week after week after week. It was absolutely infuriating. I would say if you have a small retail project don’t even bother checking with these guys. They obviously don’t care about that type of business and you’ll likely waste your time believing they do (cause they won’t tell you!)

I got a few copies of my dissertation bound here. I think this place does a big business in thesis/​dissertation binding, especially for schools who don’t do it for the students. You can print out your own pages to save a ton of money, which winds up making Acme Bookbinding much cheaper than online book binders. The cheapest service takes 2 weeks (so plan ahead or you’re going to shell out a lot!) and Acme takes CASH only! Their website will give you an idea of how much everything will cost, which is very helpful for figuring out how much cash to bring.