Well, the gloves are off baby! I’m no longer going to keep their identity a secret.

I can’t quell my anger any longer and if you could hear me in person, you would hear some nasty language coming out of my mouth in regards to this piece of crap printer. The type of printer I bought is a DTG Kiosk II from SWF East in Florida.

To those who are in the market for a direct-to-garment printer, this is NOT the one to buy. I do have to say that when it is working properly, the images it prints are beautiful! I was warned by so many people that you can’t do dark shirts well on an inexpensive direct-to-garment printer (under $15,000), but this one does dark shirts wonderfully. So the issue is not a production quality issue. It is a reliability issue.

I’ve had a problem with SWF East since the day they got my money. They were great to deal with beforehand…when they were “wooing” me. As soon as they got my money, the good customer service came to a grinding halt. The printer was not delivered when they promised and I had orders that were waiting to be filled. I had to call them often to find out where it was. When it finally did arrive, it was garbage. I actually bought a refurbished machine, but it did not work when we finally got it.

So, I bitched at SWF until they sent me a brand, spanking new one at no additional cost…AND, they overnighted it to me at no additional cost! Now what you need to know about me is that I am a customer service finatic. If your company lacks good customer service or if you don’t deliver what you promise, I will get on your case until I am satisfied with the results. I am in no way unruly to deal with, but if you promise something, you must back it up with action…OR ELSE!

Once we finally got the new printer, it got set up like a dream and printed like a dream…until about a month later. All of a sudden, the printer decided to stop printing yellow ink. WHY?!? I’m not quite sure. So I get on the phone with tech support at SWF East and then it all started to fall apart.

First of all, when you call, you have to leave a message and you are put in a queue which they call back in the order the call comes in. So, SEVERAL HOURS later, I finally get a call. Mind you, EVERY TIME I call this company it takes them anywhere from 2-5 hours to return my call. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!

Every hour, every day that this printer is down I am losing money (especially in the busy holiday season). They (tech support) comes to the conclusion that the print head is bad…WHAT?!? This thing is only a month old! So I bitch at them until they overnight me a new print head (over $300) for free. They attribute it to a bad batch of ink clogging the print head.

Fine…put that new print head in and it’s still not printing yellow. Come to find out, the print head was fine and the issue was with a $20 consumable part (the damper). They send me some dampers and some new yellow ink to replace the bad ink they sold me previously and we’re up and running again. If I knew then what I know now, I would have completely flushed the old print head so I had a spare one on hand.

Fast forward to a month and a half later (present time) and the same thing starts happening. Except this time it’s with the magenta. Call tech support once again. Wait 2-5 hours for a return phone call.

Now, they are saying that the capping station which the print head sits on and the pump assembly need to be replaced. So, once I replace these 2 parts I basically have a new printer…AFTER ONLY 2-1/2 MONTHS OF USE! What kind of crap are they selling?!?

I bitch some more (this time it goes all the way up to the owner of the company) and they overnight me those parts. But, I’ve already been down for 5 days.

Big surprise when I install those new parts and I STILL DON’T HAVE ANY MAGENTA INK COMING OUT! Call them back once again. Wait some more for a return phone call (see a pattern yet?). They once again attribute it to a bad batch of ink. So I need to replace the print head…once again. I’m tired and frustrated all over again as I write this…

This time they won’t send me one on their dime, but they did discount it for me by $100. Big F’n deal!!! So I said (reluctantly), “Fine, then you pay for the overnight shipping.” Their reply, “No.”

WHAT DO YOU MEAN “NO”! I clean this thing religiously and do all the scheduled maintenance on it. This thing is better taken care of than my own children! After talking to them several more times, they take back what they said about bad ink and assure me that wasn’t the case this time.

How many times can one company flat out lie to a customer and not expect them to lash out? They outright lied to me several times and I called them on it. So, I was forced to buy the stupid print head (the second one in a month and a half, mind you) AND pay for overnight shipping.

I was backed into a corner and they knew it. They knew I couldn’t afford to be down any longer so they forced me to do what I didn’t want to do…pay for a second print head when I knew it wasn’t my fault and that it was because the printer is a piece of crap.

So, I am now waiting for the new print head to arrive tomorrow. My husband is NOT thrilled knowing that he needs to install another print head when he didn’t enjoy installing the first one. So he has aptly renamed this DTG printer–DIRECT TO GARBAGE–because that’s all it’s good for.

I would love to hear anyone else’s issues with this printer or this company. I welcome any and all comments you have to share!

I do not have any kind of retail background so this is a new experience for me. I learned that if your display is not set up properly so it attracts attention, you are invisible to people walking by. I made several changes and, voila, people started seeing that I was there.

The managers from the Hickory Farms kiosk who are right next door have been great in giving me pointers in attracting customers. Unfortunately I don’t have any samples to give away like they do and it’s easier to get people to stop when there’s food involved…especially free food.

My job for this week is to make more changes to the kiosk and figure out some kind of incentive to get people to stop. My thought is to offer a free tote with the purchase of an organic tee. People can use the tote to give the gift in instead of putting it in a box and wrapping it in paper. Save a tree…buy an organic tee!

The problem is that I don’t want to “solicit” customers to buy my products like some other kiosks do. There is nothing more annoying than being stalked by someone asking you to try some dead sea salt creme. I’m sure everyone who’s been to a mall has had an experience with these people!

The people that work there are the same no matter where you are or what mall you’re in. People are so afraid to make eye contact with someone working at a kiosk for fear of being asked to try something. And I don’t blame them…once they have your attention, they won’t let you walk away without buying something. It happened to me at Faneuil Hall in Boston a few years ago. I was suckered into buying over $50 of products that I never, ever used. So, now I try to walk as far away from their kiosk as possible, but they still insist on talking to me.

The key will be to offer potential customers something of substance without being annoying so people don’t try to avoid me. I think that’s going to be a tough thing to pull off! I have a couple of other things in mind that I can try so we’ll see if it makes a difference this weekend.

I did ask her…out of curiousity…how much it cost to lease a kiosk or cart. She replied with a figured that I kind of expected, but then said how much it was for just the months of November and December. I was floored! Just for those 2 months was half of the total yearly lease. I told her it was way out of my reach and then she came back with another offer that was just too good of a deal to pass up.

So, starting Friday, December 5th, Just Be will have a temporary shop located at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester, NH! It will only be open Friday-Sunday for the first couple of weeks in the month, but those hours may be expanded as the month progresses. It will definitely be open the whole week of Christmas and the weekend after Christmas.

The kiosk will be located near Macy’s. So, save on those shipping charges and come check out all the cool new Just Be Gear! I will be offering some Holiday sales during the month–buy any 2 tees and save $5…buy 4 tees and save $10! Save time and money by buying Just Be Gear for everyone on your list.

For those of you who can’t make it or don’t live close enough, you can still get all the great Just Be Gear in the online shop at jb-justbe.com/shop. There is free shipping until December 19th on orders over $50. Hurry while the free shipping offer lasts!

And who can forget all those desserts–pumpkin pie, apple pie, berry pie, canolis, brownies! And my mom surprised me with an awesome birthday cake…well not exactly a cake, but a whole pile of pumpkin whoopie pies! Every year my birthday comes and goes and I usually forget (or at least try to forget) that it’s that time of the year again.

So, I will be entering into the last year of my 30’s on Sunday. Next year at this time I’ll be hitting the big 4-0. It’s not that I feel old…it’s just the opposite…I DON’T feel that old. I guess the saying is true, “You’re only as old as you feel.” I can’t believe my brother is already 40. It feels like just yesterday when we were running around my parent’s house yelling and screaming at each other when we were kids. Come to think of it, not much has changed…just kidding, Rick! Although we did have a great time boxing each other on his Wii yesterday. See, just like old times!

Unfortunately we don’t get to see my brother and his family as often as we’d like because we live 2 hours apart and both families are always busy…sometimes too busy between baseball, soccer, basketball, bowling, work, and so on. We didn’t want to make the trek down to their house because after driving to NYC and Boston a few weeks ago, we were looking to stick close to home. But, my daughter kept insisting that we go. And I’m glad we did! We always have a great time when we all get together and the kids are growing up so fast. It’s so unfair that my nephew is now taller than I am…which really isn’t that hard!

I got a call this morning from my friends who said they were disappointed in their Thanksgiving dinners yesterday and wanted to try it again today. I had a great meal yesterday, but will wholeheartedly do it again today…especially with the company of good friends. So I plan on stuffing myself all over again tonight! And why not? Thanksgiving only happens once a year, right!?! Plus, my friend got Sing Star for the Playstation and we always have a great time with that!

So whenever I feel I’m losing sight of what’s really important in life, I just think back to all those great times we all have together (both with family and friends) and know that there will be plenty more of those times in the future!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday no matter what you did or who you spent it with.

We all snowmobile–husband, daughter, friends–and we try to get in several great rides each year. Not as much as we’d like to have, but enough to make owning the machines all worthwhile. Last year though was a different story. We had TONS of snow. So much that we didn’t have much time to enjoy it. My husband was too busy shoveling off the roof or plowing the driveway and trying to figure out where to put it all.

Plus, it snowed really early last year…well before Christmas. The ground never sufficiently froze under all the snow. What that meant was that the snowmobile trails were wet. We live right off the flood-plains and if the ground doesn’t freeze, there are open water bars everywhere. So we were stuck. Some of the water bars were mini-ponds and too large to cross. That made it tough to look out at all that wonderful snow in our yard and we couldn’t even enjoy it. We could have trailered our sleds up north to ride, but gas was so expensive and that made it a costly adventure. And…that defeats the purpose of having the snowmobile trail right out our back door.

Anyway…that little story brings me to the whole point of this post…previewing the snowboarder tee. I will get the shirts in today and will hopefully print them tonight and get them in the Just Be Shop tomorrow. I hope to come out with several different skiing and snowboarding designs this winter. So keep checking back as the winter goes on.

Without further ado…drum roll please…

I guess I will never understand the concept of why people spam. I could see if they were selling something. I definitely could have an unlimited supply of Viagra with all the pharmaceutical spam I get. The other thing is I see being sold often in spam is sex toys.

But what is the facination with spamming just for the sake of spamming? The spam comments I get are just a bunch of random letters and links that don’t say or mean anything. I guess one way to stop the spam would be to set my blog to where only registered members can post comments. But that’s not really what I want. I don’t want to force people to join just to make a comment. If the spamming continues, that may be my only option though.

Thanks spammers for ruining everything! Why don’t you go play out in traffic or something more useful and leave the rest of us alone?

Now don’t get me wrong, I am definately building brand recognition at these events, but I’m not making the quick cash I was hoping for. I am getting some great feedback and response from people, but these economic times are tough for everyone. People are looking, but not necessarily buying…even for the holidays.

And, many times, these fairs don’t have the right crowd of people that I am targeting. I figured there would be some older folks that you would typically envision at those types of events, but I thought they would at least have kids, grand kids or even great grand kids that they would need to buy for.

Today was the first day of a 3 day craft festival in Salem NH. It was a dismal day for sales…I only sold 2 items…in 7 hours! It was busy in the morning, but completely died off around 1 pm. Which means I had to sit around and do nothing for another 4 hours. I was so depressed.

But…just when I was at my lowest point, I made a connection with someone who put me in touch with a rep who might be interested in taking on the Just Be line. This might be the break I’ve been waiting for. Someone who can sell my products! If I can get this connection, it will make the whole depressing weekend worthwhile.

Now, I don’t mind selling. It’s just that my time would be better spent doing other things than sitting in a dumpy place for 21 hours not selling a thing. I have more shirts that I need to design and more connections I need to make! I wouldn’t be bad if I had my laptop and an Internet connection. Then I could at least get something done while I’m sitting there…but I don’t.

Speaking of new designs, the next one that will be debuted will be “Be a Boarder”…as in snowboarder. Even though most of us don’t want to admit it, winter is coming. That shirt should be finished some time next week or so. If you want to be the first to know when it’s available, make sure you’re following me on Twitter!

I first have to get through this weekend. So, I’ll put on a happy face and try it all over again tomorrow. Let’s hope the crowds are bigger and better this time (and they’re buying…Just Be tees)!

Yesterday’s drive from New Hampshire to NYC was great. No traffic and no unexpected detours through Queens and the Bronx because I invested in a GPS. My husband loves it because he doesn’t have to listen to me giving him the wrong directions and getting us lost. It’s a defective gene that I have that I inherited from my mother. She could get lost in our driveway.

Other than the hotel room being the size of a closet, the accommodations are fine and the room is at least clean and the bed is comfy. In fact, my husband is snoring next to me as I’m typing this. We found a great cafe to have dinner and then stopped by a bakery for some dessert to bring back to the hotel.

This morning when I woke up I wasn’t too nervous about the day, but as I got ready, the nerves stated to kick in. By the time we ate breakfast, my stomach was so much tied in knots that I could barely eat. Most of the nerves were from not knowing exactly what to expect. That feeling passed, luckily as my husband reassured me that I’ll be just fine.

We only needed to go a few blocks to get to the penthouse where the event was happening, but it took us almost an hour to get there…this traffic is something that we are NOT used to dealing with in NH. For us, a traffic jam is getting stuck behind a tractor driving down the road.

Got the the penthouse and set everything up. The display looked great…better than some of the other ones. So, we’re standing there waiting for this thing to begin and here comes Stacy London! She was stopping at every table to introduce herself (like she needs to tell people who she is!) and to see all of the products.

She came to our table and said, “Oh, I remember these shirts from the website!” Which to me means that the shirts are good enough for a celebrity to remember. WhoooHooo! And, she said that she liked them! Double WhoooHooo! She also wanted to use them in the TV segment that she was filming, but the producer said no…damn her! At least the videographer came over after and filmed all the products, but I don’t know exactly what or when it will be on TV.

The rest of the time went pretty well. The Just Be gear was well received and I spoke to media people from The View, Newsday, NBC, CBS, FOX, Martha Stewart Living, lots of freelance writers and one who freelance writes for O at Home (Opera’s magazine). I have already had two blog writers post about Just Be Tees on their sites (advicesisters.net and lyramag.blogspot.com).

The benefits of the holiday fair may not be known for a while if at all (unless someone from The View calls and asks me to be on their show…hey, you never know…it may happen!)

I hated that voice! Now, it doesn’t sound bad hearing it when I speak it, but when I hear a recording…UGH! It sounds all nasely (if that’s even really a word) and winey. Now I know why my husband turns a deaf ear when I speak to him. And, to think, I just thought it was that selective hearing all men have!

So, in preparation for NYC next week, I was told that I should do a video news release (VNR) to hand out at the show. This will be the “big time” in NYC and I want to make a great impression to all the media who will be attending. For those of you, like me, who have never heard of a VNR, it’s a 2-3 minute video that TV and radio can use and edit to create segments for their shows. It’s like a press release just in video form.

The VNR was suggested to me by a dear friend of mine (who I couldn’t have gotten this far without). Now, keep in mind that all this has to be done by Monday night. I contacted someone who could shoot and edit all the video and he was gracious enough to accommodate my tight deadline. Then I had to round up a bunch of people who would wear Just Be tees and be in the video. Not a problem when you have an 8 and 15 year old with lots of friends who like getting free shirts!

We were hoping to shoot this outdoors but the weather wasn’t cooperating all that well so we had to find another suitable location. Enter again the “dear friend of mine” who let us use her office space and also talked to the beauty salon next door…PERFECT!

Next, I had to write the script and memorize it. Not only did I memorize it, but I used the handy PhotoBooth software on my Mac and practiced, practiced, practiced! After watching myself 10 different times, I finally got comfortable seeing my “mug” and hearing my “nasely, winey voice”. I’m the type of person who is usually behind the camera, not in front of it.

All the kids (and their parents) were great in helping me out and patient while we filmed. They were all very well behaved and cooperative. They just love the idea that they are going to be on YouTube! As soon as it is complete I will be creating a Just Be group on YouTube and uploading the video to it. You can follow me on Twitter to be the first to know when it’s uploaded.