What you asked us:	Our Response:
I am curious about the fact that you display the following warning about your mugs: "To preserve the beauty and vibrancy of the image on our full-color sublimation-decorated mugs, it is best to hand wash them as you would hand wash any fine China as well as your best glasses. Also, never leave the mugs in direct sunlight, for example on a window sill." Since other vendors instead post blithe assurances about the fade-resistance and dishwasher-safety of their mugs, I am wondering: Do you use a different process? Are you just more realistic and/or cautious? What accounts for this discrepancy? I'd also like an up-to-the-minute report on how your turnaround time is looking these days. I see info on your site about 4-day turnaround, and I'm actually hoping for a pretty quick ~1-week timeline for a small order. Does this necessarily constitute a rush job? If so, how much is that extra fee? Thank you for your help.	Thank you for your e-mail and interest in our sublimation, full-color, custom-decorated, white, ceramic coffee gift mugs. The apparent discrepancy you refer to with respect to us and other vendors is very simple: There are basically 2 methods to decorate coffee mugs, one is the old way with vitrifiable decals and directly imprinting on the coffee mugs, both of which are then fired into the ceramic glaze. However since this process is done with silk screening, only a very limited number of colors can be printed one on top of the other and it would be extremely costly to decorate just a few mugs, lets say less than 12 -18 doz as each color has to have its own screen, printing plate, etc. etc., a process rather costly and time-consuming for small production runs.  In today's age, customers insist on a  rapid turnaround of their orders and on full color decorations, such as for example of a photo of their grandchild or favorite pet... (and all for tomorrow, if not yesterday). Others require continuous tone decorations and individualizations and personalizations of individual mugs with a different name on each mug, all of which cannot be done economically - if at all - with screen printing. And this is one reason why we no longer offer screen printed decorations for ceramic products but only sublimation-decorated ones. The latter decorations are, by definition, much more delicate and like anything delicate or precious might not be as robust as hoped for. Furthermore, today's dishwashers (and especially those that come from Europe and/or are used in restaurants) use higher heat cycles and water and air streams to get the job done faster. All this influences the resistance of any color or decoration on anything... and we have no control over how our mug decorations are used and/or abused. By the way, did you ever wonder why porcelain plates are only decorated on the rim? and decorative wall plates all the way? Would you put your finest, gold-rimmed crystal in a dishwasher? And with respect to color fastness, did you ever read some of the labels on textile products or leave a colored anything in the sun? Well we all know......There exists no color Nirvana, yet... no matter what some people claim. Since we did not invent the wheel and still have to buy all ingredients required for ceramic decorations on the open market and from large companies, all our competitors have and do work with the very same materials and ingredients. We often wonder how they achieve unequaled dishwasher safe decorations with complete colorfastness. Well maybe they know something we don't. Or, maybe, their coffee mugs break before the color "wears out"? At the present time we require about 3-4 business days after we receive all necessary information from our customers before we can ship our orders. Rush orders are those where some customers need them the very next day, and preferably also delivered around the globe. Our sublimation process permits us to accept orders of only ONE coffee mug and up. We offer a wealth of information on this subject - which none of our competitors does - and should you be interested, you can find it all right here: http://www.giftmugs.com/admin/Frequently-asked-Questions.htm We hope to have been able to answer your questions to your satisfaction and look forward to any suggestions and observations you'd like to offer as we would like to be able to live up to the claims of our competition. Thank you.
Hi,   I am working on vector artwork which has three spot colors: probably green, red and black. I found the suggestion for RGB red on your website and I am using that as my red. Do you have a suggestion for a bright green--as close to a lime green as possible? What about a turquoise?   The red I am using, as per your recommendation, looks sort of brownish on the screen. Is there a Pantone color that you can give me for reference that is close to what I might expect the red to look like printed? Just want to get an idea...   Thanks!   Thank you for your e-mail concerning color values and our full-color, personalized, sublimation-decorated, white, ceramic coffee mugs. Unfortunately, there exists no sure way yet to insure color-fidelity for sublimation-decorated coffee mugs and we presently use the latest materials available on the open market. As you know, the Pantone system is used in the traditional printing industry and has almost no application and validity in our sector:  the digital printing field; especially as all our decorations are done with the Sublimation heat process...a chemical reaction, where we do not just print cold inks onto a finished and final substrate. To complicate things even more, permit us to mention only a few factors, all of which influence the outcome of our full-color mug decorations We use, for example, 5 monitors and in each one the same image shows different. If we now open the same digital file in a different application, it again shows differently. By just looking at the monitors, we do not know what the desired color should be or actually is. Now, we use many different printers and each prints differently. And this does not yet take into account the different computer platforms, nor the inherent variances in the pigmented inks we buy on the open market, nor the differences in one transfer media over another, nor the coatings on the coffee mugs. Furthermore, we have no influence over the equipment/applications our customers use as many do not even know the difference between, CMYK and RGB values, spot colors and process colors, print resolutions vs. screen resolutions. Should we go on? The variables are just to numerous and do not permit to arrive at a common standard, yet. And we're not alone in this dilemma, just ask our competitors. Hence, we do not and cannot guarantee ANY color to correspond to any color scheme. The only way to establish precise colors - or close color matches - is to have sample mugs prepared with lots of different, yet similarly-colored, swatches on them from which you then select the closest color and incorporate it into your digital image, color by color, before sending your digital image to us. And even then, another sample mug would be in order. Sorry not to be able to provide better information and hope to have been able to answer your question. For further details and explanations on this, you might also want to consult our Arts Sections as well as our FAQ pages. Thank you for having contacted us and we look forward to hearing from you as to how you'd like to proceed. Hi, I received the mugs and realize that I had the option to buy/receive a sample mug. But, due to time constraints, I needed to order ASAP. I'm sure you produce many custom mugs so you should know when something looks too dark. I know the image sent was OK. It's unfortunate that your staff is unable to discern proper image quality. I SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST BEEN NOTIFIED OF THIS POTENTIAL SHIFT IN QUALITY so I could have adjusted my image files accordingly. I work with many imaging companies (printing cards, layouts etc.) and I am always notified of potential bad image quality. I was excited to place my order with Bitmark but would like to express my disappointment with the mugs that I received. I realize that there are no refunds available but can you compensate me with a new shipment of mugs at no additional cost. I will be unable to use the mugs that were sent to me. Thank you for your cooperation. Thank you for your e-mail and we're sorry to hear that you're not too happy with your custom-decorated coffee mugs. As you have probably noticed, we're very concerned about the output generated by customer-supplied digital images since we repeatedly offer our customers to order a sample mug first especially when color fidelity, luminosity and similar aspects are of importance. One reason is that many of our customers are new to this medium and have little graphic experience as our customers had in the "good old days'" where only graphics professionals could and would submit digital images for reproductions on full-color coffee mugs or ceramics in general. The other reason is that we're not able to evaluate any digital image submitted to us for its suitability for full-color mug decorations as this process is a chemical reaction and the final result can ONLY be seen on a sample mug. No matter how long we look at a print (as long as it's in the appropriate resolution), the result depends on the final "cooking'" of the image and there many factors play a role in the final outcome. Hence we're unable to discern proper image quality - in your case the "darkness" of an image - by just looking at a customer's digital image either on a monitor or once printed on our special media. And, furthermore, who are we to criticize the submitted digital art work? Maybe it has to be like this. We believe that our customers know what they are doing as otherwise they would order a sample mug first, just to be on the safe side. Hence we state very clearly in many, many places that we use any customer-submitted digital images AS IS. As you might surmise, printing in the traditional manner (printing cards, layouts etc. where you can see what you get immediately) is one thing and decorating ceramics is a completely different story. By the way, we offer extensive and very interesting information on this topic in our searchable FAQ pages as well as in our Arts section. For those of our customers in a hurry, we even offer RUSH service whereby we ship with FedEx Overnight. There is, of course, an extra charge for rush. Unfortunately our business of full-color ceramic decorations is NOT a science but an art and there is no substitute for it other than a sample mug when color fidelity is of the essence - even in the traditional printing business, proofs are offered for customer's acceptance and if the customer does not sign off on a proof first (our sample mugs in this case), production goes on AS IS especially when the customer requires ASAP and returns signed order confirmations without requiring sample mugs. We're very sorry not to be able to offer you a more interesting response to your questions but are sure that our competition will produce outstanding mug decorations every time from every digital image file submitted to them without having to go through a sample mug first. We're very sorry but we here at giftmugs by Bitmark, Inc., have not yet reached this stage of Nirvana. Unfortunately. Hi, Damn ... that was quick. I'm impressed. A question ... should it turn out that my partners are pleased with the quality, my business may consider a bulk order sometime in the first or second quarter (we're going to give away either mugs or golf balls at conferences this year). I notice that your clientele seems to be largely individuals and small businesses, as your pricing structure is quite granular up to 600 or so, but then simply stops (i.e., there's no difference in price between an order of 750, and an order of 1500). So then, 1. Can you handle larger orders (i.e., 1,000 or 2,000)? and 2. Are you open to negotiating better unit prices for larger orders? In recent years, the trend in coffee mug decorations has been to ever smaller, yet personalized, full-color, custom decorated coffee mug orders. Hence we no longer decorate with the "old" vitrifiable decal process where personalizations where nay impossible as well as full-color decorations, yet economies of scale could be obtained rather readily. The process we use presently is based on the sublimation process which permits us to decorate continuous-tone, full-color photo reproductions with or without personalization and in rather small quantities, at still accessible prices. Unfortunately, this is a rather expensive and sometimes "tricky" endeavor when compared to the "legacy'" approach of yesterday. The sublimation mugs themselves have to be specially coated to accept our special pigment inks and the prints have to be printed one by one, then applied to each mug and then "baked-on". These mugs and pigment inks along with the special media used for the printing are rather expensive and hence, our price breaks flatten out and disappear at around 600 mugs. As you can surmise, orders over 600 mugs are not very attractive to us and we shy away from them. We can only offer our services if we can sustain our costs and would not be able to do so if we'd have to offer larger quantities at prices lower than those indicated in our price list. It just would not be viable any more. Furthermore we are no longer able to obtain sufficient quantities of "colored" mugs, either of the rim and handle type or the inside colored mugs. The demand for them is just too low and no ceramics factory is very interested in producing them any more at the present prices. We hope to have been able to answer your questions even though they might not be answers you might have expected. Would you please let me know if/when my order has been processed. I went through this "sign your name" nightmare twice last week and thought I was through with it and expecting my mug any day, only to get the same message a week later. I understand security concerns, but this is bordering on ridiculous. I've never had to do this signing thing with any online purchase. Thanks. John Morgan Your order was shipped within 2 business days after we received your 2nd and properly signed order confirmation. (Your first order confirmation was not returned to us in its entirety, as clearly indicated therein and required so that we can give any mug order into production.) We require a properly "signed" order confirmation in its entirety so as to avoid possible misunderstandings and credit card fraud. We do not believe that, as you say our ordering process is: "bordering on ridiculous" and is a "nightmare" especially since all our custom-decorated mugs are, well, custom-decorated from scratch to the individual indications of our customers and are not like a CD or book, for example, that can easily be returned and sold to another customer. Each and every mug is decorated from scratch and any possible errors can be corrected before we ship once our customer confirms the correctness of our order confirmation. Furthermore, we have to be sure that the shipping address (and your e-mail address as well are correct and valid) as FedEx Ground will leave your mug order at your doorsteps without requiring your delivery signature... unless you specifically requested it with your order. Furthermore, since you specifically declined to receive tracking information, none can be made available to you. You had the option to have tracking information made available to you at a nominal cost. Yet you declined specifically. We're very sorry about your experience with Gift Mugs  but we have to make sure that all is correct and shipped to the correct address and billed to the authorized and correct credit card. We had always believed that we do all these extra steps (which cost us extra time and effort) to protect our customers. Apparently we failed you and ask for your understanding of the "nightmare" we imposed on you by requesting to hit your e-mail reply button. I am interested in getting a price quote on a white mug with an image on one side of the mug and then another image on the other side. On one side I would like a yellow crescent outlined in black, with Gamma Phi Beta in pink and outlined in black arched over the top of the crescent; and then Epsilon Omicron Chapter in pink outlined black arched under the crescent. On the other side of the mug I would like Class of 2003 centered over two columns of names, all in black. I hope this enough information for you, and I hope you have a nice day. We are very sorry but are not able to prepare detailed price quotes for ONE mug only. May we urge you to consult our Comprehensive price list or, better still, our Single-mug-order price calculator; you can also send us a Request for a price quote. For detailed information on what Gift Mugs is all about, please consult our Introduction. Again we're sorry not to be able to offer you the service requested.
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