What to Do If a Printed Order Arrives With a Defect

It's worth opening and checking a delivered print order soon after it arrives rather than setting it aside for later. Issues like missing pages, an incorrect binding, or inconsistent print quality are much easier to describe and resolve close to delivery, before the order's been separated, marked up, or partially used for whatever it was printed for.

A quick inspection is worth doing methodically: flip through and confirm the page count matches what was ordered, with nothing missing or duplicated; check that the binding matches what was selected and holds together properly with no loose pages; look across the whole document for consistent print quality rather than sharp on some pages and faint or streaky on others, which can point to an issue partway through the run; and confirm the paper feels like the weight that was ordered throughout the stack, not just on the first few sheets.

Some variation is normal and not really a defect — very minor differences in paper whiteness between batches, or tiny alignment differences on double-sided pages, fall into that category. What's genuinely worth flagging is anything that affects usability or clearly doesn't match the order: missing or duplicate pages, the wrong paper weight or binding entirely, print quality bad enough to affect legibility, or physical damage from shipping.

The most effective way to raise an issue is through /contact, with the order number and a clear, specific description of what's wrong — a photo helps a lot here. A precise report ('pages 12 through 15 are noticeably faded compared to the rest') gets resolved faster than a general complaint, since it's immediately clear what needs to be checked.

It's worth keeping expectations general rather than expecting a fixed, pre-defined remedy for every situation — the practical approach is to report clearly and promptly through that contact channel, and the right resolution gets worked out based on what actually happened with that specific order.