20 emails and 1 week and still unable to print stickers

Last week I wanted some stickers made

Nothing crazy. Just regular, circular stickers

Not even weird shapes / kiss cut. Just plain circles

I found a local print shop

They don’t have any way to order online. Just an email you need to write to, in Portuguese. Alright fine I’ll write. “Olá, I want 200 circular stickers, 80mm diameter, how much?”

A day goes by. They reply: “Please send us the assets so we can give you a quote”. I send them. A day goes by

The quote comes back, it’s only 50 EUR. The time I’ve lost in this email exchange is already probably worth more than the value of the stickers but I’m already this far so I send the assets and approve the quote

A day goes by. “Please send us the assets with 3mm bleed and proper sizing”. Fair. Other print shops I've worked with usually just resize my assets and add bleed themselves but I guess it depends on the shop. I’m good with Photoshop so I add 3mm bleed on all sides, background extending the entire canvas, resize to 86x86mm at 300dpi ready for print. The target final art is perfectly centered on the canvas so they just need to cut an 80mm circle centered on the asset. I write down all these technical details and send them an email with the final assets and detailed instructions

A day goes by. They reply: “But if we cut where the circle is, then part of the design is going to be cut out”. I’m puzzled. What are they taking about? I look at the assets. Oh. They mistook a circle that’s part of the design with the actual border of the sticker. I reply: “None of the colored circles you see on the design represent any cut lines, they’re just part of the final art. You just need to cut an 80mm circle centered on the canvas. The design already accounts for border and everything, plus the 3mm bleed you asked for. All is properly sized. Just cut an 80mm circle centered on the art thanks”

A day goes by. They reply: “please send us the assets with visible cut lines so there’s no misunderstandings as to where to cut”. At this point I’m livid. Anyone who’s worked with print assets before will know that the very reason you add bleed in the first place is to avoid the edges of the cut looking bad. The LAST thing you want to do is add a VISIBLE cut line that’s going to leak into the edges. Especially important for a circular design where symmetry is key and anything misaligned will look awful

Too much sunk cost already, so I’m determined to make this work. I make a reference-only asset with visible MAGENTA cut lines but with a big repeating watermark all over the design: “FOR REFERENCE ONLY - NOT FOR PRINT”. I explain to the print shop all of the above, and make sure they understand adding visible cut lines defeats the purpose of adding bleed. I send them the reference material.

A day goes by. They finally reply: “Please confirm this is the right cut before we send it to production” I’m hopeful. I open the attached image. I'm devastated.

They not only used the WRONG assets without the bleed they asked for in the first email, but something looks off. Something looks visibly misaligned. I open up their image on Photoshop to verify it, I overlay my design on top, with my reference line I sent them; and surely enough their cut line is visibly OFF CENTER and MISALIGNED. How difficult can this be?

I sent them foolproof instructions and yet they managed to keep screwing up every step along the way.

At this point, almost a week went by. 20+ emails. Hours lost on Photoshop and writing instructions. Strees and cortisol through the roof. I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall.

I decide to cut my losses. There’s a Spanish startup that prints stickers on demand. No emails. Everything is done through their website. You just upload your image and pay. Takes 5 min. They get my money and get to work immediately. I received the stickers in the mail today. All good. Ordered only ~72h ago. They’re a bit more expensive, but it’s worth it. I get to preserve my mental health.