I offer only my opinion on my individual experience with the company, and in no way claim to offer a definitive review on what you may experience should you place an order with this company. My goal is to inform.
I first became interested in acrylic charms after attending a couple of different artist alleys, initially as a potential vendor, and later on again after becoming a vendor. I did some minor research in to the world of acrylic charms, and found a few reviews on different companies, both through friend references, and through my own internet delving. Eventually, I settled on ZAP! as my first acrylic charm order, as it had relatively good reviews. I did order a charm sample pack before ordering (~$9.00 total, give or take) and I recommend doing this before ordering just so you will have an idea as to the quality/what your chosen acrylic will end up looking like with your image on it.
I decided to order a small set of charms for my first experience with acrylics. ZAP! has an emailing list that allows prospective buyers to receive coupons for certain items periodically throughout the month/year, typically for 15% off of the total purchase, not including shipping and taxes, which definitely made me decide to purchase over other companies.
I ended up ordering about 50 charms, which, with the 15% off coupon, cost approximately $95.00 (I believe it was $95.00 and some change), which was fairly expensive, but, when compared to the amount of designs you are able to get (5 in this case), was a fairly good deal.
Template Ease of Use/Website Navigation: 3 out of 5
The website of ZAP! is very friendly and easy to use, and there is a LOT of variety available. Ordering is very straightforward, and they accept Paypal or credit cards. The hardest part is trying to decide what to get.
The templates were the only real source of error that I had in the entire process of ordering charms from ZAP!. They felt very advanced, especially for someone who had never edited templates for charms before. There was a guide available on their website, which did help somewhat, but it was still a little more difficult than I had anticipated. It probably didn't help that I was using an older version of Photoshop for this. I was pleased that I did not have to convert anything over to CMYK from RGB though, which was a huge relief.
Personally, I transferred my files over from Paint Tool SAI to Photoshop to work with, which caused resizing issues for me, as files have to align perfectly together when doing double sided charms, as well as having to erase white background from around the edges, which was tedious. So I highly recommend you use Photoshop if you can!
Customer Service: 5 out of 5
One of the best companies that I have ever worked with, by far. I was hesitant to order due to some of the reviews that I had read in the past, indicating that the customer service was less than stellar. However, this was not the case with my experience. I exchanged emails with a very sweet woman by the name of Becky who was very helpful and willing to work with me through all of my errors (believe me, I had a lot), and sealed the deal in convincing me to make a second order. It also helped that you have up to 2 weeks after placing an order to get your files in to them for production time to start.
I did get an email back from a second individual at the very end of my exchange, but this was probably either due to the amount of errors that I had made (Becky probably got tired of dealing with me!) in my files, or that I had finally submitted the final file that went with my order, and it was the production team that was emailing me back with file confirmation. Regardless of this however, I had a wonderful experience; they were the best customer service experience I have had through my Artist Alley travels up to this point.
Shipping/Arrival: 4 out of 5
This is the only aspect that I really felt had any issues, honestly, and even then, they are minor issues at best. The shipping for the order that I placed, from the time of the production team receiving my final file (after the email exchanged due to my own errors), took about 7 days to dispatch, and 3 weeks (to the day, actually) for them to arrive at my door. This was partially due to the company being located in the UK, and I'm assuming partially due to customs, as anything that is shipped from outside of the US takes a while to arrive. My one pipe dream regarding the shipping is some way of tracking a package for the regular airmail option, which I've had with other companies not related to charms. However, this is minor, and shipping can be upgraded to a faster method with tracking, for an additional cost.
Product and Packaging: 5 out of 5
Finally getting to hold the charms that I had so painstakingly created (and that poor Becky had to deal with) was like opening a gift on Christmas. All charms were packaged in bundles according to design, and were wrapped in bubble wrap, which was then placed in more bubble wrap, and then placed in a plastic bag bubble mailer. I felt that the only possible way any of these charms could have been damaged in transit would be to actually attempt to break them.
The color quality of the charms was fairly decent. It was a little grainy compared to what I was expecting them to look like when viewed up close, but not noticeable from farther away. Smaller details that I had put on my charms tended to show a bit of white around the edges (white is placed behind the images to make sure the images aren't transparent looking and the colors appear richer). The acrylic itself however was fantastic. I ordered clear acrylic and was not disappointed (I'm sure that I wouldn't have been disappointed with other acrylics either!). The clarity was amazing. Extra charms were provided in each design as well to make up for any errors there may have been. I did have a few charms with minor imperfections, but the extra charms made up for this, so it was not a big issue. I did not see any bubbles in my acrylic, which was a relief, and there was no peeling of color around the edges of the charms where the acrylic had been cut during production.
*Overall Impression: 4.2 out of 5
I was quite happy with the experience I had with ZAP! Creatives. There were a few minor things that I may change next time, such as choosing a different shipping method that included tracking, and template use will be easier this time around, as I have familiarity with using it, and know exactly what to expect. That being said, I will definitely be ordering from ZAP! again, and plan on branching out in to other products that they offer online.
Would I recommend this product to someone else? Absolutely yes!
* This was my initial impression of ZAP! Creatives at the time of its posting in 2016. Having worked with ZAP! for years, and having seen the website, file formatting, and overall customer service change throughout the years, I no longer feel that this reflects ZAP! in it's current state. Were I to review them again, which I likely will, their overall rating would be much lower, and I no longer will be doing business with them because of the issues I have had while working with them.
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