Ordering product labels can be a difficult and confusing process, especially if you’re doing it for the first time. All you want to do is get quality custom labels for your product at a fair price. You may already know the size and shape that you want your product labels to be, and even how many of them you want to have printed. However, that’s when things can get confusing. The label printing industry has always had a habit of adding various “extras” to any quotation they provide, and you’re expected to work out what it all means to you in final costs.
Various extra items like “setup charges”, “copy changes”, “plate charges”, “prep charge” or “artwork/typesetting” may show up on the quote – but they’re invariably listed separately at the bottom of the quote and you have to add them in to the total cost yourself before you can know what you’ll end up paying. Worse, most custom label printing companies don’t even give you a “unit price” per label – they use archaic terminology like “price/m” (which translates to price per 1000 labels). So, in order to find out what a single label will cost for the product you’ll sell for (e.g.) $5.50 per bottle, you need to do a bunch of math to arrive at a meaningful number. How unfriendly is that?
Also, in the fine print they let you know that you’re unlikely to actually get the quantity of product labels you ordered – this is cutely known as “industry standard variance”, and is usually stated as “+/- 10%” or similar. What this means is that the label printing company can happily deliver a quantity “plus or minus 10%” of what you ordered. Now, if they ship less than you ordered there will be usually (hopefully) be an adjustment made so you’re not paying for what you didn’t get, but it’s not much help if you’re trying to label 1000 products for a large order and only end up with 900 custom labels.
Conversely, you may get more than you ordered (or wanted). Don’t worry, though – in this case they will be sure to charge you for the extra labels that you didn’t ask for. So what started out as (e.g.) a $500 label order ends up costing you $550 – for extras you didn’t want. It does make us wonder why the print industry has always felt able to “fine-tune” an order that you’ve placed based on their needs (not yours) – but this is somehow considered “normal”.
By the way – are you in a hurry for your labels? Sure, the industry loves “rush charges”, which are an evil all of their own and which we never charge here at Wizard Labels. EVERY job is a rush job in our world – so how could we reasonably up-charge for what we consider normal service?
At Wizard Labels, we believe that ordering product labels shouldn’t be a confusing process. Let’s go over a few of the things that we do differently that set us apart from the rest of the label printing industry, and make getting high-quality product labels easier on you.
All-Inclusive Product Label Pricing
Okay, we accept that there are occasionally very unusual jobs that might carry some ancillary charges – but they are by far the exception. For instance, if you need our Art department to re-work your designs or add various features that your designer doesn’t feel able to do, then we’ll need to charge for that service (and we’ll happily tell you upfront what it will cost). Similarly, if your job needs special treatments like Variable Content or an unusual amount of production effort, we’ll make sure to let you know before proceeding.
However, these are “non-standard” situations and the vast majority of our jobs will end up costing you exactly what you see on the Online Quoter. In normal circumstances, and barring any unusual needs, if you get a Wizard quote for (e.g.) $675.27, that’s what you’ll end up paying to receive the finished product labels in your hands.
No Charge For Product Label Over-runs
When we print a label job, there will usually be a few left over once we’ve finished the various production steps. Rather than take advantage of you, we always include some free extras in case you run into a problem at your end – at no charge. How many extras we include varies according to the quantity ordered, but you’ll always receive at least 20 free extras of each version, and often a lot more than that. After all, the alternative is that we throw the “production waste” into the dumpster or charge you for them even though you didn’t order them. That just doesn’t seem honest to us.
Receive FREE 2-day shipping with your order
Nobody likes to pay shipping costs if they can be avoided. Often times, quotes will ignore shipping costs completely, or include an asterisk stating that “shipping costs vary based on location” – or maybe “All prices FOB our plant” or similar (which means freight charges are on you). At Wizard Labels, we offer free two-day shipping anywhere in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii). Of course, if you need to have it sent overnight then there may be an extra charge (depending on your location). We’ll always tell you what it will be (up front) and the choice is then yours.
Ordering product labels shouldn’t be a difficult process with a ton of confusing and hidden fees. Don’t settle for a printer that adds unnecessary fees to an order or makes the process more difficult than it needs to be.