I found out that the print-on-demand service provider I had been using to print my fabric designs has closed its doors today. My Fabric Designs in Dallas, Texas is no more.
There was no notice.
There was no mention.
Nothing.
They just up and closed the doors today without more than a notice on the now non-functional website that any orders that were outstanding – they were running a 50% off sale – would be filled and shipped as expected.
Except, I didn’t have a cart full of fabrics waiting for me to decide to hit purchase yet. I have been focused on other things so the sale kind of slipped by me.
They did not even give those of us actively selling fabric designs on the website any notice to save designs OR to remit our “credits.” The credits are the royalties from all the sales we have had. It honestly isn’t much, but it was enough to purchase another cart of several yards of fabric.
Except we got no notice.
We did not even get the email to make sure the tax information was correct and up to date.
I emailed them at the email address on the website notice of closure and waited.
What I got in return was a lame response about how they were closed. Any credits less than 1-year-old would be non-payable due to insolvency. Most of my credits were older than 1 year, but I am not happy that I will likely never collect those credits because they applied a fee to my account for the same amount of my credits. What the fee was for, no one knows. They haven’t given me the courtesy of responding with what exactly that fee was and why it was charged. They claimed it was in their terms of service.
The thing is if they are insolvent…I’m not likely to see the funds – ever! That makes me so mad.
Alas, there is truly nothing that I can do about it except find someplace new to provide the same service. There are others, including Spoonflower. Unfortunately, many of the print-on-demand services are even more expensive per yard than most people would willingly pay for fabric.
My Fabric Designs’ fabric quality was so much better than Spoonflower’s fabric. Also, there is an expensive entry into the Spoonflower marketplace if you have numerous designs because they require a “test swatch” print for every design that is going to be sold on the marketplace.
Fortunately, there are other options out there, I just need to do my research again and find one that works best for me.
Or perhaps I should just focus on building a “lookbook” portfolio of the designs and try to apply for a design position at one of the larger fabric companies.
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