Blurb

We've not had a great experience with Blurb. We spent over $700 to install Adobe InDesign, and then had to reformat our book to fit the specs. Then there were multiple problems with the uploads. Very frustrating! Now, we've got our ebook price being changed without notifying us! Our $14.99 Ebook, went to $12.99 last week (we didn't do it). We reset it to $14.99. This week it jumped to $16.99 (we didn't do it). We've reset it to $14.99. There's no consistency with Blurb. We have to post separate widgets for the Ebook, and Ipad version. Customer's can't click on a full menu of our books multiple-versions. We wouldn't recommend this site.

Do not use Blurb if you're expecting quality you'd expect from a major publisher or distributor. I've printed various types of books from them and they range from pretty good to mediocre. Don't waste your money if you're planning on mass producing books because the quality does not cut it. I've printed from other print houses and personal work for way better.

Their customer service varies. The I've contacted them a few times. Most recently, I reached out to them 3 weeks ago and never got a reply and out of no where they close my request as solved. I messaged them again and again and never got a reply. I direct messaged them on Instagram and never got a reply. So I had to end up posting publicly on their Instagram post and 1 hour later they reply back to me. Isn't that something?

If you're just trying to print a book for your family or friends through your iPhone photos then it's "alright". I printed total of 4 different types of books and I'm done with them. I don't want to spend another penny with them. Sometimes you lose and sometimes you learn, unfortunately.

The first book I had Blurb print, a 239-page hardcover photo book, came back with 56 pages put into the book in reverse order. There was also a defect in the cover, a ripple across the middle of the front and back, as if there was an extra piece of cardboard underneath the cover image. I submitted a support request the day the book arrived with a detailed explanation and several photos that documented the issues. I expected that within a few days Blurb would offer to either reprint the book or give me a full credit for use in the future. It has been 2 weeks and my support issue is still open with no response from Blurb. After waiting a week for a response, I had the book printed again at further expense to me. So, at this point, I would no longer be satisfied with having this book reprinted. It is too late for that. The only fair resolution I can see now is for Blurb to refund my money or, at the very least, to give me a credit for the full amount I paid, which I could use in the future for another book. Now that I have discovered this site and seen what kind of customer service others have experienced, I am not holding my breath. I am looking for another printing company.

It's a disaster! I spent 2 months learning bookwright (Blurbs design program) and finally completed my first book but can't publish it for MANY REASONS. I haven't been able to get my questions answered regarding at least 5 different issues. Something is very wrong because the text is very blurry. Apparently they only have online customer service conversations by email. There's no ability to talk to a live person. I recommend anyone and everyone to RUN FROM THIS COMPANY!

I have made at least a half a dozen inquires as to where my book is. NO RESPONSE... your customer service is awful.
Package has been at Jersey City PO since 7/2
I want a refund and will never use your service again
Order Date Order # Ship To Status Amount
23 June *******066 Mary Pat Sweeney Shipped US $32.08

-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Pat Sweeney <*******@verizon.net>
To: *******@blurb.com <*******@blurb.com>
Sent: Fri, Jul 10,2020 1:25 pm
Subject: Re: Thank you for contacting Blurb Support. Your ticket id is: *******

-----Original Message-----
To: Jersey214 <*******@verizon.net>
Sent: Fri, Jul 10,2020 1:22 pm
Subject: Thank you for contacting Blurb Support. Your ticket id is: *******
I want a refund. Several emails no response what so ever. Wish I read reviews at BBB would have never used you. Horrible customer service

Terrible. Don't buy (or sell/publish) anything with Blurb. It has been OVER TWO MONTHS since they told me my order has shipped (I purchased a self published book by a local author and if I didn't know any better it would reflect poorly back on the author, but Blurb is the one effing up) and I have reached out MULTIPLE times and their customer service has never once reached back out with an update or a full refund. Never again: DO NOT USE BLURB!

I only have horrible comments about Blurb's Customer Service team. My two main issues are: (1) Blurb continually prints RED too loud. The REDs are never close to the original pictures. Despite multiple attempts with customer service at resolving it; they did not care; (2) after an order, I asked Customer Service to inform the printer to go outside the standard spec of 20 pages for a SmartBook, but Bruce from Customer Service did not care; he was not willing to entertain contacting the printer for an adjustment; too much effort to place one call and help a customer; he has too many orders to allow for an exception...

During the last week in November, I received an e-mail from Blurb for 50 percent off all books. I worked on a book I had hoped to be given as a Christmas present and uploaded it on the 29th. I wanted it printed as a layflat book but could not find that option. I submitted an e-mail to customer support with a screenshot of the missing option. I finally received a response on December 11th, although only stating they received my e-mail but offering no solution. I responded I still needed assistance. It is now the evening of the 16th and still no response.

While not a super tech, I have been able in past to fix my pc and enable a lot of useful tools off the Internet. Blurb has created a product that seems too good to be true and it is. While there is a shell of a useful product for those who want an easy way to create a book, their customer service sucks and they have no clue how to help people without using words that confuse the super un-techy person. I lost my book content twice, thanks to poor instructions on their site and then their email support would not answer my questions directly. After my pc crashed and I lost data a second time, I retrieved all files off Carbonite (a fabulous product!) but Bookwright would not recognize the files as not directly exported from their site. So hours of creativity have been lost again. The Blurb people also could not answer my simple question of how to copy my files so I could keep them separately safe off their site. That's why I have no files now. The Carbonite saved files cannot be read either!

I thought I could create a book using the blurb software, pay the price to receive my high resolution pdf for interior and cover, and then upload them to Ingram where I normally publish my books. Blurb requires the ISBN to do this, but they don't tell you that they're actually registering the ISBN with them, which means I can't publish it anywhere else. They have an option to publish through Ingram but through them, but they gouge you on the cost of production so that I'd have to inflate the price to 150% of the normal price in order to make a $1 profit per book.

First of all everyone was completely accurate when they say that Blurb's customer service is terrible. I tried so hard to find a phone number so that I could speak with an actual person and I had NO luck. You have to send an email if you have a question so if you're trying to crank out something quickly - you're just out of luck and need to figure it out on your own. Secondly, I wish it was as user friendly as Word or Pages. My daughter was working on a book for a school project and it seemed as though she was constantly re-centering the work and estimating the distance for the margins. Although there is a pink border on the tentative document that serves as a guide, I wish the margins (especially top and bottom) were as easy to create as they are in Word or Pages. Without specifically being able to set your margins for all text to a certain distance, there's no real uniformity between the pages which can be seen subtly on the final project that arrived. The color in the graphics (photos) also weren't as vibrant as I had hoped. Good but not great. I do appreciate Blurb getting my daughters book to her before the estimated arrival so in that respect they were quite good and the book that arrived was in great condition (no bends, tears or issues). Overall Blurb is decent for what it offers but there are so many ways in which it could be better and I will probably have my other daughter use another company when it's time to do her project next year.