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Reviews For: Octavia Company

Category: QSL printers; callsign badge engravers; etc.

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Review Summary For : Octavia Company
Reviews: 122MSRP:
Description:
Russian printer with custom graphic art - 5 Stars. NOTE: Long delivery times to be expected for foreign shipments.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.octavia.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001223.5
W4JFR Rating: 2005-09-02
Excellent quality Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Two key points to remember about Octavia:

1. order well in advance; service and communication are very good, but production and shipment are slow. If you are looking for something overnight, don't order from here.

2. The quality of Val's work is excellent. I have ordered from him twice. The format of the cards has been right on and the quality has exceeded my expectations.

Jim, W4JFR
EI4DQ Rating: 2005-08-31
bad experience Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I e-mailed a order for 1000 qsl cards at the end of august 2004, after many e-mails asking when will i receive them, I was then sent 650 qsl cards, ie 350 short and that was after 7 months, It is now 1 year since my order and iam still waiting for the balance, (some hope)
(quality of cards )the 650 they sent me i found purple fringing, where there should have been a blue colour , So would i use octavia again NO,
Would i recommend octavia to my friends and other hams NO. I think the only thing that interests octavia is your money so if you take my advice get your cards from some other dealer.
AC0CH Rating: 2005-06-23
Great looking cards, I would buy again Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had to give them a 5 out of 5. My cards looked great. The delivery time from final proof to arrivial was only 7 weeks. Not bad, coming from Russia. I hope the delivery time I got is an indication that things are back to normal. You really can't go wrong on price and quality for 1000 crads. The main question is would I buy from them again? The answer is you bet. One thing you have to remember is they may take a while to get but well worth it.
former_GM7USC Rating: 2005-06-04
QSL's Good Delivery Poor Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just recieved my QSL's from Octavia. The qualality of the cards is good, price is excellant but the downside like a lot of people have said here is the time from ordering to delivery. i will buy cards from them again but this time I will be aware of the turnaround time (took 4 months for mine to arrive)
Gary G(M)7USC
WK7P Rating: 2005-03-31
Great cards, good value, but slow turn around time. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I really hope I start hearing news that Octavia has met its claims of 8-9 week turn around after proofs are okayed. They get the proofs sent right away and in my case it took a couple revisions till I was happy with them, then it was a case of wait and see. Took months past the 8-9 week promise and a few emails, plus the scare I got when thier web page disapeared and my emails bounced.

If you can wait at least 5 months, the cards are a great value. If I don't hear about any improvement in turn around time, i will look at other options next time I need cards.
K8WDN Rating: 2005-03-09
Great cards Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I originally was a little upset at the delivery time involved, but the cards are well worth the wait. A friend here in the states had 500 cards created by someone else for what I had 2000 cards created by Octavia. I used my own photo for one card and have received great comments from everyone who has received one of them. They even put the coating on the one card for free because they said it made the card appear better. Great work!!!

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Earlier 2-star review posted by K8WDN on 2004-11-09

I wish I had checked here first before I ordered. The proofs were delivered quickly. I actually ordered 2 different styles of cards. Guess based on what I'm reading, I may be waiting a while. I started this process in September. Now they are not responding to e-mails
K1YA Rating: 2005-02-24
Mixed Emotions Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My order was placed 9/27/2004. They respond quick with samples and artwork, but take forever to finish the job. Who knows what you would do if they made a printing mistake. I emailed and got the following response on 1/12/2005:

"Sorry for the delayed response. We have had a large set of national holidays that just ended.
We're finishing printing of your re-order.
Cards will be available for shipping in a few days."

It's now 2/24/2005 and still no cards. And I don't think it is a shipping problem. And no response from my latest email.

So I don't know.....the quality of my last batch was great, but should it really take over 5 months to make a set of cards?

If you really like your Octavia cards then it's best to re-order more as soon as your cards are delivered!!

Their web site claims:
1. TRADITIONAL OFFSET PRINTING. Most orders will be shipped within 8-9 weeks of proof approval for quantities over 500.

I'd like to give a better review but since they don't even come close to their advertised shipping terms, I can't.

The only reason I don't rate them a zero is because they are so helpful with all the up-front work. I haven't figured out why they are so good at that but so dog slow on the printing part.


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Earlier 2-star review posted by K1YA on 2004-11-13

I ordered from Octavia in the past, and although they were slow, I was satisfied. I recently ordered more cards, and now I find that their web site domain name has expired, and along with it, emails will not go through. Does anyone know what is happening with them????
K4FRC Rating: 2005-02-15
Spectacular QSL Cards! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My new cards were well worth the wait! They are absolutely of the finest quality and printers workmanship! Know going in that your wait might be three or four months but know too that the finished cards will be superb.
KI9A Rating: 2005-01-20
great, but long wait Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Val & Olga did wonderful job, but it took about 7 months to recieve them. Val did answer every email I sent about the shipping date. No problems there, very good communication.

Will order more..

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KI9A on 2004-05-31

I placed my order, and contrary to the posts here, recieved the proofs & several confirmation emails very quickly. The proofs looked great, & Olga was concerned about getting our club logo just right. Very impressive. Hopefully they arrive a bit quicker than the others that have posted here, but, if thier emails are any indication, I should have them pretty quick. I'll post later about the final product.

73-Chuck KI9A
WB2LCW Rating: 2005-01-06
Check out my Octavia Qsl on QRZ.com Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I posted my new Qsl on QRZ.com! Just look up my call ( WB2LCW ) and you will see it..

or go here.

http://www.qrz.com/callsign/wb2lcw

I am very happy with the quality!


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Earlier 5-star review posted by WB2LCW on 2004-12-16

I finally received my new Qsl's from Octavia!

They arrived a couple of hours ago just before I
got home from work and my cards look really great!
And the quality of the card stock is excellent.I I will post a copy of the face of my Qsl on QRZ in a few days.

I had the UV coating applied to my cards and it really makes the colors stand out. I ordered the backs of my cards blank so that I could use my Epson inkjet
printer to print my custom report forms on the back (I have several differnt styles of report forms I use depending if the card is going domestic,via the buro or to a Qsl manager and the
number of different contacts I had with the staion
during a dxpedition) and the UV coating went throught the printer without slipping while protecting the face of the card..

Val and Olga did a teriffic job on my order and I will order from them again,even though it took six months because the quality and reasonable price is a important consideration to me.
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Earlier 2-star review posted by WB2LCW on 2004-12-07

I ordered cards at the end of June and I had not received them yet! I emailed them and Val e-mailed back that their packaging vendor went out of business.He said I should have my cards by the Dec. 17..I will keep you informed when I get them!