The Oriental Trading Custom Vinyl Banner Was Utterly Cheap and Disappointing

Full Review
This was my first experience shopping the Oriental Trading Company online. I had received dozens of their catalogs in the mail and had ordered small party favors for the school here and there (I'm a teacher). What attracted me to their website was a vinyl banner product, "Fiesta," listed in their spring catalog.

The Oriental Trading catalog and website said that the vinyl banner could be personalized. Online, I was able to enter up to 20 characters on one line of copy on the banner. I could not see a preview of my copy, so that was a minus. It was hard to figure out how my custom wording would appear with the banner design.

The exact product ordered was the PERSONALIZED "FIESTA" BANNER, Item Number: IN-70/2874, $8.95 per piece. This banner also included grommets for hanging on a wall or over a doorway. "Use Outdoors" it said. At this point, the price looked good.

Checkout was fairly simple though I wished I could see my finished personalized product before hitting Purchase. The Shipping price seemed reasonable at $6.95 and I chose ground which would take 6-10 days.

At this point, I was satisfied - until the product showed up. It did arrive ontime at 9 days. The package (not a box) was not damaged.

BUT - the product wasn't even worth what looked to be a value at $8.95. The name I used was spelled correctly and that was about all I was happy with. What was advertised as vinyl was really see-through white plastic, not much stronger than kitchen Saran Wrap. There were grommets - teeny, tiny - like threading a needle.

We hung the banner outside. It took only one average gust of wind to rip the grommets from the thin plastic and tear the banner. The banner was useless by the time the guests arrived. Needless to say, what was displayed and described in both the catalog and online by the Oriental Trading Company was like most of their little party favors you give kids in a classroom - little junky stuff that gets tossed in the garbage or breaks in moments.

For custom vinyl banners, Oriental Trading Company is not the place to go to make a purchase.

Overall - I was not satisfied. And returning a $8.95 banner was not worth the gas to the post office. Thus, I could not tell you about their customer service.