The Good and the Bad - Tenstickers

Conducted Google search for Custom Placemats (table mats) South Africa, and came across various websites. Noticed Tenstickers had the sizes I wanted so placed an order for two custom designs 45x30 cm and one 40x40 cm. After checking the customer reviews on the Tenstickers website www.tenstickers.co.za was also interested to try for the first time some custom images on tee shirts. Purchase Price for five items was R1615.00 with free shipping for three table mats with custom design and two tee shirts with custom images on front.

Only when I noticed that my Credit Card had been charged a Cross Border Transaction Fee of R32.30 that it dawned on me that this was not a company based in SA. I then read the many reviews about Tenstickers around the world. A major complaint was that they were pretending to be a local company in many countries.

The Bad This is the major drawback of dealing with this company based in Spain as their prices are naturally higher than in SA for similar products and you also pay in addition import duties. I also prefer to support local companies than those from overseas where possible.

Total Cost: R1615.00 Purcase Price with free delivery plus Cross Border CC Fee R32.30 plus Import Duty R305.32 = R1952.62 plus cost of petrol to collect from Post Office.

Items arrived well protected in a cardboard tube but this had been opened probably at Customs (had a Post Office sticker that the package had been opened) and the items were pushed back inside the tube so now jammed in the middle and difficult to remove - the tee shirts with their vinyl images on the front were now all crumpled up.

The Good Was kept regularly up to date by Email with the production and the shipment progress could be easily accessed by the postnl website.

Order placed 26 August 2024, Parcel created 28 August 2024, Cleared SA Customs 12 September 2924. Reappeared on progress info several days later 19 September - Awaiting Collection at Post Office. Received sms 20 September from local Postoffice so 26 days from online order to receipt at Postoffice.

The vinyl place mats received were nicely printed and just what I wanted with the design requested but they are thinner than similar vinyl place mats I have owned for many years. The tee shirts had the vinyl image on the front nicely printed.

Received an unexpected bonus an extra duplicate of custom designed placemat 40x40cm Value R259.00 at their website.

Summary Try to find a local supplier based in SA with production in SA for the items required which will result in a lower cost, no import duties added on, and quicker delivery directly to your home or office. If you cannot find the items in SA then you can reliably order from Tenstickers which has a very wide variety of vinyl items that can be ordered via their website, but understand you are paying European prices, will have a longer delivery time, and items ordered with the free shipping option are delivered to your local post office not to your home or office.