Paper Source — Local services in Birmingham

12/1/23

Well this was a negative experience all the way around. Yesterday I made phone calls for over 6 1/2 hours trying to locate any business that does gift wrapping. I was finally referred to this place and gave them a call. I found out that they do but I had an extended "discussion" with the person who I talked to about the process. She said it was $8.00 to wrap a gift (which I was perfectly ok with) but she said that I would have to pay for/buy the wrapping paper separately. I explained that I didn't want the paper and that they could simply tear off a piece from a roll to wrap the gift and that I didn't care about the rest since I only have one gift to wrap. For some reason, she couldn't comprehend what I had to repeatedly tell her so this "discussion" went on for what seemed like an eternity. Finally it dawned on her the simplicity of what I was requesting and I made arrangements to go there today after they opened at 11:00 A.M. It was an hour drive each way (due to weather and traffic conditions) only to find absolutely NO PARKING spaces for a block and a half in pouring rain. So I parked in a spot that I was not allowed to park in and ran inside the store. It was nice inside and I was greeted immediately but was told by the greeter (who sounded just like the lady I had spoken with the previous day) that I would have to drop off the package and pick it up later or wait for what could be an hour or two or longer. I explained the situation to this person saying that it was much to far from home to do that and told her that I would risk being parked where I shouldn't be for 10 or 15 minutes, but not for hours and hours. This " conversation" went back and forth for about two minutes or so. Then I explained that they should have told me on the phone that you must drop off packages and pick them up at a later time before I wasted an hour driving (one way) and another hour driving back, the gas to drive there, and two hours of my time. They also should have explained the parking situation ahead of time. I'm sure they don't want to address that situation because it would drive customers away. Now I will say this, if it wasn't pouring rain I would have been more than happy to walk the block and a half in each direction. But it's ridiculous to do so with ANY kind of wrapped package(s) in pouring rain. They would be ruined before you got back to your vehicle. So, I will never return to this place because I believe they should have been intelligent enough to properly explain their business practice and the ridiculous parking situation. Good luck to those who try. By the way, does anyone know where you can get a gift...

I visited the store last Saturday and the manager Jen was downright rude and unpleasant to get any help from. Her attitude was limited, to any of my questions she kept coming up with “no, it won't be possible”. There was another employee that really tried to help and the manager looked offended that I was paying attention more to the other employee than her. I picked out all I needed to wrap the gift and the manager told me how she needs to wrap it. Mind you not asking how I would like but telling me what needs to be done and again coming up with some other restrictions she thought of 😣 Additionally, when I went up to the register she was talking to another employee, complaining about some customers. I knew the context of this conversation because another employee said, “wait for Sunday when it gets crowded they act crazy here then”. Unacceptable, particularly for the manager. I love this store because of the quality products they carry but would not go back if she is there. I saw that the store is hiring now...well, good luck to keep your employees with this manager. The creative store deserves to have a creative, full of possibilities manager and not the one that puts obstacles every where. I gave this review 3 stars due to the other employee that helped me and for their products. If not this, I would have...

First class. Was quoted $1500 for upscale paper for a corporate invitation from another paper company. Walked into Paper Source to search out an envelope to match. Was greeted by 3 people who stopped what they were doing to help us. Not only did they have a fantastic variety of gorgeous paper IN STOCK, they helped us ship paper overnight for 550 invitations to our printer in Chicago. We came back later and ordered matching envelopes, which they also offered to ship overnight for us. First class customer service. The Manager, Jocelyn, clearly cares a great deal about her business, and was "hands on" with regard to making sure that we had what we needed. Paper Source saved us over $1000 on our corporate invitations, and the quality is exactly what we were hoping for. I cannot recommend them more enthusiastically. In response to the reviews who found Paper Source to be "pricey"---having gotten quotes from a number of other paper purveyors, we found them to be dramatically LESS expensive, and of a superior quality. At least in the event planning business, the adage 'you get what you pay for'...