I have done the sorting all by myself last year. Trust me, it is much better than working with the sales rep that we have. Would you like receiving a bill for samples that you didn't ask for and told not to send? Just the one free sample that the web site states was all that was asked for.

As I stated, the samples were cute. I gave credit there. But no one should have to put up with a sales rep who says he needs a bottle of vodka. Tells you that your high school art teacher "lied" about sending the email with the design, when the art teacher can provide the emails showing he did, multiple times. Even their own art dept stated they had it. Also, if our design wasn't his taste, fine, but make fun of it to the customer? Tell the customer that they won't sell any because of the design? Excuse me, that is unprofessional! He could of kept his opinion to himself. All of our teachers and families love the design. Having to white out the mistakes on the 400 flyers sent and adding on the omitted information that he admitted we talked about and re-printing the flyers ourself, at our own expense, because he didn't think it was necessary is also wrong. I'm sure the pre-sorted is great, and that is one of the reasons that I decided to try this company along with the positive posts on here about them. Trust me, I'd rather sort through the shirts again by myself.

As I stated before, if it wasn't out of fear that we would have been charged for the incorect flyers, samples, his and their art departments time, I would have cancelled. But, our PTO being stuck with a bill for nothing is something we can not afford.

Hopefully this will be over next month and I will gladly put the name of the company. I would like to get a correct order from them if possible.

Our school used funraisingschoolgear.com . We were very happy with the process and the designs and clothing were great. We have re-ordered twice this school year already. We were just trying to help with the spirit of the school and now we are actually making some profits for the PTA.

Dear Volunteermomo3:

I would be interested in learning which companies you have been having problems with. People post positive responses about good experiences so negative ones should be shared too.

We have had good luck with 2 PTO Yellow Page advertisers
spirit-wear.com and Heritage Spiritwear, but we primarily use SPIRIT-WEAR because their in NJ and closer to us so shipping times are shorter.

I wouldn't make a blanket statement about going local, though. We've worked with local companies too and they don't carry the diversity of Spritwear items offered by either of the above, especially in kids sizes. And don't put down the advantages of sorting. In my opinion, this can be an incredibly time consuming and tedious process and is worth every penny.

There is one listed on the yellow pages on here. I would not use them! I read some of the comments on here under spiritwear where people had used them and had wonderful experiences with them.

We are using them right now for our school sale and the rep is VERY unprofessional! He talks about "needing a bottle of vodka", I called and asked the prices of the items we discussed and he insisted that he had already given me that information even though he hadn't, the art teacher submitted our design, THREE times, and the rep tells me in an email that they do not have the design, even though their own art dept did have it, and that our art teacher "lied" and not to worry about it because they now have it. (????) Flyers that the rep made up had shirt sizes missing. He sent me 400 incorrect flyers. I had to white out the mistakes, add in the omitted information and print up 400 flyers at our expense, even though he acknowledged that we had talked about what sizes we wanted to offer and he verified that the shirts came in that size. I then called and asked a question about the sizes that the teachers had, and thought I should check with the company so I didn't tell them wrong and have them order something they wouldn't be able to wear. He answered the question then added, "That was difficult wasn't it". Like I was stupid. He also made fun of our mascot and was clear that he didn't like it, we wouldn't sell anything, no boys would order and so on. He made several negative comments about it being kiddish. Yeah, we are an ELEMENTARY school. I requested a t-shirt be made for a sample, since the web site states you get a free sample. But, if you decide to sell hoodies, pj bottoms, football jersey's he makes samples of those too and you get charged for them. They don't tell you that. Hope we sell those in the sizes he sent!

The samples were cute. I will give credit there, even though it was our design. The clothing was of good material, except the jersey, which was extremely thin and cheap.

I would have cancelled with them, but am afraid that I would have been charged for the flyers, samples and his and their art dept's time. I am going to continue to be friendly and when the sale is over, send a letter letting the president of the company know just what happened.

Sadly, this is the second company I have went through this month. The first sent us their mascots, since they are not on their web site, and found that they were using our high school art techer's original artwork and selling it on t's to other schools without his permission or knowledge. They told me that they had permission. If you have permission why do you remove his signature? Well, the elementary school across town raised heck when they found out this company was selling their school design and it got real ugly FAST. Their principal was mad, the PTO president of their school was calling our school and the high school complaining. Apparently they had an agreement that this company would not sell the design to any other school. I told this company that I didn't appreciate being lied to about having permission to sell this, and would not do business with them. Then called company #2 and have had just as bad luck if not worse.

My advice is go local if you can. Yeah, the free sample, free shipping, pre-sorted by student and classroom is great, but not worth the headache!

Our school used a company last year to make unique t-shirts. the students drew a picture of themselves and each student's self-portrait was combined as a classroom and printed on a shirt: Kindergarten class of 2007... then each student's self-drawn picture. It was really cute, but we were scouting other companies. Does anyone know of a company that does this kind of graphic?