Target Copy

Very unprofessional and unfriendly employees. At one time, they printed out 300 copies (over 40 pages per copy) of the wrong version, after I signed the correct proof. When we figured that out, they had to redo the entire printing job or it would have been too late for our event. Another time, a friend came with me to laminate something. (When you laminate something, it’s obviously something important and you want to keep them for a longer time.) The employee put the paper in the machine, took it out, and shouted out «oh my god. I’m sorry…» It turned out that the paper is thermal sensitive that it turned completely black. My friend and I were shocked that they ruined our original copy, as well as how the employees had no knowledge of paper products. The manager was sitting in the room and simply said something like (not exact quote), «oh that’s thermal paper and you can’t undo what you have done.» We left the place only with a ruined copy. Definitely not going back to this place unless I need something badly late at night (they have nice locations and longer hours for sure).

I usually always go here for something quick so that I can leave and avoid any smart mouth comment from the employees. Anytime you ask a simple question about a service, they answer in kind of a smart alec way, as if you should know the answer the way that they do. Today was the last straw for me though; I went in to fax something off and stood at the counter for a whole minute before I was acknowledged, and no, the store wasn’t busy. When the blonde girl finally asked what she could help me with, she rudely and sharply told me that I needed to write the number of pages including the cover sheet and wouldn’t serve me until I did it. So I filled it out which took 2 seconds tops, and when she saw I had finished, she walked off and started helping another person. So again, I waited for her to come back over and at this point she looked at me, turned her head, and walked off to the back to leave me standing there for yet another 2 minutes. At that point, I walked off and completely left the store. It was one thing to be talked down to, and to add insult to injury be intentionally ignored. I’ll never take my business there again.

I went to have something printed from a memory card and was told that there would be a $ 3.95 fee, and then $ 1.25 per page. How can you charge that much to print something from a memory card when it only takes a competent employee a few seconds to insert the memory card, click the file, and print the document. That is highway robbery! I will most assuredly let everyone I know that they should take their business elsewhere, lest they be gouged. And I will be certain to let corporate know about my experience.
Just a few days ago, I had gone into the same store and was only charged 9 cents per page to print out my documents. Why the inconsistency?

Don’t ever come here at night. I’ve never encountered friendly staff around 8pm and beyond. They talk somewhat condescendingly to you, especially when you ask questions. Even with simple questions like, «Which printer do I print to?» you get a very vocal scoff and a look that carries a «Are you stupid or something?» connotation.

As I noticed someone else’s less-​than-​stellar review of Target Copy, I felt I should weigh in on what my experiences have been with Target Copy. I’ve gone to Target Copy – both at their original location near the corner of University Avenue and 13^th and now to their location on University Ave itself plus the Archer Road location – for a variety of copying/​printing needs and therefore have a fair amount of experience with them.
The new location on University Avenue is much larger than their original site and I think it’s pretty cool how they kept their original red external sign and mounted the letters on the back wall of the new store plus, they did the same with the original door. If you spent hours late at night at the original shop back when your printing options were more limited in the 1990s through 2005 at UF, these little touches will warm your little Gator heart. The Archer Road location is also clean, well-​located, and straight-​forward in its layout.
My experience has been that the staff is always helpful and sometimes blazingly quick in getting things done. I’ve never felt they were patronizing or short with me as a customer. The quality of their work has never been less than top-​notch, too, and one print they did for me really impressed me in that for an inkjet process it really produced vibrant color despite being a challenging image to reproduce. That said, I feel Target Copy is great as a copying/​campus printing outlet but there are some more advanced services I would love to see them offer, like fine art-​quality inkjet printing for photographs or at least the ability to print large-​format on a 90lb or above hotpress watercolor paper or the like. I guess there just isn’t too much demand for this in Gainesville, and it’s something Harmon’s/Flair Photo can in fact do, but as Target is open 24-​hours, it would be great if they had this capacity too.
By the way, if they say for a certain job they need to send it off to their «main facility», they mean Renaissance Printing here in Gainesville which apparently owns Target Copy. They don’t seem to like to admit their connection to Renaissance, which I don’t at all understand because Renaissance has always done great work for me too, but if they tell you they need to send a job «out» don’t think it’s going off too far. They tend to send things like some binding jobs, large-​format jobs on certain materials like canvas, and things like scientific conference posters off. .. but the turn-​around time is still pretty short.