e patterns central?!?!?

[butterfly_girl]

 

have any of you bought patterns from e patterns central? I bought 10 the other day. they were emailed to me right away, which was good. problem printing them out though. They restricted the heck out of the patterns, and only able to print out 2 maybe 3 copies and that's it. and out of the 10, 4 won't print properly. I"ve done the updates to adobe, but...no luck. I emailed them, and let them know about the problem. I noticed after that on their website, they say they cannot guarantee their patterns will print out. What the heck is that about?

 

I ordered the cute alien buddy blanket, the canoe, the teepee, the rockin rollin rabbit, the wine shrug, the shimmery shoulder shrug, car slippers, Milton MOnkey, NOah's Ark, Wild Animal Puppets. The ones I couldn't get to print out are the wine shrug, the shimmery shoulder shrug, the grand Prix slippers, and the Rockin' Rollin' Rabbit.

 

So, i've emailed back what I got to pick up the patterns, and hopefully they will do something. the patterns are kind of useless if only on the computer, and can't print them out, as I orderd them at work, and the weird way they work, only able to access them at work.

 

anyone else have problems with e patterns central????

[craftybutterfly]

I emailed them, and let them know about the problem. I noticed after that on their website, they say they cannot guarantee their patterns will print out. What the heck is that about?

 

I've never ordered from them. But if they can't give SOME sort of guarantee on the printing, they shouldn't be charging for them, but that's just me. I'd be burning up mad. I have learned that customer service on stuff like that isn't generally very good. I usually stick to ordering stuff directly from the designer or catalogs.

[donnalynn2]

Boy am I glad you posted this. I was just about to order a few patterns. So glad I didn't! I think it's ridiculous that you can only print out so many copies. I mean, many times my printer goes all wonky and prints to where you can't make words out and such or one of the colors run out and causes the printing to be off. I'd be spitting mad if I wasn't able to print out a "clean" copy whenever I needed to.

 

Sorry this happened to you though. I would try to contact someone in customer service if you can and explain what happened to them...

[eurolyons]

I had a problem with them in the past and went back and forth with them about trying to get a refund...eventually I was able to print the pattern out...then my SIL had a problem printing a pattern from them and had a terrible time with customer service (on the phone...) I finally went in and ordered the pattern she wanted and printed it out and mailed it to her...I'm in Germany, she's in San Francisco...

 

I've occasionally ordered from them since then, but everytime, I cross my fingers hoping I won't have a problem printing out the pattern...so far, haven't had a problem since. I don't get what the deal is...but they really need to get their system taken care of...99 cents or not, it's a PITA...and it's not right.

[eurolyons]

Oh and I have to add, I really like freepattern.com, but I get really annoyed when I find a pattern I want in freepattern and when I click on it, I'm referred to epattern...I call that bait and switch and I absolutely do not think that's right. freepattern is suppose to be FREE PATTERNS...not "oh here's a pattern you'll like, but wait, you can only get it at epatterns and have to pay for it..." There's a bridal bouquet that is or was on free pattern that you can only get from epattern...not right.

[goldi316]

I absolutely will NOT buy any patterns from that site - did it once, and that was enough for me. Customer service is lousy, and the restrictions and hoops they make you jump through (not to mention the lack of a guarantee you'll actually get what you paid for) makes it so not worthy of my time, or money - I don't care HOW cheap they are. The 99 cent deal is recent, the patterns used to run between 2 and 4 bucks apiece back then. Looks like they lowered the prices to try and lure people back.

[eurolyons]

Yep, I agree...the first pattern I bought from them was about $3.00...

[Natasha]

I bought three patterns from them last week and had no problem whatsoever.

[butterfly_girl]

Your Lucky! They emailed me new copies, stillin the same darn PDF format, which of course had the same restrictions, and I still can't print them. I emailed the customer service rep back, and asked that she print them out, and mail them to me. lol, We'll see how that goes! ARGH!!!!!

[Isabella2000]

Whenever I purchase a PDF pattern I always save the copy to a special folder of patterns. This way I can print it out whenever I want.

[crochetdiva]

I have written before about problems with e-patterncentral patterns. After a while you can't even print them at all. I bought $35 worth and my printer broke, I couldn't even send them to anyone to print for me. By the time I got a new printer the patterns wouldn't even open up for me. Not much of a deal if you ask me...oh well, live and learn.

[butterfly_girl]

Well I heard back from customer service. They emailed me copies of the patterns again, but I still can't print properly. They come out with the same error message on the printout as before!!!! Argh! So I emailed them back, and told them that i got the same result as before. I asked the service person if she could print them out and snail mail them to me....lol. see how it goes.

[fran]

I bought some patterns this morning from epatterns central and have not been able to download the files. My dh, who is a computer programmer (for 35 years) tried several hours and couldn't get them either. I've emailed them but don't expect much. 'Won't do that again.

[seabreeze]

I'm sorry to hear some of you have had problems with them. I ordered 6 patterns from them last week with no problems. They printed just fine. The patterns came right away too.

[cruelladvill]

I bought some yesterday and had to register at an adobe site,I think it said digital, in order to open them. I had to use my net passport in order to do this. After I completed that, I was able to download, print and save to disk. Good luck!

[NexStitch]

What EXACTLY is the error message some of you are receiving when you try to print? I see some of you couldn't print at all, and some of you weren't able to print multile copies (if I'm reading this all correctly).

 

I'm trying to figure out how they've been able to limit prints and how to fix it. Hmmm. I have the Professional version of Adobe Acrobat, and I don't recall any settings in there to restrict the number of prints (but I'm going to look into it for the sake of knowing where that function is and to make sure it never gets used on my patterns!) I'd offer to try and open one for you but I'm sure their copyright is as strict and limited as their patterns apparently are!

 

Sorry to hear you're all having trouble.

[butterfly_girl]

yeah, it's nerve wracking! I don't know how they've done it either. And if you open it on one computer, you can't open it on another either. I still haven't received the other copies of the patterns..they were emailed again but i still had the same problem.

 

I wrote one pattern down, just from looking at it on the screen, and then typed it up because my writing is terrible!

 

But the other patterns are too long to do that!

 

edit: I can't remember the exact error msg, but i will check my email that i sent to the company. Also, we get sent a "digital edition" of the pattern or something like that. When adobe is opened, you have to find under "File" "My Digital Editions" So, maybe that will help you. (after you click the link to download them) you can only use that link once too, as after the first time it will say that the order was already filled. I didn't know about the digital edition thing, and panicked becasue i thought i wouldn't be able to get them again....i opened them to show a friend at work. the i finally found the digital copy thing.

 

It's kind of hit and miss I guess, as I got about 1/2 my order printed ok, but the others wouldn't.

 

good luck! I hope it works out for ya!

[nightowl]

Well, I'm furious. ..

 

I didn't even know printing was restricted to twice until I read this thread. I had bought 6 patterns last week and there was nothing anywhere warning potential purchasers. Going back and ferreting around yesterday, I found it's actually hidden. If you click on the FAQ button, you get a page about shopping online. The link for "first-time visitors" doesn't mention it either. The only way I found it was by searching for "printing" and then within one of those links following another to Troubleshooting.

 

I am so angry! This is absolutely not on. If I buy a pattern, I should be able to print it as many times as I like, as long as it's for my personal use. There was no email address for complaints on the E-Patterns site, only that customer service form, so I emailed Annie's Attic with a scalding complaint instead

 

One thing I did discover in my experimenting: the "permitted number" on each pattern seems to refer to the number of times you print, rather than the number of copies you make. What I mean is: I printed page 1 of a pattern but in File > Print in the Adobe Reader I set the number of copies to 5. They all printed fine and the allowed number of printings went down only by 1. So if you do print, I'd advise always make more than one copy at a time.

 

For those whose "allowed printings" have run out: there's nothing to stop you doing a screen grab of the .pdf pattern, cropping it and saving it as an image file, from which you can print as often as you like. The text is not as clear but it is readable, and better than not being able to print at all.

[fuzzy ferret]

I have problems out of their patterns all the time. I just noticed that I was only able to print out 2 copies of the patterns. The only reason I knew that was because I missplaced my first copy that I printed and had to go back to print another one.

 

I'm still running windows 98 and their format on these things in adobe is with the new version and I cant even open up the files. I had to get my BF to open them on his computer since he's running a newer verson of adobe than I am.

 

Krystal