# Is this a secure website to order from? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 20, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004 "2008-12-20T00:33:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/1 "2008-12-20T00:33:46Z")
I wished to order a calender from the following website: [Self-Publishing - Lulu.com](https://www.lulu.com), but I was wondering how trustworthy it is. Any experience with this business? ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/2 "2008-12-20T01:24:53Z")
I know several people who are intimately involved with publishing who have published their own books through Lulu. I myself have ordered from them. Perfectly legit. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/3 "2008-12-20T21:48:20Z")
Lulu has been the independent press of choice for many self-publishing pen and paper RPG writers - and the reviews of products bind by Lulu has been great - take [this one for example](https://boards.straightdope.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/); so I am willing to wager that it’s okay. I myself have bought a PDF off it before and have no problem whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/4 "2008-12-20T22:03:12Z")
Your link doesn’t work, **CrazyChop**. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/5 "2008-12-21T06:34:37Z")
:smack: I must be editing some wordpress thingy and didn’t copy correctly. Here’s the link to [Neoplastic Press](http://www.dread-rpg.com/updates.html), which publishes its book through Lulu. You may want to check the linked review to see the quality of its printed product. ---
**Author:** ![Neeps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a183cd/32.png) [@Neeps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neeps)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/6 "2008-12-21T09:45:34Z")
My husband ordered a calendar for me from Lulu a few weeks ago, and we had no problems, even with an international order. Calendar came promptly, and was very good quality. ---
**Author:** ![Landshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/77aa72/32.png) [@Landshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Landshark)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/7 "2008-12-21T13:10:12Z")
I’m going to throw in here a negative comment about my personal experience with Lulu. As I think I’ve mentioned before here, I participate in the [Digital Imaging forum](http://www.dslreports.com/forum/dimaging) at [dslreports.com](http://dslreports.com), mostly by posting my own photos. The forum has for two years run fund raising efforts for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Last year this was done through selling calendars that featured forum member’s photos, which was done through [Cafepress.com](http://Cafepress.com). This year the fund raising involves selling calendars and photo books of forum member’s photos, and the publishing was switched to [Lulu.com](http://Lulu.com), as Cafepress did not offer book printing and we wanted to keep the fund raising sales on a single site. I ordered one calendar and one photo book immediately after sales started. The calendar came out fine, but the photo book I received was a mess. The photos should have been centered on each page, but virtually none were; instead they were randomly placed at one edge or another of each page. Which meant the photo titles that were supposed to be included did not get properly placed either. When I started trying to contact Lulu about getting the book replaced, I found they have no option for making phone calls to customer service. The only way they allow customer service contacts is by email or an instant messaging service they run on their site. I went through multiple very aggravating sessions of using the IM service to discuss the situation with their customer service reps and getting absolutely nowhere with convincing them to print and send me a replacement book. It got so bad I ultimately gave up. But several days after my final attempt IM session had gotten nowhere, I was very surprised to get an email saying they WERE printing a replacement book. When it arrived, everything in it was printed just fine. During all of this mess I was communicating with the fund raising project’s coordinator. He has indicated that due to the run around and aggravation I got from Lulu, he will be looking into other publishing options for the fund raiser next year. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/8 "2008-12-21T13:20:32Z")
I know two people who publish through Lulu. It works fine for them, too. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-secure-website-to-order-from/478004/9 "2008-12-21T16:48:47Z")
I’ve purchased from Lulu. Seems fine.