Copy Central

I’ve always wanted to join Unilocal so I could flame on this business.
And here we are.
The thing is, I don’t think anyone working here gives a flying fuck anymore. They proudly don their «People Hate Us on Unilocal» sticker as a novelty factor, the prices are stroke-​inducing, and the customer service is on par with Comcast.
Copy Central is content in its monopoly, knowing that Berkeley students such as myself have no convenient matter of recourse. I’ve utilized their services a countless number of times since I’ve stepped onto campus, simply because the location cannot be beat.
On one particular occasion, I presented my debit card to the cashier for a $ 30+ reader. This triggered a roll of his eyes compounded with an exasperated sigh; he then asked me if «I was seriously asking him to accept credit instead of cash.» I understand your frustration, sure. Maybe he was having a bad day (I guess it JUST hit him that he’s managing that shithole). But that doesn’t justify treating your clientele the same way you’re treating your business.
Copy Central is as pleasant as cow shit, and only about half as useful.

I just come here for readers.
The binding services here are lacking to the point I rather haul my butt to Kinkos on Shattuck or Staples. They have four type of bindings but not all of them are in stock. Also all the bindings come in black, which looks extremely ugly when you have super white paper.
Also paying 5.72 to bind (I printed it elsewhere) and having a dusty cover is kind of disappointing. The only good point is that it is close to school.
Service is slow because workers just stand around and tell each other to bind.

The workers are so rude but it doesn’t matter because they run a monopoly! LOL jk but some of the classes only print readers from their store so unfortunately, need to buy readers from them.
He rolled his eyes when I told him I didn’t want the reader anymore because I knew I could just find the articles online. He insisted that I could only get the reader at Copy Central. Rude.

I needed a lamination job done so I came here for a price estimate. The employees here were unexpectedly so rude that I ended up taking my business elsewhere. I figure since the location is so close to campus, they don’t need to have decent customer service skills to get business.
The front desk person took their time looking at their phone and checking out the customer before me, it was disgusting to watch. You would think behavior like that would be masked by a demeanor of exceptional customer service, but nope. The person at the front desk proceeded to greeted me with a ‘why are you bothering me’ kind of attitude and proceeded to show me to the lamination desk person who was also, rude with a tude.
But besides the point, the estimate they gave me was almost 30% higher than the other businesses nearby. I’m glad I went somewhere else because the business they get here must be with professors and students under duress or else no one would show up.

Seriously the worse place to print.
Manager and employees are extremely rude.
And their prices are just absurdly high. 20cent per page?!
Almost a dollar just to print 4 pages.
ugh.

I had a very different experience at Copy Central than these scary reviews. In fact, I would have been scared off by them if I had not had such a GREAT experienced with Jim Darcy in Burbank and my friend in Berkeley always gets her copies done at the Shattuck store (as have I in the past).
However, Abby was terrific. I sent her a dropbox link after speaking with her on the phone, she had my dissertation draft (335 pages) printed within minutes and then binded, and she scanned in 2 images in record time. Abby did all of this in spite of her cold and was pleasant, upbeat, competent and swift.
I would return there in a heartbeat. Great work Abby & Copy Central!

Never EVER use their scanning service. EVER.
I only did so because I desperately needed to submit a document. I walked in the door and asked about using the scanner, to which the man behind the counter «replies» by rudely snatching the sheet out of my hand (whoa, careful there buddy!) and told me to sit down at a computer and wait for the document. He did not tell me anything regarding the cost of the service, so when I got up to pay, I was expecting to pay around 20cents or so since that’s how much printing one page of document costs.
But no, of course I was wrong. It costed me $ 2.18 to scan ONE page. ONE PAGE.
Um WHAT.
So if you are looking to get a document scanned, walk that extra half a mile to the campus library, borrow a friend’s scanner, go to a different copy store, WHATEVER. Just don’t do it here.

Yesterday I needed to get a mock printed for class and this was nearby so my boyfriend took me here. Plus there is a parking garage near it so it was convenient. I inform the guy at the counter that I may need an oversize print. He says that he is the only one and to come back in 45 min when his two other coworkers arrived. So we decided to eat breakfast and then came back to the printing place. His co-​workers were not there when they were suppose to be. So I decided to print what I could. The over size print was just a little over a 11×17 inch paper so I decided to not waste my time and print it to see how it would come out. While I was doing this his coworkers finally arrived, but by this time I did not want to get help from them because the only competent person that works here is this chick which I do not know the name of. I decided that I need a ruler to make sure I can use the one that the art board was slightly larger than 11×17. So I ask one of the two guys that arrived who was sitting at a computer doing not much of anything. «Hey do you have a ruler I can use to measure this.» He reluctantly looks up and says look in the tray and continues what he was doing. (nothing) I look around and do not know where these trays are so I ask where are the trays? He says over there not pointing or being specific. So I search around for a little bit and locate a tray. I see that there are no rulers in this tray so I reply. «There are no rulers in here» He says «Check the other one.» So I did and there was none in that either. I reply back to him «There in none in here either.» Which he this time ignores me completely. Which is infuriating. So my boyfriend looks around with me and OMG he finds several rules which were right next the guy who I was talking to who was now ignoring me. WOW. Seriously dude. This is THE worst customer experience I have encountered at a printing place EVER! There was no one there but us and this guy could not even get out of his chair to help look. Or even look, since they were right next to him. I would hope that if I ever come in again that there will be an attitude adjustment or a new employee working here.

Just returned to unfortunately buy a reader and noticed that they did change the sign. Sadly, it’s not much clearer than before and it seems that all they’ve done is switch a few words around which honestly, just adds to the deceptive quality of this place. I hope an alternative source for class readers comes to Bancroft soon. They don’t deserve the money they are making.

The guy that helped me was unbelievably rude. I guess they figured they don’t need to have good customer service since students have to come here anyway to get their readers, but seriously this guy was a complete asshole.
Since the reader I needed for music 20A was out of stock, he had to write a note to reserve me one. He said they only had Music 20 readers so I wasn’t sure if it was the same class as 20A but I knew the price was supposed to be $ 4. I asked him to double check the price for me, which required him to flip the page, but he gave me the «Are you serious?» glare and very rudely and unwillingly checked for me.
While paying for the reader, I took a bit longer to find coins in my wallet and the guy didn’t even wait for me to give it to him. He started looking for change and when I handed him the coins later, he glared at me, scoffed, and rolled his eyes. It wasn’t even a big deal man… I even told him, «wait, I have coins» but he didn’t listen so it’s not my fault he wasted a few seconds to look for change. He was equally rude when I came later to pick up the reader.
Even though this location is much more convenient for students, the service sucks ass compared to the one on Shattuck. I would go there just so I don’t have to deal with the rude people who work at this location.

I concur with the Unilocal!reviews of this branch of Copy Central on Bancroft. I hate this branch of Copy Central. I had a very unpleasant experience going in there, it made me wish I did not bother taking advantage of the convenience by stopping in at this Copy Central on my way to Cal to drop off more documents!
I needed to make a quick photocopy of a letter. Luckily I remembered there was a Copy Central on the way to drop off my correspondence to an undergraduate advisor at Cal. So I walked in and headed towards a black and white photocopy machine. I already knew I wanted one photocopy. The next thing I knew after I make my copy – unbeknownst to me – the lady who works there had followed and was watching me. What the heck?! Like I really needed assistance to make a basic photocopy?! Hey Lady, I am an admitted Golden Bear!!! I am going to Berkeley!!! I have previous work experience – I can operate a photocopy machine, Madame. I can read instructions. If I need assistance, I know to go to the till. And I know to PAY for copies I make before exiting stage right out the door.
Anyhow, it was ONLY ONE copy I needed to make. Paid for it and got out of there as quickly as I could. Next time, I will stop by at another copy place in the area if I cannot get to the Copy Central branches at either Shattuck and University or Shattuck and Rose.
I am very concerned to hear this branch makes many of the course readers at Cal. Does this mean I will be back?! Does this mean I will have to come here?! Oh dear, oh dear, I sure as heck hope not. OMG!!! If I have to, I will inform the prospective professor (s) about the unprofessional attitude and surliness of this Copy Central!
Eek! Me thinks not!
Fresh Review #43 of 100 Unilocal!for 2013.

I second the low ratings below me. DO NOT COME TO THIS ONE, GO TO THE ONE ON SHATTUCK INSTEAD. Or another printing store. There really are stark differences between the attention and service (I’ve made a review on the other one too, for contrasts sake). This one does NOT CARE to help you one bit.
I went in here to print out a 350 page document. The lady told me that she could do it for 3 bucks or I can print it out myself. Thinking that printing shouldn’t be that hard, I told her I can print it… Then, she just turned around and walked away! I had to call her back to ask her where their computer was because the store was kind of cluttered despite a sparse feel to the store front. So the lady points to me the computer and I’m left alone again, until I call her back to ask her which printer should I print out from…
I hit print as the unhappy lady completely disappears, and the printer behind me whooshes… Couple minutes later (and probably by the 300 page now.) I take a look at the stuff and it’s ALL ONE SIDED PRINT. A guy shows up (that lady is conveniently out of sight… ugh), equally grumpy as the lady. I tell him that I didn’t know it was single sided, and he only gave me the option to keep it single sided, or REPRINT THE ENTIRE 350 PAGES. Does he know just how thick 350 pages are??? The two inch thing didn’t even fit in any spiral binding. I had to get it printed again and a simple job cost me DOUBLE THE PRICE. Ugh, that’s what I get for not paying a few bucks for the lady to do it for me? I smell scam lol.
The guy did the binding. Not bad, but gees. So I paid for my unnecessaryly stupid experience. Please do not repeat my mistake of trusting this unhelping store.
— — — — — — — — -
As a comparison, the Shattuck Copy central was much more helpful! I had a ~200 document to print, and also asked to print by myself. The lady attending me gave me a short but thorough instruction of using their pc, choosing the printer, making sure to pre-​print a few pages to see if I liked the way it came out. She also made sure that I was able to print under 10 mins, as the computers begin a charge after 10 mins of printing.
See how the customer service differs?
I don’t ask for much: clarity, and friendliness. The Copy central on bancroft had NONE.

I wanted to get some postcards done, and I decided to try this place out. The first part of my ‘journey’ was fine. First I tried to order online, but I also wanted to pick the postcards myself. I called the Bancroft number, and the guy said to email the stuff to a specific address. And so I did, seemed fine so far.
This is where I started to have a bad experience. I got no confirmation that they got my email… I had to call them and see if they got it. After that though, I did get an email from them letting me know the order was done.
I came in… the store is surprisingly large and surprisingly sparse. They have different counters for different things… Maybe it’s because I haven’t come in at the beginning of the semester, but why do you need so much space?
Anyway, took me only a minute or two to get my stuff. The service was alright besides that. The quality of the postcards though… was crap. The edges were cut off! Granted, the measurements I submitted were not perfect (they were just slightly off), but Copy Central didn’t do anything about it (including talk to me)! They just printed it out as is… While privacy is good, they didn’t even look at trying to make it a quality product.
Anyway, I can’t go back because I needed these ASAP, and my apathy and laziness allow me to get beyond my deformed postcards, so I’ll use the postcards… but I’ll definitely look into going to a better place next time.

Now I understand why there are so many bad reviews here. I haven’t even BEEN there, just made a simple phone call asking about binding services. The guy was such a jerk, talking to me like I’m an idiot, very vague, not very helpful. Told me he didn’t know when he could get my ONE book bound, so I asked if he meant that if i should get there monday morning or call first, he said he didn’t know. After a few minutes of getting none of the information I wanted (it was like pulling teeth!), I said, «ok, thank you» and he just hung up… that was that. A phone call was enough to let me know that’s not a place I want to deal with.
Of course, apparently they have more than enough students supplying them with business, they don’t care if they lose one customer. HORRIBLE customer service. HORRIBLE.

It’s hard to exaggerate how bad the service is here. I was asked yesterday to come back today by employee who was clearly doing nothing at all. But the policy said so, which made her happy to be unobliging. Seriously, at a copy place, she wouldn’t just copy a reader for me.
Today there was a small crowd of customers, all being ignored by employees. I had to ask one of them for help, to which he said, «go wait at the counter. Someone will help you. Just not now.» He laughed.
I would love it if professors would stop using this place. You’ll get better treatment anywhere else, guaranteed.

This place is a give and take situation. Every student comes here at least once in their Cal career. Professors always like to get their readers from here. The lines are huge when school starts! It is best to come in the morning when most people are in class. It is pretty much dead when readers aren’t being sold. I came here to get something laminated once, so they do provide other services other than producing readers.

Come on, if you’re a copy and printing place shouldn’t you be able to always have staff competent to do so?
Sorry but the service here is horrible. I’m not saying this was a one time thing either. The service is unfriendly and unhelpful… I showed up in the morning to draft something and turns out the guy that does that was late to work… THEN after he showed up he gave me this attitude when I asked him to print. Lastly, when he tried to cut it the edges were all frayed and horribly cut.
The only perk about this place is it opens early and they have a 20% off discount for architecture majors.

TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE…
So my grlfriend comes in here just before the Thanksgiving holiday (Wed.) because she needs her thesis project to be printed, and binded. They made it extremely difficult with all kind of measurements and then said it would be done «as is» on Monday. She expressed concern and wanted to come in and see the progress. The guy in the back that does printing said he knew what he was doing and not to worry. Her project was due on Tuesday– they could get it done on Mon. Fine.
It seemed doomed from the start but she and I were both hopeful– and we were in a tight spot considering the deadline.
She brought her files in as requested in pdf. form and explained how she wanted her book to look, but the «printer guy» turned his computer screen away and had his own idea of how her book should look.
When I came home from work on Monday, all she talked about was how rude Copy central service was and how she felt forced to pay the $ 130 for two small books that turned out to look terrible. I figured it couldn’t be that bad…
It was. The top portion of the book had a half inch white line that ran along the entire top– and the cover was already dark, making it look an entire mess. Really, for $ 130 bucks? WOw!!!
This was our experience at Copy Central (Bancroft Location).
One star? How about NO STARS!

What’s up with the customer service here? They’re probably banking on their strategic location to the campus and don’t really care about their patrons. I’ve been here a few times to purchase readers and make copies.
Unfortunately, I can only count on one hand the number of times I’ve had a pleasant exchange with the representatives here. Do they hate their jobs that much?
The experience that led to the one star: I purchased a reader that day for a class I intended to take. Due to scheduling conflicts, I could no longer register for that class and contacted the reader department (first by phone, then in person) to cancel the purchase.
Their policy is that all reader purchases are final. I’d support this if the reader was already made, in which this case, mine was NOT MADE when I called and ran by the store. They still charged me for the reader. Grrrrrrrrrr. At least you know why I’m bitter!

Our orders did get completed but there was a lot of drama involved in the process and one of the books ended up having glue across the cover (when you only have two that’s half the order). Upon closer inspection when I got home I noticed that my books were not, in fact, perfect bound as my work order specified. They tape bound them and then glued the covers on. Someone was being lazy and hoped I wouldn’t notice.
The staff during the week seem to be more polite and know more than any of the three people we dealt with over the weekend but I’m never ever going back.