For years now I have taken part in the e-Miles and e-Rewards programs to score some additional miles in our various accounts. In both programs, you typically have to be invited via your airline mile programs. You simply go to your offer pages on ways to earn miles, and if you are invited, they will list the program as an available option.

In the e-Miles program you simply review various offers, and they give you miles in their account that can then be redeemed in 500 mile increments for the associated airline program you signed up under. With the e-Rewards program, you answer surveys and get paid. The money in your account can then be redeemed with various partners including airline and hotel chains.

At the top of my e-Miles account is always offers from Vistaprint. They will give me free photo calendars, business cards, and all kinds of other various products (not including S&H). Inevitably, if you go through the process, you will pay for an upgrade to your free product. By taking part in the offer, you also earn e-Miles.

Seeing as I now run InACents, my wife and I have come to the conclusion it would be better to hand out business cards to our friends and family with the website information, rather than trying to spell it out for them and hoping they remember and visit. Therefore, the first company I thought of was Vistaprint, due to my affiliation with e-Miles. How convenient, right?

So on June 19, 2011, I pulled the trigger and order 500 cards via Vistaprint. Since I had some custom logos, and ordered a larger quantity, my total with shipping and handling came to $16.38. I was told to expect my order within 21 days since I choose the slower delivery option. I was fine with the delay, especially in the midst of moving, so I had them delivered to my office.

Fast forward to July 7, and I received a notice that my cards had shipped early, and I would receive them by July 8. I was provided with a UPS tracking number as well. So I diligently waited for my cards to arrive, and even checked in several days later with my administrative assistant, and nothing had been delivered.

So I checked the tracking number, and for some reason UPS delivered them to the local post office. I thought that was really odd, but ok. So I waited some more. Finally around July 13, I called the post office and UPS to see where my package was located, because the UPS tracking number was showing the package was dropped off at the post office.

UPS gave me a tracking number for the post office, of which it still showed they had not received the item. Ok, now what do I do? UPS says it was delivered and the post office says they never received the package. Trying to get some answers from the postal service was of course next to impossible.

So eventually on July 19, I called Vistaprint to see what my available options were on the missing business cards. It had now been a month since my order was processed. Luckily, the customer service agent at Vistaprint was excellent. She quickly reprocessed my order, and put rush shipping on the package so I would have them by the end of the week.

I have since received the business cards and look forward to getting to start handing them out. They are a basic card stock with my image on them. I have to admit I did not put a lot of thought into them other than dropping my logo on the front. Even after I ordered them, I regretted not adding some other minor details. In addition, apparently I must have had to upgrade to get glossy cards, as they were printed with a flat finish. I guess for $16, that is what I get, but I will now know the next time I place a new order.

However, if anyone out there locates my package of InACents business cards, at least hand them out to all of your family and friends to help drum up traffic to the site. In addition, if you are happy with the quality of the cards like I was, please order your future products from Vistaprint.