A purchased font with errors

Benderski
Benderski Posts: 6
in Type Business
I bought a single weight from a well-known foundry that doesn't meet the quality standards. The same error happens on all the lowercase letters where an arc meets a vertical stem: h,n,m,u and r. Please see the attached image.

The font was bought on March 7th, I informed the owner of the foundry on May 6th about it.
Reading the return policies on their website it says that I should have notify them within 30 days, for a replacement.

As I find myself designing a book that soon will be send to print, last monday I emailed him again asking if it was possible to exchange the license I got for another weight of the same typeface. No reply was received.

Any recommendations on a possible solution for this unexpected situation?



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Comments

  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    ask the font designer to fix it.  I am sure he/she would be happy to.
  • notdef
    notdef Posts: 168
    edited August 2021
    If you are familiar with type design software, I would break the EULA (assuming it does not allow modifications) but make sure to keep the files to yourself.

    The only other thing I can think of is to use a different typeface and request a refund.
  • KP Mawhood
    KP Mawhood Posts: 296
    @Benderski Sorry that you're facing this. This type of thing can take some time to get fixed when raised from the buyer-side.

    If you're confident that a different weight doesn't have the issue, then I'd recommend licensing that font instead for your print work. For the refund, try finding the phone number for the foundry. There's all sorts of reasons why an email could go amiss.
  • JoyceKetterer
    JoyceKetterer Posts: 813
    @Andreas Stötzner It is a pandemic.  Let's not assume the worst.  I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.  @Benderski all reputable font licensors fix errors.  It's not the same as requesting a refund.  If this is a font company with a good reputation then keep trying to reach out them.  It's even possible they replied to your email and your spam filter intercepted it.  Spam filters have been on over drive for the past several months.  That's happened to me a few times.  Try pming them via social media if you can't find a phone number.  
  • Andreas Stötzner
    Andreas Stötzner Posts: 798
    JoyceKetterer said:
    @Andreas Stötzner It is a pandemic.  Let's not assume the worst.  I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.  … 
    Your friendly spirit honors you, certainly. But the specific contour error the orig. poster is troubled with shows me that there is something fundamental to be questioned with that provider.
    I also produce some error here and there … everyone does. Anyway, to get an n and h drawn basically, should be within the scope of what a client can expect, when spending money on a font.
  • JoyceKetterer
    JoyceKetterer Posts: 813
    @Andreas Stötzner We had something similar in one style that went out retail.  It was the result of a series of production errors.  These things can still happen to otherwise good foundries, especially if the speculation that it's only one style is correct.
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,739
    Looks like an extrapolation error that didn't get caught.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    or an anchor shift
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
    Mark Simonson said:
    Looks like an extrapolation error that didn't get caught.

    Either that or the ink trap trend has now reached obtuse corners!
  • JoyceKetterer
    JoyceKetterer Posts: 813
    @Igor Freiberger Unless I misunderstood, the user wrote once.  Ideally once is enough but, speaking as someone who does customer service, it's just not fair to judge someone for it not working.  All sorts of technical issues, or just over work, could be getting in the way.  I have an approximately 99% reply rate to first emails within 24 hours but that means that even I sometimes run into a problem.  
  • Igor Freiberger
    Igor Freiberger Posts: 279
    edited August 2021
    As said above, the user sent a second message in August 16th and still got nothing. I was not judging a person, but criticizing a service. We all could face some problem but, from the customer point of view, such a lack of support is unacceptable.
  • Benderski
    Benderski Posts: 6
    edited August 2021
    @Chris Lozos @notdef @KP Mawhood @Andreas Stötzner @JoyceKettererJoyceKetterer
    @Mark Simonson @Craig Eliason @Igor Freiberger

    Thanks for your comments.

    A solution that was mentioned was to contact the designer, I'm sure it will create legal problems between the designer and the Foundry. Also, fixing the error by opening the font on a software will create legal problems.

    The owner of the foundry didn't reply to any of me emails. Even the first one (May 6th) where I shared the error without asking for anything, I dropped an email with the intention of letting them know. Two emails were sent this week and no reply was given.

    What make things worse is that the font is still there for people to buy it. They didn't have the professionalism to put it down. More people could experience this situation. 

    They attitude is far from what I imagine.
  • KP Mawhood
    KP Mawhood Posts: 296
    @Benderski Is it possible that the emails were not received (e.g. blocked by an email filter)?

    It seems very unprofessional (and frankly odd) that not a single email was answered.
  • Yves Michel
    Yves Michel Posts: 183
    What's the problem with divulging the names of the font and the factory? That could prevent us from buying this font, except if we're collecting mistaken fonts. 
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,225
    I’ll second what Mark said: contacting the designer is a good step to take if the foundry is not responding. I can’t think of a designer who wouldn’t want to see this kind of bug fixed.

    A problem would only arise if there were already some kind of issue between the designer and the foundry, such that they were not cooperating. There are some cases where a foundry essentially owns a font and the original designer is no longer involved in its further development, or where the contract with the designer has been purchased as part of a foundry aquisition and the designer doesn’t feel like collaborating with the new owners.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,896
    If somebody is looking for advice and actively not wanting to publicly name/shame the font supplier, I for one am completely OK with that.

    I would expect that the problem will be fixed sooner rather than later, and online threads last for years (at least!).
  • Toby Lebarre
    Toby Lebarre Posts: 7
    Why not use a different font ?
    Andika font by SIL is a good sans serif and it's free.
  • Rob Barba
    Rob Barba Posts: 86
    Chris Lozos said:
    ask the font designer to fix it.  I am sure he/she would be happy to.

    This, exactly this.  I always encourage people who buy my fonts to reach out to me if they want changes, requests, complaints, etc.  It's how I know what people want.  For example, I didn't start adding the Indian Rupee (₹) as standard in my fonts, as I felt the regular Rupee sign (₨) was sufficient.  But enough requests for it specifically helped change my mind on that.  So by all means, reach out!
  • JoyceKetterer
    JoyceKetterer Posts: 813
    To be fair, I agree with @John Hudson that there's a chance the designer can't.  If we got a request at Darden Studio like this about Freight all I'd be able to do is send the customer back to the foundry that controls it. We don't even have the current design files anymore.  So that is possible.  But, I would reply quickly to explain.  If you have to be unhelpful it's best to be prompt.  

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