Authorhouse VERY poor quality product, over priced, dishonest, scam Nationwide

 I paid for authorhouse services before I knew what I was doing- the perfect candidate for a scam. Since then, I've learned a lot about self-publishing and would not make this mistake again. It so happens that I paid for the services four years before I finished my first book. I discovered they didn't format children's books the way I wanted so I researched further and decided to print my first book through IngramSpark. All self publishing companies have things that will be disappointing or frustrating for an indie author, and Ingram had theirs, but I think the quality of the product is far superior, and the cost is super low. I was happy with the finished Ingram product and was propelled to finish my second story just eight months later. This is when I decided to use the authorhouse package I paid for years earlier. My husband formatted both of my books. He has a graphic design background and a knack for researching everything needed to make something perfect. He also knew what was needed in order for the book to be printed. We kept asking for specs and my coordinator either didn't respond to my emails, or sent the most vague answers, so I had to email her four times before I finally got barely enough info for him to format my book. So the files were ready to go and gorgeous. I did all my own illustrations and I was so pleased with how he formatted everything. Authorhouse quickly approved the files and informed me my book would retail for 20.99!!!! What?! A paperback?? For $21?? I asked what my cost would be and they still haven't answered that question. Little background on my experience with Ingram. I was super disappointed with the cost of my book through Ingram and I had to make it that high or ice be paying them to print my book. But it was still within industry standards. 17.99 for a hardcover. Fair enough. Then I ended up finding another print company that would print them for 2.66 per book. I ordered 1,000 and the quality was gorgeous. Back to authorhouse, where my paperback was going to be priced at $21 a pop. I complained. They told me it was priced per page. I quoted industry standards and shared my comparisons and they didn't even answer my email. The book went to print. I just approved it because I felt their was little debating I could do and it was a package I'd already paid for so I thought I may as well see my book in print. It would also be on ebook so I thought maybe that would be redeeming. Then came the marketing and book signing designs. Granted, I'm an artist and so is my husband, and we design all of our own stuff... but these are supposed to be professionals so I expected a really decent design. It was awful. Embarrassingly awful. My image was sideways on the card and the design so basic it was clear no one tried to even make it acceptable. They repeated the design behind my design, so it was distracting and terrible. I emailed them the simplest corrections I could translate through email because I was so exasperated, but had no plans to use them in my marketing, they were that bad. Finally, I receive a copy of my book in the mail- long anticipated... the quality of the book looked like it was done on a home printer. Bear in mind that I had two great comparisons- both Ingram and the print company I had used, and this look like it was printed on a machine running out of ink or worse. The images were faded, grainy, and blurred on paper that was one step above newsprint. It was awful. Kinkos could've done a better job. I was furious. I don't know why I had any hopes for better after the quality of everything else. I am still in the process of trying to convince them their product is so below standard they should be embarrassed and they've had me talk to so many people that it's confusing who's who and what their status in the company is. They had me email them scans of the pages, and then tried to tell me the color was the same! I immediately disagreed and told them they should know better. I created those images on the latest technology with print true color, and shared with them my previous publishing experience and products. All they would do is tell me they would send me another copy, but I don't trust that their print on demand services to create a product that my customers would be happy with, especially for the outrageous price of $21. And they STILL have not disclosed what my royalties will be per book. I want a full refund. There are zero services that they offer worth paying $1000 for. They're in the business of scamming people who don't know any better like the naive person I was four years ago when I paid for this malarkey. You can pay Ingram $49 for all the same services minus authorhouse's awful marketing designs.