[dugarner]

I think they say 1/8 inch trim all around, but I always leave 1/4 inch without important details. The uneven spacing on the pages sounds like a printing problem. As for the gutter (the space in the binding), 1/4" will be lost. I've never printed a book thicker than 60 pages, so I don't know if more is lost with thicker books or not. But I always leave the right 1/4" on my left pages and the left 1/4" on my right pages without any detail that I don't mind losing. I do two-page layouts and always add guidelines at 11 3/4 and 12 1/2 inches so I know where I am when I'm creating a page.

If it looked right in preview, it probably was a problem with that batch when they printed. But the preview does not show you what's "lost" in the gutter, so you have to keep that in mind when you're looking at the preview.

I'm glad they gave you credit---they have amazing customer service. I don't know what cause the unevenness, though. I hope you get it figured it out!