Saturday, February 19, 2011

Shutterfly

I love Shutterfly, I really do.

I have printed several 8*8" photobooks with them and the pages are always vibrant and of good quality.
The hardcover is solid and glossy and 8" is just the right size for me.

But I'm pissed at 2 things.

One is that shipping is always delayed.
Yes, I'm in some faraway place from USA and it takes at least 1-3 weeks for me to get my book.
However, 4 out of 5 times, I only receive it after 4 weeks.
A few times, after waiting for too long, I write to them and they will reprint and send again.
I often end up with 2 copies after another month because the first copy finally arrive.

Second is that they very often screw up the spine of my book.
I created my jpeg file based on Shutterfly's template for spine and even use my previous books as guide.
But look what happens.


The middle one is the first print. I was upset and requested for a re-print.
When the re-print (first book on the right) arrived, I was more disappointed because it is worse than the original.
Sometimes, even when I print 80 pages book, the spine is also not aligned nicely.

If they could print the other book of mine with a properly-aligned spine (e.g. the left-most book in the picture), why can't they do a proper one for the rest?
Isn't there a quality-control check before they ship it out?
I'm paying and average of US$80 for a book (inclusive of shipping), so I really hate this feeling.

Where else can I print my photobook?
Time for research this weekend, I guess.
   

4 comments:

  1. I live in Australia, which is closer to you than US, and get my books done from http://www.myreflections.com.au/.
    Their service is always first class, I have had 3 done now, and the last was a 30cm x 30cm 160 page book! And it was perfect. They never get the spine wrong, the hard cover book is so professional, and I had mine (with that huge size), back in my hand within 4 days!
    I would recommend them any time.
    I just drop my ready scrapped pages into their photobook software, and put the finished file on a cd, as my books are always such a huge size, but the smaller ones can be sent online on their web site.
    Cheers. PS Love all your templates!

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  2. Thanks, Karen! I will definitely check it out!

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  3. I am from spain and I order my books and pics from Foto.com, it's an european page but they ship wordlwide! Here you can check the 8" book: http://row.foto.com/photo-book-prestige.php?expandable=0#21
    The book has a hard cover and they are from 20 to 60 pages. My 30 pages books cost $25.89 + 4.99 shipping cost.
    I also use this company to print my photos. It Spain printing photos are expensive and if I print them in my home I will run out of ink! So I save up to 80% using Foto.com!!
    Good luck with your next books and see you soon!

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  4. Thanks! Will check it out this weekend!

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