Hi. There’s a trend via these pages and elsewhere feeding back on the performance of our customer services team over the last couple of months, so I thought I’d post specifically on the topic.
First, the obvious. We got our estimates wrong, as to the amount of ‘contacts’ (email, calls) that would be generated by the move to the new site. We simply didn’t have enough people, which resulted in call queue delays and overall service levels that I’m not proud of. I sincerely apologise if you’ve been affected. What I am proud of however is the collective response of everyone here to cope with the backlog, and ultimately to fix the problems.
First, pretty much everyone contributed, from the service team doing many hours of overtime, through our IT, marketing and other bits of the operation manning the phones and email. Further, the whole company have worked many hours to identify, and fix, the root causes. We’ve made a lot of improvements, which I hope you’ll have noticed, over the last month or so. We believe our site is faster, clearer, and easier to use than just a few weeks ago. I hope you’ll tell us what you think by posting comments here.
So now things are better, albeit not perfect. The amount of contacts we’re getting is slowing down as everyone gets used to the new site, and we’re answering phones & emails much faster than we were. We’ve more staff in Customer Services, keen as mustard to help, but still learning their trade a bit. Many of the people are ex-production, and I hope they’ll be able to use their experience of the shop floor in order to be able to help you better.
I’m glad to say that June was a great month for us, thanks to you. Some days we received nearly twice the photos we got in June last year, and already we’re investing more than planned in online storage space and printing capacity. Even so, I’m determined we’ll continue to improve on all fronts even as we ramp up for the summer peak. Keeping service standards up is hard when the company’s growing this fast, but we’re determined to succeed.
As ever, keep the feedback coming.
Mark
(7 votes) 
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Hi Can anybody answer the question as to when the Business cards are going to be available again as I have been told that old orders are available but mine are not there. I also want to print some new ones !!! please answer me.
Your team has certainly had a lot to deal with in the last month! As a long standing customer there are lots of things that I like with he new website such as the support for new products like the personalized photobooks, and the performance has definitely improved. There are however still lingering bugs with this new website:
1. Several members of my family who I introduced to Photobox in the last few years have been unable to view photos that I have shared with them on the new website. Furthermore there is no way of knowing whether they ever viewed the shared album.
2. The link to Picasa is now far less elegant than previously where it was pretty much seamless.
3. Finally I am aware of several of my family who have been transitioned to the new site in such a way that their old photos only exist on the old site whereas new content exists on the new site. This is a really messy solution.
Anyhow hopefully when you finally complete the transition at the end of July all these lingering issues will have been addressed.
Mark,
Customer service hasn’t been what it should be - you can say that again! For a company focused around technology, the site really stinks. It’s been weeks now since I first began experiencing the problem of every single time I try to ‘check out’ my order, i just get routed back to the main page and cannot check out. After complaining twice and waiting quite a few days, someone gave me their number to call to complete the transaction which, of course, only rang and rang on more than one occasion. Because of all this, my 3 father’s day gifts were late as well as my dad’s birthday gift which I was trying to get with ample time to send to the states on time. Now, I spent over an hour last night selecting and uploading 25+ photos into my temporary print album to buy prints and it said it was taking extra time to process the upload and to check back in 30 minutes. Now, it’s been 24 hours and the photos still are not there. Shall I waste another hour uploading them again? The service sucks, the website does not function and I am a long-time devoted customer who is going to call it quits if I don’t finally get a proper response and resolution to these problems. By the way…there was nothing wrong with the original site. It worked!
Mark
I emailed Photobox back in May about the quality of the slideshow images I was viewing on the site from my last uploaded album. I have still not received any kind of satisfactory response. Am I the only one suffering from this problem ? Why does it take so long to get any kind of helpful response?
Very frustrating !!
I note from your blogs that you say you are experiencing far higher user volumes than you previously had, mentioning almost double the volume of prints on some days.
PLEASE CAN YOU BEAR THIS IN MIND NOW AS YOU START PLANNING FOR CHRISTMAS, SO YOU HAVE THE STAFF YOU NEED TO GET GIFTS OUT EARLY ENOUGH SO WE ALL GET THEM WHEN WE NEED THEM!
I don’t want to have a repeat of the previous debacles as Christmas and other peak times.
Please, please please do planning ahead and then add in a staffing safety margin!
Thanks
Dear Photobox, I would like to ask why my slide show photgraphs on the old site look great yet the same ones on the new site make people look like Teletubbies ?
I agree with John the quality on the slideshows isn’t what it used to be. My pictures now look fuzzy and dull.
Also I no longer seem to have access to albums friends have previously shared with me.
The site is well designed, but has several deeply annoying flaws!
When a new album is created often they are not listed on ‘My albums’, only to reappear again minutes later. When uploading photos the album I need is not listed! Very annoying when you have already created and labelled it. Just dont understand where they have gone.
The check out was a nightmare on my first (and only) go. Quantities are mistifiying to say the least.
Have 22 pictures in an album - it says there is 40.
I order 39 - it says 78. ??????
All we need is a simple easy to use space please!!!
Well I thought I’d give you guys a month or two to try to resolve what I had sincerely hoped were teething issues with the new site, only to find things are actually worse now. Yes you may have sped it up slightly but the most annoying bugs are still evident and ruining functionality that is critical to a site like this. I even agreed to take part in a conf call with you but nobody answered the call! Showstoppers for me right now are:
(1) Wildly varying discrepancies between number of shots in albums and number displayed - totally random at times
(2) Deleted images come back!
(3) What you send to your basket doesn’t want to stay in the basket!
(4) Cannot do ‘multiple’ anything (deletion, product change or order) - utterly frustrating, makes this one of the most un-user friendly sites I’ve come across
(5) Uploads fail more often than they succeed - fact
(6) Shared album functionality seems flawed
To call PhotoBox a ‘personal publishing and online printing’ site is a joke - it takes me 5 times as long to do anything now, and 70% of the time that is resulting in failure
Why don’t you stop messing about with all the whistles and bells and focus on giving us back the core functionality that used to work superbly well? Your fantastic reputation was once industry leading, not anymore. If it were my business I’d be swallowing my pride and taking some steps backward - takes a brave businessman to admit they’ve made a mistake and do a u-turn though.
I struggle to believe that this is the same PhotoBox with the same team at it’s helm right now
Thanks for the update. I think the site has improved enormously since you launched the new version, so thanks for listening to us all and doing a great job. Unfortunately it’s still not as easy to use as the old site, but I’m graduallu regaining my trust in Photobox… Keep up the good improvements
Thank you for the update but as others have said the higher functionality is no use whatsoever when I can’t even do the most basic order without having to take hours uploading, having to repeat steps many times over due to failures. I have not even been able to get the offer code available to apply to the order.
I regularly use the site to send photos to the great grandmothers of my children in the UK but now even the most basic functionality of being able to include a note is gone.
Please bring back the old site or proper usable functionality or I am going to permanently switch to an alternative.
I am afraid I agree with others that photobox is not as user-friendly as it used to be. I don’t understand why you decided to change it. It was perfect and I used it all the time to share photos - introducing quite a few people to the site and recommending it to all my friends. Yesterday was the first time since March that I perservered and uploaded some photos to a new album and shared it with friends. When I checked today to see who had viewed the album, there was no indication that anyone had viewed it and I therefore assumed that I’d done something wrong and sent invites out again. Now I find out that the function to show when someone has viewed the album is no longer there. That was one of the most important functions, and if you don’t realise that then you don’t know what your customers want. Most of us do not want all the fancy “blogs” - we can go elsewhere for that. We want fast, user-friendly, simple, good quality photo storage and sharing and easy to make and order gifts. That is what photobox used to be but isn’t anymore. I too hope that you will go back to the fantastic system you once had. Sorry, but you did ask for feedback.
Dear Photobox
I am a new customer and so never experienced your old site. However I wanted to write and tell you, how impressed I am with the service of the orders, and quality of the prints, no delays. I tend to do my loading in the evening and then send upload and leave it run over night, by morning its completed everything. The following evening I put in my order.
I haven’t ordered any of the gift ideas yet, I’m sure I will.
I love the sharing idea, so have been reccomending to all my friends. Hopefully its secure? Have had loads of good feedback from them too.
Just wanted to say a big thank you.
Cheers
Thanks for the update - I am a great fan of photobox and a longtime customer…….but coming back from holidays I have noticed few disappoiting features on the website.
I like the new upload functionality but when editing the pics:
1. if you change the format it doesn’t update
2. not easy to edit the pictures
3. when you send to the basket and then make changes it doesn’t always save the changes or does the right counting
I must admit that the service was superb! Ordered at 10 am on Sunday and dispatched at 1 pm!! Hopefully they will arrive tomorrow
Thanks
I have no problem with the webiste, I had no difficulties in producing my photobooks, however, it does not tell you anywhere on the invoice when you can expect your order. It just says “standard next day delivery if ordered before 4pm”. Now, 1 week later, I see on the site that it infact takes 3 working days to process the books. I ordered these books for my mom to take back home with her, but to date I have not recieved them. So I now have the inconvienence of having to post these books on to my mom. I got an email on Friday evening to say my books have been dispatched, so when can I expect them?
I would suggest that when an order is invoiced, the customer should be given a more or less time/date when to expect the order. I understand that you are a busy company, with very many orders, but you cannot say it only takes 3 working days, when I am still waiting one week later for my order.
Please, please, please can we have back the facility to see who has viewed our albums and how many times. The old site was just perfect for this. Some people havent received the email for one reason or another, as it is now its impossible to know if that may be the case until you speak to them.
Is there any chance it may happen soon? Other sites do have this facility in place.
There is an oversight in the ordering of photo sizes - and that is due to the absence of a “constrain proportions” option.
Shrink to fit has a tendency to squeeze images and so - unless the image fits erfectly you are forced to explore a rang eof dofferent size photos - as opposed to a uniform set, with images printed as they are intended… or have i missed something?
I’ve been trying to order a photobook for the past 10 days, 5 orders placed and all of them get an order status of ‘error’ after the money has been taken. I have to phone customer services to get a refund each time.
I’ve re-uploaded my photos and created several new photobooks but nothing makes a difference.
Shame really because this is the first time I’ve tried to make a photobook and I’m a bit put off now.
Can you tell me if the 2 albums for price of one offer applies to 2 different albums or does it have to be 2 the same?
Hi, Could anybody enlighten me as to when payments are made from por gallery sales. having used photobox for a number of years, i feel the new ‘improved’ website is taking up alot of time and regular customers are being forgotten about, how about keeping those loyal customers happy??
Damian in customer services is fab - should be promoted!! service is always efficient and photos sent out fast. Need more operators on the phone as queue does take a long time to be next in line.. you should offer free photos to existing cutomers also regularly so that it reminds them to order photos and take advantage of offer i,e 30 free prints if you order in 14 days etc. you get more sales and we as customers remember to print the photos more regularly
Thx
I have been using Photobox for sometime now and have been very pleased with the quality of service and quality of product. However, I did contact you to ask if your offer of 2 for 1 style books included the old creations and was told that it did. I was unable to find an “offer code” box in my old creations, so was told to order the books, paying the full price and that I would receive a refund. On checking my history order, my order does not appear, but I have received an email confirming that my order has been placed and the full amount taken. I have been in touch with Joey, but I seem to have lost contact (maybe he is also at a loss as to whether my order is going through, also as to how I receive a refund) Joey did say that you were experiencing problems - is this your problem ?
Lindsey
I would like to buy sticker prints in a 2×3 inch size which would be suitable for creating my own photocards at home
Having been a loyal customer of Photobox and recommended you to over 20 of my family and friends I have been utterly disappointed by a recent series of events which have highlighted some serious issues with your new website, printing process, quality control and customer services.
- When we got married 3 years our friends purchased 2 wonderful mugs for us from photobox; 1 had MR + our surname and the other 1 MRS + our surname and included a photo of us together. It was one of our most treasured gifts
- When these friends married in June this year we decided to repay the favour. I used the new design studio to put the mugs together and checked them in the 3-D view where they looked perfect!
- However, when the mugs arrived the last letter of the friends surname had been moved onto the 3 line! something you would have thought quality control would pick up as this didn’t match up to what was displayed in your design studio. The printing of the photo was also poor with green tinges in the ink and smearing on the side (clearly not been left to dry properly or something).
- I emailed your customer services department who agreed to correct the mistake and send replacement mugs. However, this took several weeks of chasing your customer services who would lie about when they had been sent.
- The mugs evetually arrived several weeks later and to my horror the exact same mistake! the last letter had moved onto the 3rd line! and not only that, the mugs were cracked and had several scrapes across the photo!
- I contacted your customer services; sending them both a screen shot of the design studio and a photo of the incorrect and damaged mugs
- It took your customer services 3 days to respond (and only after I sent chaser emails asking for your head of customer services)
- Your customer services apologised and promised to send replacement and correct mugs out and refund the cost of my order as a good will gesture. I was re-assured that they would be checked by quality control before being sent
- Can you imagine my horror today when the replacement mugs arrived - they are not even the mugs I ordered! I don’t know what more to say!
- I am really disappointed as I have enjpyed your products and services over the years but I have now lost all trust in the capabilities of your website, quality control department and customer services to deliver the product I have asked for.
- I am seeing my recently married friends this Sunday and I am so diappointed that once again I am unable to give them their wedding gift that they have been patienly waiting for
- in addition, this saga has evolved in front of my colleagues eyes as they mugs have been delivered to my place of work - the whole office now thinks its a big joke and will often pop over to my desk to laugh at the latest attempt from photobox to deliver the right product - is this really the sort of image photobox wants to convey?
As an update to my previous comment: your customer services have just replied and are now trying to blame me for this mistake!
1. They are implying hat the photo I took of the wrong mug that arrived this morning is the one I sent them last week - so this is why I got the wrong mug this morning. Quite amazing how I could have sent them a photo of a mug that didn’t even exist at the time; so be aware facebook customers, if you try to make the customer services life easier by taking photos of the mistakes and sending them to them they may use this as an excuse to blame you for thier failures
2. Your customer services are also implying that since this mug was on my account that is why it was sent to me so again be aware photobox customers; even if you don’t order something you are in danger of getting it delivered anyway which I geuss could be a good thing but if you receive it INSTEAD of what you actually ordered you may find this annoying
3. Your customer services are also saying that it is not them that prints the mugs personally it is their production in France so I geuss that makes it OK then - I thought you were all part fof the same team?
Hi - you used to be able to order CDs of your photos - this has since disappeared. I spoke to someone there a few months ago who said it would be possible to order them again soon. Please can you let me know if and when. I need jpgs of some of my photos to send for printing purposes.
i would like you to STOP sending me emails even though I changed my settings months and months ago. I couldn’t find an option to delete everything. please do it.
In general I am very impressed with the Customer Service provided by Photobox - however I am a bit concerned now about the Photobook we had to return to the Freepost address - still no replacement photobook received - and not even a possible date when it might come after sending three Email in the last 2 1/2 weeks (all friendly and polite) - so fingers crossed the missing Photobook will turn up, this time without heads chopped off - and in time for the birthday of the recipient - please
Re. my message above: pasting seems to have lost the link to the picture of my account area, so here is again:
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o97/midwich1/Screenshot-1.jpg
Hi there - just wanted to say that I joined facebook a couple of years ago, and have ordered a few bits and bobs and have always been pleased, but I was soooo pleased with the Collage Posters I received yesterday!!!!!!!!! The quality is amazing, and I am sure the people they are for will be delighted as well. Keep up the good work!
Please DO SOMETHING NOW about the hideous quality of the Slideshow.
It is AWFUL.
You keep denying there is anything wrong with it.
Well there IS.
I’m going to K.o.d.a.k from now on! At least they’re reliable!
Yeah, I won’t be using Photobox anymore either as I am fed up with their poor track record. When the services on the website *does* work, which is rare these days (I’ve had so much frusration from such simple tasks as uploading stuff, retrieving stuff, sharing albums etc), the product that is sent to me is substandard. Photos in photo-books are misaligned and captions are printed differently from how it was designed on the website etc etc. I’m just too fed up of it. So goodbye Photobox! It was (not very) nice knowing you.
Could you please tell me if you are going to reinstate the function that informs you how many people have checked out your pictures as this was really handy. Now i don’t know if the link worked or if the e mail got through ok, this used to be on the old site but it seems to have vanished from here!!!
OMG. I thought it was only me who had experienced problems of late. It was only when I rang to find out why my complaint hadn’t been dealt with that I found I was one of many it seems and was directed to this blog by a member of Photobox’s own staff.
I started planning a Photobook (my first ever) over a month ago to give to my husband for our 20th wedding anniversary. Admittedly I was a little over ambitious and it grew and grew. I finally 99% finished it with over 600 pictures in it and when I went back to do the final edit 400 pictures had vanished, just as if I had taken a huge scrapbook and shaken all the pictuires out but left the writing and a few odds and sods there. Photobox were totally uninterested despite 3 phone calls and 2 emails so I uploaded all the photos from my photobox albums to my photobook album all over again and eventually pressed the order button last Thursday. Our wedding anniversary is today and, apparently, my album is at the binding stage. Thanks for nothing Photobox (although I would say that I have been totally in love with your service for three years now - pity that when I needed your help you couldn’t give a damn).
Just a small point but photos I received from Photobox in the past had the date the photo was taken printed on the back but my latest order does not have this and its annoying.Have I missed doing something on the new website ??
Despite all the so called improvements I wish photobox still had the old site available for customers to choose if they wanted !!
We placed an order on the 24th July 2008 witrh this company, we were informed that we would have our goods within 3 - 5 days. After 5 days had passed we called your so called customer services and were informed there had been a problem in the printing process and that this had now been sorted and we should receive our goods 3 - 5 days from then. After a further wait your customer services were contacted again, this time we were informed the goods had been dispatched on the 2nd of August. I spoke with your representatives on the 7th and was told that your company would reprint the photos and post them out the following day (the 8th), that the goods would be posted next day delivery at your companys expense and that I would receive a phone call from your so called customer representitive! That phone call never came we had to contact your company at our expense only to be told the person dealing with our order had now left for the weekend and that you could no longer guaruntee that the goods would be delivered in time. It would appear to me that your staff have done nothing but lie with regards to the service we could expect. I would also like to take this opportunity to point you in the direction of your web page entitled “Our promise to you”. Never in my life have I read so much “bull shit”.
I have noticed that the picture quality when viewing the slide show is really fuzzy like the picture os out of focus. This nover happened on the old site and it’s beginning to bother me. Could we please keep the best bits of the old site and bring it up to date with a fancy looking site like this one. If we just make it look good and all the great features are ignored then people will find alternative sites to download their picture(and there are loads out there). Please, someone look into these issues and sort them out. It’s the little things that you need to get right or they will soon become big problems to people!!!
hi
you state an offer on your website free p&p when you spend over £25 my queiry is i’m spending over £30 on over 600 photo’s and you are putting on the checkout £6.99 p&p
I’m really not happy with the way my order has been processed and the information that I’ve been given in relation to the delay in my order by customer services. We ordered two photo books and some prints on 9th Aug and whilst the prints arrived on the Tuesday, the photobooks have yet to materialise.
These were required for a special occassion on 19th Aug and given that the website advised a timescale of 3-4 days for delivery we felt we were doing this in plenty of time.
When the books hadn’t arrived on 14th Aug we contacted customer services via e-mail to enquire as to the progress.
We then rang on the 15th Aug and were initially informed that the books had been printed but needed a cover. My partner was initially told that there was a chance the books would be dispatched by 6pm that evening. We were therefore advised to contact customer services again by e-mail over the weekend as no telephone advisers were availible at the weekend. We were told that the e-mail customer services would be able to confirm whether or not our order had been dispatched on the Friday night. We were given the telephone number of the couriers DPD and advised that if the e-mail customer service confirmed dispatch of our books on the Friday night that we could ring the couriers to ensure our order was delivered on the Monday. If the e-mail customer services were to advise us that our order had not been dispatched we were to ring up first thing on Monday 18th Aug and we could arrange for our delivery to be upgraded to Royal Mail next day delivery (there was an indication that we would not neccesarily be charged for this).
As we were concerned about the books being delivered when we were not at home on the Monday and therefore having to wait 24 hours before we could collect them from a depot I phoned back in the afternoon to change the delivery address and was informed that only one of the books had been printed, but that it was likely they would be dispatched by Monday at the latest.
In the meantime e-mail customer service had contacted us and refunded our original delivery charge as a token of good will. When we contacted e-mail customer services over the weekend they were surprised we had been told the order might be ready to be dispatched and that they felt it unlikely it would come to us by Tuesday.
On Monday morning I contacted customer services by phone and was told that one book had been bound and that the other was waiting to be bound. I asked if they could be dellivered seperately or finished and dispatched that day, and was informed that an e-mail would be sent to the relevent department requesting this, but no assurances were given as to whether this would result in them being dispatched that day. I contacted them again at lunchtime to be told our books were between binding and dispatch and so no update could be given as to when they might be sent.
My partner then rang up at 4:30 and spoke to Trevor. He advised that the books were at “consilidation stage” one being at “stage zero” and another at “stage one” of a 5 point consolidation process. When my partner asked if there was anyway that she could upgrade or request that the books be searched out and definately dispatched that day she was told that other people have been complaining that their books have been sitting in consolidation stage for 2-3 days and therefore he was unable to garuntee any delivery date. Further he stated that in order to contacct the printing department in France (!) several e-mails would have to be passed through several people and by the time an answer came through it was likely to be tommorrow anyway and that there was a backlog in the French printing works that did not appear to be being resolved.
I’m really unhappy that I’ve spent the last 4 days chasing an order that clearly was never going to be delivered by Tues 19th August and that several people in various e-mail and telephone customer services have given conflicitng information and still the issue has not been resolved.
Most upsetting of all is that the books will not be ready as required for 19th Aug at great upset to my partner and inconvenience to us both.
I cannot fault the finished product and have been happy with my previous orders from the company, however I will not be using Photobox in the future and will be considering other competitors such as Bob’s Books or Tescos.
Hi
I just wanted to say a big public thank you to Mike who has valiantly sorted out a wee problem with a couple of my photos ordered a few days ago (incident no: 080820-001368).
I had ordered some photos for an elderly relative after getting a truly rubbish service from a Photobox competitor. When the photos I ordered arrived, a couple of the photos had not been cropped according to the order I had put in - namely a couple of heads missing.
Mike has subsequently (and in an incredibly short space of time - answering my first query in a few hours) sorted the problem and has kept in touch via email, and updated my order online, allowing me to view the amends he has made to make sure its exactly what I want before it gets sent out.
Whilst this may have been a problem to start with, it has been sorted out brilliantly and the photos are fantastic. I am soon to do another photobook, and will be sure to try out the new A3!!!
So to the boss….an extra pint for Mike on Friday I believe, and Mike, hope you enjoy the long weekend!!!
Thanks again and I look forward to using you again in the future.
Service is getting better? I’d hate to have experienced your service earlier in the year if this is better.
I placed an order for a hard back photo book in July, it took weeks to arrive due to “technical issues” but because you wanted to ensure only the best quality products there was a delay. Imagine my surprise when it arrived with appalling print quality with horizontal banding and images washed out with a green tint. I returned the item the next day (as instructed) and was told a reprint would be with me in less than a week (3 days to print, 3 days to deliver it).
Weeks later and August is drawing to an end and I’m yet to receive my order……..
And this is a service improvement?
Thought you might be interested in my v recent experience of customer services - have to say I have been extremely dissapointed with Photobox and the time it has taken to receive my most recent order, together with the way my calls to chase it have been handled. Having been a loyal customer for some time now and using photobox to mark many important events in my life - including my wedding and the birth of my son - I have placed much business your way and recommended the site to numerous family and friends. Alas, no more. I had always found the site to be user friendly, and had never needed to contact customer services before as my order was always perfect and timely. This time was a completely different scenario. I put together a photobook to mark my son’s first year and wanted to present them to family members around his birthday. I placed the order almost four weeks ago, the money went straight out of my account but I still, as yet, have nothing to show for it!! When I first called to find out what had taken so long (two weeks after placing order) I was told that there was a problem with two of the books due to a technical difficulty, and that they had been reprinted and were being packed as we spoke. My first question is why was I not contacted and told there was an issue and that there would be a delay? A week later, still no books, so I called again - and imagine my amusement when I was told that they were being packaged that particular day!? A week after the first call?? I then requested the matter be investigated and asked for the customer servs rep to contact me to let me know the situation. A week and a bit later and no call back as promised, and still no books, I contact customer services again and am told that their system tells them that the books were dispatched today and yesterday so he’s not really sure which is the true date of dispatch!? I will be extremely surprised if they do turn up this week. When I asked about compensation formy trouble and frustration, I was told that I could only have the delivery charge refunded back because I bought the books as part of an offer so they couldn’t do anything else. Surely, regardless of the amount spent this time (which was still over £50) some type of compensation would have helped to soften a by this time very cynical and definitely ex photobox customer. Had I have been contacted throughout this ordeal with updates, rather than me having to make contact each time to find out what is going on only to be confronted with unhelpful staff, I am sure this would have been a very different story. I placed an order at the same time this was going on with a competitor who delivered within 2 days, no question which company I’ll be using again!! As it stands the books will have lost their impact now as my son’s birthday was almost a month ago, and you have lost a good customer.
It seems from this thread that I am not the only person who is finding this site going rapidly down hill. Below is the example I have had to put up with. As someone attempting to start a business I feel I made a huge mistake using photobox as my printer of choice. I have spend over a thousand pounds with the company in my time using photobox yet I clearly feel like an unvalued customer.
I waited almost a month for two photobooks that were supposed to be delivered in 3 days. I contacted customer services who were less than helpful.
Order placed 24th July and I was charged for next day delivery.
29th July told that it was in final production stage
5th August told again it had reached final production stage
6th August “should be dispatched soon but am unable to give a date”
8th August “It’s still at the same point”
13th August “Should be with you tomorrow or the next day”
It finally arrived on the 15th August.
Now I have ordered 3 more photobooks. Status one week later? Still printing! So much for next day delivery again!
You are going to keep losing customers unless you drastically improve your customer service.
Firstly if there is a problem then you should contact us. We shouldnt have to wait and wait and finally contact you.
Secondly stop lying. You say the status is this or that and its always conveniantly just been sent out next day delivery yet doesnt arrive for a further 3-4 days.
Apologising for poor performance and then continuing to perform badly is patronising at best.
So when will my photobooks be arriving this time?
I have been waiting for 3 photobooks since my original order placed on 12 August. The service was supposed to be a 3 day turnaround. After 3 days I checked on the website to find that the books were still printing. I checked again a few days later - still printing. Contacted Customer Services who said that the order had been cancelled without contacting me. After some discussion Photobox agreed to resubmit the order on 20th August. The website says “Printing” after 9 days. Attempts to contact Photobox have been fruitless with promises to “call us back in an hour” which passes, and when we chase them up we found that the staff member had gone home!!.
In total we have contacted them on 10 occasions, including speaking to their customer services manager, and still can’t find out what’s happening with our order.
In desparation we are now trying to find contact details for their offices in France.
I dont know whats happening to Photobox lately?? My orders are really slow and I have to keep chasing them, if this carries on I will have to go elsewhere. Ive had to phone to chase up several orders. I ended up waiting a week for one order (only 6×4 prints) as it was sitting in your mail room, which resulted in me having to mess my wedding clients around with appointments and cancel the meeting last night.
Also all the hassle with the A3 photobooks… Whats going on??
One more chance then I’ll be looking else where as I cant work like this and keep chasing orders up, its wastes my time. As for the VIP 2 hour response more like 2 days if Im lucky to get a response at all.
Shame as Ive been using you for years but am getting fed up with the recent bad service.
Hello Photobox,
Why can’t I post new folder of images to my old pro gallery collection. I made business cards earlier in the year with my photobox url and now can’t post images of recent events to it for new customers to buy. Several emails to customer service have proven fruitless .
I wish you had left a good site alone.
You have let me down in a big way.
I placed 2 standard orders on 8th September and on the very important one, paid for next day delivery by 1 pm, assuming Wednesday delivery.
Nevertheless, when I checked status 9th September, the ordinary delivery has been sent out and the next day delivery still shown as status; “printing”. what is going on. A most basic floor in the technology used to process orders. I expect this to be my last Photobox order.
Ahhhh, now I see, I’m not the only one.
I have nothing but problems in producing my Photobook, and from Customer services…nothing!
I’m finding it won’t save any information after page 21 of my book. I’ve spent hours getting it just right, only to find all my work disappears! I’m doing it for a C H R I S T M A S gift, and am quite concerned it wont be ready in time!
I have email customer services more times than I can remember, and don’t even get a human response now!
Anyone know another company I could use?
Hi
I was a customer of photobox for years until this disastrous upgrade. I emailed customer services several times in May to try and resolve my issues, the last I heard was an email stating that someone would be in touch in a couple of days later - 3 months later I’m still waiting. This seems to be fairly indicative of the service levels. I have decamped to Kodak and am extremely pleased with the service. The quality is excellent (even on the slideshows the resolution is higher and you can’t half tell the difference!) and the service prompt. They don’t over promise on delivery dates, so things arrive when you have been told to expect them.
Jon - if you, like me, just post photos for friends and family and want the occasional extra, I can recommend Kodak. If you are a professional, then I don’t think they are set up for that.
hi guys,
thanks for new site.
Yesterday I ordered 108 prints which went over 2 pages, and on some on page 1 I increased the copies. Seems however when I click on page 2 the changes on page 1 have disappeared. Am I suppose to save page 1 first then move to page 2. A prompt might be helpful. Seems you cannot flit from page 1 to 2 and keep your changes. Is this me?
Thanks alot
Maria
Hi,
I too have ordered from Photobox a photobook, and paid for them.
The Photosbook didn’t arrive at all. I have to call them several time to ask about the status of my order. Wait for 45minutes for each call made. Finally, they refund.
Now normally, I wouldn’t be too fussed, but the photos book was going to be a present to my mom for her birthday! They let me down and I’m unable to get a replace for the gift.
Photobox is unreliable and unprofessional company. They should not be trust if you need an urgent photo or gifts.
I uploaded some event photos a few days ago and have also moved them to a pro gallery. Nearly 150 individuals took the business card with the URL to the pictures and many of them emailed me direct to say thanks and they are eager to buy some prints.. so its established.. I have a product and photobox have the customers.. Shame none of the images are available and that each tie I call customer services I get a different answer.. on one occasion Travor I think his name was slammed the phone down to speak to his supervisor but neglected to put me on hold.. intersting that she had no clue either but that it was a good idea to just “fob me off” as they didn;t really know where the problem was.
When I mentioned that I was considering moving to a competitor they seem unphased by this loss of buisness.. global recesion mustn;t be effecting them!!
Hello Flikr
I had thought things were getting better, but no, I was wrong.
For the last 10 days I have been trying to access a photobook I created at the beginning of October. It is impossible to access, as are any of my other `creations`. Customer services (by email) say they are looking into it.
To add insult to injury, I receive an email offering me 2 for 1 on photobooks. Yes, I want 2 of them. Any idea when I’m going to be able to order them?
I have asked for my 10×8 prints not to be rolled up into a tube and indeed some have been reprinted, but why does it still happen that 10×8 prints are rolled into a tube, they are so hard to flatten and take time adding a day or two before I can send them out.
It seems that no one is listening at Photobox or they are listening and disregarding.
I have come across another problem with the invoicing system and would like someone to just take a couple of minutes to investigate and sort it out.
I get 3 emails, the first saying I have placed an order then the 2nd saying my part of my order has been sent and the 3rd saying your order has been sent. I get the 2nd email even when my order has not been split.
The problem arises that in the email there is no breakdown of what was ordered apart from sizes and quantities, there is no listing of Print/File Names.
The same if I go to My Order History and click on Invoice, I get no breakdown of which prints have been ordered. If I am lucky enough to receive a printed invoice with my order I can see which prints have been ordered, but printed Invoices are not always sent with each order.
You send me at least 3 emails for each order I place, so why can’t you send me one that lists which images have been printed, before you changed Photobox I used to get a detailed invoice by email and with each order.
Can you please sort out the invoices so that they show a breakdown of which images have been printed, sizes and quantities.
This is just unacceptable.. I have ordered a calendar on the 1st of November and I have chosen the airmail (worlwide) option which mentions Delivery 3 to 5 days. It has been 17 days since the order has been placed!!! and no one received the calendar YET.
I understand that you need time for production, however this is really unacceptable. 17 days and nothing arrived!
This was for my dad’s birthday! If I knew it would not arrive on time I would never have ordered it with you.
I have prepared an album but haven’t added any text, can you confirm that the empty white text boxes will not be visible on the printed album.
has been fun putting it together!
Hate to jump on the complainer’s bandwagon, but I’m just about sick of this ridiculous fiasco of a website… I’ve just lost another order for my products thanks to a two hour performance trying to order prints and do nothing more complicated than change the quantity, size and finish on a few of them. I’d come home early from work to place the order in plenty of time for 4pm to ensure they’d be with me tomorrow but the delay caused by the temperamental website meant that I missed the deadline. Had a look at next day delivery (extra £9!) to find the info rather vague and non-commital, so rang customer services to clarify, only to be told by an extremely unhelpful monosylabic male that Photobox can’t guarantee next day delivery even if you’ve just paid an extra £9 for precisely that… What?? Explained my predicament and disappointment with the service but recieved no offer of help or possible solution, only a rather unconvincing ‘we can only apologise’, a phrase he presumably has to trot out with such regularity these days that he probably mumbles it in his sleep.
I am hacked off in the extreme with this ridiculous company, can anyone recommend an alternative please?
Ha! Just typed a comment about the appauling website and service these days, clicked to post it and it’s completely disappeared… just about says it all about Photobox. Absolute rubbish.
In August I made two orders for Photobooks. The first order came promptly but the other had a fault with the processing and sat in my orders for sometime. After several emails, some of which got replies, some of which didn’t, my wife managed to talk to somebody on the phone and everything was sorted out, we even got a refund. Very happy with this, even happier when we received an email saying that we had been given 50% off our next order as a goodwill gesture and to show how good Photobox’s service really is. In November (before the 50% offer expired) I created another Photobook, added it to my basket and there it was 50% discount - great. Unfortunately things go downhill from here. I needed to amend the book so deleted it from my basket, editted it and re-ordered - alas no discount anymore. On 16th November emailed Photobox with the email detailing my discount asking if they could sort things out for me but got no reply. Left it just over a week and phoned, spoke to someone from ‘customer services’ and was asked to forward the email again. I did this and nothing - no acknowledgement of the email and certainly no resolution. Offer has expired now, and I’m looking for another print company.
Your FAQ still advertises a CD back-up (see below) and you keep saying it’s a feature coming back - but when?
Can I download JPEGs that are already in my account through FTP?
No, our FTP facility is only for uploading files. You will not be able to see images that are already in your account. If you need to download your original full size images, you can do this individually through the website, or you can order a CD of your whole account to be posted to you.
In the old Photobox web site I was able to see the date of the last viewing, if any, by each invitee. This appears to be absent in the new web site.
Has this been removed?
Am I missing something?
If this is not available today, when will it be added?
Respectfully,
Maurice