Don't Buy From Shutterfly

I recently fell for Shutterfly's "get 50 prints free for signing up" offer.  I'd had a bad experience with them cutting the pictures weird and using old developer (yes, another one of my possible careers was as a graphic artist, so I do know a tad about developing pictures...the old way).

Anyway, they have a history of delivering poor quality.  When I complained last time, it took, literally, 2 months to get my $7.75 back from the company and that was only after the Better Business Bureau got involved.

So, why did I try them again?

Well, I was running short on time for getting some prints made and the new laptop, running Windows 7, doesn't accept the old HP 1350 software that would allow me to queue up several prints at once.  So, I either need to print them one at a time, or take the old XP laptop downstairs and hook it up to the printer, because, oh yeah, if you can't use the old software over a network unless the server also has a copy of the old software.

Basically, it's a big, hectic mess.

 But, from now on, I'll definitely force myself through the steps until I buy a new printer.

Why?

Well, Shutterfly has NOT fixed it's problems following our previous battle.  In fact, they've only gotten worse.

1. The paper quality is now the CHEAPEST quality of photo paper I've ever felt.  It's lighter than a sheet of standard, white printing paper.
2. This probably accounts for the poor coloring of the picture because there isn't enough paper there to absorb the image and developer to give a picture.
3. That isn't to say that the developer isn't old- you can tell it's old and not kept at the proper temperature by the pinkish hue throughout the pictures.  Customer Service says that there is no color enhancement...but there is a "vividness" boost that they give to the pictures... what, color?  DUH?
4. And, last but certainly not least, they artificially crop images.  When I contact customer service about this they try to tell me that they don't do anything like that...but that they do scan and try to center faces with their new, fancy image recognition software.  So, if you're a professional photographer and purposefully off-set the people in the shot, well, you'll get it back zoomed in and centered on the person.  

Here's an example:

The picture you took:

The picture that they give you back "enhanced"

Because that's what people want, right?

I know I certainly appreciated my baby's face being whacked off.

When all is said and done, for the time and energy that you're going to spend fighting with them to deliver quality photographs, it's cheaper to buy a new photo printer yourself.