Pictage or other

I wasn't sure what category to post this under, so I hope this works. I am a wedding, portrait, stock and event

photographer. I just signed up with Pictage but I'm finding their download time to be really long. Their suggestion is

to mail a cd to them, but this seems too time-consuming, costly and annoying. I noticed that there are lots of

discussion on this subject, but nothing recent. Appreciate all comments. Thank you.

veronika - I used to use pictage but dumped them about two years ago. two expensive, weird interface, and they were far too aggressive with email marketing.

 

I now use smugmug and it was the best decision I made that year in terms of my photography that year!

 

smugmug, IMHO, is a much better deal, has a much easier interface (for me and my clients!) and it doesn't send dumb marketing emails.

 

my experience, of course, is two years old, so maybe pictage is a lot easier to use now.

 

give smugmug a good look. they have a free 2 week trial, which should give you a great sense of whether it is something you want to use. you sign up, I can give you some kind of code for $10 off or something like that :-)

Do NOT use Pictage. They will bombard & harass your clients for sales. Ask others about them.

 

RB

Pictage is OUT, Smugmug in IN. SM has far lower cost, better consistent client prints and excellent friendly customer service. The only time you'll get a live person on the line with Pictage is when they're trying to sell you on the product.

I am currently with Pictage.com. What a pain.I have to fight them for every penny. Get this... a customer of mine ordered a DVD slideshow at $100. She didn't get it for months (makes my business look great) then when they did send it they told her no charge because of the wait. Great! But they charged me instead. I had to fight them for a hour on the phone. Then they send me a proofbook offer. Order a proof book from them and get $60 off. Great! The book was nice but two months have passed and even though I have had plenty of "its coming" I have yet to see my $60. I even had one pictage worker, Virginia Armstrong, ask me "would you forward that offer back to me?" I'm so gone.

I've been with Pictage a month and so far I have mixed feelings about them.

 

The Good:

- Networking with and learning from a community of photographers through the forums and Pictage User Groups (PUGs).

- Great print quality and nice packaging.

- I've had to call customer service several times and have not had a problem reaching anyone.

- Convenience of hosting photos and having clients order directly through the site.

- Two-for-one prints for you and your clients.

- Customizable price catalogs for products to sell to your clients. Shows you how much profit you make after cost and commission.

- Supposedly their albums are very nice.

 

The Bad:

- Ordered my "free" sample album and had to pay $180 for it. Supposedly I will get a $150 credit eventually.

- My promo offer was supposed to include a free Modern Book, but the email I received only explained how to order the Willowbook Sequoia album and a proof book. I ordered the Sequoia album and then when I called to ask about the Modern Book I was told I had to order it at the same time as the Sequoia, that it would be a replica of that book with different binding, and nothing I could do about it now. Gee, thanks!

- They offer free online credit card processing (no commission taken) if you want to use it to charge for your creative services/packages. However you have to sell $100 worth of products before you can use it. I went ahead and spent $100 to get it up and running.

- The P3 "online" credit card processing isn't actually online. You set up package prices and give your clients your studio ID and a password for their package and they can go on and view what's included, but they CAN'T ACTUALLY PAY for the service right there! Does it tell the client they have to call Pictage with their card information? Nope! Also I just had a client who said she called and still wasn't able to do it. I am waiting for her to give me details. It does NOT make me look very good though!

- Album design is not as user friendly as some others.

- $99/month (need I say more??)

 

I am going to continue with my trial membership because I want to give them a fair chance, but so far the cons outweigh the pros. A lot of photographers seem to think they are great, so I want to give it some more time before I decide to cancel.

<p>I was also with Pictage for a few months and was not very happy with them so I decided to try Collages.net and am very satisfied. Customer service is excellent and it's also nice to have the e-mails of visitors that hit your site, great for future use.</p>

<p>Veronika - Do not pay any company if your needs are online proofing and print fulfillment.  What are your specific needs other than fast download times?</p>

<p>I have used www.backprint.com for a few years and unlike any other solution that I have tried, some mentioned above, it is free to use with an extremely easy interface.  I am not certain why anyone would pay for an online proofing and fulfillment house when backprint is an option.  Their work is fast and the inhouse printing is amazing.  I have not had a complaint or return in two years of working with them.  Try them before you spend any money or time on a new subscription site.</p>

I love Imagequix. I am a do it yourself person, and they have a set up where they just make the ordering gallery and take the credit card payments. You can choose your lab and products as well. They charge 6 percent and a small (under 10 dollar) upload fee.

Kristi

<p>Thank you for your help! Has anyone used Backprint.com? </p>

<p>I just signed up with Pictage, and will definitely not renew. I switched from SmugMug because while they are supposedly working on Coupons and Packages, they have been saying they are coming for a year with no set date for release, and I figured I could boost sales by offering prepaid print packages, discout coupons, etc. Big mistake-they take about 2 weeks to get a print order out, and charge my clients $4 if they want it in a week, which is SmugMug's standard timeframe. In order to replace any photos in an event, you have to deal with their support desk. I do like the idea of pre-registration and collecting e-mail addresses, but I want more control over when they send e-mails and what those e-mails say.<br>

As for upload time, yes, it is very slow-it's taking over an hour to upload a gig on my fast cable connection, whereas that same event would take about half that on SmugMug. <br>

My main problem so far is the fact that everything has to go through the support desk-once I upload an event, I need to wait for it to be activated, then I can release it to the client, then they need to release it, and each of these releases generates two more e-mails in my inbox, so I consider them very guilty of inbox clutter.<br>

Overall, I give them a thumbs down. Go with SmugMug, unless you absolutely need coupons and packages.</p>