SmugMug, Exposure Manager - alternatives to Printroom?

[paulie_smith1]

<p>As many have found Printroom seems to be getting worse for paying on time.<br>

I am doing the research for some friends who want to move.<br>

Have come to SmugMug and Exposure Manager. Main reason is that Both take real credit cards and you do not have to deal with the damnable PayPal. Am open to others who host events/sports and sales, self fulfilled - without forcing the photographers to deal with PayPal.<br>

SmugMug takes 15% of a sale, before tax & shipping.<br>

Exposure manager takes 10% plus Fifty Cents per transaction.<br>

Since these guys will be printing/packaging/shipping their own work with the website labs only for prints larger than 16x20, being able to do it all without losing more money than necessary to the providing site is one concern.<br>

Any experience with these two for self fulfilled image printing? Any other suggestions that work well without PayPal type of involvement?<br>

I am involved as I helped get them set up years ago and at that time Printroom looked like a very good deal. Not so mucn now when they sell work but can't get paid regularly.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Remember that SmugMug Pro costs a bit every month (to provide hosting and your own branded web presence), and will only pay monthly - and even then, only if you ask them to, unless your outstanding pile of cash exceeds $500. But they seem to run a pretty tight ship. I've just started testing them myself for some event-related material. The sale of digital downloads (which, obviously, other services also provide) is something they seem to handle pretty gracefully, and it's high on my list of common customer requirements.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Just as an aside, though ... you can certainly use PayPal to process "real" credit cards. They accept all of them, no fuss. I take money all sorts of ways, and never hesitate to use PayPal (either for a PayPal-based payments, or to run a credit card) if the logistics call for it.</p>

[nathan_meador]

<p>I've been using Smugmug for several years and have been happy with their service. My pro account is $150/year, I don't have any monthly fees. </p>

[monika_epsefass]

<p>You may want to look at zenfolio, too. I prefer their layout to that of smugmug, and you are more versatile in what you can upload, and how you can structure. They work together with some excellent labs. And yes, credit card. I'm not a PayPal aficionado either...</p>

[paulie_smith1]

<p>The major problem with a number of the sites I have checked is the lack of credit card payment for SELF fulfilled orders. If I use their lab they take care of it. Trouble is, their labs can't print my work. I mainly want the service to host the images, take the order and payment and I will print the image, package and ship it to them. I have no problem with them taking a percentage for their part.<br>

I do not deal with PayPal. Having a service/host take care of the credit/bookkeeping part of things is much easier for me so them running things through their credit card setup makes sense.</p>

[jc_dill]

<p>Exposure Manager is a great option for self-fulfillment orders. They have been doing SF for many years - their underlying site structure was added on top of an e-commerce website where all products are fulfilled by the seller directly, rather than fulfilled by the photo host/printer. So SF was a feature from day one.<br>

http://www.exposuremanager.com<br>

They are in beta testing for a bunch of new features, the release date for the new version is May 21, 2012. See the EM blog:<br>

http://blog.exposuremanager.com/<br>

Also, there is a low-volume discussion group for EM users at:<br>

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/expman/</p>

 

[meghan_tiffany]

<p>I recently left exposure manager. I had numerous problems with them. One thing I asked was just a notification before they charge my card for the annual fees. The first time I asked I got an interesting response. They didn't want to do that cause they would not have as many renewals that way. I told them that if they had a good product they wouldn't have to worry about renewals. They were going to consider it. The following year they charged without notice again. I contacted them and asked about a refund and cancelling my account the day I recieved notice. they would not do the refund, only cancel it after the current renewal expired, a year later.<br>

I also had issues with prints with snow coming out grey on several occasions. Then for shipping. I would pay for first class shipping. The packages would get shipped parcel post. Trouble is I am in Alaska. Parcel post comes up by barge and takes 3 weeks to get here. I talked to them a couple of times and subsequent shipments were again sent parcel post. I confirmed this with the post office. I also noticed if I ordered at cost prints there seemed to be a delay of a day or two in processing the order. With the shipping on the second one I asked for a refund of the difference of between first class and parcel post. They would not do a refund. They would only give me a months credit for my account, adding a month to expiration date.<br>

Come down to closing my account. I ended up with a sale prior to closing my account. Had a small balance in my account. When my account was closed I was told they would not send the funds to me as they had no way to do a payment of under 25.00. They tried to extend my account for a month to make up the balance. This was an account that I had set to close a year ago. After a protest they came up with a plan. They would refund it to a paypal account. So I did a sale through their site of one of my images. I paid the fees as agreed in the contract. In sending me the profit off the sale after I fought for it. They had to do it through paypal so I would have to pay the fees for the payment. I asked about sending by check, refund to credit card, and other options. This was the only one I was allowed.</p>