Snapfish Review

I was very excited to receive a promotion through my cable internet provider for 100 free 4x6 prints through Snapfish.  I ordered about 130 4x6 prints (50 of which were to be included in this year's holiday cards) plus a 5x7 and some wallets.  I was very disappointed that, in order to use any promotions at all with Snapfish, you MUST choose to ship your order instead of picking it up in-store.  The shipping charge was about $8.00.

The prints arrived in a little over a week.  I was extremely disappointed when I opened the envelope to find that they had packed my 5x7 in the same paper envelope as a stack of 4x6 prints.  The 5x7 was crease along two sides and almost punctured all the way through where it was pressed against the stack of 4x6 prints.

As I proceeded to look through the prints, I found that every photo that contained any wood-tones, reds, or oranges had a strange orange tone.  Almost all the photos looked like they were taken with 1970's technology.  I know it was not my digital camera or my laptop that was to blame for the poor color balance because I have had some of the same photos printed elsewhere and they were fine.

So I called customer service.  The representative told me to just print out a postage-paid shipping label and return the print order.  My card would be refunded and I would need to place the order again online.  When asked how I could be sure the prints would come back any different the second time, the representative only said that they receive very few complaints.  She also explained that the whole process was completely computerized and at no point do any human eyes look at any photos before they are shipped.  This lack of quality control concerned me, and when I expressed concern that there was no guarantee that my photos would come back correctly and that I would not have photos for my holiday cards, the representative said to me, "Well, there's no guarantee that they'll come back wrong either."  I could not believe my ears.

At this point, a supervisor became involved.  Completely contradicting what the first representative had told me, she said that she would have someone in the level above her look at the photos and I should receive an email within 48 hours of their receiving the returned order.  She assured me that my complaint will be recorded in detail under a reference #, which she read off to me, and that there was no need for me to include any information with my return.  I was puzzled, but was temporarily satisfied.

Two weeks after I sent my return, I had still not received an email as promised.  I logged into my Snapfish account to see that my money had been refunded.  So I call customer service again to inquire about the status of my order.  To my dismay, there was no record at all about my original phone call connected to my name or to the reference # given to me.  I was outraged.  A month after I placed the original order, I still didn't have my pictures.  This representative told me once again to resubmit my order online.  When I told her about my conversation with a particular supervisor, she offered to go find the supervisor so that I may speak to her again.  I declined.  I had given Snapfish the benefit of the doubt and gave them an opportunity to keep my business.  They failed in every way possible.  I was not going to waste anymore time talking to representatives who ultimately could not help me and supervisors who do not follow through.  If that supervisor came on the phone and told me that she would fix the problem that day, I was fairly certain that I would not believe her.  In fact, I have a strong suspicion that, since I am only one of a million Snapfish customers, they never intended to do more than just refund my money.

After I hung up with the Snapfish representative, I got online and placed my print order with another company and picked up my order the next day.  And when I looked at the photos, all the colors were just as I saw on my computer screen.