Thoughts on my pics

Webshots, the place I store my albums online, recently partnered with a company called Qoop to provide people with the ability to print photos from their online albums into photo books, calendars, posters and post cards. I had wanted to send a book of my photos to my grandmother since she does not have a way to see them online. I selected 34 of my images to be turned into a photo book. I picked one photo per page. The cost was pretty reasonable, about $18 for the book and about $4 for shipping. Qoop delivered it within the time frame promised. The first hitch came with DHL. The online tracking system said it had been delivered and signed for so I went to the place where I have things delivered, a UPS Store, and the package was not there and they said DHL had not been there that day. I went home and called DHL to find out what the story is. They lady who answered the phone was polite and after some checking said I would get a call the next day after the driver was contacted. The next morning the UPS Store emailed me to indicate the package had arrived so I went to the store to take a look. DHL called about an hour after the UPS Store emailed me, which is about expected. The lady left a message on my phone (I don’t get a signal in the store) explaining the details and that the package had been delivered to the correct location. Even though Qoop had packaged it fairly well, DHL had managed to bend it so now the book has a crease from the top down about 4 inches.

The book itself is very good. There were some minor artifacts on some of the images, but nothing I would call major, especially for the price. All in all I am very happy with Qoop, not happy at all with DHL considering the package was sent to the wrong place and damaged. The UPS Store continues to make me happy – especially with email package delivery notification. It helped that the DHL folks were polite and patient on the phone, however. Bottom line: I’ll definitely be buying from Qoop again, especially towards the end of the year when it comes time to buy calendars for 2007. I don’t have a choice about DHL since that is their only shipping option.

I have sent the book along to my grandmother. I am hoping it will arrive on Saturday. I am very pleased to have this option available to me so I can share my digital images with my non-connected family members.