Distorted photos on USB from Shutters :(

[katds10]

I'm so annoyed with Shutters right now. For the 2nd year in a row, they ended up charging us twice for the all digital images package (no, we didn't accidentally order two). I know I'm not the only one who was charged twice either (had preordered it and then was charged again the last day). I know I'll get the money refunded, it was just a hassle to deal with the last morning. I'm sharing this part to remind people to double check their final statement the last morning (the extra charge was at 2am so checking the night before didn't help).

The part that concerns me more right now is that the majority of the images on the USB are distorted - just black or gray boxes, green stripes throughout pictures, top and bottom of pictures not matching, etc. I already contacted the "my cruise photos" support yesterday (got off Fantasy yesterday) and am waiting to here back.

Has anyone else gotten a USB full of messed up images before and did you end up getting you original pictures back? Does anyone know if there is someone I should contact besides My Cruise Photos? The pictures all looked normal at the shutters kiosk and the print outs (which we didn't buy) looked fine too so I know the problem must have happened when they put them on usb. I'm sad because we took a lot less of our own pictures since we had bought the all digital images package so I'm hoping they can still get me the originals.

 

[maribeau]

I got double charged on our November 16th cruise. Same deal... I ordered the package in advance, then got charged the morning of debarkation as well. Unlike your case, the 2nd charge was *not* on my final stateroom folio.... it was added AFTER the "final" accounting had been printed, and I didn't know about it until I got home 3 days later and check my credit card account.

To make matters worse, my USB drive was not ready on debarkation morning, reportedly due to "network problems". So when I got off of the ship and got home, I had been double charged for something I didn't even have!! Now that I have (finally) received the USB drive in the mail, only 15 of my 90 images are usable. The other 75 are all distorted, corrupt, or covered over with solid blocks of color.

And to add even more to my pain, DCL didn't want to refund me for the duplicate charge. They wanted me to send them a copy of my CruisePhotos.com receipt showing that I had already paid. I refused, and told them "Look, if I buy a $5.00 drink at dinner, you get my signature... SHOW ME where I signed ANYTHING authorizing you to charge me for photos onboard.". I had my refund the next day. LOL

It's horrible. DCL needs a new vendor. Until there is one, I will go on cruises, but I will not spend a dime on photos.

 

[anricat]

I don't understand why DCL uses these people. Did they sign some kind of long term contract? I haven't had these types of issues (thankfully) but I honestly don't get the stupid borders they put on everything. It makes it really hard to crop to different sizes for printing. My MIL always wants 4x6. Unfortunately, the photos with borders get cropped really weird at 4x6. Grr.

 

[MunFam]

We had a problem similar to maribeau on our May Wonder cruise. I went down that morning to pick up our disks. We already had our photos. They sent them with us the night before because we had over 400 prints. I went down to my room and they only gave me cd 2 of 2, so I went back up and got cd 1 of 2 (after a small fight about it). Then I went to load up the pictures...they were trying to charge me to open each picture and each picture was distorted. I went back to Shutters. They said it was because I was not on the internet. I brought my laptop to the Shutters counter and connected to the internet since we bought a package and had internet left. Still did not work. In the end, the manager (who I had a friendly relationship with) wanted me to get out of there because I was starting to cause other passengers to freak out called to their back office and asked them to copy a CD with all of our pictures straight to it without the "My Cruise Photos" software on it.

That CD worked. It was just a CD with 400 high res digital files. I am so thankful I checked BEFORE I got off the ship.

 

[katds10]

@maribeau - Did they eventually get you a second usb with files that weren't distorted or refund you your money? I certainly wouldn't have paid $300 for just a few pictures that I wouldn't have chosen myself anyway if I was buying individual ones. All the ones I loved when I saw them at the Shutters kiosk are among the distorted ones I was planning on printing and framing some of those for Christmas gifts for the grandparents but it looks like that might not happen. Though I am still hopeful that they find the original files before they messed them up since on their website it says they save them for 6 weeks.

Last year they gave us a cd of all locked images and incorrect software but they were able to fix that by sending new software. This company seems to handle all the major cruise line pictures but they seem to have poor business practices. I don't understand how they maintain so much business while making so many errors. I bet there are people that are double charged that don't even notice it.

 

[katds10]

I don't understand why DCL uses these people. Did they sign some kind of long term contract? I haven't had these types of issues (thankfully) but I honestly don't get the stupid borders they put on everything. It makes it really hard to crop to different sizes for printing. My MIL always wants 4x6. Unfortunately, the photos with borders get cropped really weird at 4x6. Grr.

I agree about the boarders! Also, it's annoying when you are purchasing digital images and they basically limit you to two print sizes. I'm surprised the max resolution is only for up to 8x10 images. I wanted to get a larger family picture printed on canvas last year and that's when I realized that the resolution wasn't what you would expect.

 

[maribeau]

@maribeau - Did they eventually get you a second usb with files that weren't distorted or refund you your money?

I can't even get them to respond to the case I opened online. I'm pretty close to disputing it through my Credit Card company.

 

[katds10]

I can't even get them to respond to the case I opened online. I'm pretty close to disputing it through my Credit Card company.

Ugh, that's what I was thinking of doing if they don't get me my pictures. That is a lot of $ for nothing! I was looking through my old emails from when they gave us the cd with all locked/watermarked images and incorrect software last year and they resolved the issue in 2 days (easier to resolve as they just needed to send new software link). I hate that DCL doesn't deal with this and we have to deal with this company instead.

 

[belac]

Just a thought and I know you may not get some of the special pics as they ask you not to take or they can't take for you at some points but, as a bit of a photo buff I would set my camera to the proper settings and ask a fellow cruiser to shoot a few photos, if the attending CM couldn't ( pesky rules). I gave up on the packages as I had similar issues and that was it for us. I now take my lenses, flashes, and the lot with us. No issues thus far. I get the resolution I need and need not pay for overpriced photos. BTW I also noticed many missing pics from Shutters electronic photo disks and drives. Luckily I had my camera so not all lost.

 

[MunFam]

BTW I also noticed many missing pics from Shutters electronic photo disks and drives.

For some strange reason, they swipe your KTTW card. It does NOTHING! They use facial recognition software to identify what pictures belong in what portfolio. I found 50+ pictures in the lost photos files in Shutters and added them to our account. There were hundreds of them in there. I found adorable pictures of DD telling the princesses secrets or twirling or giving a character a hug. The reason Shutters' people rarely/don't take action/in the moment shots is because the facial recognition software will not identify it.

 

[ivanp91]

I'm so annoyed with Shutters right now. For the 2nd year in a row, they ended up charging us twice for the all digital images package (no, we didn't accidentally order two). I know I'm not the only one who was charged twice either (had preordered it and then was charged again the last day). I know I'll get the money refunded, it was just a hassle to deal with the last morning. I'm sharing this part to remind people to double check their final statement the last morning (the extra charge was at 2am so checking the night before didn't help).

I had issues with Shutters on the Fantasy recently too! I won the Shutters raffle on my cruise and could upgrade to a full photo package by paying the difference between the prize and the full package. We had friends in another stateroom that pre-purchased a full package, which meant I also qualified for a half price package. So all I had to pay was $24.95 difference between the prize ($150) and a half-price digital package ($174.95). On the last day of the cruise we were shocked to find we were charged not only $24.95, but also $349.95 for a full-price package. Thankfully the huge amount was promptly refunded, but they removed my USB from the pick-up box while sorting the issue so when it came to giving it to me it was lost, and it took them 15 minutes of frantic searching throughout Shutters to re-locate it. Because they pulled me away from the pick-up queue to sort out the problem, they then expected me to re-line up to check the USB so I didn't bother... once I got to Anaheim I noticed several photos missing (all sorted, had them emailed).

I wasn't very impressed with a lot of things on that cruise, so sent an email to DCL outlining my disappointment. Regarding the photo issue, I asked what entitled the Shutters staff to charge $350 to my room without my approval (after all, I got a receipt for my $24.95 but had nothing to say I authorised the larger transaction). The response was that it was an "honest error", but after reading stories such as yours I'm more inclined to think the Fantasy Shutters staff are a bit hopeless!

 

[phinz]

Some of our cruisemates got blank USBs from Shutters. Pictures never even showed up in our physical folders. They were empty for the entire trip, so I didn't even bother. The line to pick up a USB and to use the kiosks next to the gallery at the end of the cruise were literally down the hall. The whole thing was a fiasco. Shutters should be shuttered.

 

[yorkieteacher]

I guess we were lucky, we preordered a ten print USB, ordered the choices the last night on board at about 7 pm, then the USB port was ready to be picked up at 7 am disembarkation day, with a two minute wait in line. The pictures were all clear and bright. The only issue was when we were ordering we had to go through some "unidentified" pictures we knew had been made, but since we knew where (Castaway Cay) they had been made someone helped us and we found them quickly and they transferred them to our portfolio. So Sorry to hear about these bad experiences.