Disappointed with Disney's PhotoPass!!!

[biggroofy]

We received our Disney's PhotoPass items in mid-April. We ordered a couples of items, like T-shirt, Mugs, DVD, and a magnet. Everything was great except the Glossy Print + Magnet Pkg ($19.95). The picture color was extremely dark (that was taken on a sunny day in Blizzard Beach!!!!) and not the quality we previewed on the web site.

I sent an email to Disney Photo Pass immediately - took them almost two weeks to reply to my email. On Apr 29, I received an email asking me to return the item to EZ Print for a reprint. On the same day, I shipped the item via courier, printed the return form (from their web site) and indicated clearly that I need a reprint.

I sent another email to Disney Photo Pass on Jun 1, inquire on the status of my reprint. Up till now (Jun 18) they were no reply. Now I just received my credit card statement, and noted that they have credited $19.95 to my credit card on May 29 - without any prior notice! We did not want a refund, but instead we requested a reprint! I am in Canada and the shipping cost (courier) for the return item to US is $17.85 - I doubted if I will care for the two bucks for a refund! DW is also disappointed because we did not bring our own DC to Blizzard Beach and relied on Disney's Photo Pass

Is there any way to file an official complaint? If yes, where should I write to?

 

[Finally08]

We received our Disney's PhotoPass items in mid-April. We ordered a couples of items, like T-shirt, Mugs, DVD, and a magnet. Everything was great except the Glossy Print + Magnet Pkg ($19.95). The picture color was extremely dark (that was taken on a sunny day in Blizzard Beach!!!!) and not the quality we previewed on the web site.

I sent an email to Disney Photo Pass immediately - took them almost two weeks to reply to my email. On Apr 29, I received an email asking me to return the item to EZ Print for a reprint. On the same day, I shipped the item via courier, printed the return form (from their web site) and indicated clearly that I need a reprint.

I sent another email to Disney Photo Pass on Jun 1, inquire on the status of my reprint. Up till now (Jun 18) they were no reply. Now I just received my credit card statement, and noted that they have credited $19.95 to my credit card on May 29 - without any prior notice! We did not want a refund, but instead we requested a reprint! I am in Canada and the shipping cost (courier) for the return item to US is $17.85 - I doubted if I will care for the two bucks for a refund! DW is also disappointed because we did not bring our own DC to Blizzard Beach and relied on Disney's Photo Pass

Is there any way to file an official complaint? If yes, where should I write to?

If you did photopass, wouldn't you have the image on your CD so you could just make your own print?
I thought their prints were really bad, no better than you could do on a home printer. Just print your cd at a real lab.

 

[mgilmer]

I am disappointed too but for a different reason. We had over 200 pictures taken while on our recent 11 day trip and only 114 show up on my cards. Some of the best ones did not make it at all. I have to wonder what happened to the rest.

 

[HunnyPots]

I was disappointed in photopass on our trip last week but because we had to practically beg the photopass photographers to take our pictures! We ended up with something like 27 pics on our card out of seven park days! I was glad that I didn't pay 100 bucks for the cd! And the pics aren't even any good! The ones we took with our own camera turned out much better.

 

[Finally08]

I was disappointed in photopass on our trip last week but because we had to practically beg the photopass photographers to take our pictures! We ended up with something like 27 pics on our card out of seven park days! I was glad that I didn't pay 100 bucks for the cd! And the pics aren't even any good! The ones we took with our own camera turned out much better.

Yeah ours weren't good either. We didn't get many photos, maybe only stopped for them 5 or 6 times because there was usually too much of a line.
I was bummed with the photog that did our photos after dd did the BBB. he wouldn't listen to me at all about the fact that I wanted shots of my kids together, and only threw ds in the end for a few shots after about the 5th time telling him I wanted them together (dd was tinkerbell, ds peter pan - that was the only reason we even went for the photo OP). he just stood him there, standing all straight and awkward with no posing advice - obviously not at all interested in photographing him.

 

[ms*mountaineer]

mgilmer - if the trip is recent, call Photopass and see if they can track down the missing pictures. They had to do that for me.


I loved Photopass and never had any problem getting a photographer to take our picture. Now, I had to go up and ASK them. They are just standing there with their camera. None of them asked ME. But they were all so nice and perfectly willing to take our picture. I used them everytime I found them. I can see where there might be a line for them in the busy months - we went in January.

 

[eliza61]

mgilmer - if the trip is recent, call Photopass and see if they can track down the missing pictures. They had to do that for me.
.

Where did you find the number? I too had an issue, not with the pictures but with the bill and all I could find in the way of customer contact was an email adress?

 

[AmberLuvsWDW]

I wonder if the CMs were told to stop approaching people. Before we started using PhotoPass, we really were not interested in it and we would always just tell them "no" when they would ask. They never really bothered us, but I could see how some people would be annoyed. Maybe that's why you need to ask them now.

We did use PhotoPass when we went at Christmas and used them to get specific pictures both DH and I wanted to be in. I'm not sure if we will use them again because some of the prints were not worth what we paid for them.

 

[ConcKahuna]

I wonder if the CMs were told to stop approaching people. Before we started using PhotoPass, we really were not interested in it and we would always just tell them "no" when they would ask. They never really bothered us, but I could see how some people would be annoyed. Maybe that's why you need to ask them now.

We did use PhotoPass when we went at Christmas and used them to get specific pictures both DH and I wanted to be in. I'm not sure if we will use them again because some of the prints were not worth what we paid for them.

Previously the photographers were employed by Kodak, and on a commission base. Now they are Disney and I don't think they are commission any more, wich could be why they aren't as forward.

 

[bradk]

they actually are on quotas as far as I know.

however, the reason why they're not in your face (which they actually used to be) is because then you'd have people posting here that they weren't happy about being assaulted by photographers in the park like most other major amusement parks do.

as it is, i was by one photography who would constantly go up to guests and offer to use their camera when she saw they were taking photos so they could all be in the shot and never once suggested they use photopass.

my photopass site has full contact information which includes phone number and email address but the phone number will go to voicemail anyway so don't anticipate immediate gratification.

 

[biggroofy]

If you did photopass, wouldn't you have the image on your CD so you could just make your own print?
I thought their prints were really bad, no better than you could do on a home printer. Just print your cd at a real lab.

No, I did not order the CD, so I do not have the original pictures. I only ordered those special products this time.

I am really disappointed with their service, and would not use them anymore!

 

[HunnyPots]

they actually are on quotas as far as I know.however, the reason why they're not in your face (which they actually used to be) is because then you'd have people posting here that they weren't happy about being assaulted by photographers in the park like most other major amusement parks do.

as it is, i was by one photography who would constantly go up to guests and offer to use their camera when she saw they were taking photos so they could all be in the shot and never once suggested they use photopass.

my photopass site has full contact information which includes phone number and email address but the phone number will go to voicemail anyway so don't anticipate immediate gratification.

Well, unless they need to fullfill their quota of leaning on railings, the ones I encountered last week won't be getting much in the way of commissions...

 

[arielchickenofthesea]

This last CD we got turned out very well. I ordered some 11X14 prints and a few smaller ones as well as some Christmas cards and we got the CD free as part of the Package we went to WDW on (the Platinum Pkg). That was nice, saved us 120.00 for the CD. We had no problem with getting photogs to take out pics, in fact we had to wait for other parties to get done, they were so busy. The one photog that NEVER rests is the one in the hub, that photog is always busy.

But most of my prints are great. Only one is dark and that was because it was such an overcast day, and even then, the pic is good. We have been lucky with Photo Pass. I llike it, but I always also get pics with my Digicam as well.

The CD we got the trip before was weird, because we ended up with someone elses pics on it along with all ours! It was at DL at the Princess Fantasy Faire and I know how it happened. The woman cut in line in front of us by slipping through the ropes from the exit and jumped into the middle of the area and *could not* speak or understand English so they let her through. The woman pushed her kids right up to Snow White as I was just walking up as it was my turn and I stopped and let them go on ahead. The CM looked at me apologetically, as she KNEW the lady cut and I let it slide. When I got up to get my picture with Snow White, she smiled and said thank you to me for letting the kids go ahead...

It was a little confusing because no one knew where she had come from and the line was all set for the next guest. She kinda just got in to the area and was standing there and just moved her kids to the Princesses before me. It was not a big deal to me to let them go ahead, but I had already given my pass to the photog and it screwed up the order of who was next...and all her pics ended up on my disk. She probably did not end up with any pics of her kids with the Princesses because she cut the line.

All my pics were on there, so I did not lose any of them. I wondered when I got the disk what she thought when she had no pictures from Fantasy Faire and if she did it at other photo ops and other people had these random kids on their CD!

ariel

 

[bumbershoot]

For anyone missing pictures, you should contact them as soon as you notice. It's a good reason to check your pictures at the centers or online back in your room, to make sure everything is where it should be (the latter doesn't really work if you're in a "share" and can't mess up the timing of the share by putting them on the account too early).

You can contact them, tell them the time, area, kind of pictures, what you're wearing, etc, and they can try to look for them for you.



To anyone not enjoying the delay in contacting pp, just be patient. Calling doesn't really speed things up, as you'll probably end up playing phone tag. Email tag is much easier, b/c you have the whole conversation right there going back and forth, instead of having to repeat yourself each time.

 

[bradk]

there's a form online that can be filled out to request a search for lost photos which has prompts for all that information as well as the ability to upload a sample photo to help them match up guests.

if you're checking online from your room, be advised it may take up to 24 hours for photos to become available, so if you don't see them right away, they aren't necessarily missing.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I would contact photopass as others suggested...sometimes things just don't work right..dunno

But as for P hotopass service, DH and I had fabulous service in December! We had over 200 pictures taken (70, from the Grand Floridian Photo Shoot)--we occasionally had to stand in line, but not long. We were never approached, but CMs were perfectly helpful when we approached tehm...most of the time we didn't even have to say anything, they started talking as we made eye contact with them.

We received 3 free prints from them, for hte christmas promotion, and they printed out exactly as we see them on our CD.

Sometimes things just happen, and you have to be persistent

 

[bumbershoot]

there's a form online that can be filled out to request a search for lost photos which has prompts for all that information as well as the ability to upload a sample photo to help them match up guests.

if you're checking online from your room, be advised it may take up to 24 hours for photos to become available, so if you don't see them right away, they aren't necessarily missing.

Thanks for adding better info.

I do want to say, though, that when I filled out the form appropriate for my problem, they asked me to write it all out again, specifically. It was a bit annoying as every bit of info they asked for was either part of the cgi (I assume) form I had filled out, or had put in my question, but it got the job done (faster than another person with the same problem got her problems resolved, when she called).

 

[mgilmer]

mgilmer - if the trip is recent, call Photopass and see if they can track down the missing pictures. They had to do that for me.

I did that. They told me they were lost due to equipment failure. That means that they lost about 35% of my pictures due to crappy cameras! I think the Disney people need to invest in better photo equipment.