Not too happy with photopass photos

[grandall]

I wasn't sure where to post this...but...we just got back today, we had a great, great time!!! We got 65 pictures on our photopass account and I love maybe 4 of them. Most of the time, the kids were uncooperative, or were looking in my direction. Anyway, I pre-ordered the CD so I would like to get a refund, but my question is this: will I still be able to order 5X7's of those 4 that I love? It will cost me around $50, which is half what the CD cost. Does anyone know? Thanks so much!

 

[a1tinkfans]

WOW, you want to ask for a refund because your kids weren't cooperating and you don't like the pictures? Typical kids, right Disney is MAGICAL but that seems like an unrealistic request, I mean you paid for the service of the pictures and they probably did the best they could taking them.
I hope you can get a refund but it would not surprise me if they denied the request. Good Luck though!!

 

[Tiger926]

We just got back and there are bad photos because my kids weren't cooperating either, but, there are also bad photos because the photopass photographer didn't adjust for lighting, blurry, etc. and these have nothing to do with uncooperative kids at all. Those are the only photos, in my opinion that you should have a problem with. The photos in which my kids were uncooperative have nothing to do with the photographer - they did the best they could with what was presented to them, end of story. In fact, the kids were tired and wouldn't pose for a few of them, so my hubby and I posed by ourself without the kids, and these photos turned out lovely - just a suggestion for next time.

If you couldn't keep your kids occupied long enough for a photo, how in the heck is a stranger supposed to? That being said, you can still put in for a refund as that is the Photopass guarantee.

Tiger

 

[lil mermaid]

WOW, you want to ask for a refund because your kids weren't cooperating and you don't like the pictures? Typical kids, right Disney is MAGICAL but that seems like an unrealistic request, I mean you paid for the service of the pictures and they probably did the best they could taking them.
I hope you can get a refund but it would not surprise me if they denied the request. Good Luck though!!

She isn't being unrealistic at all. She didn't pay for the service, she prepaid for the CD. The terms of the prepurchase of the CD are that you can obtain a refund if you are not satisfied.

Anyway, OP, you can get a refund on the CD and order just the pictures that you want. Just call them, they will tell you what to do.

 

[grandall]

I was under the impression that you aren't locked in just b/c you pre-ordered the CD. It states in the satisfaction guaranteed portion of their email: "If for any reason you are not satisfied with the photos and decide that you no longer want to order your Disney's PhotoCD, just let us know and you will receive a full refund."

Magical or not, I don't want to pay for pictures that didn't turn out well. I'm just trying to make sure I still have an account to buy 4 5X7s.

 

[grandall]

Thanks, lil mermaid. We posted at the same time.

I love that you don't have to keep the pre-ordered CD.

 

[bumbershoot]

Just request the refund.

But something to think about...ordering the prints gives you ONLY those prints. None to give to anyone else, none for the future in case something is spilled on the print. You dont' get one to scrapbook and one to frame. When the kids move out, who gets that picture?

That is the beauty of the CD, that you get the non-commercial rights to print that picture 100 million times, if you choose.

And the one picture (or 4 I think you said) can become many more than just the one, with editing borders and signatures, cropping, and so on.

And the other thought is that you should take a few days, keep looking at the pictures. Don't time yourself out of a refund, but just keep looking at them. See if they grow on you. And if it's YOU that you're unhappy with, remember that your kids won't care how perfect you looked that day, they will just want a picture of you, so you might not want to discard all the pictures, even though YOU don't like them.

I swear I don't work for photopass, I didn't even take ONE photopass picture on our last trip! But I think it's fabulous, and the CD is terrific.

 

[Stephres]

When photopass first came out, I loved the pictures and always ordered a few. Now that they have the cd deal, it seems like the quality in the photographers have gone way down. For the past few trips I haven't seen any pictures that were significantly better that the ones I took with my camera. Definitely get your money back and check your pictures and make sure you really want the four that you love: chances are you got pictures that are just as good.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We always get the photopass cd. Honestly...there is always one of us that looks goofy, irritated or what have you in the pictures, but I still get the cd because that IS the way the trip truly was. It also gives us a laugh as the years go by.

 

[mikehn]

I also pre ordered the photopass CD. When I got home and saw the pictures, I decided I like the ones on my own camera better so I called and asked for a refund. No questions asked, no problems at all.

 

[GoofyFairie]

I was disappointed in many of our photos too. Heads chopped off, blurry, etc. Many were almost identical to mine. I just odered a few that I enhanced with Disney touches. I doubt that I will ever pay for a cd. We also had sticker shock at the cost. YIKES!

 

[wendylovesdisney]

Yes you can get a refund.

Also want to chime in that I think the picture quality has gone down. This year was not so great on 2 different trips. I think perhaps the guidelines or whatever they use to hire photographers or perhaps their training is not so great.

 

[catne]

sorry you had such an unsatisfactory experience. We tried photopass for the first time this past May, and pre-orded the photo cd. We loved it...of the 50 or so pictures taken, I think there were 2 that didn't look like pro pictures. And DD & her BFF went to the P&PP and got absolutely fabulous pictures with Jack Sparrow as well as a number of really good pics with princesses. We used the editing procedures on the Dis site & turned that 50 pictures into 135, do borders, zooming some pics, cropping some pic (we cropped out the "bad" person in a couple...you can't tell!) So, anyway, sometimes it works out really well.

The only bit of advice I heard ahead of time, but didn't follow well, was to get a LOT of photopass pictures taken to maximise the choices of "good" pictures. We were there for 6 nights, so obviously with only 50 original pics we passed up quite a few chances for pictures. Would get more next time.

 

[Tiger926]

Just an FYI - they aren't actually certified photographers.

Tiger

 

[okeydokey]

WOW, you want to ask for a refund because your kids weren't cooperating and you don't like the pictures? Typical kids, right Disney is MAGICAL but that seems like an unrealistic request, I mean you paid for the service of the pictures and they probably did the best they could taking them.
I hope you can get a refund but it would not surprise me if they denied the request. Good Luck though!!

Disney states right out that if you don't want the cd after you preorder it you can get a refund, so it's not an unreasonable request at all.

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

When photopass first came out, I loved the pictures and always ordered a few. Now that they have the cd deal, it seems like the quality in the photographers have gone way down. For the past few trips I haven't seen any pictures that were significantly better that the ones I took with my camera. Definitely get your money back and check your pictures and make sure you really want the four that you love: chances are you got pictures that are just as good.

I agree about the quality (these guys aren't all profesionally trained photgraphers), but we love it because we can all be in the pictures. I pre-ordered the CD for our trip last month. I told almost every photog that I'd already ordered it, so a lot of them took extra pictures. We had almost 200 raw images and doubled it with editing and enhancing. I'd definitely do it again!!

I also agree with PP that said for $50, you might as well just get the CD so you can print as many as you want (at a much lower price).

Semi-OT: Winkflash has $.06 4x6 prints this month. I ordered a little more than 200 pictures from my own camera and it came to just over $30. Granted, $14 was for shipping and "handling" (it came in a flat rate box, so I called and asked why shipping was so much if it only cost them $9 to send it). Still, it's cheaper than $.15 a print at Wal-Mart or $.23 at Target. The code is JUNE256.

 

[scootch]

You might want to check the cost of the pics first.. as you will have to pay shipping on the prints too... but otherwise, you can ask for a refund. Photopass usually takes a few days to get back to you via email.

 

[Zeebs]

I am glad to know you can get a refund, I have been put off from pre ordering the CD as we got a photopass at Disneyland and got maybe 6 photos put on it. We just didn't see the photo guys around much and of those photos we didn't buy any they were terrible, (ok that was mostly because of us but occassionally I do take the odd photogenic photo)

I might pre order and then gage the situation from there when we get home and can look at the pictures.

Kirsten

 

[katied]

I had my computer with on the trip - so every night we would upload the photopass cards after kids were asleep, and look over the pics. Any really key pics (like in front of the castle) we would then try again if needed - we were there 10 days, and hit most parks at least twice, so it wasn't a big deal.

We had pre-ordered the CD, and wanted to make sure we maximized our pictures out of it. It turned out well in the end - we got a ton of good pics that way. We had a 1 yr old and 2 yr old, who were not the most cooperative in the pics, so re-dos were essential for us.

 

[Zeebs]

I had my computer with on the trip - so every night we would upload the photopass cards after kids were asleep, and look over the pics. Any really key pics (like in front of the castle) we would then try again if needed - we were there 10 days, and hit most parks at least twice, so it wasn't a big deal.

We had pre-ordered the CD, and wanted to make sure we maximized our pictures out of it. It turned out well in the end - we got a ton of good pics that way. We had a 1 yr old and 2 yr old, who were not the most cooperative in the pics, so re-dos were essential for us.

What a great idea, as we will be travelling with a 10 month old and 2.5 year old so I expect there will be a bit of uncooperative behaviour going on.

Kirsten