Picaboo

I have used Picaboo for every photo book I have made. I travelled extensively for a year, and created books for all of my trips. I did read the reviews about the images appearing dark in the final product, so I lightened the pictures before printing to avoid that problem. The lay flat books are expensive, but I love the one that I made. I love their unlimited pages deals, as I have created a couple of these for my more extensive trips. As for the shipping costs and product arrival dates that people have complained about, if you look on the website, the costs and dates of product arrival are clearly indicated, so even though it might stink to pay for those costs (which aren't unreasonable), you can order or not with full information. Picaboo is easy to use, the options for page layout are as simple or as complicated as you wish for them to be, and the uploading of images takes a reasonable length of time (never hours!). My feeling is that the angry, dissatisfied customers have been enraged enough to write reviews, but happy customers that will continue to order fabulous Picaboo products have just neglected to post their stories of satisfaction.

The offers are for products they don't even have to offer on their website, so you do their 10 page book, instead of the 20 page book, so as not to go over your voucher, the book offered was 8x8, NOT what the voucher stated! Then, website absolutely TERRIBLE, and I do this every day! So, in the end, ordered 1/2 of what the groupon offered from picaboo, took me 1/2 hr. To even get the book to the shopping cart! (kept taking me back to my projects when I selected "order"! Then, groupon said "+FREE SHIPPING"... but they charged me 7.99 shipping! Get this, they said I was being charged shipping because I ordered lay flat pages instead of original pages... LIKE THAT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH SHIPPING! Groupon or not, seriously, STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY... WILL BE BACK WHEN I RECIEVE MY BOOKS... IM SURE THEY WILL BE AS GOOD AS THE WEBSITE AND THE CUSTOMER CARE PEOPLE! WHAT A JOKE AND SCAM!

I also must be part of the minority that actually likes Picaboo, but I have never had a problem with them and actually had a great customer service experience with them. I've ordered books from them in the past and two Christmases ago, I created a scrapbook for my mom/aunt who visited me in Italy. The one for my aunt was going to be a Christmas gift. The book ordered maybe a week or so before Christmas and had a printing error of some sort-there were white blotches printed on some of the pages. All Picaboo asked for me to do was send a picture of what it looked like so they could forward it to the right department and they overnight shipped two more books (what I originally purchased) and didn't require me to send back the misprinted ones. So not only did I have the new book in time for Christmas, it was also completely hassle-free to me. As far as their prices- I think the books are amazing quality so you get what you pay for. Their website/vouchers also CLEARLY STATE that you cannot combine coupons so the people who are very pissed off should've taken the time to educate themselves first. I also like the ease of using the website- a ton of different layouts to choose from, great background options, stickers, etc. I travel/scrapbook a lot and I will 110% always use Picaboo!

I have used Picaboo for several years to produce calendars for my parents and my in-laws for Christmas. Additionally, I had produced a photobook of our wedding. I have been happy with all these purchases.

I was worried this Christmas (2014), as I saw many negative reviews about the quality decreasing over past years. The calendars that arrived were wonderful, as always. Very happy with the continued quality. In fact, my mother commented on a couple of the images that were old slides we've had converted... that they looked better and brighter than they ever have printed anywhere else. As well, I ordered the calendars on the last day that they guaranteed Christmas delivery and was pleasantly surprised that they arrived with at least a week to spare.

I can't really comment on customer service as I haven't had to deal with any unfortunate issues.

Something new I did learn this year. Though... if you have a Groupon/deal/etc and the expiry date passes, you do still have the purchase amount as credit, but you can't combine it with any other discount offers that might be happening. It seems you must use it for regular priced product. I'm not necessarily thrilled with that, but a)it's my own fault that I couldn't finish a project in the 6 months before expiry and b) there's enough special offers and sales out there that next time, I'll finish a project first and then wait for the deal to print it with. It seems to be an issue with the fact that that you can only use 1 code per order, so after you use your gift certificate code, you can't put in the code for the deal/sale pricing

I had previously bought a coupon ($20 for $60 value) and I wanted a photo book but I could not do it with the software. I spent hours assembling photos for it. The software crashed and I irretrievably lost all my collected photos. After that I wanted to have my coupon money back and asked for its return, now seven times. They ignore my request.
My previous photo book was technically very nice, but the software is treacherous, and the customer relations are just unacceptable. Do I try to go to court?

Voucher for $60 to spend on all products VQW*******
Voucher Details
Redeem for $60 worth of products on Picaboo.com.
Valid for All Products, excluding Photographic Prints and Picaboo Yearbooks.
Pre-paid voucher allows you to Buy Now and Create Later.
Vouchers can be redeemed across multiple orders.
Vouchers cannot be combined with other discounts, vouchers or promotions.
Vouchers cannot be combined with each other (limit 1 voucher per order).
Promotional value ($40.00) expires on July 28,2017 at 11:59pm Eastern Time.
Paid value of the voucher ($20.00) does not expire.
Tax and shipping not included.

I really like your product. (once I actually receive my order) However, the rest of the service is making me question this decision. Production and Shipping are never what the website states. There is no communication beyond an email confirmation of the order. My order was placed Dec 10. The website stated it was still in production as of Dec 19 (even though when I ordered production was only to take 3 days) The order should have shipped out on the 14th as the website stated. I called customer service to learn the status of my order, Tuesday, Dec 19. I was told it would be sent overnight that day. I should receive it Wednesday, Dec 20. (Even though she initially told me she wasn't sure why it didn't ship on Dec 14 as it 'should have') The email I received stating my order finally shipped, says it won't arrive until end of day Thursday, by 8pm, Dec 21. Where's the customer service of simply doing what you say you will do?!?
PS. I know it is December; communication is key. Don't make promises you have no intention of keeping.
Side Note: This isn't the first time. My most recent two orders were not produced or shipped within the time frame promised.
I suggest if ordering from this company, make sure you have plenty of time, as the time frame stated, is not even an estimate.

I am so fed up with this company. I placed an order on Nov. 26th for 5 mini books. These books hold my finance and my engagement photos that we wanted to give to our grandparents and god parents for Christmas. I got a notification that on Dec. 4th these items shipped. Since Dec. 4th... my order has been sitting as "pre-shipment." I tried calling 3 times (Spoke with a Sarah, Jesse and Andy). I also chatted online with a Harrison! No one can help me. They all keep telling me that they are waiting to hear back from the shipping team. Sarah allegedly emailed them yesterday. HOW IN OFFICIANT - YOU DON'T GIVE THESE PEOPLE THEIR DIRECT NUMBER?!?!?!?! They have to wait to hear back via email. Not to mention over 24 hours at least (Because I still haven't received a response) to get a response... This literally makes your customer support team useless...

Not to mention what pissed me off the most, talking to Andy this morning around 9AM central time, after he not being able to help me, I ask to speak to a manger. He argued on the phone with me for a good 5 minutes and wouldn't let me speak to his manager... After he placed me on hold, he came back and still wouldn't transfer me... What kind of company is this, is this some sort of SCAM you people are trying to run!

I have received terrible customer service and I'm beyond pissed that your 'Customer service reps' treat my order like it isn't worth their time...

Had an AmazonLocal voucher and tried to create A VERY SIMPLE photobook on the night the voucher expired, with hours to spare. Ha. Redid the thing about 5 times, getting hung up each time and losing my photos. Plus, the layouts didn't accommodate the photos AT ALL; forget about leaving the layout to them unless you want sideway photos with heads cut off. HOURS wasted. Couldn't complete it in time so lost my money, which I'm guessing Picaboo counts on when it runs promotions. Site is UNBELIEVABLY user-UNfriendly. Don't waste your time or money like I did.

Horrible experience. Bought groupon (which does not accurately reflect the fact that the value in parenthesis is the discounted amount not the value of the photo book), so what I thought was a good deal really wasn't. Next I went online to make the book only to have problems. I tried over and over to upload images and when I reached out to the chat line they stated I needed to use a different browser. Used different browser which helped the time frame of uploading but when I went to save my project it kept saying it couldn't save because my internet was down. I wasn't having any problems with my internet and tried for over an hour to keep trying to save. I wouldn't have tried that long but I already put hours into making the book and wasn't going to waste even more time trying to re-create again. Plus I had the groupon I needed to use. Ended up opening up another tab on browser only to find out that it actually saved... ugh! Then to find out that I still had to pay $35.00. Needless to say, I should have looked up reviews and I'll never use Picaboo again. Wasn't worth my time nor money. Now let's just hope the book actually turns out nice.

In every step of creating a calendar, I had a horrendous experience with Picaboo.

The videos on the site are very misleading. The site appears to be easy to use. However, the site was despicable. Everything took a very long time to load or happen, despite trying several Internet connections. Clicking the backgrounds, inserting text, typing text, uploading photos, dragging photos onto the page, moving photos, resizing photos, etc took minutes each.

It is very tedious and difficult to resize and rearrange photos. Also, if you add or delete a photo to the layout, the site reorganizes and resizes all the photos to fit a premade template. This forces you to redo the layout, resizing, and editing of each photo on the page. The lack of flexibility and undoing of work is extremely frustrating. I could have handmade 20 calendars faster than one calendar online.

Also, the shipping costs are exorbitant. It was about $70 to order 20 calendars.

Customer service is severely inadequate. There is not a telephone number available. The customer service chat shut down due to volume (likely because of all the site inadequacies). Even when it is operational, it took 30-45 minutes to reach someone.

The fact that this site is still operational, let alone in multiple countries, severely baffles me. DO NOT USE THIS SITE! There are a lot of better and less expensive options.

My husband had bought their $30 deal on groupon for me as a gift that covers $100. I went on to make my wedding album and had it mailed to me. I received the book with 42 blank pages that I later found out I had been charged for (in addition with the Groupon). I did not WANT the blank pages to begin with, I wasn't aware that when I was paying for them while I was checking out. On previous sites that I have used, I was typically only charged for the pages that I DID add and actually used. If you ask me, it was the perfect way on their part to make money off of people without them knowing it. I think some sort of a notification telling me "Hey you have blank pages, did you want to leave them blank or remove them?" would have been FANTASTIC on their part. Or an email of any sort, I never even got a shipment email. Talk about just half assed work. The book would've been great otherwise, now I am stuck with a wedding album that is halfway blank, that I paid way more than I should have on... I feel so scammed.

I received an order of 156 prints and 3 8x10s, yesterday. While I waited for my order, I was interested in tracking it. However, this is the second order that I was unable to track, even when I looked at my order history.

When I received my order, I was grateful that my husband stopped our mailcarrier from bending the Picaboo envelope and pushing it in our mailbox, especially when I found that the envelope holding my order was a thin white envelope (not cardboard like other companies) and that there was only a handcut piece of cardboard, which had gotten slightly bent, itself, inside this envelope, to protect, in a minimal way, the 3 8x10s from bending. These large photos were not covered in any way or even protected from the smaller white envelope, placed on top, (which was wrinkled) holding the smaller photos. The thing that most surprised me was that the smaller photos had been trimmed. Although trimmed to the proper size, the trimmings, which were uneven sizes and lenghts, were left with the order, and were even mingled between photos. This is very unprofessional. I would have done a better job, myself, with packaging and presentation, and I'm not the owner of a large photo processing company. I will not be using Picaboo again.

I've used Picaboo for seven years. Although in the past there have been annoying issues with various browsers not working at different times, I have stayed with them because i have liked their product. They are currently in their second revam of their software. The last time was a bad experience. Crashes, lost project updates and lockups. Now thay have another software to generate projects. Obviously no quality control whatsoever. Lockups, crashes, photos not being uploaded. Have had several sessions with their technical support. They all profess that they are not aware of any issues with their product. How can this be true, given the problems I have had for the last two weeks? I recommend going anywhere else, given the non-functioning new software and the total degregation of the older software. I have several vouchers that I will try to use with their old software, as I'm willing to struggle a bit, rather than give them my money for nothing. I'm willing to come back, but not until they fix their project software. I will create a project that I may or may not want to purchase as a "test" of whether they fix their current hot mess of a program. It's a pity, they were my go to for years.

I've been using Picaboo for many years and though I've tried other photo product printers, I've always come back to Picaboo. I'm surprised at the ratings, so though I came to sitejabber to search another company, when I saw how PIcaboo was being reviewed, I was compelled to react.
Here are a few things I really like;
EXTREMELY HIGH QUALITY MATERIALS - Again, I've tried others, and seen examples of even more at a professional scanning company I patronize. NONE comes close to Picaboo. For photo books, paper, binding, cover all are superior. For greeting cards, the stock is far and away better than what I've received from friends who also make their own cards with a different photo printing company. Calendars are better than any I've seen.
AMAZING OPTIONS FOR CUSTOMIZATION - I could use Picaboo's pre-set options, but I'm able to create my own style; backgrounds, page layout, content. Effect, text options, etc. I'd ike to use the term 'limitless' but that is an overreach. Please know there are more options on Picaboo than I can imagine every using. I'd have to show you some of the many books I've made.
PRINT QUALITY - nuff said. I like it.
CUSTOMER SERVICE - Twice in all the years I've used Picaboo, I found myself wanting to ask questions. I could call, or do online chat. Either way, I got courteous, knowledgeable advice.
WEBSITE DESIGN TOOL - Picaboo continues to improve their already easy-to-use website.
PRODUCT VARIETY - While I've mainly used Picaboo for photo books, cards and calendars, just TODAY I received a tote bag I designed to give as a gift. My daughter is going to love it!
QUICK TURN AROUND - I'm surprised by how fast I receive my orders.
ALL IN ALL, when I get busy on a Picaboo project, I don't have to worry about the production quality of the finished project. Instead, I can put my engergies into creating something great, all the while having FUN!

I had the same problem as a previous reviewer. My photobook looked fine on three different computer monitors. Two PCs and one Apple macbook. When it arrived the pictures were darker and one picture that was taken in bright sunshine was very dark. I called customer service and sure enough they told me that my computer monitor settings were bright and because of the backlight all pictures appeared brighter than they would in print.

My brightness on 3 different computers was set to middle brightness. I took a picture of the book and they said yes it did print dark, but that's because the photo itself is dark. I told them it was not dark on the display of my DSLR and it was not dark on my computer. Yet they continued to tell me it was my fault. They told me to make the picture brighter on my computer and resubmit the book for a new order. However, I would have to pay shipping and taxes amounting to around $20! I told them I shouldn't have to pay for their error. And why should I need to brighten a picture that is fine.

I have had no problems with Shutterfly or My Publisher. It can't be a coincidence that other people have this problem. And also customer service was terrible. I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told he wasn't there, but would call me back within 72 hours. I never received a phone call.

Really bad customer service; Definitelty 0 star. The quanlity of the yearbook is acceptable much less than I hope. Our school PTA paid the order to the company as a group; Through the website for the order of our school, I booked the yearbook with personal pages. But the company charged me again by mistake. I called the customer service and explained since our school has already paid, they should not charge me again. They said will email back. The second day they email me and ask me to contact the school to refund me the money. I have to contacted the school PTA but PTA paid Picaboo already. Our PTA person called them several times and left a message but never got her back. So I called Picaboo customer service again, hold phone for 40 minutes for them to track the order. They got both of my order and the school order; but said they had to speak to the school PTA for the order. So I gave them our PTA person's phone number and did not hear anything from them again. I called PTA and she said she got the message and called them but nobody answered and she left them a message again but nobody called her back. So I called the company third time. The person did not help a little and told me no matter what I only can get money back from the school. But the school paid them alreaday and how I can get Money back from our school! This is the worst company and customer service I have ever met. DO NOT order from this sompany, it is not worth your money and time.