Southtree

I have a box from Southtree that has expired, but the website very clearly says that if you pay a small fee they will reactivate the box. I called to reactivate and the recording said it was a 5 minute wait... 20 minutes later I gave up. Then I emailed... no response... then I submitted a question through the website... no response. I guess I am throwing away the box. Based on the reviews regarding the quality of the service, maybe I am better off cutting my losses. Zero stars.

It's been over 2 months and I ONLY sent one video to try out the company. Not sure if they've lost it bc I've not heard back from anyone. How can one video take months to convert?! So disappointing! Horrible company- people are trusting them with their memories and then they have no means of contacting the company. Obviously many might be the elderly and no phone number. The number provided - no one answers.

I'm adding to this bx I'm a regular on google and did not run into any reviews for Southtree. They're making good money but don't care at about your feelings or memories. Pay extra and find someone local. Not sure if it's a coincidence that Southtree finally got back to me after this review: This is the email I received after 2 months of them having my video. Good thing I did a test run!
"Hi RAJ,
Your order is progressing in our facility! Now that everything has been prepped and ready to go, we're just waiting on a spot to open up so that we can start transforming your items from analog to digital."
Our technicians are experts at optimizing every inch of our 50,000 square foot facility, and so we should find a spot for your items soon!"

Are you kidding me? Progressing?! Prepped?! It's one video! We SHOULD have a spot. What does any of this mean?! Ridiculous 🤦🏻‍ you can see the or took a month for them to get the video to their facility and THEN I got the option to wait another 3 months or pay extra. No options for a refund that you initially paid AND sooo impersonal that the emails is giving me options to unsubscribe. This is not a promotional email. Someone should be updating us! Don't do it

I would give Southtree zero stars if it was possible. This company is essentially stealing people's money. They converted 5 mini DV tapes for me into 5 digital files. Sounds easy right? Wrong... two of the files simply won't open. The remaining 3 well how best to put this... are utter garbage. As well as one of the files just having gray scrambled static, the other two are grainy black and white images converted from full color tape recordings.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! They will take your money and tell you it's your fault that the tapes are bad and that is how they were converted. They take no responsibility for poor quality instead pocketing your cash and telling you to suck it up if you don't like the results.

Awful awful company - avoid like the plague.

Pros - I received my originals back.
Cons - it took months to complete my order. Customer service is terrible, basically non existent. They don't leave the link up long enough to download your pictures. I wouldn't trust them with my memories again.

Their estimate is 10-12 weeks. My order is pushing 20 weeks and the only response I receive to inquiries or complaints is "sorry for your inconvenience." Southtree is not holding up its end of our good-faith agreement.

I have been given reasoning related to high volume and short staff. Here's the problem with that: A company which is truly committed to the customer experience does not pass its inconveniences and problems on to the customer. Southree's challenges are not mine. Customers should not be the ones to make sacrifices for a company's inability to properly staff, adequately hire, or effectively manage workload.

Staffing shortages abound, but good companies step up, exercise basic work ethic, and maintain a positive customer experience. High volume or workload is something for which most companies strive. This is an indicator of business growth. Lack of preparation for growth is not the customer's fault. So, the customer should not bear the resulting burden.

After 3 months I received the transfer of 4 video cassettes and 4 audio cassettes. There were the following problems with that. They never corrected those and never refunded my money.

1) Two of the MP4 files were IDENTICAL. Since two were identical, they completely missed transferring one of the cassette. Those that were transferred to MP4 had really bad resolution/quality. When I play the original cassettes on my VCR, they have far better quality.

2) I had clearly asked for and paid for 1 DVD per video cassette. They just sent me a thumb drive with MP4 files. No DVDs. They never sent me DVDs despite my asking over and over again.

'Please don't waste your money. They are not cheap. Please stay away from this company.

I sent Southtree 95 Hi8 Sony Camcorder tapes for conversion to mp4 files. Their website is slick, but their quality control is horrible and their customer service to correct the problems has been exceedingly viscous. They returned one box of tapes very poorly packaged. I sent twice as many tapes to The Digitize Center where there were no problems with any tapes. I wish I had searched the web for reviews of Southtree before buying. Their reviews on Yelp and elsewhere are very bad. Avoid Southtree.

It's been over 4 months since I sent them 4 VHS tapes to be converted into a digital thumb drive.
All I've gotten in return is an email once every month saying that they're working on it. They don't tell you how long the process takes when you submit the order. A local shop can do it in about a week. The "excuse" for taking so long is that it's more of an "art form" than a process… that's a big load of BS… It's not art… It's simply transferring one media file from one format to another. If you don't care and have about 6 to 8 months to spare than you can save a few dollars, but knowing what I know now, I would've just spent a little bit more and had them done locally.

If they are, I hope they're aware that they dodged a bullet. They don't know how lucky they are. Sad for the unlucky ones like me who trusted the ads and sent in precious photos and videos. A lifetime images AND the thumb drive (can you believe they send them together?) were "lost by UPS." A UPS representative actually told me that they probably fell off the truck. In addition, they supposedly wipe their server clean 30 days after the "send" your package back, without having any idea (or care for that matter) that the package was received. My family is heartbroken, and my only hope here is that I can save other people from doing what we did.

This place is not what it's cracked up to be! I spent almost $1000 to get reel to reel's transferred onto CDs to be able to preserve music my father had copied in Vietnam, slides that he had made and 8 mm movies of me when I was little my brothers and sisters and some of my children. The transfers are terrible let me say that again terrible they are grainy they're hard to see they they don't do anything better than any Tom $#*! and Harry down the street. They claim to be so caring and yet nobody's bothered call me back yet. I'm disgusted with this place. They didn't preserve my memories of all the dash them!

I am still wait on my order and it's been over 6 months. Online order status has stopped updating since march. I have reached out to customer service which tells me 10 more days. I fear Southtree has my irreplaceable family photos. This company is a scam, do not use their service. They will loose your family memories and lie to you about it. This is unacceptable. ****Update, they have completed my order and sent the tapes back to me. Cassandra with customer care is great****

Sebt them about 20 videos they all look like they were converted with a cheap 30 dollar conversion kit. No cropping, clipping, restoration of any kind. Just low quality work.

I finally received my order after months. I converted tapes to CD's. Out of 6 CD's only one has good sound quality. The other are very low in sound. Also, there's no markings on the CD's letting you know the title or what's on them…. I would stay away from this company. There are others out there. After my experience I feel that this company isn't customer based. Very close to stealing. They are not giving what they are selling.

I have used Southtree a number of times over a period of several years. In all that time, as their business has grown, they have failed to improve turnaround time (I waited five months this time for my stuff). But they are creative at devising ever more opaque pricing policies and strategies like also operating two purported competitors. It seems the business model is based on one-time customers, which makes sense given the nature of it, but what a cynical way to run things.

I sent three 7" reels of Super 8 film (spliced Polaroid Instant Movies) last prior to Thanksgiving to Southtree Digital Media. They didn't acknowledge receipt till 2 weeks after the PO said they had arrived, then nothing till... Two and a half months later the reels were returned with a note that said there was nothing on them!? [so much for my groupon]. Apparently their equipment is sub-standard. I'm surprised they are still in business. One star - because Zero stars is not available.

I took my reels to a local spot in Brighton, Michigan (American Video Transfer) and I got them back inside of a week. They look great.

Bought a sale they had right after Thanksgiving. The sale allowed me to get 3 of my VHS tapes turned into DVD's. I received the final product in mid February, and all the DVD's had tracking problems that the VHS tapes did not. Went back and forth a little bit with customer service and they gave me a refund. Overall, I waited almost 3 months and ended up right back where I started. They also use Fedex Smart Post which adds on another week basically because of how slow it is (2-3 days added each way). Very disappointed with my experience overall and will never try them again.

Also, be wary of their advertising. I bought this because in big lettering they said that the legacybox would be received by Christmas. This means that you will get the initial box to put your tapes in and send them by Christmas. Everything about this company is slimy - their marketing included.

Update: Be wary of really good reviews. Seems they come in bunches and they seem very fake.

I would give them 0 stars if it was an option. Not only did it take forever to get my videos back, they lost one and can't find it. Now I have no DVD or video of the memory from 30 years ago. Oh and to throw sand in the wound, they will not refund my money for the list DVD. I've never had such a bad experience with a company. Customer service is awful. Unfortunately I trusted some of my most precious belongings to them and now I will never see it again.

Anyone looking for a good company, try Yes Video. Much better quality and always available for help!