Southtree

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.

Used Southtree to convert old video camera tapes. I paid for the "digital download" option. I waited months and months for tapes to be converted. When I finally received the email that my download was ready, there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING indicating that the download link would ever expire. Photos attached! I had a baby around this time and forgot to download them right away.

Fast-forward about a year later, I finally got to the bottom of my to-do list and went to download my videos. They were gone. After going back and forth with customer service a number of times, I find out that I can pay $20 for a "Legacybox" subscription, THEN ALSO PAY another $20 for my download link to be resent. I go through this entire charade, am out another $40+, and STILL do not receive a download link. Sidenote---the Legacybox fee is an annual subscription service, so I will then have to go through the legwork of CANCELLING this service once I finally get my files.

Next comes ongoing phone tag with customer service reps as I cannot get a clear answer on how to actually access my files. The amount of time and money I have spent on this is 100% not worth it. Stay far away from this service.

For the record, there is a note on the Southtree website when first choosing the "download link option" for file delivery, stating that the link will be active for "30 days." But, that is never stated again anywhere on any materials I received. Then, the customer service rep I spoke to told me the link is active for "60 days." I honestly would not be angry about the expired link if the expiration time had been CLEARLY STATED in my digital download email.

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 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****

A few years ago (2015) I took all my old movies and tapes and sent them to Southtree to put on disc. When I received back I can't remember if I checked even one-but I am pretty sure I did. Anyhow I packed them -in two different places. One was with all my other transfers which I had done myself and they still work fine. I pulled them out recently and now I can't get even get one to play on my DVD player or on my computer. They all say this file is corrupted or unsupported.

When I finally, finally, got my transfers to DVD the quality was extremely poor. Dark, jumpy, ghost blur imagery, and fuzzy. Not sharp or crisp. Not worth the time it took to wait for their services.

I used Southtree for a few of my videos. The customer service was great; however, VERY disappointed when I viewed the DVDs. We sometimes had to adjust the tracking on the VCR when we viewed the VHS tapes from 1982. When the videos were copied... the tracking was not adjusted; most of the videos have lines going through them and we are not able to clearly view. Wasted $200... just glad I didn't send all 20 yrs of videos. Sorry, I don't know how to add the DVD below.

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.

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.

I sent in aging cassettes, to be recorded on CD's an thumb drives. The songs were recorded out of order and some were not recorded at all. The quality was horrible and when I tried to play one in my car, I found that it was a used disc! I called many times and never received a response during the over 3 months it took. Save your money and get this done with another company.

I sent my order in 5 months ago an paid in advance. I was notified that the order was received an they would be starting on it soon. Two weeks later I was asked to send an additional amount to complete my order, though skeptical I send in additional funds. That was 5 months ago. No updates. Phone calls or emails. I do continue to get advertising emails from them saying they can provide the services I paid for over 6 months ago. I advice going with another company. I think I got scammed. Stay away…. I have

My Southtree order was supposed to be completed in 6 to 8 weeks according to the Southtree website at the time. My order took approximately 6 1/2 months. When my tapes were returned with the thumb drive, the thumb drive they sent was defective. I asked to have digital access in the meantime, and they gave me that as a courtesy, although it took over a week for them to give me that access. A new thumb drive finally arrived after a couple of weeks. All-in-all, I was very disappointed although I tried to cut them some slack for possible CoVid related employee shortages.

It took months for my order to be delivered electronically. I never received my flash drive. The media that was converted was not separated out in some cases, and some was of poor quality. Overall not a good experience.

I sent in some MiniDV tapes for transfer to usb drive. They took 4 months to do absolutely nothing with my media. After contacting them to cancel my order they magically had the order done in less than a day and shipped out. Once received the files that should be closer to 13gb each are only 700mb files, compressed to hell, and extremely poor quality. I mean unwatchable. Contacted them for a refund and they sent me a return label (no way am I sending them back my tapes). They said in order to process a refund they need me to transfer my files to digital and send them a side by side comparison of theirs to mine... A company that converts tapes to digital says they can only refund if I show them a side by side comparison of their trash copy and what it should actually look like... These guys are clueless and beyond incompetent.

Don't send them your originals if you don't want to lose them.

I sent them my original cassettes (2) of my grandparents who have passed away. They did a terrible job of converting them. I could barely hear the voices. When I contacted them back, they asked me to send those back so that they could rework it. I did.

I received a notice on Dec. 21st, 2022 confirming that they had received the return.

Then I received another notice on Dec. 27th, 2022 to let me know that they were finished working on them. It said nothing about when it will be coming back to me.

Since then I have contacted them multiple times, via emails and phone. However there has been no response. The website doesn't offer a way to contact them. They are not replying to the multiple emails I have sent. And they don't answer the phone. They just keep playing music. It has been playing for past 30 minutes!

Do not send them your beloved media that you don't want to part with. You may never get them back.

Here's the email from Dec. 21st, 2022:
Southtree ORDER #*******
Hi Sandhia,

Your return has been received here at Southtree and assigned to a lead technician. Our lead technician will review your order and make the requested corrections!

We're giving your order the VIP treatment by providing expedited processing. This means you order should be here no longer than 1-2 weeks. We'll be sure to let you know once your return has been completed!

Thank you again for choosing Southtree!

Here's the one from Dec. 27Th:

Southtree ORDER #*******
Hi Sandhia,

We wanted to give you a heads up that one or more of your items had some pre-existing quality issues that arose in conversion. We still converted it, doing everything we could to ensure the highest possible quality transfer. However, given your media's original quality, the transfer isn't great and doesn't meet our normal quality standard. We've found that our customers still want the digital transfer and prefer we capture the footage, even if it's poor quality.

Site said turn around was about 4 weeks. They received my tapes in February and I did not receive them back until July. The returned product was just my tapes put on a flash drive. They did nothing to improve the quality of my old tapes. Very dissatisfied based upon the claims made about enhancing quality.

I went to their site, followed instructions to get a discount, and paid. Got an order confirmation, and the money was taken from my account. 5 days later they keep sending me instructions that do not work to submit some coupon. I repeatedly sent them emails and pictures explaining my problem and frustration, they keep sending me the same useless instructions. I give up, and have requested a refund. We'll see...

I placed my order on November 5,2020. I received nothing in the mail so on December 5,202, I called and was told it was a cliche in the system... interestingly the cliche didn't impact you collecting the money. He said you will receive it in the next few days. Still nothing so I called today and more excuses - I have requested a refund - I'll see if I have file a fraud claim with credit card company if they fail to return my money in a timely manner.

I sent my tapes to get them digitalized over a year and a half ago… I have not seen my tapes nor have they been able to locate them. I don't understand how this could happen. They said my tapes got mixed up with picture and they couldn't find my tapes just picture. No idea how this can happen since I put stickers with the order number on each tape and they acknowledged that it was recieved. I spoken to multiple reps and managers and they basically tell me nothing can be done. Had I known this could happen, I would've went with a competitors. Please don't use their service. Complete bullshyt……

They are way overdue on my order, however, they spam me almost every day with discount offers. They were in touch regularly letting me know the status until the order was late. Nothing since then. If you can't get your current order back why would you order something else.

I want my money back. It was expensive and it took forever. I also accidentally ordered two thumb drives and they never reimbursed me. Do not use Southtree! I would give zero stars if I could.

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.