What do you use for order fulfillment?

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

09/14/2009 03:11:37 PM · #1

In this thread there are many raves for Exposure Manager for Order Fulfillment. I thought "What the hell" I'll give it a shot. Boy has this been a nightmare and their Customer service insist on blaming me for the issues with their system. So...

What other order fulfillment systems do the DPC greats use. What are the strengths and weaknesses?

Someone mentioned Zenfolio, and I like the look and feel of it especially over the less refined cludginess of Exposure Manager.

idnic

Canon EOS-60D

09/14/2009 04:15:02 PM · #2

Eug. I used to use SmugMug for order fulfilment - but after some sage advice from a well-meaning friend I stopped. I still have smugmug host my site and allow clients to view images there - but now they are required to call me to place their orders (except for a few special school functions) and I place their orders myself with BlackRiver Imaging. My seniors's parents place their orders live with me when we do their Preview session. I get more consistent results, have more options / items to offer and no percentage goes into a 3rd partie's hands for moving my orders along.

Because a couple of my school functions are greatly discounted, I do allow them to order directly. Its a little-to-no profit endeavor anyway. I only do those for the senior referrals I get from them.

cdrice

Nikon D7000

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

09/14/2009 06:22:02 PM · #3

What specific issues did you have with EM? There are quite a few of us EM'ers here at DPC, I'm sure one or more of us would be happy to try and help out. I've never had issues with their customer service... I know they were recently looking for new customer service reps, according to another EM forum, so perhaps they picked up some bad apples. :( Sorry to hear you had trouble.

OdysseyF22

Panasonic DC-G9

Olympus 12-45mm f/4.0 Pro

09/14/2009 08:06:33 PM · #4

I'm curious to hear your specific troubles with EM as well. I just joined with them, and everything went smooth - the one issue that did arise, CS was on the ball about letting me know and helping me fix it.

Regarding other fullfillment options, Zenfolio does look promising - they partner with Mpix.com, which has been my primary lab for years. Mpix gets it right, and if there's a problem, they fix it. However, figuring out how to contact them when there is a problem is, well, problematic at time. That's the only bad thing I can say about them.

karmat

Apple iPhone 7

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

09/14/2009 08:55:40 PM · #5

I know it is probably a personal thing, but the quality I've had from mpix the few times I ordered from them wasn't satisfactory for me. I know some people really like them, it just didn't work for me.

09/14/2009 09:10:30 PM · #6

Issue #1: Too many upload choices and none of them are consistent with each other. Java, Flash, HTML, Drag-and-drop... None of the options worked reliably for me 100% of the time (although I never tried FTP which I expect to be the most reliable). With one option, Flash I believe, if I switched Tabs in Firefox, the upload process would hang.

Issue #2: The page help in the sidebar is inconsistent at best. Some things have no explanation require a user to go in search of explanation in the documentation.

Issue #3: There is no way to Default to "Print Ready" instead of "Display Only" when uploading (unless you pick the convoluted FTP upload option) so if you accidentally forget to change the drop down, you are screwed.

Issue #4: If you delete a gallery after an order is placed (which SHOULD NOT be permitted, IMO as a web developer) the whole system goes haywire. This has since been recoded "so in the future no one will be able to delete photos and galleries when an order is pending." The deletion caused an "Oops" error which stated that a developer was being notified, but nothing was ever done about it until I complained.

Issue #5: In a "Display Only" workflow, the batch uploader for image requests doesn't process files in real time causing one to have to guess if it actually worked, which is what had me give up and delete the gallery and start over so I could do "Print Ready".

Issue #6: The Customer Service reps don't interact with the actual issues being complained about. It took me 3 times saying that I didn't want the order fulfilled and wanted my account terminated before it was actually acknowledged or dealt with. No one said, "Sorry you had a bad experience. What can we do to improve our service? What can we do to make things up to you?" I've been in the Service Industry for nearly 20 years. This could have gone so much better. The first people to actually have an interest in my experiences are right here on DPC.

Finally my account is terminated. ExposureManager is NOT the right product for me. YMMV.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/14/2009 09:20:46 PM · #7

Originally posted by karmat:

I have had generally good results from MPIX. I didn't like the quality of their bound products, but that was when they first rolled them out. I especially like that they are FAST. I can usually have orders from them in a couple of days. This makes Zenfolio an interesting option to me.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

09/15/2009 02:28:54 AM · #8

Sorry to hear about your experience with EM, Eug. I've only used them recently and for only 2 events and I remember having similar issues with the uploading and the help documentation, but I am the king of finding work-arounds for poorly performing software that I hardly notice when things are bad unless I can't work around them fairly easily. My experience was that the good outweighed the bad. No excuse for bad service though.

Good luck with your next adventure. :-)

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

09/15/2009 11:32:22 AM · #9

So any other fulfillment options anyone cares to share?

Skip

Canon EOS-1D X

09/15/2009 12:42:09 PM · #10

sorry it didn't work out for you, eug :(

i've been using them for years, and the handful of times i've had issues, their CS has been right on it.

i use nothing but the FTP upload. yeah, it will periodically hang on me, but i'm usually uploading 400-1000 images at a time.

i never upload 'print ready' because i don't have the time to edit for print; i simply batch process web-ready previews (which pretty much upload like lightening...so, if there ever is a problem, i'm not in a situation where i've invested hours in something going wrong...)

it took me a while to understand their backend processing and to be patient and wait for my galleries to populate ;-)

EM is by no means perfect, but, for me, it represents the lessor of all evils that i've come across in selling reprints online. if you find something priced in the same ball park that eliminates all your hiccups, please let us know...

good luck!

eta: for anyone that runs into any issues with EM, feel free to give me a shout and i'll see if i can help you figure out what's bugging you before you get too far around the bend...

Message edited by author 2009-09-15 12:44:17.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

09/16/2009 02:33:25 AM · #11

Ok. Started a Zenfolio account. In a few hours of playing with it, I am impressed.

- New users get a 14 day trial before you buy period.
- Plugins for major software packages to upload directly, i.e. Lightroom.
- The help is helpful.
- The site is very polished.
- Pricing formulas or decide your own prices.

And this is just the beginning.

MattO

Nikon D4

09/16/2009 10:01:44 AM · #12

I've been with EM for a couple of years now, never had an issue with any of the things you mentioned. Although I do FTP everything. Sorry it didn't work out for you. But honestly most of the issues you are talking about seem to involve the user more then the actual site. Meaning perhaps you didn't take the time to learn their system before trying to use it. And why would you even try to delete a gallery while an order is in process. If you didn't want it visible to the public just change it to a private gallery. Again sorry it didn't work for you.

Matt

samchad

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/16/2009 10:45:49 AM · #13

Lightroom -> Plugin -> Zenfolio -> Mpix(pro). Working like a dream for me.