Photo Book Marathon

I've been on a marathon the last few days! No, not running! (yeah, right!)

I purchased a couple of those coupons back in November and like I've had time to do anything with them? You know the kind. You pay a smaller amount and then you get a coupon for a bigger amount. They expired yesterday. I had thought 6 months was plenty of time to get these done. NOT!

So I've been working on these all day long for the last 3 days. The first coupon was $15 and you get $50 from Mixbook. Well, the program was easy to use, easy to turn your photos and lots of backgrounds to choose from. I still didn't find exactly what I wanted but they DID have a large selection. The books start at about $20 for softcover and $30 for hardcover, so my $50 coupon plus a bit for shipping, did enable me to get 2 copies.

The other coupon was $36 and you get $115 from Photobook. I would NEVER recommend this to anyone. Their book prices start at $65. Their software has to be loaded onto your own computer, very limited selection of backgrounds (I went with plain Burgundy) and you can not freely turn your photos, which means if your photos are taken vertically you need to do about 3 steps just to get them vertically on your page and looking right. What a pain. It also took me a while to figure out how to do this.

Ordering the final product was another challenge! Keep in mind here, I'm on this marathon, remember? It's nearing the end of the day on my last day of my coupon! :o)

I went to the website and could find NOWHERE to order books! NOWHERE to create an account for logging in. I did finally find somewhere to log in if you already had an account. I finally found that the order button is in the program on your computer. Then you can create your account.

So I get this all created. It checks my project file. I place my order. I click to pay and the "Visa" option is really just, "you can pay with your Visa through Paypal". I don't mind using Paypal, but don't give me the choice of paying with Visa if your only option is Paypal.

Then I think it is all done. Nope! I've still got this screen telling me that my order is not complete and to go back to the program to send my file. What a joke! So I go back and get this started. This takes about 20 minutes. I'm not liking this too much. I've already paid for the thing and it's a shutdown waiting to happen (before my file is loaded!).

So this finally is done and then a screen pops up and tells me now my file now needs to be uploaded! Estimated time is 1 HOUR 22 MINUTES! I had to go out so I had to get someone to keep checking my computer for me to make sure the whole thing uploaded ok. Like I said, a shutdown waiting to happen, before my file is loaded!

So in the end, no shutdown and my book cost $36 (coupon) + $12 (shipping) = $48. If I had been given the option of ordering a book for that price I would have saved my money (and all the work of creating it!).

Conclusion: Power hog, very limited functionality, website is not user-friendly (just keeps taking you in circles), and very expensive. Definitely not my money's worth for what they charge. The way the whole system works is not efficient at all. The non-Visa option also gives the impression of "amateur".

But, yay! It's finished! Now I'm back to getting ready for Bazaart!

http://www.mackenzieartgallery-bazaart.ca/