April 30, 2008...10:50 am
Welcome to your new site
It’s been a long time in the planning, but I’m delighted to say your new site is now here for you to enjoy. Take a look for yourselves and you’ll soon find all your favourite features accompanied by much more.
The new site is a direct result of what you, our customers, have been telling us you want on PhotoBox.
So what can you expect? Well, here are just some of the highlights you can look out for:
- More photo gifts and innovative ideas
- Fun photo editing to transform your photos
- A new creative way to share photos online
- Photo tagging for fast photo searches
- New range of products with popular kids’ characters
- Regular photography news and tips to help you get the most from your photos
- Special offers and competitions
- PhotoBox blog for you to give us all your feedback
I’m confident that you’ll find the new site a great improvement, with lots of creative possibilities for your photos.
Feel free to voice your opinions on our blog. We’re really interested to hear what you like about the new site and anything you think we could still improve on. This is just the beginning for the new site. We will continue to add more products, community features and other interesting ideas to inspire your creativity.
And remember, if you run into any technical issues you can always refer to our Help pages or contact Customer Support.
All that just leaves me to say, here’s to the start of an exciting new era at PhotoBox.
Best wishes
Mark Chapman
Managing Director
64 Comments
April 24, 2008 at 8:51 am
I’m not sure where I’m supposed to send feedback to regarding the new look site so I thought I’d add it here. It could be worth you starting a new blog post so people can “have their say” about the new look site and any improvements that could be made. Here’s a few comments after a first look and play with the site.
1. It’s a little bit slow doing anything on the site: I’m used to uploading a large number of photos and so when I order they tend to be over 100 photos or so that I have to crop, zoom etc. Currently these processes are painful with the length of time I have to wait for page load.
2. When I view an album with more than 100 photos I should also have the option to view all photos and not just the first 100
3. Often I select all the photos, add them to the basket and then go through them to see how many I’d like of each. Currently I’m unable to do this because of the size of the thumbnail image in the basket is just too small to properly see your photo - again give the option to increase the size of the thumbnail (like you can when viewing photo’s in your album) and then I’d be able to go through a whole batch of photos selecting how many I’d like to print.
I do like the look of the new site but think there’s a few tiny improvements that should be made to improve the overall experience.
April 24, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I had an email today asking me to try the new Photobox. As a pro gallery owner who sold a modest amount of prints I have to say the new Photobox is rubbish. It’s slow, very hard to navigate and it appears you have decided to stop the option of photographer and printer sharing the profits of selling prints.
I could be wrong and hope I am, as your print and delivery service has been great, but since it appears my business is no longer catered for I’d best start looking elsewhere.
Damn shame.
April 25, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Doubt I’ll be ordering much from you any more - both the products I have used in the past have been withdrawn and “replaced” with unsuitable ones;
The new A3 calendar is useless - it has nowhere for recipients to put notes against the dates, even if they happened to have a white pen.
As for the new Square Stylebook, complete pants. It won’t fit my templates and the page layout options are, to be honest, useless for my needs.
I guess I’ll be going elsewhere in future
April 27, 2008 at 10:25 am
I am quite disappointed with the new site. There is too much clutter on the home page - too many small boxes.
Despite having mentioned it to customer services in the past, the login system is still submitting passwords unencrypted which is just not good enough.
Also, how about an RSS feed of the latest offers?
April 28, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Hi, I am a professional wedding photographer that uses Photobox to quickly upload and sell prints to the couples and their families using the pro gallery facility. Since the switch over I cannot access my basic gallery admin for the pro galleries neither can I add my latest wedding having handed out cards with my pro gallery link. I hope the difficulties with pro gallery is only short term as I had no warning about pro gallery ceasing to exist and have had loads of emails today from a discruntled family that can’t see their wedding from the weekend. Does anyone know what’s happenning with PRO GALLERY, help, Im in a panic and have 3000 cards to hand out this wedding season sending people there to view and buy photos!
April 29, 2008 at 5:26 pm
As a previous ‘Beta Blogger’ I was looking for a place to provide feedback on the new site, which I trust will be up and running soon as the appearance of my albums on the old site is looking particularly ropey. Too many different image uploaders over the duration is my guess as to the reason why, and things seemed to have deteriorated rapidly more recently.
Uploading images to the new site is slick but may I say in the nicest possible way: “The description field is a waste of space.”
David
April 29, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I’m very disappointed that the professional-looking paper-cover StyleBook format is no longer available. The PhotoBook just doesn’t work as a portable portfolio because it looks like an amateur album with its perforated cover.
I was hoping to make an annually updated version, but it won’t be possible unless you have a better product in the pipeline.
April 29, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I have just logged on to the new photobox and one thing has struck me. When trying to view the photos they are all pixellated and do not make pretty viewing. I daresay they are OK when printed but it will severely detract from the sharing aspect of the site. I will not be able to show my photos to others in a satisfactory way at all. Am I doing something wrong? The new site looks very attractive and I hope will prove to be functional as well. Many thanks, Helen Rimmer
April 29, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I had added over 650 items to my basket on your old site. I was just uploading another photo ~ and I was told I was being moved to the new site. Lo! (very low) my basket didn’t go with me.
So I dutifully added back to the basket the pictures from several albums. One feature from the old site I could not find ~ selecting multiple photos and having them “shrink to fit”. So with over 650 items … I just have to hope that nothing radical is lost from the standard 6×4 format I have chosen. Is this feature gone, or simply tucked away somewhere that I have not found?
Another thing I noticed is that you seem to have departed from the traditional sequential alphanumeric listing order. Despite my pictures being sequential in an album, the album contents didn’t seem to show together in the list. I knew where the photos that I wanted in different sizes were located in the albums, and it was very difficult to find them when the photos were not grouped together, in order, by album.
Also, because I had so many items in my basket, I really noticed that when I asked to crop a photo, the webpage reloaded my basket items in the background before it loaded my photo to be cropped. Since it was not, at that time, displaying the contents of my basket (only the item I wanted to crop), why did it have to reload the basket contents before the photo I wanted to crop?
I do hope these are just teething problems. I’ve used your site solidly since last October for all my A-level photography work, and it was wonderful up until today … Regards, Nick
April 29, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Whether anyone takes any notice of this I’ll probably never know however could you please re- instate the mass resizing option on the photo order page- I really don’t have the time to fiddle about with big orders every time adjusting each one at a time- Also could someone please explain why this most useful of options was ever removed in the first place please?
Cheers
Kev
April 29, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Dear Mark,
I had my first experience with new new site today and although it seems packed with new features some of the most useful old ones seem to have disappeared!
Things i need to be able to do include:
1. I need borders!!!: I used to be able to select all the photos in my basket at once and ’shrink them to fit’ to create a border (your current 10×7 and 9×6 sizes when shrunk do not leave a border).
2. The current system does not allow you to make formatting changes (like cropping) to all the images at once in the basket - only one by one which is so time consuming.
3. In the album view, i would also love to be able to select photos 10 at a time - instead of all or nothing.
4. The photos in the album view do not display the photo name without hovering over each one. I used to rely on this to order the correct ones in a big order.
5.In the basket view - the photos do not order themselves by name. They seem to be randomly organized. This is so frustrating because i rely on the image numbers a lot to order the correct quantities of prints.
Hope these issues can be addressed!
Thanks!
April 30, 2008 at 5:40 am
I agree with most of the comments - the new site is a disaster!
April 30, 2008 at 8:39 am
It was not my choice to be migrated to the new site. You did it automatically when I logged in recently. BUT the new site is not ready! I would have liked to be given the option - and I would have stayed with the old site, which did all I wanted - I have ordered thousands of prints with it. You have jumped the gun and messed it up for me.
Here’s the detail: I had 568 carefully-composed photos ready to order (as encouraged by you with your 500+ offer) but this is held up because you have failed to include ’shrink-to-fit’ as an order preference in the new site. Nor can one choose this as an option for the whole basket (this was possible on the old site). And doing each photo individually is unusable - the turnround time is 40 seconds - that’s 6 HOURS of continuous work for the basket.
Give us the old site back please!
April 30, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I can see everyone else has the same problems I am experiencing. I echo them - please sort it out. I use your services at least once a week - can you put back some of the old features fast.
April 30, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Yuk - new design - too much, much too much. Its slow, un responsive and generally a much poorer user experience that it was, 2 days ago I could email photos straight from my phone now this seems to have just disappeared and the help is no good at all. I will NOT be using photobox in the future . Sorry for the negativity but the site used to a pleasure to use.
April 30, 2008 at 1:06 pm
The new site is clearly a Grolsch i.e. It is not ready yet.
Forcing migration without fully testing the site is a huge mistake. You should have allowed people to dip their toes and (as is the case here) stuck with the old site until you had fixed everything.
One thing you must do above all else - reinstate ftp access for uploading!
Moral of the story - If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
April 30, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Same goes for me. there was nothing wrong with the old one, just needed updating slightly. Not like this though. with my wedding season about start I’ll not be using PB until the issues (like everyone else) have been sorted. I have to be able to promise my clients they’ll get photos quickly but if I have got hours ahead of just trying to get them at the right size etc etc then I’ll be letting them down.
roll back to the old version…it worked!
April 30, 2008 at 1:46 pm
FIRST OFF, PLEASE CANCEL MY 2588FHF ORDER, you didnt carry my default print size through to the new site and you dont seem to be able to answer the phone today either, I have also emailed this request to you.
Dire is the word that best describes this upgrade, it looks modern but thats the only good thing I can think to say about it, pretty much everything else is negative.
Clearly some of the comments above are inaccurate as there are ways to select multiple photos from albums (drag your cursor or hold down control and click them) but most of what has been said above is prety accurate, the few bits that are inaccurate could have been avoided with some better help sections on the new site.
We purchased and sold through our pro gallery about 20,000 photos last year with photobox and were set to do at least 50% more than that this year with you but if some of these issues arent sorted out we will be looking elsewhere for a supplier.
Slooooooow, whether on a mac or a PC the site is pig slow now.
Wheres the page that tells me how much storage space I have left ? or has this been dropped completely now, I didnt get a “confratulations you have 200mb extra space” for my last order so this seems suspicous. I have ordered a lot of photos with you and built up over 13gb of storage for my pro gallery and other galleries, whats happened to this ?
Update you FAQ - Publishing a new site without updating your faq at the same time is just silly, youve added a few little bits but most of it you seem to have left the same.
How about actually answering some blog posts ? its not meant to be a one way street, you can comment back yah knows!
April 30, 2008 at 2:18 pm
People always moan about things they’re not used to, so I almost feel reluctant to pass comment so early on. However, I started using photobox relatively recently because I like the way the site worked (I looked at a number of them) and I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t have joined if it had looked like this.
The whole layout is too busy - I went for photobox to share photos with older family members because it was nice and simple and easy to navigate.
My main grip is the slideshow though - the layout is ugly (the previous version was nice and elegant) and you’ve removed the facility where you could decide how long to look at each picture. Worst of all my beautiful pictures now look grainy, pixellated and devoid of life. No good, I’m afraid.
April 30, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I am disappointed that the option to link albums together for sharing is no longer available. In the past I had my photos saved in seperate albums which were linked, that way I only needed to give one weblink to people for sharing. I can’t see a way of linking the albums now, and so I will need to give out multiple weblinks, or put all of my photos into one album in order to share them easily - not very satisfactory!
April 30, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I have used Arrowfile/Photobox for some years and always used ftp to upload my files because the other uploaders don’t work very well with my Windows98 system. Today I tried to upload pictures and find that there is no longer an ftp option (or if there is it is well hidden). The fast uploader just hangs my machine and there are so many scripts running which my browser can’t recognise so that it gives up. The site is also incredibly slow to load but that could be tied up with the script problem. This is all very sad and I may have to resort to my local photographic shop although they are generally pretty poor, but if I can’t upload, I can’t order!
April 30, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I completed the survey sent out after using the new site for the first time, and it reflected some of the comments made above. I suppose people will need a while to get used to something new - though I don’t think there was anything wrong with the old site. My main issue is the slowness of the new site - and the constant appearance of the the ‘Have patience …’ box is, well, wearing my patience. (It’s the web version of a robot telephone system’s annoying recorded messages.) It looks and feels clunky. Inadequately tested, I would think.
April 30, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Tried to login to the new site and told my e-mail address isn’t recognised….what tosh I’ve been a customer for years. What’s happened to all my pics stored on line?
I think photobox have scored a massive own goal with the new site. Their rivals must be rubbing their hands with glee!!! Jessops here I come
April 30, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I’m afraid I have to agree with the comments above - site looks too busy, runs too slowly and photos look grainy thereby taking away the enjoyment of sharing photos. From my point of view there was nothing wrong with the old site - any chance of bringing it back….?
April 30, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Why have you done this? It’s slow, unwieldy and far less intuitive than the last site. My pictures look all pixelated and poor quality on the site - how am I meant to trust that they’ll look good when I receive prints of them if I can’t see a decent image on the ordering site?
The old site was fast, easy to use and the uploaded photos looked crisp and clear. I’m happy to use new and improved sites when they actually ARE improved. This, however, is not.
I want to go back to using the old site. And I’m currently looking at other photo ordering sites to switch over to, as clearly either no-one at photobox is reading these dissatisfied blog comments or no-one at photobox actually cares that loyal customers are unhappy. Either way, photobox is currently not the company I wish to entrust with my precious photos and hard-earned cash.
Reinstate the old site, prove you’re listening to your customers, and we’ll all be happy!
April 30, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Well, I have just sat down to finish an album I started on Monday, only to find I cannot even log on any more. I am just hoping that this is a temporary problem and that I wont have lost all the time and effort already put into uploading the 200 + pics for the album.
When I tried to email for help, I was told that my email address already existed on the system and I couldn’t register (I wasn’t asking to register, only send an email explaining my predicament) - this seems rather ironic tho, if the email address already exists, why cant I log on?
Thought the old site was fantastic, but am having severe reservations about using this one given the customer experience so far and reviewing the comments above.
It would have been nice to have been informed of the changes, rather than the change just to happen. Had I known then I would have waited for the new site to be up and running rather than leave an album half finished.
Looking at the comments above, maybe not being able to log on is a blessing in disguise - fingers crossed the site will be working properly by the time I am able to access it!
April 30, 2008 at 8:37 pm
* More photo gifts and innovative ideas
* Fun photo editing to transform your photos
* A new creative way to share photos online
* Photo tagging for fast photo searches
* New range of products with popular kids’ characters
* Regular photography news and tips to help you get the most from your photos
* Special offers and competitions
* PhotoBox blog for you to give us all your feedback
Absolutely nothing there for the PHOTOGRAPHER!!!
I want speed, simplicity and as mentioned many times above tools to enable multiple actions at once! Why don’t you listen to us, please, and give us an option to go PHOTOBOX - LITE and use the old site?
Sorry for the rant, I know you are trying very hard and it is nothing personal, but this is a sad time, and I am so disappointed. Like all things in life, find something you really really like and they take it away from you..
April 30, 2008 at 10:28 pm
I connected to the old site via Virgin Media - the new site does not recognise my log on. Is this a teething problem?
May 1, 2008 at 12:55 am
My 1st impression of the new site was positive. I thought, ‘What a great looking website’.
But, in my opinion there was nothing wrong with the old site. Though I appreciate that after awhile websites need to be given a fresh new look and also take advantage of new ways to presenting things on the Web. If the comments made so far are valid, then I don’t understand my you have removed features that were on the old site, which customers frequently enjoyed using.
In particular, I’d like to agree with Ben and at least one other blogger. The new Slideshow is ugly and the images appear pixelated.
Why do the photos appear pixelated when viewed? Please correct this as a matter of urgency.
One of the main features I enjoyed on the old site was the popup Slideshow. It presented my photos in a professional & high quaility format. I particularly liked the white border around the photos which appeared on a black background. I could quickly imagin how my photos would appear when printed with borders. A feature I often choose when ordering prints. Please, if it is at all possible, reinstate the old version of the Slideshow. Or alternatively provide the user with 2 ways of viewing the photos in a Slideshow.
Another point. I much prefered the crop function seen on the old site. I also agree that the constant appearance of the the ‘Have patience …’ box is, very annoying. And like others have said, the new site is very slow.
Also I think it was unwise to force users to mirgate there content to the new site without giving them the option to try it out 1st. Like others, I would have prefered to have had the old site running along the new site for a short while to make sure I was happy with everything.
I really hope you take all the comments in this blog seriously and are able to bring back the various features currently missing from the new site, while still taking the website to a new and improved level.
Good luck!
May 1, 2008 at 10:38 am
Hello,
I am very disapointed by the new interface. I am completely unable to choose a new size for a pic in the basket, this is really too slow, I don’t appreciate to lose time this way. The old crop function was really better. As about the new product, I don’t have any remarks to do. It would be wise to purpose two ways (old and new) to see the pics in the basket.
But, I had the bad surprise to see my basket empty after spending a lot of time for the size of my pics and other parameters. It was unwise not to warn us to order before lauching the new website.
I really enjoyed to use the old website, because you were really better than french websites. I hope I will retrieve a quality service very soon.
I wish good luck to Photobox team.
May 1, 2008 at 11:04 am
The worst thing about “New Photobox” is the complete lack of any acknowledgement that there are serious problems.
The best sites have a ‘bug list’ with an indication of which ones are regarded ascritical, important, or nice-to-have.
You have none of this. You have an obviously-defective site (unusable as far as I am concerned), and you haven’t even posted any ‘message from the boss’ since April 18.
Mark Chapman: this is a disgrace.
Fellow ex-Photobox-customers: could you guide me about which other service is the best now? I propose to burn a couple of CDs and take the 500+ images to Jessops.
May 1, 2008 at 11:20 am
New site is seriously slow to use. “Please be patient” should not appear on a good web site. It took 50 seconds, not a “a few seconds” for the first page of an album to load. Hope you sort this out soon.
May 1, 2008 at 11:25 am
I have had thousands of prints from Photobox (old site) and been satisfied. But here’s a list of some of the problems with the new site which I have noticed so far:
- unusable with Windows 98/IE6 - site stops responding
(so I’m borrowing an XP computer)
Then even with an XP/IE7 and a fast broadband service:
- very, very slow to load
- unable to choose ’shrink-to-fit’ as a normal preference
- unable to put photos in basket in any usable order
- unable to choose ’shrink-to-fit’ for all items in basket
- very slow to edit a photo in a large basket
- unable to put photos in album in name order (option not working)
- no possibility to re-order past orders
- past orders pre-2005 all completely lost
and also
- forced migration with no possibility of reverting to old site
- poor response to emailed queries
- 0870 number for ‘help’ and 13 minutes waiting
- bug reports not acknowledged and certainly not acted on
Summary: Photobox has been messed up, it is now unusable for me, and I will be going elsewhere.
May 1, 2008 at 11:54 am
A large part of our business this year is based on being able to hand out cards at events we photography for buyers to go to your site to buy pictures. We hand out a card with http://www.photoboxgallery.com/hollisphotography. We’ve had a lot of these cards made.
But with the new site there doesn’t appear to be a generic link to our gallery we can give at the event. Yes we can send people a link after the event and the job has been uploaded but we need their email to do this.
We don’t seem to be able to see the last pics we uploaded either. As a Pro photographer this is a big problem as people buy most their pics the day after the event. We are getting lots of calls from people who attended an event on Tues but we can’t see their pics.
I’d like to be able to use the old system which worked fine. Then you can Beta the new system, listen to feedback and we can migrate to new system when it works. Can you allow us to use the old system for now please? Thanks, Stuart
May 1, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Although you asked for feedback, there is nowhere other than this to feed it!
When I got my photos I was very disappointed to find that the date and time of taking the photos does not now appear so I have had to laboriously go through all my stored photos to find out what was taken when (I save up two or three months’ worth of photos and have them printed all at once) to see the changes that have occurred.
Perhaps I have missed something, but PLEASE put it back. Also some of the descriptions which I have carefully written below each photo have also been missed out.
WHY?
May 1, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Really sorry to join in like this but, I really don’t like the new site. Whilst individual views about design issues always have an element of personal taste, when the functionality of a website is damaged as badly as this is, I think you have a problem.
I too find the site too slow to use and I’m disappointed to see many of the items I have ordered in the past removed from the site. If this is temporary due to migrating data - tell us! One choice of Calendar???
Sorry, but the “old” site wasn’t broken + didn’t need “fixed”
May 1, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Can we have a facility to move our albums to Snapfish, and quickly, please? This new website just isn’t worth wasting time on. 50 minutes and still counting, to upload 8 photos. I just had to pull the plug on it.
May 1, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I’d love to be saying ‘congratulations’ but, having experimented with the new site, I too am very disappointed in the unwieldy and slow interface. I frequently order 500+ prints at a time and often used the global ’shrink-to-fit’ option on the old site. I was delighted to see the ‘add borders’ facility here but it’s so buried within Picnik and applying the same border to each photo individually (not globally) is unthinkable. I’m so sorry it’s like this as I’ve used PhotoBox exclusively for several years but until things improve, I’m forced to only use the site for the most basic prints. Good luck and I hope these issues can be resolved.
May 1, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Sorry, but I have been a customer for 4 years and upload batches of images pretty much daily as I am a full-time professional photographer. I will now be looking to use another online supplier as this new site is rubbish. I have listed so far 5 areas that now hinder me using the website and slow the whole process down. I don’t know which customers Photobox have been listening to if this is what they told them they wanted but they can keep it. I will be spending my thousands of pounds of printing each year with a new printer from now on.
May 1, 2008 at 4:29 pm
As a loyal customer for a number of years it’s so disappointing to see you didn’t think this through and learn from the old site. Remember the adage “If it ain’t broke; don’t fix it”, and sort things out pronto before there’s a mass exodus of customers.
David
May 1, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Oh dear, I’m not impressed with the new site. I don’t dispute the fact that the site may have needed a bit of modernisation but I much prefer the functionality of the old site and the constant ‘please be patient’ box is *really* trying my patience. Also, where can I check how much storage space I have? (It appears to have left the building with no link that I can find, and no help on the help pages). I agree with a lot of other posters here - the old site wasn’t broke so why fix it? Anyway, that’s enough of a rant. So long as the quality of Photobox prints doesn’t suffer I suppose I can put up with it
May 2, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Unfortunately I have to agree with most of the previous comments.
My particular bugbears are -
1. Not being able to see a suitably sized thumbnaill in my basket. I don’t want to have to open every photo to check the crop/borders etc.
2. What’s happened to the borders option??? Please reinstate it asap.
I used to recommend this site to friends but at the moment won’t be doing so
Sorry
May 2, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Well if this does not beat everything, this is a reply I got from customer services regarding the query I had about being unable to do email uploads anymore.
—————————————————————————
Hi Steve
Thanks for your email.
We are very sorry you feel this way about our new site, the feedback received has been very good so far.
Please let me try to help you with the problem you are having.
Clarify what you mean by us not supporting emails anymore?
Regards
Angelique
—————————————————————————
I especially like the bit about the good feedback - perhaps they should read these comments first.
May 2, 2008 at 5:26 pm
There’s an old adage . . . . . “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”
Well, the old site wasn’t broken but the new site sure as hell is !!
The format I use for Calendars I produce each year is no longer available and the new calendars would be absolutely pointless for the needs of most people who like to make notes on them so I guess from now on I’ll be taking that business elsewhere.
I was planning on starting to use your Stylebooks to produce albums for use as birthday and other gifts but the Classic style is not the same as the old site so I guess from now on I’ll be taking that business elsewhere too.
I am currently redesigning my website and fully intended to integrate my print sales with my Pro Galleries but that area of the site is not so clearly available now so I guess from now on that’s yet more business I’ll be taking elsewhere.
THANKS FOR NOTHING PHOTOBOX !!!
May 2, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Very disappointed with your new site. With all the hype, I thought it would be all-singing, all-dancing but as far as I am concerned it has ground to a halt - no, not even that, it has gone backwards!
My particular gripes so far are:
Everything taking much longer than before (and I have fast broadband). The wait a few seconds is a laugh - wait a few minutes!!
Images pixellated
Basket thumbnails far too small . I use these to determine how many prints to order per image so it is not helpful not to see them
Basket contents in random order which is not helpful with a large order to check all images included
Batch formatting / changing in a basket does not seem to be an option - should be - it was!
Where is the border option / shrink to fit
Navigation of site not so easy as before
Why can’t users move forward and backwards through iamges in an album and/or basket and crop/edit each one without having to go in and out of different screens every time - very time consuming and not a realistic option for large numbers of images
I have several hundred credits with you so will persevere for the time being as I cannot afford to lose them but I am very disappointed and unless things improve will be looking for another service.
May 2, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Have you Guys heard the phrase ‘pin-sharp’? Clearly those who designed the new site haven’t… all my photo’s look like they’ve been taken with a disposable camera and not my D300!!
May 3, 2008 at 9:40 am
What a mess! I was using photobox to run a photo site for our model boat club. Over 40 albums were shared as a single public group. I had publicised the URL for the “master album” widely. Now there not only does not seem to be a Public Group feature, but the album numbers have changed with no forwarding link to direct users to the new site; possibly because there is no Public Group feature! I only realised that the change had happened when I got emails from users searching for the site and not finding it.
At a quick count I had over 1600 photos in the albums, most with an individual comment (what the original ship was, who had made it, from kit or scratch). These comments seem to have vanished. Please, Photobox, tell me how to recover them so they are associated with the correct photos. Please don’t tell me all that work has been lost!
I produced an annual club calendar (last year I sold over 40 copies). But the A4 format that everyone liked seems to have disappeared; I’ve used the the A3 format and it’s good for some purposes but it’s not suitable for the club calendar.
Finally, if you think you’ve got the best software people working on this; either they are totally under-resourced, or you haven’t. When did you invite users to test a public beta version of the new site? Or, how many users did you test it on?
Like others commenting here, I will look around for an alternative service before putting too much effort into reworking the club site on Photobox. Time is too short to be forced to redo work done over the last few years due to an enforced and unwarned change. Perhaps we could have a blog thread on recommendations as to where to go after Photobox? Or, will you, Photobox, make the effort to answer our complaints?
Not “THANKS FOR NOTHING” but “NO THANKS FOR SENDING ME BACKWARD”
May 3, 2008 at 2:56 pm
To other former customers of Photobox:
I am abandoning Photobox’s unusable ‘New Site’ - I might look at it from time to time but there are so many problems that I doubt it will be usable for a year or so.
In the meantime I have not placed the order, I have emptied my basket and taken the 500+ images on CD to Jessops (special offer 4p/print for 150+ 6″x4″ prints). I’ll feedback the experience, but can anyone tell me what the service is like from Snapfish, Foto.com (uk.foto.com) or any other service you have tried?
May 3, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I too have to echo some of the above comments. Main complaint what has happened to the confirm order page that shows you what you have ordered e.g. 1 7*5 of img_0001.jpg
Now you get 14 7*5 images
No image names without hovering over image
Cropping/resizing images use to jump to next image after you closed the resize window now you have to go and click onthe next one.
Another one who says if it ain’t broke ………
May 4, 2008 at 1:23 pm
In exactly what way is the new site an improvement on the old? I can’t see how it justifies the glowing (and patronising) language of the “Word from the Boss”.
To “add photos” using the browser system it is now impossible to load more than one picture at a time, where before they could be grouped using the Control key.
Why has the facility to comment on albums been withdrawn? It’s an important part of sharing albums to be able to give and receive feedback.
Why is now so difficult to set up a sharing list, based on an existing list, for a new album? That was so easy before.
May 4, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Well, congrats Photobox, now you take to “selective” editing of the comment replies ( so don’t suppose this will go through), - I added a comment that had a reply from a Photobox support email which did not get published (why?) - so lets try again. And please let me know why you “stopped” my last post.
Copy of complete email below( Photobox seem under the impression that everyone likes the site changes):
——————————————————–
Hi Steve
Thanks for your email.
We are very sorry you feel this way about our new site, the feedback received has been very good so far.
Please let me try to help you with the problem you are having.
Clarify what you mean by us not supporting emails anymore?
Regards
*********
http://www.photobox.co.uk
Emerging Retailer of the Year - Retail Week Awards 2006
May 4, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Agree with most of the other neg comments, slow, slow, v v small thumbnails in basket + ftp not working, photobox is the only large co offering ftp unless someone can point me to another?
hope its not being dropped !
May 4, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Listen to your customers and bring back the old site until the new one works. This has been exceptionally frustrating and a waste of everyone’s time.
May 5, 2008 at 11:53 am
I currently can’t log into the system but it is being dealt with by Photobox.
C’mon guys give the Photobox team a little bit of time to migrate things over. It takes a lot of effort to sort it all out. The site may run slow due to the amount of data they are having to move across systems. Once the move is complete they then can start to fix the things that have cropped up. With over 5 million members to keep happy its a hard job.
May 5, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I have been a happy Photobox user ever since you started, and over the years have recommended you to many other people.
Just tried using your new site and hit a number of serious problems.
1) After uploading 101 photos, a small number of them (7) ended up with dimensions 0×0 and were displayed stretched. I ended up deleting them, re-uploading exactly the same files and they came up with the correct dimensions.
2) Setting the print size to 6″x4″ should have resulted in all the photos being cropped, but no crop lines were displayed on the photos in the basket. After deleting and re-adding the photos to my basket, I did get crop lines.
3) When I tried changing the cropping, I was able to move the rectangle but after saving the new position, the basket shows the crop rectange in the original position - i.e. my cropping changes were not saved. I have tried this multiple times on multiple photos and it has failed in all cases.
4) After saving cropping changes, the basket view returns to the collapsed view (no photos visible). After attempting to change each photo, I therefore have to expand the basket again to view the photos. A real pain when reviewing/modifying all 101 photos in my basket!
I have given up at this point - if I cannot modify the cropping I do not want the photos printed.
Another very disappointed customer who will be looking elsewhere if you cannot resolve these issues quickly.
May 6, 2008 at 6:14 pm
This is the first time I have used the new site, certainly much harder to use! Unable to actually see whats in my basket, so seem to be ordering blind!
Also unable to order postcards that were fantastic for thank yous.
When my prepaid credits have gone I will be going elsewhere if no improvements.
May 6, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Still having trouble having my problem resolved by photobox and also my previous and recent Blog published:-
All old photos, years worth (running to hundreds) seeming lost from my account and albums during the ‘change’. This appears not to be a unique experience.
Have recieved a reply, but did not provide confidence the issue is really understood; was asked what download method being used. Have not tried to download using new site, only tried to find old important pictures.
As I suggsted, I am keen to get my albums back!
May 8, 2008 at 8:24 am
I think you’ve just given your competitors an enormous shot in the arm - they’ll be delighted with your complete destruction of a site that worked beautifully.
We now have a clunky, slow, difficult to view and navigate site that has a very old fashioned feel to it..
Who needs comments and tagging - you’re trying to be evrything to everyone and IMHO failing miserably.
JoT
May 8, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I agree with many of the comments above. The old site was fine and easy to use. It is hard to see anything about the new site which is better. The front page is far too visually cluttered, is unattractive, and it is much slower to use.
Photobox have made a poor judgement in moving over to this new site.
May 9, 2008 at 8:56 am
Anyone have any handy hints for moving pictures to alternative supplier?
Generally I’m positive about change and although LOVED the old site there were a few things that could be improved including some editing options offered elsewhere but not on photobox. However, whilst not a pro I agree with most comments that simplicity and speed has been sacrificed for features I just don’t want.
My first login I simply wanted to check I’d been given my extra space after recent order but couldn’t even see that. uh-oh is it going to be worth the hassle figuring out the changes? Looking at comments for what others may have figured out ahead of me it doesn’t seem so. Had a bit more of a browse around but looking at one album I see the photos aren’t in the order I left them from careful labelling. Now I’m too horrified to look any further and think it would be less painful to move elsewhere. So sorry, genuinely
May 9, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Well, It’s nice to know someone took the trouble to actually read my earlier comments here, so thank you for that Ben.
It’s just a pity that the 2 email’s I have received have failed to address the issues I raised both here and in my reply to the first email but rather contained excuses, apologies and “explanations” that bore little if any relevance to the issues I raised.
I won’t be using the site again and any further communications will be deleted. I might come back and use the site in the future if/when you actually provide the services I require. However, I dobt I’m enough of a “valued customer”/chav to ever want a mug with a photo of my Vauxhall Nova with blue LEDs on.
Thank You and Goodbye,
Disgusted ex-photobox user
May 9, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I didn’t even know the site was changing!! (although is possible I could have missed the mailshot on that one I guess) anyway, I tried uploading some pics via the uploader tool I had downloaded some time ago and used successfully to be told my username/password isn’t recognised - hmmmm, so tried logging in to the actual site to find it’s new - great I thought (on the face of it!) - username and password not recognised. So I tried my other link that I had bookmarked (vmphoto.photobox.co.uk) - all looked fine, logged in OK - no messages it had changed so I emailed customer support and got told…
“Thanks for your email. Your account has not be migrated thats why the new site does not recognise your details. To log in your can go to http://old.photobox.co.uk and you’ll be able to log in”
How is that helpful!!! I can indeed log in and see my old creations at this link but still can’t access my account on the new site - not that I am looking forward to it based on the comments so far :-). I’ve been a customer since 2006 and use it very regularly so this ‘episode’ is v.v.v.disappointing.
The old site was great and really just needed a few tweaks really - was that too much to ask!
May 14, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I was looking forward to watching the video about your new site
while waiting for my albums to load! I’ve now been on the new site and I’am still not sure if my old albums have been transferred or not and I still haven’t even found the video!
May 14, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I try and do the simple task of crop of photo prior to ordering…. the Picnic application loads… I crop… it then says it is uploading back and the process will be completed shortly…. it never ever loads…the message stays.
Photobox!! What have you done? The simple task of cropping photographs. Awful.