Kodak Gallery just lost my business

// March 25th, 2009 // 8 Comments » // fllckr, kodak, kodakgallery, ofoto, photography

A few years ago, I joined Ofoto to host my photos and sell them to my friends and family. Then Ofoto was bought by Kodak and renamed Kodak Gallery. No big deal, they offered the same service. I loaded hundred of photos each year and my friends would order multiple copies. I gave Kodak a ton of purchases.

Then I received an email notification that Kodak Gallery will now be charging a yearly fee to host my images. This is similar to the servide offerd byt Flickr and SmugMug. Yet, Kodak Gallery doesn’t caompare to either of those. The kicker is that if I do give them money, my photos will be deleted in less than 2 months. WOW, surprised, it doesn’t make me want to give them $20.

It’s the not the money, this is an example of a REALLY BAD MOVE by a strong brand. First of all I will remove my photos and move them to SMUGMUG (where I pay a fee per year), but I get a large commission of each of my photos sold. I even pay Flickr too. I shoot a lot. But a better suggestion for KODAK Gallery would be to grandfather in the previous members, since we joined when there was a yearly fee - the exact reason I used them. If I received a more positive email, I would to be happy a Kodak customer, but I am not.

This will also me me think twice about their brand. I buy a lot of photography equipment, but I may not buy Kodak again. Or next time a friend asks me what camera to buy I probably wont suggest Kodak. Did you know Kodak did this? Even in these down economic times, Kodak could have done a better job here…