Kodak Gallery just lost my business
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…
Hey, Kodak is on my shit list for deleting photos I scanned in to their website and nolonger own the original photos. I will will not buy or recommend Kodak products. This just ruined the image that photos capture a life-time of enjoyment. Not now Kodak has destroyed that in my life.
Let’s call a spade a spade here. Yes it sucks that kodak deleted your photos. It also sucks that you never backed them up. A photo in one place doesn’t exist. A photo in two places is better. A photo in three places is safe.
Unfortunately they have been doing this for quite some time, It used to be if you don’t login we will delete then it went to if you dont pay. I can also agree with Dave here; personally my photos are in 3 different locations and in those three different locations they are on cds/dvds and a portable hard drive.
Geez Vape and Dave, Applause that you are so organized. Hopefully, your house doesn’t burn down or your 2 other media sources aren’t damaged because you sure won’t have that 3rd backup from Kodak. I have a 4th backup through Snapfish and they didn’t delete my photos like Kodak Gallery. Isn’t the point of storing ablbums is for BACKUP? I don’t care if they have been doing it for awhile, they still should not delete photos. They didn’t delete the account or my contact list. The spade here is BACKUP and Kodak Gallery doesn’t fit that bill.
I completely agree. I started with Ofoto and had nine years worth of photos stored on Kodak Gallery. I recently had my back up storage drive crash so I went to look at my photos on Kodak Gallery. They were deleted because I had not spent a minimum of $4.99 in the last year. I never got their emails because they went to SPAM.
BAD business kodak…
It’s interesting how a brand can lose not just a particular transaction, or an account, or even any possible future business with that person by an ill thought out action such as this. How do they get so out of touch with competitive realities?
Unfortunately, they may not see how a “small” change like that really impacts their company as a whole. I agree that there is a lack of understanding in this situation on Kodak’s part.
I agree to this blog I also faced same problem regarding to the kodak gallery . I lost my very important photos which have not any back up.