happy new year & a bit about bay photo

Posted in For Photographers, on 12.31.09

I wanted to post our holiday card after everyone had received it. And then the Christmas week caught up with me and it didn’t end up here. So it seemed appropriate to use it to wish you all a Happy New Year! I am looking forward to an exciting and (hopefully) busy 2010! I had a great 2009 and it absolutely flew by!

Since I was posting our card, I also wanted to talk about Bay Photo, which is the lab I chose for our printing this year. Previously, like many others, I used WHCC. I am beyond happy with WHCC’s customer service. They are always quick with printing and delivery is ALWAYS on time. What I have always liked even more, is that in a pack of 25 cards, you usually end up with at least 2 extra. This is great if you want to be able to sell to your clients in packs of 25 and still keep a few for studio samples. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about with WHCC was the digital printing quality. The trim lines are HUGE and never accurate. If you were hoping to have something centered on your card….good luck. And the dots from the printing! It is almost as if you were looking at a newspaper.

So, as I said, this year, after searching the pricing of everyone else, I chose Bay Photo. And hey – it didn’t hurt that they offer 25% off your first ROES order! SWEET! My primary reason for choosing Bay Photo besides the discount though….their premium 6 color printing. And that ends up about the same price as WHCC’s standard printing! The printing turned out absolutely gorgeous! And while I was shocked by their templates having such tiny “safe area” guides, I am happy to say, it seems as though exactly what I uploaded is what printed and came back to me! Almost no loss to trim. Well done Bay Photo. And the pearl paper with an outer UV coat….beautiful. I am hoping the UV coat protected my pearl paper in the mail. I have seen cards by WHCC absolutely destroyed because the envelopes actually wear the pearl off the paper in a pattern.

But I must be honest….the whole experience was not peachy keen. My order seemed to have gotten lost. I uploaded and paid for express shipping. I wanted my envelopes before I went away so that I could address them while traveling. I kept checking on the order and checking again…I emailed customer service…Nothing. Finally I used live support. They were able to see my order was 2 days behind. Apologized, but blamed it on the holiday rush. I flipped out slightly, but my cards were printed and overnighted to arrive the day before we got on the plane. Issue one resolved. Next…as I am addressing my envelopes, I realize that pile is shrinking far faster than my pile of cards! In an order of 100 cards, it seems I only received 80 envelopes. Yes, I counted. A quick email to customer service…..this time I complained about not receiving my few extra cards too….what can I say – I was stressed about not having the envelopes….I counted the cards too – there was exactly 100. I just wanted to tell them I had been happier with results from WHCC before… I got an apology email less than a few hours later (at around Midnight), and in two days had extra cards and a bunch of extra envelopes. So yes, I had some bad times with Bay Photo. Everyone has bad experiences with every company sometimes. But overall I am beyond happy with our cards and the results of choosing Bay Photo for our printing. If anyone out there at Bay Photo is listening however…I do have one suggestion…in Roes, I would love to be able to have a separate front file, back file, and Inside Spread. I do not want it to be 4 separate or 2 spreads as my only choices. Thanks