13,000 Professional Photographers Use PhotoReflect.com

#1 Michael Miller

I just realized that they have hidden costs.
I checked their site for a lab and the lab prices. Then I went directly to the lab site so that I could send them a direct order to check their quality and deliver and noticed that the price lists were different. Reflect was higher for the same lab. The lab told me that Reflect gets x% web fee and that is why they charge more. That statement made no sense to me since Reflect states that their charges are x% for web and x% for payment processing and no mention of additional markup of lab fees.

Anyone else have this experience???

6:39 pm - Friday, August 31, 2007

#2 John Jones

Photoreflect.com is not clear about all thier fees, confusing and too time consuming!

1:07 pm - Saturday, September 1, 2007

#3 Tim Robbins

Their photographers leave much to be desired. I've been to 2 sporting events and both times they've neglected on getting pictures of my daughter. Instead they took nice candid photo's of umpires! I wonder if their parents bought any? LOL!!!

I'm learning if the photographers business card has photoreflect on it, just ignore them, you won't get what you want anyway.

1:54 am - Tuesday, June 2, 2009

#4 Neil Martin

Really Tim? You really have the audacity to make a statement like that? What does some guy who showed up at your daughters game pretending to be a photographer have to do with a real photographer who is using photoreflect? I saw an old beat up Toyota Camery with a Lexus decal on it before. That doesn't mean I'd say "Don't buy a lexus, those things are pieces of crap."

2:54 am - Monday, August 17, 2009

#5 Michael Miller

Neil,

It is entirely possible that a member photographer is not taking as good pictures as they could. They won't sell many in that case.
Photoreflect (PR), Tim, doesn't vett the photographers, they just provide them with a place to sell. My statement stands. If you select your lab and register it as a PR lab, then the cost per print is going to be higher than if you register with the lab personally, and then select it as your lab on PR.

I found another anomaly in the PR reports. If you ask for this month (in August) they date it Aug 1 to Sept 1. Same holds true to this week, this quarter and this year (Jan 1, 2009 to Jan 1, 2010. I wrote them and told them that this is not standard accounting procedure (being a CT CPA) and even asked them if it was just the label or whether they would inlcude those extra days in reports. They wrote me back that they do include the extra days in reports and that "they probably won't change that." This year should be 1/1/2009-12/31/2009. This month or quarter should end on the month or quarter ending dates, respectively. This is critical for sales tax reporting as well as income tax reporting.

Their payment report also skips lines and does not include the ship date on every line even if it's the same as another line. So, someone there doesn't understand accounting and reporting, that's all.

Another anomaly I found is that it is not a hands free system, for example if you were on vacation like I was after a 2 day soccer tournament. I am notified of orders and I have to mark orders "to be printed" by the lab. At that point the lab gets my full res files uploaded to them from MY hard drive. Unless you can run their local software on your machine, from the web and have their software grab your files from your local hard drive, you can't send the pictures to the printer. I just assumed that if an order came in, it was forwarded to the printer.

Otherwise, I like the idea of this system.

6:56 pm - Monday, August 17, 2009

#6 Neil Martin

That's my point. Someone taking bad pictures has nothing to do with any other photographer such as your self. I'm sure somewhere in the world there's a guy that goes into work at McDonalds everyday and spits in the burgers. Thats not going to stop me from ordering a BigMac.

Anyways though, thanks to your post I went to the lab first. Thanks for taking the time to explain this to people.

7:11 pm - Monday, August 17, 2009

#7 Michael Miller

Well, it would certainly stop me. :o)

You're welcome. Just remember that either you need to be able to operate their local software (free) from your machine while away using either a laptop connected to the web, or can remote directly to your home machine from the web and operate that machine, otherwise all you can do is read their emails that you have new orders from a web enabled computer at your vacation location. That was important to me cuz it can hold up their orders for as long as my vacation is, usually 1 to 2 weeks long.

Which lab did you choose? I am getting good service from RC Pro Labs in VA. They don't do framing tho.

Also, do me a flavor when you get set up. Write to PR or Express and tell them that their reporting date ranges are incorrect.

7:35 pm - Monday, August 17, 2009

#8 Neil Martin

Man, I used to work in restaurants growing up. So trust me, if you're worried about somebody spitting in your food, then you better make it yourself. lol

I'm using Precision in Eureka, IL. Which is a city I never even knew existed. I unfortunately don't take vacations. I'm just starting out so hopefully one day I'll be taking long vacations and that will be a problem I'm happy to have
I'll contact them about the Date problem too. Hopefully, if enough people do they'll change things.

7:51 pm - Monday, August 17, 2009

#9 mike

I have been using reflect for 4 yrs and i have no complaint. it's been working well for...

4:19 am - Monday, May 7, 2012