www.photodium.com : anyone tried ? (canvas prints)

Hi, I am looking for the less expensive way to put my prints on canvas locally & found this internet site http://www.photodium.com .

They did'nt answer to my email (send 4 days ago, some questions about finishing & shippings), no reviews on internet, prices seem very low...so what to think : scam or not ? any thoughts ?

I use this guy....Ed is his name....at Art2Canvas.net....west downtown Toronto and convenient to me. The best build and canvas quality I've seen....he advertises on Craigslist.

hmmm... So you just opened a new dpreview account to tell me that the "guy is called ED" ?!!! Ed who ? what's the business address & phone number ? nothing convincing at all here...are you Ed ?

I'll try to respond to the original posters actual inquiry. I have actually used Photodium, just this past week. Like the OP, I was skeptical of their offers as they seemed too cheap. But I did use them, ordered 2 20"x30" photos on stretched canvas and I was totally satisfied with the result. They worried me in the beginning as they didn't answer my first 2 email inquiries as to status of the job, but they did recover nicely with a response, and a day later a status update by email and then the canvases were received a couple of days later. The quality is terrific...and I told them so when I requested a price on a custom sized canvas job I want done. I got a phone call within hours to answer my questions and a very reaosnable quote the same day for the custom job. Call me convinced, and a likely long-term customer, now that they have overcome (for me, anyway) a shaky start with slow response to my emailed inquiries, which they attributed to en email server problem. Not sure I pelieve that, but in any event they did attempt and did recover from that faux pas. I'll upload a pic of the result of their work asap.

Interesting. I ordered the six canvas prints for $120. Got a confirmation, along with an email notifying me that the order is "completed". In between, I've sent 6 emails, both through their website and from my personal email, and have not received a reply. Nor have I received the shipment or even notification that it has shipped. Non-existant customer service. All I can do is hope like hell they arrive now or start the process of cancelling the credit card charge.

Just an update: The order was finally delivered last Friday. I was up to about 15 or so emails to photodium by that point. Not a single response to any of them. The problem I was trying to fix was never resolved. While I will never deal with them again due to the absence of customer service, the canvas prints are of decent quality for the price.

LOL, good call.

FTH said:

hmmm... So you just opened a new dpreview account to tell me that the "guy is called ED" ?!!! Ed who ? what's the business address & phone number ? nothing convincing at all here...are you Ed ?

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http://www.colwellcaptures.com
http://randycolwell.zenfolio.com

Do not use PHOTODIUM.COM. They trim or crop the picture terribly and staple the print onto a frame right through the printed picture. Oscar’s reassurances are worthless and they are impervious to complaints.

GMBARA

Greetings,

I am a member of the Montreal Camera Club and the Lakeshore Camera Club and am sending you a copy of a letter outlining my negative experience with an online printing company located in Brampton Ontario called Photodium. This is a letter I have already sent to the camera clubs of which I am a member and I'm hoping that you can disseminate the information to your members.

Thank You,
Peter Kelly

Beware: Do Not Do Business With Photodium
by studiopdk » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:14 pm

To ALL LCC Members,

I am sending you this message as a warning for any members who have considered having their photos gallery wrapped at the company called Photodium located in Brampton, Ontario. The President of Photodium (see below) sent out an invitation in early April that promoted a 20% discount to all camera clubs. Well I placed an order on April 29th and have had nothing but frustration and aggravation ever since. This appears to be a one-man operation as there's only one person, called Oscar, who returns calls if you're lucky - everything else is recorded messages. This man has little if any knowledge about photography or the art of printing. In addition, he kept giving unreasonable excuses as to why my order was delayed. Finally, on May 29th (a month after the initial order was placed) I put in a complaint to PayPal. It was only then that Photodium finally processed my order, but were upset because PayPal had withdrawn the funds from their account until the conflict had been resolved. Photodium didn't want to ship my order until I told PayPal to redeposit the money in their account, but once you do that you have no recourse because once the file is closed PayPal can't open it again if you're not satisfied with the product or delivery. It was obvious to me that Photodium's main concern was money and not customer satisfaction. As an afterthought though Oscar said he would throw in another print of my choice for free, this time on rolled canvas.

I finally received my order on June 2nd. What a scam. The workmanship is awful. The canvas has not been stretched evenly around the edges resulting in the border bleeding onto the facing side of the board. The canvas itself is the cheapest and thinnest grade available. And as for the free rolled canvas; it arrived all crumpled up at the bottom of the package, not even rolled. To make matters worse last night I received a pnone call from Oscar at 10:40pm. He wanted to kow when Paypal would redeposit their money, nothing else. I then told him that I wasn't satisfied with the workmanship giving it a 0 out of 10 and their customer relations, another 0 out of 10 and then proceeded to tell him why. He then told me to take a picture and send it to him, whereupon I said that I've already spent enough time and aggravation dealing with them and am finished wasting any more time to prove how incompetent they are. He then wanted to know when I would contact PayPal to redeposit the money into their account. I told him I'm going to make him wait so that he will know what it feels like to wait. He then informed me that the conversation was being recorded and that they would sue me.

I hope that all LCC members will think twice before doing business with this company and remember to always pay by PayPal who give you a 45 day grace period in which you can get your money back if for any reason you are not satisfied with a company's service or product. I have also attached a few photos of their sloppy workmanship in case anyone needs convincing. (photos available on request)

Regards,

Peter Kelly

Hi:

My name is Antonio Garrido, President of PHOTODIUM CORPORATION. I found your contact information on the Canadian Association of photographic arts.

PHOTODIUM is one of the largest printing on Canvas Companies in Canada, located in Brampton, Ontario.
We transfer people’s photography on Gallery wrapped canvas.

Our low-priced products and top quality finishing have made us the number one choice for photographers and galleries across North America.

We would like to offer your Members a 20% discount on our regular published price, on any size of canvas they print with us.
Here is a sample of the prices:
STRETCHED CANVAS SIZE REGULAR PUBLISHED PRICE YOUR DISCOUNTED PRICE
36” x 36” $ 119.00 $ 95.20
24” x 36” $ 67.78 $ 54.22
24” X 24” $ 69.75 $ 55.80
Best Deal 20” x 30” $ 32.95 $ 26.36
16” x 20” $ 29.95 $ 23.96
Please visit us at http://www.photodium.com

For more information, give us a call toll free at 1-866-884-7633 so one of our customer service Representative can register your Association and give you the special discount code. We speak English ,French and Spanish.
We look forward to hear from you.
Best Regards
ANTONIO GARRIDO
President

ellegee said:

Just an update: The order was finally delivered last Friday. I was up to about 15 or so emails to photodium by that point. Not a single response to any of them. The problem I was trying to fix was never resolved. While I will never deal with them again due to the absence of customer service, the canvas prints are of decent quality for the price.

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"ellegee" or "weekend wanderer" or "ED", stop spamming your fake website here.

PHOTODIUM.COM IS A TOTAL SCAM google it.

FTH said:

Hi, I am looking for the less expensive way to put my prints on canvas locally & found this internet site http://www.photodium.com .

They did'nt answer to my email (send 4 days ago, some questions about finishing & shippings), no reviews on internet, prices seem very low...so what to think : scam or not ? any thoughts ?

Click to expand...

I think you've answered your own question. They don't answer emails after 4 days? Sorry but that's not customer service I buy into or trust. Not for me.

It's a scam. Terrible customer service, sloppy workmanship and total lack of knowledge. See photos.

I decided to sign up to this website simply so I could post an honest review of my experience with Photodium which I believe will be very illuminating for anyone considering to use their services. I also truly hope that Photodium reads this, learns from their mistakes, and FINALLY contacts me back.

First off, this was my first, and will certainly be my last time using their services. Everyone quotes the old adage 'you get what you pay for', well, I paid for 4 canvases and all I've got is excuses.

I read the reviews (mostly negative) left for Photodium but was enticed with their extremely low prices, unfortunately, I let the all mighty dollar seduce my better sense of judgement and I decided to make the purchase.

I purchased the prints of July 4th hoping to receive them by the weekend of the 23rd.

I received only a receipt from paypal, and nothing actually from Photodium (I checked my junk mail daily). So on the 11th, I thought I would message them using their user account messaging system. I politely asked how long the printing would take. By the 15th, I had received no response, so I messaged again simply saying "Hello? Anyone there?".

I received a phone call on the 20th from an employee at Photodium (I didn't ask for the name), the employee explained that they don't use the message system built into the user accounts, too which I was quite surprised, he apologized profusely for the delay and assured me that the canvases were being printed today (July 20th) and would be shipped out with the next day shipping option (which I had paid full price for) that day or on the 21st at the latest. I was impressed with their level of communication (with the exception of the messaging system) and was left feeling satisfied from the phone call. I was also very happy that it meant I would have the canvases as an anniversary present in time for the weekend.

Well, the weekend came and went, and still nothing...a few days roll by and I receive a phone call on the 27th... It's Photodium explaining to me that they had a computer virus and that they've been unable to print for over a week. To further matters they lost a lot of their customers photos but assured me they recovered all four of mine and were printing them that day and would send them out rush priority (at no cost to me). I was skeptical, so I asked what Computer Virus it was and was greeted with 'it's technical'. I'm an Information System Specialists and specialize in Network/Server security...'it's technical'...

By this point, I know somethings up, but there isn't much I could do, they already have my money after all. Well, another week passes, it's August 2nd and I decide to call them...not once, not twice, but four times. Without response. I call them on the 3rd, and leave a message voicing my concerns and wanting a response, I left my name, phone number, and order number. No response. I call on the 4th, leave a message showing I'm getting progressively more frustrated, demanding a response. No response. I called today (the 5th), and guess what? No response, straight to their answering system AGAIN.

P.s.

If you read their terms of service, you aren't allowed a refund for any reason, and I've read on some sites of people being harassed by Photodium for reversing payments through PayPal. Well Photodium, if you don't have my canvases to me soon (and in perfect condition), I too will be reversing payment. I know my rights, and being scammed GIVES me the right to take my money back. So if you (Photodium) is reading this, better get moving fast on my order if you want to hold onto my money.

Some thoughts for Photodium:
Don't guarantee something you can't follow through on.

Photodium, if you have a 24 hour online support (the online web-chat), make sure you have a person actually operate it. You can have as many applications as you like, but unless you use them, they are worthless.

Also, no combined shipping? I order 4 canvas prints, no frame...1 is $10, 4 is $40 for shipping? Really? I had better receive 4 canvases wrapped in 4 separate shipping tubes.

An update on my order status.

It's now 1 month since I've ordered, and 3 weeks since they started lying to me about my order.

Over the last 6 days, I've placed 3 additional phone calls (all with no answer, I left angry messages demanding customer support), 2 system message using their system, both of which went ignored, I tried something another member of this forum did. I sent a lengthy e-mail accusing them of being a scam and threatened to use Paypal's reverse payment, then I furthered it by explaining that I'll be posting my experience with them on multiple forum boards to warn people about the scam of a business they are running. THAT DAY within 2 hours of that e-mail, My $100+ order status has been updated to shipped. So I definitely get the impression that they've received all of my messages and have just chosen to ignore me. But, this is the 3rd time that they have claimed they were going to shop my order, so, I'm not sure if it's actually been shipped or not, I'll update this post again in a few days.

I am however not going to drop this, it's ridiculous the amount of crap that these people put their customers through, it's insane the amount of times I had to call, message, and e-mail them all without any response for weeks! Even now, they still haven't responded to me, they simply changed my order status in what I believe is an attempt to deal with me. To start, if they think they are keeping $44 for the 'next day' shipping I paid for, or full price for the canvases after they repeatedly lied to me and then ignored me for weeks...they have another thing coming.

Well, I received my canvas prints, the smell is horrible and not going away...my entire family saw them and that was all of their initial reactions too.

The next thing they notice is the washed out faded color, the EXTREMELY thin material which is already fraying on all edges. This is all on top of the fact that it took 42 days to get the canvas prints actually delivered...

On their site (if you look around) they claim they use 13 oz canvas. The actual product they use is 7 oz. weight canvas...it won't last very long...as someone else noted, it is the thinnest cheapest canvas material you can possibly get. I've repeatedly tried to contact Photodium for weeks to no avail, so I've lodged a complaint with paypal.

Simply put, next day shipping should not take a month from the first time they claimed they would send out my purchase. Next day shipping should not take 3 weeks from the second time they claimed they would send off my product. Next day shipping should not take 4 days after they finally send my product, which they only did because I threatened to reverse payment.

This is ridiculous, and I'm not asking for all of my money back from the $128 order, just the shipping ($44) and ($20) for the horrible treatment, 41 day wait, no customer service, poor quality material and poor print job.

Sorry to hear about your experience.

Well, this company is a scam.

yeah, to make matters worse, you CAN'T file a paypal claim. Photodium didn't have the time to contact me back over the course of 3 weeks of non-stop phone calls, messages, e-mails and system messages. But they had the time to log into paypal hours after I filed a dispute, THEY escalated it to a claim and immediately they won the case.
Why? Because...

Buyer beware, in Photodiums TERMS OF SERVICE, you WAIVE the right to reverse payment under ANY circumstances. Even if they print you off complete garbage and ruin your product, you DO NOT have the RIGHT to demand your money back.

In other words, Photodium IS a scam, and in the terms of service they have it clearly written that there is no protection for the customer and that there are NO guarantees that your product will be made properly, or that you'll even get it.