Zenfolio Users

[drr1531]

I assume everyone else got the email form Zenfolio CEO about upcoming improvements. Is it just me or did anyone else see the coming price increase between the lines?

 

[Mike Buckley]

I have no email from Zenfolio and there is no notice at my Zenfolio website. Coincidentally, my plan is up for renewal in five days.

 

[Butlerkid]

I saw the email to Justin. And yes, I noticed the price increase. But I just Googled Zenfolio pricing and there was no mention in 2020/2021 of a price increase. Maybe only a subset of users are affected....?

Justin had already notified them he was closing his account. Zenfolio had been randomly "losing" videos he had uploaded to his account. And when he called they never once offered to try to determine what was causing it. They just said "Upload it again". After a year of that, he was fed up with them.

 

[gnagel]

I assume everyone else got the email form Zenfolio CEO about upcoming improvements. Is it just me or did anyone else see the coming price increase between the lines?

I received the email from Zenfolio but didn't see any price increase--at least for my account.

Glenn

 

[drr1531]

... Zenfolio had been randomly "losing" videos he had uploaded to his account. And when he called they never once offered to try to determine what was causing it. They just said "Upload it again". After a year of that, he was fed up with them.

I mentioned in another thread that I had begun having issues with uploading images. Now with this notification I suspect the issues I've been having were related to implementation of these upgrades. Highly doubtful that has anything to do with your hubby's issues going back that far. And certainly doesn't explain the customer service attitude.

I received the email from Zenfolio but didn't see any price increase--at least for my account.

No, Glenn, my comments re. the price increase are speculative. My point being that typically the improvements will be rolled out first and the price increase will follow. I have a "grand fathered" account and wonder how long they'll honor that. I'm not aware that they have any contractual obligation to do so. If they switch me to current pricing it make alternative services much more attractive.

 

[Replytoken]

I got the letter as well, and the earlier thread on ZF got me to thinking about how much I use it and what I use it for. I am also grandfathered in at a good price, but I am not sure that it cannot be replaced by another service. I am sharing less images than previously, so it has less value to me, and it has a horrible interface IMHO. I have until this summer until renewal.

--Ken

 

[drr1531]

I got the letter as well, and the earlier thread on ZF got me to thinking about how much I use it and what I use it for. I am also grandfathered in at a good price, but I am not sure that it cannot be replaced by another service. I am sharing less images than previously, so it has less value to me, and it has a horrible interface IMHO. I have until this summer until renewal.

Sounds like we're in the same place. I have a pro account because I was selling a good bit and needed both the client interface and the "storefront". I've stopped shooting events and can manage the few one-off sales that I make simply through face to face transactions or Paypal. Unfortunately my timeline is shorter as I'm up for renewal next month.

 

[Butlerkid]

Sounds like we're in the same place. I have a pro account because I was selling a good bit and needed both the client interface and the "storefront". I've stopped shooting events and can manage the few one-off sales that I make simply through face to face transactions or Paypal. Unfortunately my timeline is shorter as I'm up for renewal next month.

I set up Justin's new account at Smugmug in 1 week - then took another 2 weeks to customize it. (It would have been quicker to customize it, but I had to find and upload one of my images to use as the cover image for each of his videos. With photo galleries, you just pick the cover image you want to use from the gallery of images. ) Justin had to upload about 225 VIDEOS! And that was a lot quicker and easier than he thought it would be. He said the uploads were a LOT faster on SM than Zenfolio.

Justin's SmugMug site: Pleasant Videos

Biggest thing for me: An email to Help@smugmug.com with a questions usually gets a very fast answer...like about 2-12 hours. Seriously good customer support.

If you decide to give Smugmug a 2 week trial, use my referral code for a nice discount off the first year. Referral code = https://secure.smugmug.com/signup?Coupon=3Pe9vv2AHDb1k

AND - you can contact me via PM if you have questions about setting up your account.

 

[gnagel]

I mentioned in another thread that I had begun having issues with uploading images. Now with this notification I suspect the issues I've been having were related to implementation of these upgrades. Highly doubtful that has anything to do with your hubby's issues going back that far. And certainly doesn't explain the customer service attitude.

No, Glenn, my comments re. the price increase are speculative. My point being that typically the improvements will be rolled out first and the price increase will follow. I have a "grand fathered" account and wonder how long they'll honor that. I'm not aware that they have any contractual obligation to do so. If they switch me to current pricing it make alternative services much more attractive.

My price has been grandfathered in for a while now. I think I've been a Zenfolio subscriber for 12 years now.

I would like to mention that I've had nothing but good experiences with Zenfolio support. At my account level, I don't have access to phone support. But, whenever I've left an email a representative has responded on a timely basis...usually within a couple of hours. They have also done a good job following up to ensure that my concerns were addressed.

One time a customer had an issue with a print that was ordered through my site. The Zenfolio representative apologized and sent a replacement order out immediately. It was a rather expensive order and Zenfolio took care of the replacement order with no hassle on my part.

Glenn

 

[Randy]

My price has been grandfathered in for a while now. I think I've been a Zenfolio subscriber for 12 years now.

I would like to mention that I've had nothing but good experiences with Zenfolio support. At my account level, I don't have access to phone support. But, whenever I've left an email a representative has responded on a timely basis...usually within a couple of hours. They have also done a good job following up to ensure that my concerns were addressed.

One time a customer had an issue with a print that was ordered through my site. The Zenfolio representative apologized and sent a replacement order out immediately. It was a rather expensive order and Zenfolio took care of the replacement order with no hassle on my part.

Glenn

same here for 10+ years,, great service..... before that Smugmug

 

[Clix Pix]

I haven't recently checked the email account where I would receive notifications from Zenfolio -- guess I'd better take a look! I'm another who has been using Zenfolio for many years and who has a reasonably-priced grandfathered account. I have had very few issues with anything through the years and only once do I recall having sent a message to the support people for assistance on something. I have no interest in switching from Zenfolio back to Smugmug or to any other site, I've been very happy and hope that these new updates and "improvements" will indeed be useful and not cause me any problems!

 

[drr1531]

Here's the email.

Your Zenfolio team has been hard at work over the past 18 months and today, we’re delighted to share the first of several exciting changes.

We’ve just completed a multimillion-dollar project to improve the stability and reliability of the Zenfolio platform, enhance the security of the data and images you store with us, and offer new products that enable you to sell more and earn more.

Coming to Zenfolio in 2021 Our next-generation platform is powered by the IBM Cloud®, a world-class cloud storage solution that also brings advanced computing technologies to help take your business to the next level.

Facial recognition for better, faster image storage, retrieval and organization. Machine learning and predictive modeling for streamlined e-commerce and workflow. Al-powered experiences for smarter CRM, e-commerce and natural language search.

 

[Replytoken]

FWIW, I needed a site last year where I could share images and gather comments on them. I evaluated a number of sites and while I eventually ended up using Flickr for a variety of reasons, I really did like frame.io . I would not recommend it for sales, but it is useful for collaboration and simple sharing. It was initially designed for video review/editing/comments, but it was workable for images as well. No, it does not allow much customization, but it was quite user friendly and reasonably priced. I am not suggesting this as a replacement for ZF or an alternative to SM, but if it meets your needs, you might find it an interesting alternative. If you are interested, I believe that I may have a joint discount code.

--Ken

 

[Clix Pix]

Here's the email.

Yawn...... None of those new features are all that important to me, since I don't shoot many photos of people and don't deal with commercial sales and such, nor do I think that either I or visitors to my gallery would need to deal with CRM and natural language searches..... Whatever, it's fine with me whatever they're doing at Zenfolio as long as they don't mess up what I've got now and what I have been putting on their site for many years.

 

[F15Todd]

I got the email. I would love to see the ability to FTP images like PhotoShelter lets you do. If that gets added I will most likely stay, but I’m needing that ability more and will probably switch to get it. Other then that I have been happy with the service.

 

[Randy]

Many years ago when smugmug went modern and did a major upgrade they disabled all the changes I had made over years, many that came from SM. They refused to help me and many others so I fired them. I found a utility that would move 250k pics in hundreds of galleries from SM to ZF so there is no foregiveness from me. ZF has been nothing short of fantastic for me and my customers. My memory is very long

 

[Mike Buckley]

Is it just me or did anyone else see the coming price increase between the lines?

I just now got an email indicating that my cost will increase $5 per year effective at my next renewal. That's only about $0.40 per month. Better yet, my account was renewed on January 17, so it will be another year before that goes into effect for me.

 

[drr1531]

I just now got an email indicating that my cost will increase $5 per year effective at my next renewal. That's only about $0.40 per month. Better yet, my account was renewed on January 17, so it will be another year before that goes into effect for me.

Yes I just got my notice too. One dollar per month. And none of the upgrades they made are useful to me. I'm a few days into a two week free trial with SmugMug. They have an intermediate plan that has all of the features that I need for less than half what I'm currently paying for my Zenfolio account.

 

[gnagel]

My notice announced an increase of one dollar per month. My renewal isn't until December, so I have plenty of time to consider my options. Given that I am grandfathered in at a lower rate, I doubt the $12 annual increase will drive me to undertake all of the work necessary to transition to a different host.

Glenn

 

[Mike Buckley]

I doubt the $12 annual increase will drive me to undertake all of the work necessary to transition to a different host.

Only a cost increase that is far greater would motivate me to research other options, much less consider implementing a change. I'm sure Zenfolio's management takes that into account when increasing prices.