Due to the lack of communication...

JamesGPhotoJamesGPhoto Registered Users Posts: 150 Major grins
edited April 3, 2013 in SmugMug Support
And the confusion of managing galleries, I have begun migrating back to zenfolio. I wish I could receive a refund, but I cant.

It grosses me out the lack of updates that smugmug can give. WE PAY YOU $$$, the least SM can do is keep us updated with things.

The fact that we can't hide your branding is insane. It's our business, WE use you to host, our customers could care less. They want pictures from photographers, not Smugmug.

There are more issues I have. Just look in the forums, people are upset, and rightfully so...

Bye Smugmug for the 2nd time, you most likely won't be seeing me for a 3rd chance.
James Geiger M. Ed.
"Being a photographer is not about taking a photograph, it is about being curious about life."
~ Jared Platt
http://www.jamesgeigerphoto.com

Comments

  • grannyrobingrannyrobin Registered Users Posts: 134 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2013
    And the confusion of managing galleries, I have begun migrating back to zenfolio. I wish I could receive a refund, but I cant.

    It grosses me out the lack of updates that smugmug can give. WE PAY YOU $$$, the least SM can do is keep us updated with things.

    The fact that we can't hide your branding is insane. It's our business, WE use you to host, our customers could care less. They want pictures from photographers, not Smugmug.

    There are more issues I have. Just look in the forums, people are upset, and rightfully so...

    Bye Smugmug for the 2nd time, you most likely won't be seeing me for a 3rd chance.

    Sorry you're unhappy with us. We wish it weren't so. However, we are glad you told us exactly how you feel. We wouldn't want it any other way.

    We hadn't thought including something in your footer saying your site was powered by SmugMug would cause such strong feelings. We had thought it something along the lines of dancing with the one that brung ya. Possibly not, however.

    I agree with you that folks want pictures from photographers. However, we do regularly hear from folks who don't always receive prompt replies from photographers. Photographers are taking pictures (hopefully) while some of the rest of us are sitting at our computers. If there's a glitch in a delivery, for example, we can get it straightened away right then. Every day of the year. We're your assistants in that way.

    -Robin
    Support Hero
  • mbonocorembonocore Registered Users Posts: 2,299 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2013
    And the confusion of managing galleries, I have begun migrating back to zenfolio. I wish I could receive a refund, but I cant.

    It grosses me out the lack of updates that smugmug can give. WE PAY YOU $$$, the least SM can do is keep us updated with things.

    The fact that we can't hide your branding is insane. It's our business, WE use you to host, our customers could care less. They want pictures from photographers, not Smugmug.

    There are more issues I have. Just look in the forums, people are upset, and rightfully so...

    Bye Smugmug for the 2nd time, you most likely won't be seeing me for a 3rd chance.

    James,

    You know this saddens me to hear. I have always tried to be there for you and help you through any issues you had, so to hear this makes me feel like I personally let you down. I would hope that you would reconsider. As Robin says, we are always here to help, to answer questions, and to chat with when you need us.

    Please always feel free to write me, no matter where you host your photos.

    Michael
  • AceCo55AceCo55 Registered Users Posts: 950 Major grins
    edited March 27, 2013
    Sorry you're unhappy with us. We wish it weren't so. However, we are glad you told us exactly how you feel. We wouldn't want it any other way.

    We hadn't thought including something in your footer saying your site was powered by SmugMug would cause such strong feelings. We had thought it something along the lines of dancing with the one that brung ya. Possibly not, however.

    I agree with you that folks want pictures from photographers. However, we do regularly hear from folks who don't always receive prompt replies from photographers. Photographers are taking pictures (hopefully) while some of the rest of us are sitting at our computers. If there's a glitch in a delivery, for example, we can get it straightened away right then. Every day of the year. We're your assistants in that way.

    -Robin
    Support Hero

    Paragraph 2: ????? This comes up regularly in the customization forum. I can't see how you would be NOT aware.
    Paragraph 3: You are only my assistants when you come to Australia and set up a printing facility here. As I have said before, NO-ONE is going to purchase a print from me to have it printed in USA and then shipped out here. Put the shoe on the other foot. Suppose all the USA print labs closed and you and your customers had to purchase from a print lab in Australia. How would that affect your, sales and outlook. Remember the time delay plus extra cost of shipping.
    Reading through the forums, people are just totally sick of the "we can't tell you what we are working on and we can't give you any time frame on when they might be available, but we know you will be please when you see them". We just get this message year after year after year. I don't really know why you bother replying ... I can usually guess your reply before I read it.
    My opinion does not necessarily make it true. What you do with my opinion is entirely up to you.
    www.acecootephotography.com
  • darklightphotographydarklightphotography Registered Users Posts: 45 Big grins
    edited April 1, 2013
    And the confusion of managing galleries, I have begun migrating back to zenfolio. I wish I could receive a refund, but I cant.

    It grosses me out the lack of updates that smugmug can give. WE PAY YOU $$$, the least SM can do is keep us updated with things.

    The fact that we can't hide your branding is insane. It's our business, WE use you to host, our customers could care less. They want pictures from photographers, not Smugmug.

    There are more issues I have. Just look in the forums, people are upset, and rightfully so...

    Bye Smugmug for the 2nd time, you most likely won't be seeing me for a 3rd chance.


    I was lucky and managed to downgrade and switch to month by month payments while I migrate. It's a huge and painful job, I feel for you.
    mbonocore wrote: »
    James,

    You know this saddens me to hear. I have always tried to be there for you and help you through any issues you had, so to hear this makes me feel like I personally let you down. I would hope that you would reconsider. As Robin says, we are always here to help, to answer questions, and to chat with when you need us.

    Please always feel free to write me, no matter where you host your photos.

    Michael

    Michael, you aren't just letting James down, you are letting us all down. Not all your fault of course, I have no idea why you would take on a communication role when there is nothing substantive that you are allowed to communicate.
  • mishenkamishenka Banned Posts: 470 Major grins
    edited April 1, 2013
    Sorry you're unhappy with us. We wish it weren't so. However, we are glad you told us exactly how you feel. We wouldn't want it any other way.

    We hadn't thought including something in your footer saying your site was powered by SmugMug would cause such strong feelings. We had thought it something along the lines of dancing with the one that brung ya. Possibly not, however.

    I agree with you that folks want pictures from photographers. However, we do regularly hear from folks who don't always receive prompt replies from photographers. Photographers are taking pictures (hopefully) while some of the rest of us are sitting at our computers. If there's a glitch in a delivery, for example, we can get it straightened away right then. Every day of the year. We're your assistants in that way.

    -Robin
    Support Hero

    ha? As AceCo55 said "Paragraph 2: ????" wait.. let me add a few more of these: ????????????????????????????????????????
    You must be kidding me. I would kindly suggest you, from the bottom of my heart, to do a search for "footer" on DGrin before posting here on behalf of your employer. Please, I am begin now, listen: if MY customers do not receive prompt response from ME - it is MY problem and it is not YOUR (you do know what words I actually want to say here, do you?) business. I pay you to host MY files, MY custom website, and to support ME exactly like you said " Every day of the year." Please, don't interact with MY customers, please get your advertisement off MY website.

    James - I remember communicating with you here just a few times. I do not know you personally but based on what I read on your website makes me respect you very much, respect your talent and intelligence. Too bad that you are leaving but it says a lot about SmugMug. For what it's worth -I believe you can get rid of the footer without listening to threat and harassment from SmugMug about it. Please read this post if you will: It's MY website or much ado about... footer? and/or follow this thread http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=230508
  • mbonocorembonocore Registered Users Posts: 2,299 Major grins
    edited April 1, 2013

    Michael, you aren't just letting James down, you are letting us all down. Not all your fault of course, I have no idea why you would take on a communication role when there is nothing substantive that you are allowed to communicate.

    I understand. Believe me, if you knew me personally, I am actually a very nice, fun guy. I don't like to hear I am letting anyone down. It does pain me. But I also know the flip side of my job. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and I do believe time will prove that we have made the right choices in regards to the future of our products.

    Michael
  • MarcigMarcig Registered Users Posts: 21 Big grins
    edited April 3, 2013
    I've been a Smugmug user/member now for at least 6 years, and it may be 7 or 8. I've never been a power/pro user, mainly because I am not "power photographer" by trade. Only recently have I switched to Portfolio because I have had some requests to purchase a few prints. It's not the easiest system in the world to use and the lack of any decent kind of template to start from has left me with essentially a tweaked version of the default theme I was using before. Again it's not awful, but it certainly leaves me wanting a bit.

    I am however totally disheartened after reading through a number of threads on dgrin. Part of what made me a smugmug member years ago, was the incredible support I got and read about others getting. And 7-8 years ago, that along with what was at the time, the best place to house and show off photos on the web, was the reason I signed up and got others to join as well. Now, I still don't have any issue with support. Again, for me I haven't been a power user much. But these same old themes are still there, and it sounds like smugmug is getting passed by in a number of other areas.

    I've been in the software/web industry now for almost 20 years. I've been a project manager for the last 6 years and truly understand the effort it takes to get things done. But I also understand the importance of communication and managing expectations of your customer, and if the latter isn't handled correctly you are going to have unhappy customers. Clearly that's happening here. What I don't understand is the inability to communicate timelines and/or estimated dates. Surely you're team is driving to some sort of deadline? What does it hurt to say "we're hoping to have the beta release ready by end of Qtr 2?" Even if you don't want to say what's in the release, at least communicate when your team expects to have something completed. I'd rather know you had a drop dead date of March 2014, then not know anything, year after year.
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited April 3, 2013
    Marcig wrote: »
    I've been a Smugmug user/member now for at least 6 years, and it may be 7 or 8. I've never been a power/pro user, mainly because I am not "power photographer" by trade. Only recently have I switched to Portfolio because I have had some requests to purchase a few prints. It's not the easiest system in the world to use and the lack of any decent kind of template to start from has left me with essentially a tweaked version of the default theme I was using before. Again it's not awful, but it certainly leaves me wanting a bit.

    I am however totally disheartened after reading through a number of threads on dgrin. Part of what made me a smugmug member years ago, was the incredible support I got and read about others getting. And 7-8 years ago, that along with what was at the time, the best place to house and show off photos on the web, was the reason I signed up and got others to join as well. Now, I still don't have any issue with support. Again, for me I haven't been a power user much. But these same old themes are still there, and it sounds like smugmug is getting passed by in a number of other areas.

    I've been in the software/web industry now for almost 20 years. I've been a project manager for the last 6 years and truly understand the effort it takes to get things done. But I also understand the importance of communication and managing expectations of your customer, and if the latter isn't handled correctly you are going to have unhappy customers. Clearly that's happening here. What I don't understand is the inability to communicate timelines and/or estimated dates. Surely you're team is driving to some sort of deadline? What does it hurt to say "we're hoping to have the beta release ready by end of Qtr 2?" Even if you don't want to say what's in the release, at least communicate when your team expects to have something completed. I'd rather know you had a drop dead date of March 2014, then not know anything, year after year.
    Hey Marcig,

    Thanks for being a customer so long! I've been in total lockdown mode lately and will be for the next while as we work on some critical and long-requested things. But just cruising dgrin in the last few days has been disheartening for me as well, to say the least. I feel badly for Michael Bonocore who has such a wonderful reputation elsewhere but we haven't let him say enough here, so I'm helping him with a post to say more.

    For people who are interested, I said a lot more than I should have (according to our lawyers) in an interview last December: http://www.thisweekinphoto.com/2012/twip-286-an-evening-with-smugmug/

    Thanks,
    Baldy
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