SmugMug's "Automatic" Pricelist Migration - horrible customer service approach

HCPHCP Registered Users Posts: 41 Big grins
edited July 6, 2012 in SmugMug Pro Sales Support
So I just received an email that I have been "automatically" migrated to Pricelists. AFTER THE FACT. I am so angry right now I am having a hard time composing this email. Why wouldn't SmugMug send a heads up email that Pricelists were going to be imposed on my site on this date at least a few days in advance?

In effect, this has raised all my digital download prices by 49 cents. If I had the option, I probably would have eaten this cost and had it be transparent to my clients. Now I have to figure out how to do this AFTER the prices have already been changed.

This is not acceptable!
hcphoto.smugmug.com

Comments

  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    Hi, sorry this caught you by surprise! We did post a heads up months and months ago via email and our blog
    http://news.smugmug.com/2011/12/13/why-pricelists-will-change-your-life/
    Holler to our heroes day/night whenever, we can assist :Dhttp://help.smugmug.com
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • HCPHCP Registered Users Posts: 41 Big grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    Hi, sorry this caught you by surprise! We did post a heads up months and months ago via email and our blog
    http://news.smugmug.com/2011/12/13/why-pricelists-will-change-your-life/
    Holler to our heroes day/night whenever, we can assist :Dhttp://help.smugmug.com

    Andy,

    I had read about pricelists, and yes I knew they existed. But since they have existed for months, and I haven't been using them, why would I not receive an email warning me that since I hadn't moved to pricelists, it was going to be done to me on 6/28?
    hcphoto.smugmug.com
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    HCP wrote: »
    Andy,

    I had read about pricelists, and yes I knew they existed. But since they have existed for months, and I haven't been using them, why would I not receive an email warning me that since I hadn't moved to pricelists, it was going to be done to me on 6/28?

    We were originally said we were going to migrate everyone on 4/1, but delayed it. Sorry about that! Holler to our heroes if we can assist with pricelists for you.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • HCPHCP Registered Users Posts: 41 Big grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    And since that blog page says "After migration, your pricing will appear unchanged to your customers, but you’ll have more power to edit them, behind the scenes."

    why have all my prices been raised by 49 cents?
    hcphoto.smugmug.com
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    HCP wrote: »
    And since that blog page says "After migration, your pricing will appear unchanged to your customers, but you’ll have more power to edit them, behind the scenes."

    why have all my prices been raised by 49 cents?

    Hi, write our heroes we can help you personally - thanks!
    http://help.smugmug.com
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • HCPHCP Registered Users Posts: 41 Big grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    Hi, write our heroes we can help you personally - thanks!
    http://help.smugmug.com

    I wrote to help@smugmug before posting this thread. Nothing done now changes what was already done earlier today. I am writing this here so that others may have a heads up if they haven't already migrated to pricelists. Perhaps I am the very last pro account to be migrated, but just in case, I am warning others that this may happen to them.
    hcphoto.smugmug.com
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    HCP wrote: »
    I wrote to help@smugmug before posting this thread. Nothing done now changes what was already done earlier today. I am writing this here so that others may have a heads up if they haven't already migrated to pricelists. Perhaps I am the very last pro account to be migrated, but just in case, I am warning others that this may happen to them.

    It *will* happen to all pros on SmugMug. We can't support the labs and features you all want without pricelists :) Thanks for posting this, it's great!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    28 migrated price lists showed up. For years I've only used two, default (Portfolio) and family (Products-Family-prices).

    I have 237 family galleries and I know that I've almost always used this in red but after migration it only shows 3 galleries applied.
    Pricelist migrated from Products-Family-prices

    So how do I reset all the galleries to these two? The only thing I can find is pick every individual gallery for each new list.
    I have 745 galleries in the birds category and it would be a nightmare setting each gallery one by one.
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    Allen wrote: »
    28 migrated price lists showed up. For years I've only used two, default (Portfolio) and family (Products-Family-prices).

    I have 237 family galleries and I know that I've almost always used this in red but after migration it only shows 3 galleries applied.
    Pricelist migrated from Products-Family-prices

    So how do I reset all the galleries to these two? The only thing I can find is pick every individual gallery for each new list.
    I have 745 galleries in the birds category and it would be a nightmare setting each gallery one by one.

    Al, write our heroes, we'll help.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    My biggest questions is only ONE gallery shows up for "Copy of Portfolio Pricelist" when this is
    the default list I've been using for years. That makes no sense and something was definitely
    screwed up in the migration.

    One extremely confusing example, my latest gallery.

    This gallery inherits default pricing. Override with:
    "No Pricelist assigned"

    Why does this not show "Portfolio Pricelist" as that was the default.


    Pricelist migrated from Misc-Birds ( +105 others)
    What are those 105 others? I see no way to find that out.
    Somewhere in my bird category 745 galleries there are 105?

    Edit: I finally found the 105 but see no way to change the 105 to another pricelist.
    On that view we need a "select different pricelist".
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    Allen wrote: »
    My biggest questions is only ONE gallery shows up for "Copy of Portfolio Pricelist" when this is
    the default list I've been using for years. That makes no sense and something was definitely
    screwed up in the migration.

    One extremely confusing example, my latest gallery.

    This gallery inherits default pricing. Override with:
    "No Pricelist assigned"

    Why does this not show "Portfolio Pricelist" as that was the default.


    Pricelist migrated from Misc-Birds ( +105 others)
    What are those 105 others? I see no way to find that out.
    Somewhere in my bird category 745 galleries there are 105?

    Edit: I finally found the 105 but see no way to change the 105 to another pricelist.
    On that view we need a "select different pricelist".

    Hi Al, let our heroes help you, they're standing by :) Thanks!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    I finally found the 105 that apply to this pricelist but see no way to change the 105 to another pricelist.
    On that view we need a "select different pricelist".

    Still have this question.
    Why is there no way to bulk change these currently assigned galleries to a new pricelist?
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    Allen wrote: »
    I finally found the 105 that apply to this pricelist but see no way to change the 105 to another pricelist.
    On that view we need a "select different pricelist".

    Still have this question.
    Why is there no way to bulk change these currently assigned galleries to a new pricelist?

    Hey Al, can you please please work with our heroes for fastest help? Thanks!
    http://help.smugmug.com
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited June 28, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    Hey Al, can you please please work with our heroes for fastest help? Thanks!
    http://help.smugmug.com
    You have zillions of customers that have to use this new pricing. I'm trying to understand it and figure
    out how to work with it. I'm sure once the initial migration mess is understood and cleaned up it would
    be easy to work with.

    It's not something that can be cleaned on a bulk basis. I have to go thru and find some galleries that
    are different then the whole category (745 galleries). I could, I think, just delete to odd pricelist and
    all its galleries would revert to default but I'd still have to go thru and find the galleries that don't get
    the default.

    If I make the "Copy of Portfolio pricelist" the default will every gallery from pricelists that are deleted
    fall into the "Copy of Portfolio pricelist"? Can I rename it to "Default Pricelist" or "Portfolio Pricelist"?

    In a lot of galleries I get this.
    This gallery inherits default pricing. Override with:
    "No Pricelist assigned"
    Why does it not show "default pricelist"? Or the actual name of the default pricelist?
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • HCPHCP Registered Users Posts: 41 Big grins
    edited June 29, 2012
    Allen wrote: »
    You have zillions of customers that have to use this new pricing. I'm trying to understand it and figure
    out how to work with it. I'm sure once the initial migration mess is understood and cleaned up it would
    be easy to work with.

    It's not something that can be cleaned on a bulk basis. I have to go thru and find some galleries that
    are different then the whole category (745 galleries). I could, I think, just delete to odd pricelist and
    all its galleries would revert to default but I'd still have to go thru and find the galleries that don't get
    the default.

    If I make the "Copy of Portfolio pricelist" the default will every gallery from pricelists that are deleted
    fall into the "Copy of Portfolio pricelist"? Can I rename it to "Default Pricelist" or "Portfolio Pricelist"?

    In a lot of galleries I get this.
    This gallery inherits default pricing. Override with:
    "No Pricelist assigned"
    Why does it not show "default pricelist"? Or the actual name of the default pricelist?


    Allen, I don't have an answer or solution to suggest, but I feel your pain and wanted you to know that someone does.

    This is because I didn't have the impression today that the responders on the SmugMug team get it. The reaction appears to be, hey we warned you 6 months ago that this was going to happen sometime, so deal with it.

    Thankfully I happened to be in a position today to read the email that told me the change had already happened, shortly after, and could rearrange my afternoon to deal with the aftermath.

    With this unscheduled, communicated after the fact migration to pricelists forced upon us today, I ended up with 14 pricelists, and had to modify each one to reflect the correct advertised pricing. I was able to do this in a couple of hours (I think). After reading your posts, I now realize I should double check to make sure the pricing matches what we have advertised in more galleries.
    hcphoto.smugmug.com
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited June 29, 2012
    With the great help of Sean from Smugmug I finally managed to work my way down to only two
    pricelists. Also learned a few not obvious tricks along the way that Sean says are covered in the
    videos.
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited June 29, 2012
    One of the things I found very difficult was when drilling down into the "selected" galleries/photos all
    you see is the thumbnail and part of description. It would be very useful if, hovering the thumb, the
    whole path/breadcrumb would be exposed. Some of these are very difficult to find on the site,
    especially photos.

    ... and what is that "eye" in the upper left corner on most of the pages?
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • laslolaslo Registered Users Posts: 73 Big grins
    edited July 1, 2012
    Andy wrote: »
    Hi, sorry this caught you by surprise! We did post a heads up months and months ago via email and our blog
    http://news.smugmug.com/2011/12/13/why-pricelists-will-change-your-life/
    Holler to our heroes day/night whenever, we can assist :Dhttp://help.smugmug.com
    The new process is very confusing. Where are the detailed instructions on migrating old to new and creating new prices? I am not looking for a web tutorial but something in writing. Right now I am not sure what I am charging customers and have an active event sale going on.
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited July 1, 2012
    laslo wrote: »
    The new process is very confusing. Where are the detailed instructions on migrating old to new and creating new prices? I am not looking for a web tutorial but something in writing. Right now I am not sure what I am charging customers and have an active event sale going on.

    There's a great video here, http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/256034
    and of course just write our heroes http://help.smugmug.com if you have more questions we're always happy to help!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • dogwooddogwood Registered Users Posts: 2,572 Major grins
    edited July 1, 2012
    laslo wrote: »
    The new process is very confusing. Where are the detailed instructions on migrating old to new and creating new prices? I am not looking for a web tutorial but something in writing. Right now I am not sure what I am charging customers and have an active event sale going on.

    This thread was helpful to me since I was also struggling to figure out how much I was charging. Includes screenshots.

    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=222660
    Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
    website blog instagram facebook g+

  • PaulMillerPaulMiller Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
    edited July 5, 2012
    I feel your frustration
    Allen wrote: »
    One of the things I found very difficult was when drilling down into the "selected" galleries/photos all
    you see is the thumbnail and part of description. It would be very useful if, hovering the thumb, the
    whole path/breadcrumb would be exposed. Some of these are very difficult to find on the site,
    especially photos.

    ... and what is that "eye" in the upper left corner on most of the pages?

    The new price list feature is a joke. I have nothing but time to read through help and watch videos on how to set the price of a photo.

    Why didn't you just implement for the people who want it and leave the rest of alone.

    Andy: I have no idea why you even respond to messages here, you offer no help.

    ~Paul
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited July 6, 2012
    PaulMiller wrote: »
    The new price list feature is a joke. I have nothing but time to read through help and watch videos on how to set the price of a photo.

    Why didn't you just implement for the people who want it and leave the rest of alone.

    Andy: I have no idea why you even respond to messages here, you offer no help.

    ~Paul

    Hi Paul, thanks for posting. I'm sorry you're frustrated. Pricelists are necessary for new labs, new products and new offerings. Without them we'd be stuck in years-ago land. If you'd like some one-on-one help, we have it, just email our heroes, ATTN: Andy and I can arrange. It's quick, painless and once you've done 1 or 2 pricelists you'll have the hang of it. We're standing by.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
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