Exposure Manager (www.exposuremanager.com). Coupons, pre-sales, packages, volume discounts, sales and specials, self-fulfill option, ability to define your own products to sell, proof delays on prints, digital downloads with proof delay, ...
EM also takes a lower percentage and the site encourages users to buy better than smugmug does.
Canon Gear: 5D MkII, 30D, 85 1.2 L, 70-200 2.8 IS L, 17-40mm f4 L, 50 1.4, 580EX, 2x 580EXII, Canon 1.4x TC, 300 f4 IS L, 100mm 2.8 Macro, 100-400 IS L Other Gear: Olympus E-PL1, Pan 20 1.7, Fuji 3D Camera, Lensbaby 2.0, Tamron 28-75 2.8, Alien Bees lighting, CyberSyncs, Domke, HONL, FlipIt.
~ Gear Pictures
The sooner the better! I'm giving my clients a 5x7 and an 8x10 with their photo session. I'd *love* to give them a coupon for that, rather than placing a separate order myself. I think that would be much more likely to spur additional sales.
Wow another "coming soon" thread approaching it's 1 year anniversary.
I wish that were funny. It really was June when Baldy said
bigWebGuy is thoroughly exhausted after releasing the shopping cart and he has some tuning to finish, like banning the color button for pros.
But... Then he's ready to work coupons.
And the only update we can get as recently as 3 days ago is "He's slaving away at coupons".
I can understand playing it close to the vest and all, but some real updates would be nice after all this time. After all, a woman could have conceived and given birth since this thread started.
What exactly do we have to do to see some results? Begging doesn't seem to be the answer.
I've begged your patience before, and I'm doing it again. Please, allow us to get this right. Tom, we know that you want coupons. Continuing to berate us about them doesn't make them appear faster.
At this point, you're turning a thread in which we have the utmost best intentions (seeking input from you and other pros) into a different sort of venue.
Thanks for continuing to keep us honest, we do appreciate it! And I mean this sincerely.
Just some facts to stir the pot. When I am not getting the job done timely, you can bet my boss lets me know about it.
272 Days since first message in this thread or 8 months and 29 days. Almost 9 months folks. This is in addition to any time that coupons consumed prior to the first posting.
Thanks! We love to hear this - we know some things take longer than you folks would like. And we know that you folks will gripe and complain that we don't have somethings, yet. And yet we still do threads like this, seeking input and asking for what you want in a feature, so that we can hopefully get it right, when we do deliver it.
This isn't true.
I've been updating quite a bit in this thread.
I've begged your patience before, and I'm doing it again. Please, allow us to get this right. Tom, we know that you want coupons. Continuing to berate us about them doesn't make them appear faster.
At this point, you're turning a thread in which we have the utmost best intentions (seeking input from you and other pros) into a different sort of venue.
Thanks for continuing to keep us honest, we do appreciate it! And I mean this sincerely.
An update is "here's where we are on this" or "we hope to have something by X date", or "when this finally comes out you might be able to expect Y".
If there have been any updates other than a screenshot and "we're working on it" I've missed them. My sincere apologies--perhaps you can link to the updates I've missed in your reply.
If I was berating you, I wouldn't be saying how much I really want to stay on as a customer. I'm just begging you for updates, as many others are, and we aren't getting any that I've seen. Like I said, I'm sorry if I missed them.
I think a reasonable person would have to admit that almost 9 months with no tangible results is more than long enough to wait. I know you're asking me to be patient. I think we all have been. We just want to know where things stand and what we might expect to see in terms of features.
I really don't think that's too much to ask.
I mean it when I say I like the folks at SM. I say nice things about you on other boards all the time. But a spade is a spade, and you guys are not handling customer expectation levels well (or at all) on this one. Add to that the fact that SM has the hubris to be offended at our impatitence in the process, and it tells me where we stand as customers in your book.
I guess you just want a pass, so you've got it. I'm done with it.
An update is "here's where we are on this" or "we hope to have something by X date", or "when this finally comes out you might be able to expect Y".
If there have been any updates other than a screenshot and "we're working on it" I've missed them. My sincere apologies--perhaps you can link to the updates I've missed in your reply.
If I was berating you, I wouldn't be saying how much I really want to stay on as a customer. I'm just begging you for updates, as many others are, and we aren't getting any that I've seen. Like I said, I'm sorry if I missed them.
I think a reasonable person would have to admit that almost 9 months with no tangible results is more than long enough to wait. I know you're asking me to be patient. I think we all have been. We just want to know where things stand and what we might expect to see in terms of features.
I really don't think that's too much to ask.
I mean it when I say I like the folks at SM. I say nice things about you on other boards all the time. But a spade is a spade, and you guys are not handling customer expectation levels well (or at all) on this one. Add to that the fact that SM has the hubris to be offended at our impatitence in the process, and it tells me where we stand as customers in your book.
I guess you just want a pass, so you've got it. I'm done with it.
Hi Tom, thanks again for posting. A pass? I want no such thing
We don't give dates. I'm sorry. I know you've seen me post this. I'm sorry we're not meeting your expectations in the timeframe it takes us to make coupons on SmugMug. Hopefully we'll make up for that by delivering awesome Coupons and Packages and more, soon.
Thanks again for telling us like it is, and for being here.
I have to agree that it's not much closer. With all due respect to SM, this is still vaporware to me. Promises are nice, but I can't sell on promises. They won't even hint at when it will be available, other than soon.
Unless I see something concrete to the contrary, I'm inclined to believe that they are miles away from this, and are saying it's close to keep us from jumping ship.
Chris MacAskill himself promised to call me to talk about it, but never did. I'm very disappointed in that.
Please make me out to be nothing more than paranoid!!!
I BEG them to prove me wrong on this. If not, I'll be gone by summer.
Ouch, Sorry Tom. Gabe's father was diagnosed with a very serious form of cancer, so Gabe's spending his hours in a hospital room with his laptop, and I didn't feel I could ask him to join me for any more package-related calls.
I've taken it upon myself to demo the version of packages we have on our test servers in user group meetings where I can show screen shots and get feedback that way.
I should have told you about the situation with Gabe and the reasons for going silent. It just threw us all into a funk. But Gabe is still working on packages and keeping us up to date on his progress.
I'm gonna say thanks to Chris here...Andy, I appreciate your desire to keep all of us as happy as possible, while still not giving out dates, etc. but sometimes it just doesn't give us the information we need to make business decisions, like where to host our photos. For me, the professional features are a bonus until I develop my business, but for others who base their livelihood out of this site, features like coupons and packages can make the difference between an OK year and a GREAT year of sales, and SmugMug knows that, I'm sure.
I've taken it upon myself to demo the version of packages we have on our test servers in user group meetings where I can show screen shots and get feedback that way.
Right there, instead of "we're working on it", he's telling us that there is a semi-working prototype in place, if not a semi-functional version RUNNING on your servers. Before now, we could only guess that something was working, and with one screenshot we got, there was no way to tell whether it was a mockup, the real thing, or something else!
I know how SM feels about giving dates, and I can't blame you guys, but a slightly more informative update is all many of us are asking for. It's one thing if we were paying for the standard subscription, or a free service of some sort, but we are the Professional users: we look to SM for great features, excellent customer service, and reliability. For me, you've delivered on all three, but I've been hearing about these packages and coupons since June of last year (if my memory serves me correctly). That's an awful long time without any sort of "descriptive update."
So, thank you to everyone at SmugMug for working hard on this, because I know for a fact you guys would never slack off on something so important for us and for yourselves. But special thanks to Chris, for an update on why things are going slowly, and a decent status update that begins to tell us where things are with the project...all without giving a single date.
Keep up the great work, here's to hoping things are out in time before I need to renew my subscription!
Sincerely,
Nick Blew
Pro Customer (and for now, still very pleased and impressed with SmugMug)
Ouch, Sorry Tom. Gabe's father was diagnosed with a very serious form of cancer, so Gabe's spending his hours in a hospital room with his laptop, and I didn't feel I could ask him to join me for any more package-related calls.
I've taken it upon myself to demo the version of packages we have on our test servers in user group meetings where I can show screen shots and get feedback that way.
I should have told you about the situation with Gabe and the reasons for going silent. It just threw us all into a funk. But Gabe is still working on packages and keeping us up to date on his progress.
Very sorry to hear that. Prayers going out to Gabe's father, Gabe, and the rest of the family.
First, my thoughts are with Gabe and his father--even though I don't know either of them, I can't help but empathize. (BTW, it's mildly absurd he's still working on the coupons--take some time off! Unless the work is therapeutic...)
Secondly, hearing that there's actually something on test servers is promising. This, as was already mentioned, is the type of update that can still give Smug some latitude on dates (i.e. not giving them). (note: I don't understand that policy anyways. How can being semi-tied to a time frame add more pressure than dozens of customers complaining? What's the rationale here?)
Finally, there should be more updates like that. You said user groups; are you showing early versions of whatever "SmugPro" is to select users (e.g. alpha testers)? If so, that's awesome; from this we can see that progress is being made. Maybe not fast enough, but it's something other than the over-used phrases (e.g. "we're working on it," "it's a top priority," "we have someone totally dedicated to this," "we know you need it") that we can equate to progress.
With respect to this topic, but on a slightly different tangent: why hasn't SmugMug hired outside help? Obviously the wizards at Smug are amazing (anyone who visits a Smug site could tell you that), but if coupons and packages are truly so difficult and time consuming, it seems reasonable to outsource--or temp--some of the labor. We've been told that Smug is fine with regards to cash; use some of it. I think it's odd that I haven't seen this question asked before; maybe everyone else is in on something I'm not.
Please don't mistake my blunt, pointed posts as my being "angry," "short," or "rude."
Ouch, Sorry Tom. Gabe's father was diagnosed with a very serious form of cancer, so Gabe's spending his hours in a hospital room with his laptop, and I didn't feel I could ask him to join me for any more package-related calls.
I've taken it upon myself to demo the version of packages we have on our test servers in user group meetings where I can show screen shots and get feedback that way.
I should have told you about the situation with Gabe and the reasons for going silent. It just threw us all into a funk. But Gabe is still working on packages and keeping us up to date on his progress.
I realize that people get impatient when things don't seem to be happening in a timeframe they prefer, but Baldy's announcement brings into view that SM is a small-ish operation without unlimited resources. I don't know how many people work for them, but they're not a Yahoo, Google, or Amazon. I don't blame them for wanting to get things right and I prefer to know that things I want are in the works vs. surprise launches. SM does enough of what I need them to do to keep me as a customer.
Keep up the good work Smugmug. Prayers go out to Tom's family.
Sam
Any word on this? My account is up at the end of the month, unless I can get an answer when the coupons and packages will be available I'm moving to a different provider. I'm tired of waiting.
Any word on this? My account is up at the end of the month, unless I can get an answer when the coupons and packages will be available I'm moving to a different provider. I'm tired of waiting.
I'm sorry for the wait. As I've been posting, coupons are in active development. They're being coded by SmugMug sorcerer bigwebguy and he's making progress. It's his #1 priority. Hopefully there'll be some more to show/say soon!
Chris check out Exposure Manager. The packages, coupons and vouchers are very good. Vouchers will be nice for pre selling. I love that you can set up any size digital download you want. I set up a 400px wide low res DD for use on Facebook and such. Also 10% commission instead of 15%.
I found a coupon that takes $25 off so it is only $75 for the year. I renewed my Smug last month hoping "soon" was well....... soon. I had to submit a package proposal to a high school for next year and telling them I'll have one to you soon just didn't cut it. I had to submit something today so I spent all weekend figuring out EM. I like it so far.
Dano, good link. I hadn't looked into anything else before now, but considering how slow Smugmug has been on this issue and others, it makes me think about switching.
What I like about EM is the per-month pricing, which could let you do the EM thing for a bit until SM got their act together and pushed this stuff out. It might get some SM lovers through these tough times without packages, coupons, etc.
It stinks that people would have to pay for both services, but for $75 / year, it's not terrible for the tradeoff of being able to do packages, etc.
Good luck to anyone hunting for a new service, I don't think I'm up for renewal till August. It's tough leaving Smugmug, I'm sure, but I guess if they aren't moving as fast as you need, it's necessary.
Chris check out Exposure Manager. The packages, coupons and vouchers are very good. Vouchers will be nice for pre selling. I love that you can set up any size digital download you want. I set up a 400px wide low res DD for use on Facebook and such. Also 10% commission instead of 15%.
I found a coupon that takes $25 off so it is only $75 for the year. I renewed my Smug last month hoping "soon" was well....... soon. I had to submit a package proposal to a high school for next year and telling them I'll have one to you soon just didn't cut it. I had to submit something today so I spent all weekend figuring out EM. I like it so far.
Thanks Dan and yes I'm looking at EM and I will probably be moving, I know Janes uses them and is very happy. I've had a Smugmug account for three years and they have been telling me for three years that they are coming. I'm tired of waiting. EM also has a few other features that I would like to have.
Andy - Thanks for the update but that's still not any new information. As Nick said earlier, how can I make an informed business decision on that? I would LOVE to stay with Smugmug but unless I can get an honest answer, I can't stay. Also the user group meetings, that's great and you just had one in Chicago but the invitations were not sent until a couple of days before the event and then it was too late for me to attend.
Any word on this? My account is up at the end of the month, unless I can get an answer when the coupons and packages will be available I'm moving to a different provider. I'm tired of waiting.
Same here, and in fact I've left my expired CC on file (not updated the info). Amazing how often SM emails you when you're under a month to renewal with an expired card on file...
Unfortunately I have a shoot coming up in early June and don't have time to move everything to a new host. Once that is done I may have to look in to EM and live with the fact that I'm paying two hosting fees for a while.
Its particularly disappointing to see coupons (and packages) taking a back seat to the "Easy Customizing" feature...
Its particularly disappointing to see coupons (and packages) taking a back seat to the "Easy Customizing" feature...
Sorry but it's not a back seat in any way, shape or form, Coupons: Lee (Bigwebguy); Packages: Gabe; Easy Customizer: Brian. And we have 6 other Sorcerers working on other things.
Please remember, Easy customizer has been asked for equally as much as coupons
Dano, good link. I hadn't looked into anything else before now, but considering how slow Smugmug has been on this issue and others,
Are we resting? No way. I'm sorry that coupons and packages have taking longer than they should. You guys will either wait or not, we get that. But we're not stopping. http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1103374&postcount=97
Lee is dedicated to coupons. He's working fulltime on 'em and their in active and agressive development right now. Not later, not next month, not in 6 months, it's his #1 priority right now.
I ask you guys a lot for your patience and understanding - hopefully you'll be here when we release 'em!
Hi Sledhed, my answers are honest. Read just above. I'm sorry if by honest you mean 'coupons by such-and-such date' --- I can't do that. But read my postings just above here, thanks.
Hi Sledhed, my answers are honest. Read just above. I'm sorry if by honest you mean 'coupons by such-and-such date' --- I can't do that. But read my postings just above here, thanks.
By honest I mean I have been asking for three years and I'm always told they are being worked on, I'm just tired of that answer. I'm not saying your not honest Andy, but I do think you owe us an answer so we can make an informed decision about our future with Smugmug. I REALLY do not want to move.
Andy I don't think any of us are looking for hard dates. Problem is I know nothing about coding a website to accept packages, coupons etc. So when I here "coming soon we have a guy working on it full time" I'm thinking it should only be a few months at the most. Maybe a realistic time frame is 2-3 years, as I have no idea what is involved with this.
It has been almost a year now since you have "a guy working full time on this" and I don't know if it will be rolled out by the end of the year, by next spring or next week. I just think anybody doing this stuff for a living should be able to give some sort of time frame within a couple months.
Again we could all leave without saying a word but I like the Smug community and just want to see the site get better. For those of us doing event photography this is critical to our business. I have no doubt that when you guys get it done it will be great.
Andy I don't think any of us are looking for hard dates. Problem is I know nothing about coding a website to accept packages, coupons etc. So when I here "coming soon we have a guy working on it full time" I'm thinking it should only be a few months at the most.
Please remember, Easy customizer has been asked for equally as much as coupons
Really? I don't recall seeing a dedicated thread about it. Let alone one started ten months ago by one of the SM co-founders.
The new cart was supposed to pave the way for coupons "real soon", ten months later its "in active development", "real soon", "important", and on and on...
This is turning in to another Bibble 5 story, another product/dev team I really have a love/hate relationship with these days.
After ten months of development don't you think its time to give BWG some help to get it done?
My apologies Andy, I didn't mean to imply that things weren't moving quickly at SM. I'm just very surprised to see it take so long to roll out new features if they have been in development for such a long time! I appreciate your desire to roll it out once, the right way, but honestly I feel many here would rather know "sorta" when it was going to happen.
Now, maybe this is just me, but if you tell me that you plan to roll this out late June, I renew based on that, and then you give me a valid reason why it isn't done in June, that's not going to bother me so much. I might be a bit frustrated, but not half as much as the frustration I feel brewing here. Right now, as I said before, you are expecting many of us to make business decisions based on promises. Now, I'm not going to lie, you do make good on promises, and when you do, you make good on them 110%, but it takes a LONG time to get there. I can't name any other business that has expected to keep my business based on promises. Some do this by not announcing features until their launch. Some do this by giving a tentative date, and doing their best to stick with it. I think a lot of us wish SmugMug would do one of the two.
It's torture, both on a personal, and a business level to know something is coming, but not be able to get to it. Personally, we can wait for the features. Business owners don't get to say, "Oh, well, it's not gonna be April, so I guess I'll just hope they finish soon." I've heard numerous people talk about leaving Smugmug and there's no reason for that, in my opinion.
Smugmug prides itself on the greatest customer support around...do others here agree with me that part of customer support is giving customers a realistic timeline for new features, or just keeping it under wraps until it's really ready?
I'm sure you mean it when you say that you have people working on it. I just hope you don't lose a lot of valuable business by not finding a better way to please customers. Because maybe it's in-house policy to "never give dates"...but that's costing you at least a few customers. And to Smugmug, losing one customer isn't just a dip in sales figures, it's not being able to provide for a customer and I know how hard Smugmug tries to please all of us.
Here's to hoping you find a way to keep everyone happy who is considering jumping ship!
Comments
EM also takes a lower percentage and the site encourages users to buy better than smugmug does.
Other Gear: Olympus E-PL1, Pan 20 1.7, Fuji 3D Camera, Lensbaby 2.0, Tamron 28-75 2.8, Alien Bees lighting, CyberSyncs, Domke, HONL, FlipIt.
~ Gear Pictures
The sooner the better! I'm giving my clients a 5x7 and an 8x10 with their photo session. I'd *love* to give them a coupon for that, rather than placing a separate order myself. I think that would be much more likely to spur additional sales.
DMunsonPhoto
MaxPreps Profile
Sports Shooter
I wish that were funny. It really was June when Baldy said
But... Then he's ready to work coupons.
I can understand playing it close to the vest and all, but some real updates would be nice after all this time. After all, a woman could have conceived and given birth since this thread started.
What exactly do we have to do to see some results? Begging doesn't seem to be the answer.
I've been updating quite a bit in this thread. I've begged your patience before, and I'm doing it again. Please, allow us to get this right. Tom, we know that you want coupons. Continuing to berate us about them doesn't make them appear faster.
At this point, you're turning a thread in which we have the utmost best intentions (seeking input from you and other pros) into a different sort of venue.
Thanks for continuing to keep us honest, we do appreciate it! And I mean this sincerely.
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We're gluttons for punishment
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An update is "here's where we are on this" or "we hope to have something by X date", or "when this finally comes out you might be able to expect Y".
If there have been any updates other than a screenshot and "we're working on it" I've missed them. My sincere apologies--perhaps you can link to the updates I've missed in your reply.
If I was berating you, I wouldn't be saying how much I really want to stay on as a customer. I'm just begging you for updates, as many others are, and we aren't getting any that I've seen. Like I said, I'm sorry if I missed them.
I think a reasonable person would have to admit that almost 9 months with no tangible results is more than long enough to wait. I know you're asking me to be patient. I think we all have been. We just want to know where things stand and what we might expect to see in terms of features.
I really don't think that's too much to ask.
I mean it when I say I like the folks at SM. I say nice things about you on other boards all the time. But a spade is a spade, and you guys are not handling customer expectation levels well (or at all) on this one. Add to that the fact that SM has the hubris to be offended at our impatitence in the process, and it tells me where we stand as customers in your book.
I guess you just want a pass, so you've got it. I'm done with it.
We don't give dates. I'm sorry. I know you've seen me post this. I'm sorry we're not meeting your expectations in the timeframe it takes us to make coupons on SmugMug. Hopefully we'll make up for that by delivering awesome Coupons and Packages and more, soon.
Thanks again for telling us like it is, and for being here.
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I've taken it upon myself to demo the version of packages we have on our test servers in user group meetings where I can show screen shots and get feedback that way.
I should have told you about the situation with Gabe and the reasons for going silent. It just threw us all into a funk. But Gabe is still working on packages and keeping us up to date on his progress.
I'm gonna say thanks to Chris here...Andy, I appreciate your desire to keep all of us as happy as possible, while still not giving out dates, etc. but sometimes it just doesn't give us the information we need to make business decisions, like where to host our photos. For me, the professional features are a bonus until I develop my business, but for others who base their livelihood out of this site, features like coupons and packages can make the difference between an OK year and a GREAT year of sales, and SmugMug knows that, I'm sure.
Anyway, I'm really happy with Chris for this:
Right there, instead of "we're working on it", he's telling us that there is a semi-working prototype in place, if not a semi-functional version RUNNING on your servers. Before now, we could only guess that something was working, and with one screenshot we got, there was no way to tell whether it was a mockup, the real thing, or something else!
I know how SM feels about giving dates, and I can't blame you guys, but a slightly more informative update is all many of us are asking for. It's one thing if we were paying for the standard subscription, or a free service of some sort, but we are the Professional users: we look to SM for great features, excellent customer service, and reliability. For me, you've delivered on all three, but I've been hearing about these packages and coupons since June of last year (if my memory serves me correctly). That's an awful long time without any sort of "descriptive update."
So, thank you to everyone at SmugMug for working hard on this, because I know for a fact you guys would never slack off on something so important for us and for yourselves. But special thanks to Chris, for an update on why things are going slowly, and a decent status update that begins to tell us where things are with the project...all without giving a single date.
Keep up the great work, here's to hoping things are out in time before I need to renew my subscription!
Sincerely,
Nick Blew
Pro Customer (and for now, still very pleased and impressed with SmugMug)
Sigma 18-50 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8
Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 50mm f/1.8
Very sorry to hear that. Prayers going out to Gabe's father, Gabe, and the rest of the family.
Secondly, hearing that there's actually something on test servers is promising. This, as was already mentioned, is the type of update that can still give Smug some latitude on dates (i.e. not giving them). (note: I don't understand that policy anyways. How can being semi-tied to a time frame add more pressure than dozens of customers complaining? What's the rationale here?)
Finally, there should be more updates like that. You said user groups; are you showing early versions of whatever "SmugPro" is to select users (e.g. alpha testers)? If so, that's awesome; from this we can see that progress is being made. Maybe not fast enough, but it's something other than the over-used phrases (e.g. "we're working on it," "it's a top priority," "we have someone totally dedicated to this," "we know you need it") that we can equate to progress.
With respect to this topic, but on a slightly different tangent: why hasn't SmugMug hired outside help? Obviously the wizards at Smug are amazing (anyone who visits a Smug site could tell you that), but if coupons and packages are truly so difficult and time consuming, it seems reasonable to outsource--or temp--some of the labor. We've been told that Smug is fine with regards to cash; use some of it. I think it's odd that I haven't seen this question asked before; maybe everyone else is in on something I'm not.
I'm generally happy, tall, and fuzzy on the inside.www.NickensPhotography.com
I realize that people get impatient when things don't seem to be happening in a timeframe they prefer, but Baldy's announcement brings into view that SM is a small-ish operation without unlimited resources. I don't know how many people work for them, but they're not a Yahoo, Google, or Amazon. I don't blame them for wanting to get things right and I prefer to know that things I want are in the works vs. surprise launches. SM does enough of what I need them to do to keep me as a customer.
Keep up the good work Smugmug. Prayers go out to Tom's family.
Sam
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Thought I might jump in here to see if there's an update--- it's been several weeks. Any motion on the coupon front?
I need to make a decision who to go with for my photobiz...
right now, it's a runoff between pictage, smugmug and photobiz.
Coupons/discounts are critical to this decision making process.
Any good news?
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I found a coupon that takes $25 off so it is only $75 for the year. I renewed my Smug last month hoping "soon" was well....... soon. I had to submit a package proposal to a high school for next year and telling them I'll have one to you soon just didn't cut it. I had to submit something today so I spent all weekend figuring out EM. I like it so far.
DMunsonPhoto
MaxPreps Profile
Sports Shooter
What I like about EM is the per-month pricing, which could let you do the EM thing for a bit until SM got their act together and pushed this stuff out. It might get some SM lovers through these tough times without packages, coupons, etc.
It stinks that people would have to pay for both services, but for $75 / year, it's not terrible for the tradeoff of being able to do packages, etc.
Good luck to anyone hunting for a new service, I don't think I'm up for renewal till August. It's tough leaving Smugmug, I'm sure, but I guess if they aren't moving as fast as you need, it's necessary.
~Nick
Sigma 18-50 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8
Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 50mm f/1.8
Andy - Thanks for the update but that's still not any new information. As Nick said earlier, how can I make an informed business decision on that? I would LOVE to stay with Smugmug but unless I can get an honest answer, I can't stay. Also the user group meetings, that's great and you just had one in Chicago but the invitations were not sent until a couple of days before the event and then it was too late for me to attend.
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Same here, and in fact I've left my expired CC on file (not updated the info). Amazing how often SM emails you when you're under a month to renewal with an expired card on file...
Unfortunately I have a shoot coming up in early June and don't have time to move everything to a new host. Once that is done I may have to look in to EM and live with the fact that I'm paying two hosting fees for a while.
Its particularly disappointing to see coupons (and packages) taking a back seat to the "Easy Customizing" feature...
Sorry but it's not a back seat in any way, shape or form, Coupons: Lee (Bigwebguy); Packages: Gabe; Easy Customizer: Brian. And we have 6 other Sorcerers working on other things.
Please remember, Easy customizer has been asked for equally as much as coupons
More: http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1103374&postcount=97
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Are we resting? No way. I'm sorry that coupons and packages have taking longer than they should. You guys will either wait or not, we get that. But we're not stopping. http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1103374&postcount=97
Lee is dedicated to coupons. He's working fulltime on 'em and their in active and agressive development right now. Not later, not next month, not in 6 months, it's his #1 priority right now.
I ask you guys a lot for your patience and understanding - hopefully you'll be here when we release 'em!
Thanks again for being our customers.
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Hi Sledhed, my answers are honest. Read just above. I'm sorry if by honest you mean 'coupons by such-and-such date' --- I can't do that. But read my postings just above here, thanks.
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Website
Sports Sample Photos
Sportsshooter.com/ctproctor
Four Seam Images
It's as up2date an update as we can give.
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It has been almost a year now since you have "a guy working full time on this" and I don't know if it will be rolled out by the end of the year, by next spring or next week. I just think anybody doing this stuff for a living should be able to give some sort of time frame within a couple months.
Again we could all leave without saying a word but I like the Smug community and just want to see the site get better. For those of us doing event photography this is critical to our business. I have no doubt that when you guys get it done it will be great.
DMunsonPhoto
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If it's not soon we'll all be disappointed.
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Really? I don't recall seeing a dedicated thread about it. Let alone one started ten months ago by one of the SM co-founders.
The new cart was supposed to pave the way for coupons "real soon", ten months later its "in active development", "real soon", "important", and on and on...
This is turning in to another Bibble 5 story, another product/dev team I really have a love/hate relationship with these days.
After ten months of development don't you think its time to give BWG some help to get it done?
Now, maybe this is just me, but if you tell me that you plan to roll this out late June, I renew based on that, and then you give me a valid reason why it isn't done in June, that's not going to bother me so much. I might be a bit frustrated, but not half as much as the frustration I feel brewing here. Right now, as I said before, you are expecting many of us to make business decisions based on promises. Now, I'm not going to lie, you do make good on promises, and when you do, you make good on them 110%, but it takes a LONG time to get there. I can't name any other business that has expected to keep my business based on promises. Some do this by not announcing features until their launch. Some do this by giving a tentative date, and doing their best to stick with it. I think a lot of us wish SmugMug would do one of the two.
It's torture, both on a personal, and a business level to know something is coming, but not be able to get to it. Personally, we can wait for the features. Business owners don't get to say, "Oh, well, it's not gonna be April, so I guess I'll just hope they finish soon." I've heard numerous people talk about leaving Smugmug and there's no reason for that, in my opinion.
Smugmug prides itself on the greatest customer support around...do others here agree with me that part of customer support is giving customers a realistic timeline for new features, or just keeping it under wraps until it's really ready?
I'm sure you mean it when you say that you have people working on it. I just hope you don't lose a lot of valuable business by not finding a better way to please customers. Because maybe it's in-house policy to "never give dates"...but that's costing you at least a few customers. And to Smugmug, losing one customer isn't just a dip in sales figures, it's not being able to provide for a customer and I know how hard Smugmug tries to please all of us.
Here's to hoping you find a way to keep everyone happy who is considering jumping ship!
Sincerely,
Nick Blew
Sigma 18-50 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8
Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 50mm f/1.8