Closed without warning... Where are my Pictures?
Written: Jun 13 '07 (Updated Oct 16 '07)
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Club Photo is Gone
For those of you that reviewed Club Photo, and are current users, know that it is gone, and perhaps along with all your pictures and memories. I liked the service, but didn't even know that it was going under until I went to retrieve some online pictures from 2002.
Not a Happy Camper
I'm actually quite upset, as I not only paid for a multi-year membership, I am missing many of my master photos for this period that I assumed were safe. As far as I'm concerned, they owe me money and a copy of my pictures. I received no notification that they were going belly up, and I am shocked and embittered by this experience. I guess the lesson here is once your media is out of your possession, you are the sucker.
Winkflash
Winkflash put themselves in the unenviable position of taking over ClubPhoto clients by trying to restore the pictures. They issued the following statement:
"Clubphoto Customers:
Winkflash.com was asked by former Clubphoto members if we could facilitate the retrieval of their photos previously stored with Clubphoto. We contacted Clubphoto in an effort to accomplish this. On April 26th, we are happy to announce that we reached an agreement with Clubphoto's parent, PhotoTLC, allowing us to recover customers' photo albums.
We will begin restoring albums the week of June 5th. We've encountered serious problems in decoding and restoring the images which slowed down our ability to transition the images. Restored photo albums will be stored in Winkflash's secure data center along with our current customer's images. We do not charge for this service, and there is no storage time limits or purchase requirements. While we cannot guarantee recovery, we will make every effort to restore albums requested/authorized by customers. If you are interested in having your photo albums restored, please follow this procedure:
Photo Album Recovery Request Procedure:
Using your Clubphoto User ID (email address) and password, log into Winkflash.com using the link below (Please do not create a new account, simply sign in using your former Clubphoto User ID and password). Customers who log in will automatically have their photo albums restored, if retrievable. Please allow two weeks for retrieval of your stored photo albums. "
Response Email
Winkflash is definitely trying hard, as I received this customer service email, after following the procedure above:
Dear Paul,
We apologize for the delay but we had some difficulty with the compatibility from Club Photo to Winkflash. We have successfully started the transfer, unfortunately the system recovered from Club Photo was much frailer than expected, therefore to ensure we can transfer as much as possible the process is slower than expected. We will be sending out emails to customers as the albums become available. We appreciate your patience while we ensure that the photo albums that we did acquire are not lost in the transfer. If you have any further questions please contact us and we look forward to servicing you in the future with all your photo needs. If you have any further questions please contact us and we look forward to servicing you in the future with all your photo needs.
Hoping for Resolution
I was able to log onto Winkflash with my old password/account combination from ClubPhoto. Alas, I had 45 full albums (4500 pictures) that are still missing. I realize that this is ClubPhoto's fault and not Winkflash's. I called the main line at Winkflash, and an extremely nice service agent told me that they are having near perfect restoration results, but due to the millions of pictures housed on ClubPhoto's servers, it is taking time. If I get them back, I'll be thrilled.
Lessons Learned & Class Action Lawsuits
I'm going to give Winkflash some time on the restoring project before I stick an attorney on PhotoTLC, which is the parent company of ClubPhoto. With any luck, there is a server with photos on it somewhere. I am writing to the old company address as well at 3925 Cypress Drive, Petaluma, CA 94954, but I'm sure all mail goes to some law firm and is put into a huge box. They also have a phone number of (707) 241-7200, but it is a giant rat trap. You press buttons, but get nowhere. This shyster should fear for its' legal life, as people should have been given notice, and options to tranfer the pictures. I'm sure that none of the people on this sight expected a fly by night operation. It makes you wonder about the future of all online data storage. You pay your money and have a sense that your memories will be there when you want them, then one day they're gone.
Winkflash restores them!
I just received notice that my online albums had been restored. It took almost three months but was worth the wait. All my photos are now back, and in the possession of WinkFlash. The first thing I'll do is order a DVD with every picture on it. Hopefully there's a lesson to be learned here about who to trust with online photos.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
kingpablo
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Member: Paul
Location: Columbus, OH
Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 0 members
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