Goodnight PhotoSite

While I've never gone all the way through the process of selling a business, I approximated that experience in 2005 when we decided to sell our PhotoSite division to United Online.  Thus it was particularly upsetting when I received (along with about 700,000 other PhotoSite users) an email announcing that UOL was shutting down PhotoSite at the end of September. 

I was so bummed about it that I composed a song for the Homestead talent show entitled Ain't No More Photosite to the tune of Pink Houses by John Mellencamp.  I tried to make it funny but it turned out just sounding depressing.  When I think of the literally thousands of hours we all spent making that product the best photo sharing product on the market (if I do say so myself), it's hard not to be depressed.

The moral in this story?  Sometimes you make the right business decision on paper but you can never predict all of the ramifications.  I would probably still make the same decision today given the same situation that we faced two years ago, but I wish I had given more thought to this scenario.  There were two scenarios that I thought were the most likely outcomes: 1) PhotoSite would explode in growth, and we would regret having sold it; or 2) PhotoSite's growth would stagnate due to market conditions or poor handling, and it might meet an untimely death.  I just never thought #1 would lead to #2 (PhotoSite grew about 400% in the 2 years after we sold it).

I have no other great insights here, except to say that I'm very sorry to all of my fellow PhotoSite users for the trauma of potentially losing the online photo collections we all spent so many hours meticulously crafting. 

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR CURRENT PHOTOSITE USERS:

For those of you who don't find Snapfish adequate for your photo-sharing needs, you might consider SmugMug as an alternative.  Note that SmugMug is not free, but they have offered to give all PhotoSite customers a 50% first-year discount (use the discount code photosite when signing up).  We always felt that SmugMug was the best competitor to PhotoSite, and they have continued to innovate and improve in the past two years.  They seem to run an impressive operation.  For what it's worth, I have decided to move my 6000+ family photo collection there. 

Smugmug is working on a migrator that will automatically grab all of your photos from your PhotoSite account, but it won't be ready until October.  Note that this will still work until June 2008, even though your PhotoSite will no longer be viewable to the public after September 27th. 

In the meantime, a PhotoSite fan wrote a program that you can run on the computer you have PhotoSite installed on, and it will upload all of your photos to a SmugMug account.  Many folks have already used it successfully, and it has the big advantage of moving all of your high resolution photos from your computer, even if you never uploaded them to your PhotoSite.  Just be warned that a) the interface isn't very pretty and b)it can take a long time if your Internet connect is slow (mine took over 24 hours). 

Click here to install the PSmugMug Migrator application.  When prompted, you'll need to hit "Run" twice in a row, and then you should be able to launch the application from your desktop.  Please read the instructions carefully on the first screen that appears.  Also note that you will need to create a trial account at SmugMug (no credit card required) before you begin.  If you can't get this to work, just wait until the official SmugMug migrator is finished (I'll post instructions on my blog when it's ready).

Long live PhotoSite.

--jsk

Comments

[Darrell]

Sure would be nice if you responded to your customers concerns and replied to their emails. I'm sure this comment will get deleted like the last one. It's a shame I recommended this site to so many people, helped on beta tests, and was a paying customer since the beginning, only to be treated like crap by "customer service". Maybe you can write a song about treating your customers right, or at least treating them like people!

[Justin]

Darrell,
This is really not the right format for posting your complaint, but I'll leave your comment this one time. (Once again folks, you can email me directly at ceo@homestead.com and I will do everything I can to solve your problem.) As for being "treated like crap" by our support team, I find that hard to believe but we record all of our calls so let me know when you called and I'll personally review the call and take the appropriate action.

Thanks for the song suggestion. I'm actually thinking about writing a song about how good it seems to make people feel when they leave nasty and exaggerated comments on my blog. Maybe I should have a separate blog just for that? :o)
--jsk

[Sean Hickey]

I have to disagree with Darrell's comments. As a longish standing customer of Homestead, the software and tools have helped me build a successful business where I am now even building sites for my clients. Very cool...

[Richard Scully]

I don't know what else to do... the email system our company has through your company is failing us terribly. We had two engineers verify that your company is bouncing many emails coming in from our customers.

I have emailed and even tried calling to no avail.... it has become so bad that our support department had to open a gmail account ectownusasupport@gmail.com to bypass our support@ectownusa.com domain because we can no longer trust the Homestead email system. The fact is we have all had to run to gmail because our executives emails through homestead are un-reliable.

I have called your office and begged for help and no one calls back....

Just this morning your help system said that "I" closed the trouble ticket on this issue. Why are you people not willing to help a customer that has been with you for 10 years?

What do I have to do now?

[Karen & Mark]

Nice CEO blog. When will we be able to create our blogs hosted by Homestead? Karen is ready to start today, Mark keeps saying wait for Homestead. Please help.

[Clint]

I use ZoomIn.com for photo printing now. Snapfish is terrible. Zoomin is cheap prints and good pritn quality too

[Rapidshare]

I completely agree with all that here is told
"So you can find the information on it on my search resource
http://fileshunt.com"

[MKH]

I agree with the "treated like crap" comment, and have just filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. I am one of several people who plan to. There is something to be said - or not- for being disconnected, put on hold, and then routed to a non-working number time and time again. I as "What Customer Sevice" at this point it borders on scam, and not allowing people an opt-out for their account is not legal.

[go sports]

Hi Mr.Kitch,

I am based in singapore and have signed up for a free trial but found that it is not useful and had contacted your company many times to stop the services but, your accoubts kept charging us monthly for doing nothing.
Can you advise your account to stop charging us?

my company name is Go Sports
Block 6C Margaret Drive, #01-58
Singapore 142006

[GoZipTexas.com]

wow! I was shocked at the negative comments about customer service. I have used customer service so much that I know people on a first name basis! lol

I did not even know how to "cut and paste" when I started my website. I have literally called for help with absolutely everything and have always been treated great. I think what I have noticed most is how long help will stay online with me and walk me through things step by step. It is the only way I could of built and maintained my website.

I highly recommend Homestead and have had friends build their website through Homestead based on my customer service experience.

Thanks Homestead.....keep up the good work!

Thanks-
c.shultz
GoZipTexas.com

[Terry Popish]

What is going on with the ActiveX control and PayPal Buttons? Since using Vista64-2 weeks ago, I can not create or edit any PayPal functions. I have an open Help Ticket but in 8 days have not received a fix for this problem (many attempts but none have worked). Anyone else having this problem or maybe have a solution? I was told by customer service to use another computer with XP (I don't have another computer to use-that's why I bought a new one). Is this the only solution? I have always been impressed with Homestead's Customer Service until now. Long wait times on hold (30 minutes - 1 hour) and no resolution. I don't know what else to do.

[Ewe Tuan Cheng]

Hi Mr. Kitch,

I am from Malaysia and have signed up for a free trial and within a few days decided I would not be needing your service at all. I sent an email immediately informing your company about my decision. But your accoubts charged me for the month of October. I sent another email and faxed my request again asking for the charges to be refunded and all future charges be stopped. To my disbelief, you account charged me again in Nov.

Kindly refund the charges you've made on Oct and Nov.
I should not be paying for services I've never used!!!

Thank you for understanding and assistance.

Love & light,
Ewe Tuan Cheng
Mobile: 60-12-2998859
Malaysia

Hello,

I was rather disaapointed that Homestead Technologies charge