qoop customer service

by Eli

after having difficulty actually placing an order for prints using the default Flickr service, i decided to give QOOP a shot. their online ordering process was AMAZINGLY faster and better and easier and everything. it was great. i couldn’t believe that i’d spent so much time wrestling with flickr when QOOP was so much better.

i placed an order for about 700 photos (the second batch of that size) and they were sent to my parents house in noblesville. i picked up some more pioneer photo albums at office max and then busted open the pics.

i couldn’t believe my eyes: they weren’t in chronological order! AHHH!! the last batch of 700 that i bought direct from flickr were, why weren’t these? what was going on? i put in 2 hours re-ordering them and got through about 100 pictures; this was going to take a while.

i decided i should send QOOP an email:

From: eli
To: QOOP
Date: August 5

Everything about your service was SO perfect and SO much better than the default Flickr printing service, but I have one complaint that is unfortunatel a fairly large one in my book: the prints didn’t arrive in chronological order. AHHH!!

I ordered about 700 photos, and some parts of them are in order and some aren’t. When I ordered through Flickr all the pictures were sent to me in order so all I had to do was put them into the photo album and be done with it. Because my pictures are out of order it will now take hours to fix.

I double checked the Set that I printed and it is in chronological order.

I hate to say it (because i LOVE everything else about your service), but if this is going to happen again I just can’t justify using your service.

Is this normal? At this point what can you do?

Thanks.

eli

Kevin was kind enough to write back:

From: QOOP
To: eli
Date: August 5

Hello Eli, Thanks for the kind words about QOOP and I’m sorry that your photos where not in order. We can only print images in the order in which they are transferred to us from flickr (currently, this should eventually change).

You can create a Set in flickr by choosing the Organize tab, making it the way you want it to look and then click to QOOP and print from that Set in the right order.

Thanks
Kevin Krause
Customer Service
QOOP, Inc.

wisdom thrown down from mt. kevin! i had no idea that i can actually create “sets” in flickr? ok, so i click on the “organize” tab… gotcha. then what? ooohhh, i see: i just “[make] it the way [i] want it to look and then click to QOOP and print from that Set in the right order.” it seems so simple! why didn’t i fucking think of that? oh wait, i did, the LAST TIME I ORDERED 700 PRINTS. i responded:

From: eli
To: QOOP
Date: August 6

Thanks for the response:

You can create a Set in flickr by choosing the Organize tab, making it the way you want it to look and then click to QOOP and print from that Set in the right order.

that is exactly what i did, and you can see from what i wrote in my first email to you:

I double checked the Set that I printed and it is in chronological order.

i already told you that i did that. so, what else could have caused this problem? do you still have the specifics of my order on file? is there anyway you can see what order they were in when you recieved my order? can you double check it with the set that i printed?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elisfanclub/sets/72157600936703820/

if you look at the order of the photos you sent me, they are not in the order listed there. even the index prints don’t put the photos in order.

i’m not trying to be a jerk or anything, but i’m not a stupid computer user. i knew exactly what i was doing when i ordered the prints, and, like i said before, when i ordered my last batch of 700 directly from flickr they DID arrive in order. i’ve already spent about 3 hours rearranging and i just want to know what when wrong so that i can order from you guys again in the future.

thanks

eli

kevin responded again:

From: QOOP
To: eli
Date: August 9

Hello Eli, I’m sorry that our photos where not in the right order. I have sent an email to Flickr asking why this happened and I will get back to you when I hear from them.

Kevin Krause
Customer Service
QOOP, Inc.

about 2 weeks go by with no response. i instigate again:

From: eli
To: QOOP
Date: August 22

I just wanted to check and see what, if any, progress has come out of this problem. I would like to order some more prints in the near future, but I don’t want to have to re-order them again after they arrive.

Is there anyway that I can submit an order and then have you double check the order against the set on flickr before printing them?

Thanks

eli

kevin responded again:

From: QOOP
To: eli
Date: August 23

Hello Eli, the set that up set up in flickr is what we get [sic]. So if you have the set in the order that you want then it should work. I have not gotten word back from flickr about this issue. I will get back to you when I hear from them.

Kevin Krause
Customer Service
QOOP, Inc.

it still seemed like they were off-handedly blaming ME for the problem. they just couldn’t NOT say “if the set is in the write order when we get it” blah blah blah. i responded:

From: eli
To: QOOP
Date: August 23

Kevin,

I ASSURE you that my last order WAS in chronological order when I sent it to you. So, trying that again and expecting different results seems crazy. It is entirely possible that this was just a one time thing, but I am weary of sending another 700 photos to you and just keeping my fingers crossed.

What if:

I submit a set for printing, but first you guys compare the order of the photos in your system against the order on Flickr. If they are the same, go ahead and print them. If not, refund my money.

Is something like that possible?

Thanks

eli

at this point, kevin was at the end of his rope:

From: QOOP
To: eli
Date: August 24

Hello Eli, I’m sorry but we can not do the request that you asked us to do. I’m sorry about not being able to help.

Kevin Krause
Customer Service
QOOP, Inc.

i almost couldn’t believe it. that was it? that’s how this ends? i repeatedly told them that i wanted to order more pictures and that this was the only thing getting in the way. you’d think that Mr. 700-At-A-Time would get at least some attention. i couldn’t resist giving them one last pokus in the tookus:

From: eli
To: QOOP
Date: August 26

i just want to make sure that i understand correctly here.

i am a guy who just bought 700 photos from you after coming to you because of a bad experience i had the last time i bought 700 direct from flickr (that’s 1400 prints so far, and i’ve easily got another 1400 to print). after having one small problem with photos being printed out of order, you guys say that there is NOTHING you can do about it now or in the future.

am i just the measly “700 at a time” guy and my business doesn’t really compare to the “7000 at a time guy”? this seems like a very small problem that could easily be solved and we could go on our way and i could keep sending you money and you could keep sending me pictures. it would be like a symbiotic relationship where both parties benefit equally.

it’s fine if you can’t do what i have asked, that was just a suggestion. but i was hoping to hear, “we can’t do that because of this, but here’s what we can do.” i really don’t mean to be a jerk (although i might be doing a poor job of that), but i feel like i’m taking crazy pills here.

eli

apparently that did the trick. as i understand from a little customer service experience, it was time for kevin to pass the buck to someone who could actually do something about this. enter, hugh:

From: QOOP
To: eli
Date: August 27

Eli:

There is now an easier way to handle the order of your images since when you placed the first order.

You have always had the ability to alter image order of a Set beforehand using the Organize function in flickr. Now you have the additional ability to pull the entire Set, in its order, into the Print Tray in QOOP keeping that same order, or open it and add images which you can then move around into a different order.

Have you tried the new functionality yet? Kevin was correct though–we can do nothing about the order of images in a processed order.

Let me know if you still have quesions, and send me your new order number so I can throw a discount on there for being a good return customer.

Thanks,

Hugh

now that’s more like! thank you, hugh. you have finally given me something that i can actually work with. he still had to stick it to me and remind me that they can’t change the order once they received it, and therefore it had to be my fault. i get it, guys. i get it.

i placed another order this afternoon and emailed hugh my order number. who knows what will happen next?