Anyone else get this notification from Photobucket? - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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The situation doesn't seem to be getting any prettier! All about the money regardless!
We're all caught in a bind and especially those of us with hundreds of photos and some of us far much more! It's affecting some of us now, some a bit later and some of us by the end of 2018. Just hope they realize what they are doing and how much income and customers they will lose by doing this. Do they really know what they're doing and should know that this makes no sense at all from a business decision alone.
Just imagine if you had (for example) a frequent shopper card for a particular store that you've used for years then they decide to charge you an annual fee of $400. How many customers would continue on? Perhaps, I need a better example. Maybe like booking a hotel for a week that you've booked and they raise it $400?
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 07-20-2017 at 11:57 PM..
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I received a response from Photobucket today. Sort of the typical generic response, but at least I voiced my opinion on it.
Here it is.
Hello Dave, Thank you for writing in and providing us feedback, I will be sure to pass it along to the appropriate teams. Unfortunately, at this time we are unable to offer a monthly payment option for our Plus 500 plan. We will be sure to contact you via email personally if a monthly payment option becomes available. Please let me know if I can help with anything else
Hopefully, they'll change things once they begin losing customers with the new policy and the amount they are charging. I'd actually consider doing this at the $40 per month basis, but a one time charge annually at $400 is a bit difficult! These photos in my TRs mean a lot to me, so may have to do something down the line as I don't want to lose them on this board. Lot of work went into these TRs and would take a lot more to use another site and change all the links!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
I had an email today, assuring me that I'm Ok until my current subscription expires (June 2018), as I have grandfather rights, but offering me six months free if I sign up now... not likely, given I have best part of a year left before I thankfully need to worry about anything.
Dave, I'm curious about your post - I have the option of paying $39.99/month for the Plus 500, so I'm not sure how I'm seeing that and Photobucket says you can't? Maybe that's something for those of us again with grandfather rights only?
I had an email today, assuring me that I'm Ok until my current subscription expires (June 2018), as I have grandfather rights, but offering me six months free if I sign up now... not likely, given I have best part of a year left before I thankfully need to worry about anything.
Dave, I'm curious about your post - I have the option of paying $39.99/month for the Plus 500, so I'm not sure how I'm seeing that and Photobucket says you can't? Maybe that's something for those of us again with grandfather rights only?
Yes, That was one of the options I saw as well, but I can't remember if it was in the original email or on the website.
I got the dreaded email yesterday. Of course I only have 3 partially completed TRs, but it still makes me sad to lose my pictures in those. And even more sad to possibly have fewer people writing TRs or including pictures because of this. I'm wondering how feasible it would be for Passporter to increase their server space, and have a paid option to use that server space (much more reasonably priced than Photobucket, of course)?
I got the dreaded email yesterday. Of course I only have 3 partially completed TRs, but it still makes me sad to lose my pictures in those. And even more sad to possibly have fewer people writing TRs or including pictures because of this. I'm wondering how feasible it would be for Passporter to increase their server space, and have a paid option to use that server space (much more reasonably priced than Photobucket, of course)?
I have absolutely no idea about these things, but I suspect it may not be a goer. I only say that is if Photobucket are saying they need to charge this much to cover all the storage, it's obviously not a cheap thing to do.
I have absolutely no idea about these things, but I suspect it may not be a goer. I only say that is if Photobucket are saying they need to charge this much to cover all the storage, it's obviously not a cheap thing to do.
Photobucket has much lower charges just for storage. The issue is the 3rd party hosting. Shutterfly has free storage and free third-party hosting, so that seems to be the way to go for the moment.
I had an email today, assuring me that I'm Ok until my current subscription expires (June 2018), as I have grandfather rights, but offering me six months free if I sign up now... not likely, given I have best part of a year left before I thankfully need to worry about anything.
Dave, I'm curious about your post - I have the option of paying $39.99/month for the Plus 500, so I'm not sure how I'm seeing that and Photobucket says you can't? Maybe that's something for those of us again with grandfather rights only?
That's what they said in the email to me and I hope this information is incorrect! Either way, this will no longer be free for this IMG hosting. I do not want to have to go to another site as it would take so much work with the hundreds of photos in my TRs! My photos are still intact but for how long I don't know and will not take any action until that comes as I'm sure it will. I do have a subscription for AD Free but that's it. I haven't reached my storage surplus yet and why I have not upgraded to a paid one yet. Won't be long as it's getting closer! I will take a look at this payment option.
This will be much more difficult for you than I with the thousands upon thousands of photos you have in your many TRs!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Photobucket has much lower charges just for storage. The issue is the 3rd party hosting. Shutterfly has free storage and free third-party hosting, so that seems to be the way to go for the moment.
That seems to be a good offering but how long will they keep it this way, knowing that Photobucket now charges for the hosting? Not ready to do that with it being a huge project for me to convert all the links from the photos in the TRs, which would be quite time consuming to say the least!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Photobucket has much lower charges just for storage. The issue is the 3rd party hosting. Shutterfly has free storage and free third-party hosting, so that seems to be the way to go for the moment.
As far as I can tell, Shutterfly's third-party hosting is only a link to the photo on their website. So folks would have to click on every link to see the photos. No very practical.
Following...I just recently got back on the boards and was excited about starting a PTR. I logged into Photobucket and it's basically not letting me do anything I would need for a TR because I don't have a subscription.
As far as I can tell, Shutterfly's third-party hosting is only a link to the photo on their website. So folks would have to click on every link to see the photos. No very practical.
I tested it here today and the photo I tried from my shutterfly account showed up just fine.
Following...I just recently got back on the boards and was excited about starting a PTR. I logged into Photobucket and it's basically not letting me do anything I would need for a TR because I don't have a subscription.
Not very useful for certain on this board! And as Cam just recently said in her post, Shutterfly won't be much use here! I hope PB isn't trying to ruin certain aspects of this board with the hosting. It is the most viewed and posted part of the PP boards and I visit this section more than any other as I love the TRs!
I love reading them, creating them and indulging the feedback from within! Keep it coming!
I hate to be spelling the negativity here as I'm always so positive as you know from my posts and TRs but I am not happy about PBs recent changes in policy at all! I know it is early in this thing and perhaps they will offer something eventually but the monetary element is not good! I know I'm being redundant but just trying to find a way to make some sense of this.
We've been spoiled for years regarding the IMG hosting and been lucky as getting it free for so long. It actually costs these sites a lot to do this, but I hope PB makes it reasonable eventually as they hope they weigh things out! I've done some reading about this hosting on various blogs and it does cost the sites a lot to do this.
I just hope PB rescinds a bit and offers separate offerings for hosting and storage! The hosting should be based on what you have for photos on the 3rd party sites regarding total GB size (storage) for all like they do with standard photo storage! That's the way I see it and makes perfect sense to me!
Two purchase options with one for storage and the other for 3rd party hosting depending on the amounts. And perhaps some combo plans for both depending if you have both and pick the right one. PB will have the info as displayed for your current storage and should do the same for hosting when you login!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 07-26-2017 at 12:52 AM..
I agree, it's certainly disappointing. I think you have some good recommendations, we can only hope PB changes. I suppose for the time being, I can still do a PTR without photos and hopefully when we return in February, something will be sorted either via PB or a viable alternative.
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All about the money regardless! 
Just hope they realize what they are doing and how much income and customers they will lose by doing this. 
Do they really know what they're doing and should know that this makes no sense at all from a business decision alone. 
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Not ready to do that with it being a huge project for me to convert all the links from the photos in the TRs, which would be quite time consuming to say the least! 
Keep it coming! 
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