intothedarkroom.com or Shooks Kart?

Hey ya'll
I am considering proofing on my website. Looking to OSP for the good word! As usual thank you for your time. OSP kicks butt!

Neither. You want PickPic. Actually, I have no idea what you want. But we'll be set up with PickPic fairly soon (middle of March, I hope) and the new version looks fantastic.

Great! I can wait until then to check it out. Any idea on cost? Thank you for the post.

$1049 intriductory price for PickPic. You don't want to touch anything from Skooks with a ten-foot pole. Ask Jessican Claire.

Any more details or just hearsay on Skooks?

Inquiring minds...

We have been using Darkroom for about a year now and have zero complaints. We love it. A new version should be out around WPPI.

The major pro and con to Darkroom is it's simplicity. If you don't want a lot of bells and whistles, just a sweet flash cart, go for it. I am waiting to see what DR 2.0 looks like before I would even consider anything else. It will have several new features that will allow us to grow with them. You might want to make a call and ask for Anthony to see what the upgrade route will look like.

Here is one of our weddings.....

http://www.turtlepondphotography.com/darkr...ent/meggie_josh

Check out DJ's blog - there was an interesting post a month or two ago. You wont miss it.





I've made a couple of posts about my skookskart. As a product it's fine but there's been a long history of bad customer service. It might be getting better, the jury is out on that point at the moment.

If I was in your position I'd choose PickPic over skooks.

After doing a little searching after Dawn's mysterious post, I was able to find the blog post about Skooks Design.

It's definitely scary to say the least, but such is the nature of the world...

We're extremely happy with our SkooksKart. I like how I can get into the php pages and how it's secure and simple. I've heard enough of the roadmap to think future releases will add value.

Obviously others with dissimilar experiences will not agree, but again YMMV.

You might look at www.redcart.com
Cory

Good info guys and gals! I think I'll wait to see DR 2.0
Anyone have a PickPic gallery we can see?

There's a demo on the PickPic site. I don't think they've installed it for anyone, yet (it was just recently announced). So I doubt there's anyone using the new version. You might want to check out Becker's site. Or Jessica Claire's. They might have the new version. I'm pretty sure they were beta-testing but I don't know if they were actually using the new version.

Can I just say that I am VERY happy with my SkooksKart. Bryan has been nothing but helpful and his timelines have been as promised. I think maybe he got in over his head a bit in the beginning, but I can say that I am very happy with my kart!

Good to hear becuse I really like what I have seen on other photographer sites.
can you add packages and retainer payments on DR or PickPic?

Sorry, I didn't mean to be mysterious! The thing is I don't like saying bad things about vendors with whom I have no direct experience. I have ethical problems with the way the owner of Skooks has run his business, and I chose to wait for PickPic to support a business that was doing things "right." Aside from the numerous customer service complaints, there are technical issues with the Skooks Kart and legal ones that I wanted to not support. Here's some additional info from PickPic's FAQ; the entire FAQ section makes for very interesting reading, even for non-geeks.

Q:I saw something about litigation mentioned at the Skooks Kart site. What's that all about?

A: On May 12, 2005, it was discovered that Skooks Designs was providing some clients an online proofing system that contained both cosmetic similarities, as well as direct verbatim passages of code from PickPic. (One line even contained my own name in it.)
We alerted Brian Crouch of the infringement and he immediately agreed to remove the code in question, citing contractors as to blame. We took him at his word, fully expecting an immediate response based upon his assurances.

On September 20, 2005, we discovered rather accidentally that the code was still included in his installations. After seeking legal counsel, we took steps to notify those clients of Skooks Designs that were affected, asking for their cooperation in removing the code should we not get immediate results from Mr. Crouch.

After numerous exchanges with Mr. Crouch that were far from pleasant and only served to worsen the situation, he finally removed the code on October 24, 2005 — more than 5 months after it was first noticed and reported.

We, of course, reserve the right to legally revisit this issue at any time in the future, in accordance with the statute of limitations for copyright infringement cases.

HTH,
Dawn

I have been deciding between pickpic and skooks and I am leaning toward skooks. I contacted several people and they have been pretty happy with it. I prefer skooks interface over pickpic's and his presentation is way better. I can see full functioning demos with all the features. PickPic is a shot in a dark for me. I don't know... it is hard to decide.

I've been very very pleased with intothedarkroom. They had it set up in 24 hours - I got it on one of their sales and got a great deal - and they threw in the slideshow software with it too. It looks slick. Loads fast. And no more monthly costs. Yay. I love love love it.

There are only 2 minor downsides. One is that you can only use paypal not your own merchant account system. I almost didn't sign up for them due to this... but it's doesn't seem like customers mind at all. I still hope they change this in the future and at least give you the options to what you want to use.

The 2nd is I've had a few Maw Maws who could not figure how to order from it. It's a little different. When ordering you have to select the size photo and then the quantity. If you do not select a quantity - you will get an error message saying you need to add prints and it confuses them. I have not had anyone younger or computer savy have an issue at all. I'm also making up some online instructions for them to follow if they have problems.

Otherwise it's been perfect.

Here's my Top five suggested cart solutions:

5. PickPic
4. PickPic
3. PickPic
2. PickPic
1. PickPic



Regarding SkooksKart: RUN FOREST! RUN!




Is "Jessican" her hispanic cousin?

Are you talking based on your own experience?

I am speaking based on:

1) The general experience of Brian's clients

2) The FACT that Brian will not (actually refuses) to talk to DWF.

3) Several e-mail conversations with [B].

4) Phone/e-mail conversations with Troy.

I have no experience at all with either company, but if you read the link earlier in this thread...by his own admission Skoots has some major adjustments to make in his business practices. I wouldn't dare to advise you against using him (lack of personal knowledge), but it would seem that at the very minimum...you should think twice, and then if you want to proceed...document everything...have him sign off on promise dates...that way..if things go well...great, and you have given him documented targets/deadlines. If things don't go so well, you have all your bases covered.

Laurie

It seems there are some hard feelings toward Shooks! I do not know what to think. No one has anything negative to say about PickPic?

That's probably because there isn't anything negative to say about PickPick. Troy is world class.

There are many companies that don't care about the customer and then there are those like PickPic, Happy Fish Design, Big Folio, and Vision Art Book, that go above and beyond for their clients.

I've been using intothedarkroom since the summer and love it as well. its very easy to load up your images by sections and it sits on your own server and since I don't sell machine prints but art prints, i don't need to make a high res art print for every image in the gallery, just the ones that they order. Just last week I had a $400+ order placed by the father of the bride. It's been sweet.

Can't wait to see the upgrade.

I was reading this over last night and I wanted to add something to what I have already said:

I am not yet a PickPic client. I do not own the previous version of PickPic. I have tried various fulfillment solutions and I am not happy with my current solution. Troy does read the discussion forums (actually, he is very aware that this thread exists) and knowing that I was not happy with my current solution and also that I had no intention of going with PickPic 2 (because of issues which have been resolved in PickPic 3) he took the time to call me and talk at length about my concerns. I didn't call him, I did not initiate the contact, he reached out to me. Troy is a very busy man, yet he took time out of his schedule to call me, a non-client, to discuss my concerns over PickPic. That is a class-act.

Tell me how many times has a company called you because you expressed concern over their product on an internet message board?

I will be getting PickPic 3 (when I am able to do so). It will take me a few bookings to be able to do it, but I do intend on doing it.

I use intothedarkroom and I love it...not one problem with it and clients love it

I have a Skooks Kart and am very happy. I know others have had bad (very bad) experiences with Skooks, especially with their web design work. I certainly respect anyones opinion who has had a bad experience with them.

Service and support have been good lately. I wasn't a customer back in their "bad ole days" but I can tell you that "now" they seem to have their act together. The product itself is solid.

john

I have contacted several people who use skooks and they have been very happy with a product. They reported good customer service. I have been to skooks support forum and he is keeping it up to date with latest news, bug reports and bug fixes. Besides that, there is an announcement there that they are working on providing an option which let's the orders to be sent directly to your lab for processing. Which is quite cool feature. The product has been thru several small releases which means major bugs are fixed and since it has been out for a while, it tells me that is well polished.
PickPic looks good also. But being in software industry, I know that all major release have more bugs and issues. So if I had time I would hold to jump into PickPic and wait until all major bugs are fixed.
I am not advocating for either of those products but only providing my opinion and thoughts so the informed decision could be made.

Have anything we can see?

I take it back! His bad ole days are here again. Kart is awesome, but service sucks!!!!!!!!!!!
I've had an ongoing problem that has rendered my (otherwise) great Kart useless.
Months and months later after hearing NOTHING from Brian, I get a response, he didn't fix it and now nothing again.
If I were to do it again - I should have listened - but I wouldn't give that crook one red cent...
john

+1. He has been redesigning his web site instead of taking care of customer support which sucks big time. No response to support requests or bug reports.

I am not even installed yet, but Troy http://pickpic.com has been freaking awesome!

I adore Pickpic. It did take a long time to get my gallery up and running (3 or so months,) but once Troy got me all set-up, it was super easy and I had images on-line that day. The customer service at Pickpic has also been amazing--super fast responses and super helpful. I am working on resizing a new gallery right now. Will send a link once it is up. It may be tomorrow since it is past my bedtime already.

is the introductory fee for pickpic one time? or is there monthly fees. i'm so jealous

If you just want online proofing check out Photoreflect or Instanproof. Both are free and you only pay a % of you sales. For what I hear Pickpic takes their sweet time setting up, so this at least may be a good solution until then...Is this Troy = Troy Hill???

Troy Widener.

PickPic is a one time fee...

Just like buying Photoshop... you're buying a software.

That's it, no monthly fees, no extra hidden charges.

Yep, it does take a while for them to get to you. They have a HUGE line of people they're installing for, and they can only do one at a time. And each install is totally customized, so it takes time for them to do it, so if you need something today, you might need to do what David said and look at a free online service in the meantime while you wait your turn, but the wait is WELL worth it.

Can anybody tell me if PickPic works with a Big Folio site?

Q. I have a BIG Folio site. Is PickPic compatible? NEW!
A. We are currently working with BIG Folio to guarantee compatibility with their hosting services. We expect to have that fully ironed out by early- to mid-March 2007.

matt's so good he gets things done in the PAST. nice.

E-mailing BIG as we speak. Thanks Matt.

You can always just have a different domain name and host it elsewhere...

We have ours at it's own domain name: halbergprints.com

Actually, that's what Big Folio recommends. I just got a reply from them saying, "as far as the pickpic we usually recommend getting another domain and hosting at one of the larger companies where you can get hosting for much cheaper." So Pickpic probably ought to change that line on their faq page that says they're working on it for March 07.

Here is the Pickpic gallery I promised. I post all of my proof images (edited for the most part only in LR) and then do PS editing once they order prints, etc. This gallery thing is totally new to me, so I have lots to fix as far as product offerings, but it give you an idea of what Pickpic can do. I really love it!

http://www.michelemwaite.com/pickpic/gallery/login.php
passcode: mariaalex

+1 for redcart. I was trying to decide between a hosted cart and a self-fulfull cart and reading through this forum, finally decided on RedCart. I liked the interface on intothedarkroom, but I haven't had much response from their sales dept. I know I could have called, but trying to save some money on LD calls from Canada.

RedCart's interface does have a few minor things that I found could be improved on (client interface choices), but these will all be updated in the new release coming out later this year. Can't wait!

But the main thing that made the choice for me was customer service. When I was still deciding, I posted several pre-sale questions on their forum and they were answered within 15 hours of posting. This quick response and superb support continues now as I hit a few bumps in my setup and initial gallery generation.

Definitely check them out! RedCart.com

Jon
moxiphoto.com

Erich, here we go again! I remember months ago, like me, you were visiting this topic. I have heard again and again about pickpic from my fellow photographers here in Indy. I think it depends on how much you want to sell in your cart:)

Either who, I have heard skoots did some shady things...

I am still with pictage and will keep them always for back-up and that free credit card processing (I save hundreds each month, more than pays my membership fees), but I think as soon as I get my new studio manager trained I'll be using pickpic so I can save on commision and control print quality (still keeping pictage for the reasons I listed). Good luck and let us know what you decide (and send a sample:)).

Jen