I am very happy with the photo pendant which Bay Photo made of my dog. My photo had some compositional issues (it was a grab shot, and I did not shoot it to intentionally make jewelry) that we worked together to resolve. The color correction and printing were top notch. I treasure this keepsake of my baby. read more

Quality of the frames are terrible! Held together with staples. They don't even come with glass absolutely cheap looking. We ordered a certain color of frame and all the frames colors are different! I could have went to CVS and purchased better frames. Tried to explain how unhappy we were but the company said ... too bad!! read more

Bay Photo Lab - Frames held with staples, quality of wood terrible! - Photography Stores & Services Near Me - Scotts Valley, California

I ordered a large format fine art print that had obvious, totally unacceptable banding from the printing process. I can't believe they let a massive 30x40 print on their best paper, with their best printer go out the door. So, a complete lack of QC. Then when I talk to customer support, they need to be poked and prodded to do anything and have the audacity to doubt my photographic evidence, instead the representative decided to do their own investigative work upscaling the image on their own and trying to tell me they see banding in the base image. No explanation for how this is my problem, or how it could possibly replicate the print banding I saw in my print. Totally unacceptable. The printing error they made is one of the most base, egregious errors you can possibly make and yet the representative decided to go down a completely irrelevant rabbit hole. The complete lack of competence from the customer service representative makes my blood boil as none of their diagnostic steps make any sense, and failed to acknowledge the problem. They did agree to remake the print luckily for me, but I will absolutely avoid this company like the plague. Their customer support team is clueless, and they completely lack any form of Quality Control. read more

Reached out to customer service regarding the lack of adding multiple iterations of boutique packaging for an order of two identical metal prints intended for my two sponsor kiddos in Bolivia. Cindy assured me that a note would be made to package the two prints separately and I would be invoiced for the difference. Well, that never happened. What's more disappointing is having paid for 2-day shipping to have my parcel sent USPS Priority, which took the standard 3 days of that service. The missionaries going on this trip left the third shipping day while my parcel that was not packaged as promised was still on the USPS truck. I'm willing to live with the streaking in my prints, maybe metal prints are like that, but this company fell short in every area of customer service. Boo. read more

I have been a customer of Bay Photo for several years. I generally found that the prints are well done. I decided to try a matted print with a frame. I am very disappointed. There is an uneven white border around the print that distracts from the photo. This was not visible in the proof and certainly not desired. Fortunately, I ordered a print separately and will have it mounted and framed. I suggest keeping to their print only products. Furthermore, it's too bad that they don't make it convenient to leave such feedback directly. read more

Magnificent printing, matting, and framing! However, their online web site is an agony to use. It is often impossible to tell if your image has enough pixels for requested enlargement or even if the correct image is the one you want printed. Billing software sometimes accepts my credit card but on same day refuses this card. read more

Ordered some prints to display for a trade show. Ordered them expedited shipping. They didn't ship until after the show. I contacted customer service and they refunded me the shipping charge. And when they did finally arrive there was incorrect hardware for the print. I asked for the missing piece but the customer service agent didn't seem to understand what I was asking. I received an email that I would receive a reprint, and that never came to fruition or an explanation if it were or not. They shipped me the part. But once again it was the incorrect part. At this point I don't want to even bother with customer service for the incorrect part AGAIN. Just won't be able to display the artwork. read more

I became a customer recently by sending two shots for canvas printing. Both came back rather muddy, exposure off, colors didn't pop, exactly opposite of my carefully post-processed photo. I called in about the issue was given an explanation about "monitor calibration", "color matching" and similar technical pseudo babble about why my print didn't look a thing like my submitted image. The prints weren't terrible but for the price, they weren't great. Then I sent a third shot in for canvas printing and it came back even worse; the subjects were nearly blacked out. Rep said send us an outdoor shot of the bad print next to same shot on your monitor, which I did. Then the techno babble began again: "...many customers have to try a few times before they get what they want...". They again printed the shot and it was IDENTICAL to first failure. Needless to say, I got a refund along with a terrible customer experience. Bay Photo seems to think you should adapt your image development technique to their printing process, rather than deliver a product -- the first time -- which matches the customer submission and -- most of all -- matches customer expectation for an accurate print reflecting color balance, exposure, vibrancy, etc. read more

I've been a customer of Bay Photo for many years and have occasionally had issues with the quality of the prints (I usually do thin wraps) especially when I allow them to 'color check'. Lately, especially after spending over $800.00 on a large order the workmanship is Horrible. They put the 'back' on crooked, so when the picture hangs you can see the black backing. The corners are not wrapped tight and one corner is even bashed. I wrote to customer service on the worst one (with the crooked backing) and they said it shouldn't have gone out and it will go back to be re-done. That was it. Not much of an apology - nothing. I wrote back again stating I had other issues and they were about to loose a customer. Nada, zip, nothing for a response. Time to look elsewhere. Shame on you Bay Photo! read more

Bay Photo Lab - backing put on crooked - Photography Stores & Services Near Me - Scotts Valley, California

We wanted our panorama photo of Scotland for our home. We ordered a 60x20 acrylic and it was not cheap. $400+. It turned out beautiful and we absolutely love it. Read all the information before ordering. The price did not include shipping. To the companies credit they emailed asking about delivery. If we wanted standard delivery. The fee would have been $400+. Yikes. Ended up having it processed in Scott's Valley and we were able to will called it. They are very professional. read more

Have ordered from Bay Photo a number of times and usually satisfied. My recent order was a bad experience and I won't be using them again. Ordered a canvas print of an illustration. Picked out my size and uploaded the image. Received the print and the image was not centered on the front of the canvas. The top of the image wrapped up and over the top of the frame and the bottom down and under the frame out of sight. It just looks plain bad. With that said, perhaps I didn't understand the style I selected. However, with a few previous orders I received unsolicited suggestions from their team for improvements, like saturation, brightness, scale, etc. Seriously, anyone without framing or art experience would look at this and think maybe we should scale the image down to make it fit. Used their customer support chat system to complain. Was told that's how some people order and she never responded to why no one reached out like they had previously. Oh, then offered a whopping 25% discount to re-do it.(which surprising matches their current offer any way LOL. Customer service is dead at Bay Photo Lab. read more

Sometimes SC Bay photo needs to send a larger photo or Christmas card for it to be done in Scotts Valley. Every time this happens, I get back way darker photo or a photo that's out of focus every single time. This Christmas is last time I'm getting my Christmas cards printed here or large photos. If Santa Cruz bay photo cannot do it then I will send it out to Shutterfly. I hope you don't have to learn the hard way like I have. read more

I submitted a perfectly sharp high resolution image to Bay Photo and ordered a metal print. What I received was a slightly out of focus image . When I sent an email pointing out this problem, along with the sample images below, here's the reply I got: "I had Order Services take a look at your picture of your prints. They said this looks normal with the sublimation process for metal prints. Sublimation is a gaseous process which results in prints that are softer than something like a fine art or photographic prints. Thank you, Annette C." read more

Bay Photo Lab - 200x zoom of the same image on my computer screen - Photography Stores & Services Near Me - Scotts Valley, California

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The fastest turnaround time of ANY film lab that I've used before. It's truly incredible how quickly they get the photos back to you. Wonderful customer service as well, couldn't be happier. read more

Amazing Customer Service. These guys are top notch when it comes to their customer service. A few years ago when I first used them, there was a cropping error on a very expensive item and they took care of it and did a remake, no questions asked. This time, I had another pricey order (a large poster print for my film made on aluminum) and the shipper damaged the item. Bay Photo also issued a remake, no questions asked and even went above and beyond to ensure the item was delivered to me in time for my film premiere. Also just a side note, every print I've gotten made through them is always beautiful and high quality. Thank you so much for everything Bay Photo! read more

this place made an unauthorized charge with my debit card. I've never even been to this city

First I want to say that the quality of Bay Photos imaging is outstanding and I am extremely happy with numerous prints I've ordered. However, that is with the exception of a recent order. While the small prints were very routine and are a joy to display. The large scale set is the subject of this posting. Bay Photo was given very explicit specifications and I offered an easy out if my Plan A proved problematic. They replied there shouldn't be any problems and would call me if any issues arose with their production. Unfortunately the large set was not produced anywhere close to what was specified. I called Bay Photo upon receipt of the misprinted set. They initially said they would reprint it to the correct dimensions and ship at their expense. I called back when it failed to arrive on time only to find out that they unilaterally reneged on their offer and withheld reprinting while balking about reprinting at their expense. They were finally persuaded to follow through as they initially agreed. I received the reprinted set and it was again misprinted. While this was produced closer to the specifications and at least worthy of trying to display, the misprints are obvious enough to be disorienting and unprofessional. This is not a subjective issue about color, brightness, etc. This is about errant dimensions and mismatched magnifications. Seems odd that the magnification varies within a set rather than being uniform and contiguous as specified. Given the two strikes I doubt Bay Photo would be willing to reprint my simpler Plan B at their expense as they seem unable/unwilling to produce these according to a straightforward specification for a set. Hence I present this posting as a challenge for them to offer to make this right. I spent a lot of money for a large set that they twice misprinted with the expressed condition that they would call if there was an issue. They should take this challenge not only as an opportunity to satisfy a repeat client but also for reviewing and improving their production errors and internal quality control practices. Should Bay Photo follow through and ultimately make this right, I will humbly and happily post an update to give them the appropriate credit. read more

First time customer needing help with calibration and ordering first prints. I was told I could call Support anytime I was ready to start an account by Bays representatives and a couple different photo trade shows. HA! Email request never was responded to. So I called and had to wait a half hr to get a call back. The lady who helped was no help what so ever. I was told to simply read their page on requirements. She couldn't answer one single question on anything and basically poo poo'd me off as an annoyance. Told me to look things up online. I said I guess I'm out of luck with getting any info then and she said yep. The lack luster help was a big "red flag" and confirmed reviews from others on various forums that their service had went down hill over the years. I will be looking for another lab! read more

Great people running a top notch facility with a wide range of services and products. If you're serious about getting photo products handled right--these are the people to help you. They're an outstanding team of professionals who seem to care about making you exactly what you need. They're able to help you create every thing from business cards, to mugs, to books, to posters, to banners,... and they have a variety of paper finishes, metal, canvas and wood to make your project turn out great! read more

Thanks for your response, Tiffanie, but it doesn't excuse: 1) absolutely terrible print quality on the first run, 2) still bad print quality on the replacement run, which arrived too late to be sent out for the holidays with no notice it was even coming, 3) the attitude I got from your staffer (Clint?). When he expressed that he didn't care about this order, I said that maybe Pic Time shouldn't be using this lab, and he literally said, "Yeah good luck with that." Unbelievably poor professionalism and I'm not sure how he has a job being on the phone with people whose orders you've messed up. I didn't send 60% of the holiday cards I ordered and intended to send because of the poor printing and timing issues on getting this corrected. Now friends and family are wondering if I hate them or what's up. DON'T USE THIS LAB unless you want months of coordination and effort to go down the drain, and your holiday memories pretty much ruined. read more

I ordered a high quality Mosaik print from Bay Photo Lab. The resolution came out well but the color saturation of their print was very poor. I had the same project printed with two other parties afterwards with much much better results. I contacted bay photo to see whether maybe my file arrived incorrectly or something was printed in the wrong way but I never received a reply. Very disappointing. I recommend going with other printing service providers. Thank you read more

Their customer service is terrible. They do what ever they can to blame the customer, yet look at how they address issues in their chat: CS - Annette C (6/2/2023, 11:27:45 AM): She you can call (800) 435-6686 CS - Annette C (6/2/2023, 11:27:03 AM): That is a completely different area to order. YOu must have accidently ordered from the wrong catalog Apparently, I made the mistake yet they can't stop making them one after another. read more

I just received 4 different prints on aluminum. Superb workmanship at reasonable prices. The packaging and shipping (one print was quite large) was so professional. HIGHLY recommended read more

I've been a customer since 2003. I've spent thousands of dollars with this company. A client that I have told me the 15+ (16x20) acrylic mounted prints were starting to yellow. So, here's where it all starts: 1. I call Bay Photo to let them know what has happened and they need each order number- there are over 15 from over 15 years ago and they want each order numb er. LOL So, I tell them there's no chance that I have a history of every order number. 2. They tell me to take photos of the prints and email them to customer service, specifically to Jennifer Brugman who happens to be the supervisor of that department. So, I send to Jennifer and I wait for a response. After a few days, I get no response. Then after a week, I write her saying that my client is very upset with this and that I need a solution immediately. She finally emails me back and says that now I have to send a few of the prints back to them. At this point, I have Jennifer Brugman's manager, Tiffanie Morrasy part of the email thread. 3. I call my client apologizing for the delay and saying that now they want the actual prints back to review them. So, my client who you can imagine is getting more frustrated at this time tells me to come and pick them up. So I do, then I pack them up and send them to Bay Photo. They received the prints over a week ago and they know I'm needing an answer. I've email twice with no response and today I decided to call and speak with a "manager," because at this point, nobody is helping me. Jennifer Brugman happens to answer the call and know's it's me calling. I first say I 'd like to please speak with a manager and she says that Tiffanie Morrasy is who she will connect me to. So instead of connecting me, she disconnects the call. Now what am I to do except get the attention of someone at Bay Photo who actually cares to take care of their customer. I hope to hear from you soon, I will continue to write reviews until I am taken care of. Jimmy F read more

I've been ordering photo prints online for my amatuer photo hobby, and after several orders I have to say I'm very impressed with Bay Photo. I use their online ordering system, uploading full size photos and then selecting how and what i want printed. The system is easy to use and access to help topics and training is extensive. I highly recccomend using them for prints... you will totally see the difference between using chain stores versus a dedicated team of pros! My only gripe is the time-frame communication after ordering. You'll see zero movement from "ordered" for days until a sudden "shipped " notice, and the ship estimate date is not even close. read more

Bay Photo Lab - A framed print ordered & delivered from Bay Photo - Photography Stores & Services Near Me - Scotts Valley, California

I recently ordered a metal print gor someone who wanted to have it sent to a friend as a housewarming gift. I made sure that the name and address were correct on the order. When the print arrived it had my name on it, and being new to her home, the friend refused it and it was sent back to Bay Photo. Bay Photo denied they had made an error, and charged me to reship it! I have subsequently provided them a copy of the shipping label with my name on it. This was handled so badly, that they have lost a customer . read more

Never having been a customer, I called Bay Photo Lab to ask a question. I spoke with Brandy C. and was amazed with her willingness to help me with a project I was doing with another company. Even knowing that Brandy was very friendly and super professional. She even let me send her the photos I was working with so she could check out my problem and see what she could do to advise me. This is what I call awesome customer service. Now I know where to go with my next project. I highly recommend this company. read more

Worst customer service. I ordered a print on 12/13 and it's not coming until the 27th. I was told on multiple occasions it was shipping out "that day" and it never did. My other orders came within 3 days usually, even during the pandemic (a few days prior to this order) I wouldn't recommend using them. There are better more professional labs that can ship within a reasonable time. read more

Bay Photo Lab - BayPhoto Delivery - Photography Stores & Services Near Me - Scotts Valley, California

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This lab did a wonderful job on an acrylic enlargement I wanted done. I've never attempted something like this since I am a hobbyist. They were amazingly helpful and patient with me through the process and eased all my concerns. The final product came out wonderfully and got probably the best quality I could get with my basic photography/editing skills. I will certainly continue to use them. read more

Bay Photo Lab - Beach in Saint Martin - Photography Stores & Services Near Me - Scotts Valley, California

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I am extremely happy with my 8x10 prints from Bay Photo! They really went above and beyond any experience I've had with other commercial labs like Costco and Shutterfly. Most of my pictures are from my iPhone and I can definitely see a difference in sharpness and color with my prints. - Offers a complimentary sample of their different paper surfaces and textures if you aren't sure what works best for your project. - Easy to use online interface. - Color correction they do is awesome. This was recommended to me choose by someone on IG, but I'm glad I did. Their adjustments were spot on. - A+ on packing the prints to ensure they weren't damaged in the mail. They layered the prints between a thin soft packing layer, thin bag, cardboard and put into a hard photo-friendly box. - Fast turnaround. They offer a Welcome coupon code to apply to your entire first order. I didn't know what to expect from this company, but now that I know, I wish I ordered more! I hope they offer return customers discounts periodically. read more

Well Bay Photo [saw this review??] has sent a replacement at no cost. It arrived properly packaged this time as the print was secured to the box this time. Cheers! I hope the person packing doesn't have a brain fart again for other customers. read more

I have written only a few reviews but Bay Photos deserves one from me. Their Bay ROE app is difficult to use. They should update it to make it more user friendly. Mainly I am writing to give a shout out for the customer service and production team. I had a rush for production because of an upcoming memorial service. The team came through for me and was able to ship the final products ahead of schedule. I really appreciated that. Thank you all. read more

So bummed to be leaving this review as I've worked with this lab for years. But I can't in good conscience continue working with them. Their customer service is terrible and their employees are rude. I will no longer support this lab or send any of my clients to Bay Photo. read more

Ordered prints for a photography class final. Made sure to select 2 day shipping so it would arrive with enough time. Never showed up. Contacted support asking for at least a refund on the 2 day shipping. Nope, they just decided to send my order again despite me saying that I don't need the prints anymore (final assignment came and went by this point in time). No discount, no refunds. Seems shady. I would avoid this business. read more

I found Bayphoto seemingly out of nowhere, and boy am I glad I did. $90 for two good medium-large prints with frames? I'll gamble and try this out. ..but WOW. I did not expect the colors to pop like that! I'm just putting these up in my bedroom and I feel like I need to rent space in an art fair now just to show off the frame/printing itself. My artwork is normally vivid digitally and flatter when printed, but it looks like legitimate paint strokes, and the darker colors stay vivid without getting mixed and washed out. I don't have enough space on my walls, because I want to order 10 more of these! read more

I have been using a national lab for all my prints, but was excited to find a local company that could possibly do the work instead. This has been my experience: [[ update: they are going to send another batch of prints to make up for the error, which I appreciate. But getting this right from the start would have saved my time and frustration, their time, and their money to correct simple mistakes. The ongoing arrival of promotional e-mails while awaiting a response from customer service has been infuriating. I appreciate their willingness to fix the mistakes, but there are a lot of loose ends that I've not experienced working with other printers. I prefer to support a "local" business over an NYC company and will try to use Bay Photo again, but I know that the NYC printer always gets it right. If there are going to be mistakes, there are "cheap" local alternatives. ]] - I sent a simple order for a two sets of 25 5x7 cards. The cards arrived when expected (pretty fast). I didn't open the full package right away, but the samples I pulled out of the pack looked great. So I placed an identical order to the first. In the end I should have had 50 of card A, and 50 of card B. When I finally opened the packages, I found errors in both: - Some cards had mechanical damage on the face or reverse (small scrapes like they had hit machinery or been handled roughly, a cyan ink smudge) - Two cards were partially cut - I received 3 too few of one card, and 3 too many of the other This was for a project that needed exactly 50 sets of these two image, so at present I cannot complete the project. I e-mailed customer service a week ago and received no response. I e-mailed customer service four days ago, cc'ing "larry" and received no response. Over the past week I have received FOUR promotional e-mails from Bay Photo Lab to try to sell me something, meaning the e-mail address they have on file for me is certainly working. So that's FOUR promo e-mails, nothing from customer service about my screwed up orders. I'm now on hold because I'm spending my day off work trying to fix this rather than having a day off work. My experience started like this: You are currently caller #11 the estimated hold time is 26 minutes My current experience after being on hold for 12 minutes is this: You are currently caller #6 The estimated hold time is 26 minutes This tells me they have ONE PERSON answering customer service calls. ONE. How can they have ONE PERSON answering customer service calls? At some point, management should be on the phones. I wonder if the business is viable at this point. Bay Photo, you seem to be a pretty big operation. The prints I received that were printed correctly, not damaged, and cut correctly, look really good. However, both orders had errors: - small specks of damage on the face of a couple of the cards - this is an art project and the images are dark so it mattered - some cards were cut incorrectly - i received too many of one image and not enough of the other, rather than 50 + 50. So I cannot finish my project. - it's concerning that both orders had mistakes. NOBODY HAS GOTTEN BACK TO ME NEARLY A WEEK AFTER MY FIRST E-MAIL ABOUT THIS EASILY FIXED PROBLEM (send me 5 prints to correct the screw-up). Meanwhile, I'm getting daily or every-other-day promotional sales e-mails from the company trying to get me to do more business with them. Why would I do that? Move a couple of marketing people over to the customer service phones temporarily to catch up these issues and business will improve. I guarantee it. My current experience after being on hold for 18 minutes is this: You are currently caller #5 The estimated hold time is 20 minutes (ASIDE) THE APPS - The web submission app is adequate. That's what I used to submit my images (four images altogether, two front-and-back designs). It cannot scale an image, so I had to step back and produce originals that are exactly 5x7. That's not automatically a bad thing, since submitting an exactly-sized final image is a way to be sure you get what you expect, but it is a unexpected limitation given that most other printing sites can at minimum scale. - They really hype the downloadable app ("Bay ROES") as the pinnacle of sophistication. They use phrases like "Designed for the power user" with this thing. The problem, is, Bay ROES sucks. Not only could I not get it to run but it installed who knows what all over my Mac. I tried several times to get it working because I wanted to experience the greatness they hype -- but then i saw that it's a Java app, loads "log4j" which has a recently disclosed massive security vulnerability, and was probably written a decade ago. Anyway, that was a mess and a huge waste of time. I mention it because I wanted to show you how much effort I went through in my attempt to be a good guy and use a local business rather than sending my work to a distant lab. read more

They did a very nice job on a recent print order - colors and quality were excellent. However, shipping was delayed despite expedite charges, and customer service both unsympathetic and unhelpful. So perhaps I'd use them again, but definitely not if time is at all a concern. read more

Great results on 12 metal prints I have gotten since 2014. Some required extensive editing by Bay Photo. I have gotten sizes from 9 x 12 to 24 x 30. When I uploaded the jpg for the 24 x 30 I got a message that the print would be pixelated because not enough resolution. I shot pic with my iPhone, which didn't allow me to increase the resolution. I retook the photo with a Nikon, which did have sufficient resolution, BUT the shot was done at a different time. The original I took had a cloud that was attractive. Bay Photo Photo Shopped the Nikon version to add the cloud. They also removed an ugly power line and improved the exposure. This extra work was only $16. All of the prints I have gotten are metal, but with different finishes depending on where they were going to be displayed. Sometimes glossy is good, but where there could be light bouncing off the print I use matte. I also got one in an Exterior grade for display outside. Some people have complained about customer service. I have had excellent results. On some of my jobs I had to make several contacts to revise proofs. I was also given partial refunds when needed without any flak. read more

I am an aspiring photographer , I did art shows all over Cali. with my photography printed at bay photo, I did ok, very difficult. I have spent thousands on metal prints at bay photo ! It is extremely difficult to sell metal print and now bay photo has raised their prices, not fair. Bay photo priced me way out of business, I`m done. I appreciate all of the great customer support over the years,but again,,Im done read more

Excellent quality prints with superior customer service to match. Several varieties of photographic paper and surfaces to choose from. Look forward to using them again. read more