I had a local shop in Southern California that I used once before I relocated to the Jersey Shore in 2023.
Ay first impression (2 person shop run out of their 2 car garage), but once a saw inside, I was impressed. That garage was packed to the roof with equipment, abiet previously owned by pro ships. Where had equipment for formats that nobody else supported. Work was done in a timely manner, and the results were acceptable.
I am embarking on concerting about 45 years of negatives, going back to the original instamatic 126 negatives, thru 110 and 35mm, 2 VHS tapes created by a shop my father used to convert 16mm, 8mm, super 8 and maybe others to tape (still searching for the 200+ hours of film used to create the 60 minute tape, ot seeing if a better digital copy can be made), plus photos since the early 1950s, about a bankers box full).
I selected EverPresent based on multiple factors after reading the info on their web site for a few hours. Pros were:
1) a local company
2) clean facilities, modern equipment
3) a reasonable sized team
4) no TV ads (typically raises cost and cookie cutter approaches)
5) assessment before pricing, with options I can select as/where justified
6) discount on larger orders
7) taking time to educate me (I received a callback and we discussed scanning resolution for photos and negatives. I learned their default is 2,000dpi for negatives with an upcharge to 4,000 dpi, and photos at either 700 or 800dpu, I can ot find my notes of that call. Thinking that my older originals were analog (chemistry) probably done in Kodak labs, film and paper. Wanting to preserve the best image, I took on an experiment, and scanned it using a home flatbed scanner. Thue the higher dpi scans took way more disk, I recall going to 36,000dpi, upon close examination, it hit me that due to grain size on the negative (I used anywhere from ASA 100 to 1600) that those negatives were sort of digital at that point. That consultant knew what he was talking about about. That was the clincher.
Now the cons:
1) I failed to read reviews. It looks like this will be their 2nd one.
2) it is almost impossible to call and get routed to a human. It always goes to voicemail, with a call back that I may not be able to drop everything to take (hint may be photos from the 1950s, so answering a cell phone on the first ring is not my default. I wait for it to announce who is calling based on the entry in contacts, then if I can talk, find the phone, by then the notification is gone from the screen (android), so I have to get that back just to answer the call. By then it had gone to voicemail where an useful message may be there.
So, now I am starting to get concerned. I am unable to find out where I am in the assessment queue, whether it is days or weeks or months deep (if ever).
With so few reviews, will their business model be viable? If not, what are the chances of ever getting back my originals?
IMHO, once there is an order number (which I got when dropping off, I should be able to track online with having to connect with a human. Such as Received, waiting assment, expected wait time is xx days; accounting items, creating assessment and cost, should be ready in yy days; Waiting for customer to select options and confirm order; Order all approved, aiting to be scanned , expected start time in zz days and finished in another as days; Order completed on mmddyyyy.
These are just my suggestions for a minimal set of statuses we should be able to see in the app without talking to a human.
As you can probably tell, I am starting to get nervous. read more
