Review of ArtsCow free photo books

Maybe you remember that last month, I was excited to return from my 20th high school reunion, which I blogged about here, and was probably just as excited to receive word that I had 17 free photo books available from ArtsCow.Com, a relatively new photo printing company trying to drum up new business.

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I love to scrapbook, and have recently become more of a digital scrapper than a traditional one. (In other words, I scrapbook on the computer…no mess to clean up, nothing to cut out, and it’s with me wherever I go.) I also use Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus scrapbook software, along with lots of digital freebies that I’ve downloaded along the way. So when I heard about these credits, the timing was perfect. I had just returned from the reunion, and had told all my fellow graduates that they could receive a FREE photo book which I would be happy to design and send to each of them.

All was well until I went to order the books. That’s when I found out the company was in Hong Kong. Strike One, because the shipping ended up being $11.99 per book. Still, if I had ordered them through Creative Memories, full price was around $70 plus $7.99 shipping for a 30-page book. So although shipping was pricey, it still seemed like a good value since the book was free.

The books came while I was gone to Kansas. They were of good print quality, although the paper wasn’t as glossy as some I’ve ordered through other companies, and the binding wasn’t as sturdy as I had hoped. But hey, free is free, right? I decided to overlook it.

Then I started noticing a disturbing trend. Strike Two. Several pages had words cut off. This wasn’t just on one side of the page, but also on the top, bottom, etc. And different books had different portions of the words cut off. Huh? There was no way I could send these to my graduate friends. What about the money back guarantee? Would they honor it since I hadn’t technically paid anything but shipping for the books?

The guarantee stipulates that items can be returned for a full refund within 30 days of order date. The problem is, since the company is in Hong Kong, two weeks had elapsed before I even saw the books, so it was doubtful that I could get them there within the 30 days. But I did it anyway, knowing it would be close.

When the company received my books back, they sent an email, telling me that my layouts were beyond the bleed line, and that all book publishers would have cut those words off. But they agreed to credit me with “real money” in my ArtsCow account. Strike Three. I wrote back to them, telling them that it was not true that ALL book publishers would cut the words off, because I had reordered replacement books from two different companies (Creative Memories and Shutterfly – and yes, I had a coupon code for both!) using the exact same files, and they arrived this week, looking fantastic. I requested that “real” money, not credit, be refunded to me.

Happy News! The company agreed to PayPal me the amount of shipping, although I am still out the money it cost to ship the books back. Expensive lesson!

Final Review: I appreciate the end result, and having received my refund. However, I think ArtsCow’s 8 x 8 book pages run a little smaller than the standard publisher’s size, which may have caused my problem. If you use their online templates rather than using scrapbook software that you design yourself, it might be a good deal for you. Also, I believe that they have lowered the shipping costs since then to be closer to the industry standard. Because I will continue to use my own scrapbook software, I doubt that I will use this company again.

What has your experience been?