Comments on: dotPhoto Deletes Your Photo Albums Without Warning

By: Russ

Russ — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:21:17 +0000

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.
I have been a customer of this company since day 1 !!!!
last few months i was away..only to come back and see DOT PHOTO had deleted all my 15 albums..no warning, no calls, no letters.. no NOTHING…
BEAWARE…
DO NOT POST YOUR PICTURES WITH THIS COMPANY, You ‘ll be sorry..

By: Johnny

Johnny — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:49:22 +0000

@ruby, it was not in their ORIGINAL Terms Of Service, when they first started business. It is the most recent TOS that says they can delete images. Their original TOS said “unlimited storage” and never required anyone to buy a subscription to anything. Many of the complaints are from their older customers whom had their accounts wiped without warning.

By: ruby

ruby — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:09:23 +0000

um… i think its written in their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. We just never bother reading those stuff when we sign up.

By: Shoshanah

Shoshanah — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:29:54 +0000

I am beyond mad! I have 3 years worth of photos of my children uploaded and organized on dotphoto and I add photos monthly if not biweekly to the site. I logged on one day and it was telling me that my account was inactive. After finally getting through to a person on the phone they had the audacity to tell me that they were bought out and that they had sent me emails warning me that my pictures would be deleted -total and complete bs! I NEVER received any emails. I was practically crying on the phone and the nasty abnoxious woman wouldn’t even say she was sorry….she basically hung up the phone on me and told me too bad….I am disgusted and frustrated and can’t imagine how this is legal. I am curious to know if you all complained to the better business bureau or know of any class action lawsuits?????
Shoshanah

By: Johnny

Johnny — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:49:43 +0000

I don’t think dotPhoto can get anybody’s photos back. I think they are covering up a systems crash. Maybe that is why they moved to using Amazon S3 as the backhaul data store now. Most likely their own infrastructure sucks! Or they never used redundant storage of any kind.

I sure hope that is some class-action lawsuit against them for damages. For some people dotPhoto lost their treasured memories.

However, for myself, I believe in having my own backup copies of my images. At least stored in more than one place, where I can get to them. Not just with one company or on one hard drive.

By: BS

BS — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:40:53 +0000

Did anyone ever get their photo’s back?

I am ready to call consumer affairs, the better business bureau, my attorney & the media!

By: ruby

ruby — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:03:54 +0000

i’ve been using dotphoto for years! its been great. I even stopped using snapfish cuz i assumed dotphoto was better. Apparently i was wrong! they deactivated my account for no reason! they said my account has not been active for the past 90 days. thats complete BS! upload my photos on a monthly basis!! now everything is all gone! all my pictures for the past 7 years! i will never use dotphoto ever again.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:38:04 +0000

My Grandmother recently passed & our family was putting together a “collage” of family photos and I had the only recent photos of her healthy and happy @ a big Italian dinner. My computer had recently lost the hard-drive an I was not able to recover recent photos, but I thought “Thank goodness I have them backed up on DotPhoto”. Well DotPhoto just inactivated me three days prior with to my discovery. NO EMAIL WARNING, NOTHING….so customer service activated me for one day to upgrade my account & that day happen to be the day of the FUNERAL. What a slap in the face, not only did I not get the last photos of my Grandma but the only day they allowed me to upgrade to save my photos was the day of the funeral!!!!! Below is my correspondence.

Alrighty then, I STILL CANNOT SIGN IN TO MY DAMN ACCOUNT TO PURCHASE THE MEMBERSHIP!!!!!!!! What don’t you understand about that? I try to sign in & my account is inactive, if I try to purchase a membership, it says my ID already exist, I am trying frantically to sign up and save my pictures but DOTPHOTO SUPPORT IS NOT HELPING ME DO THAT!!!!!!

—–Original Message—–
From: “support@dotphoto.com” [support@dotphoto.com]
Date: 10/11/2009 09:11 PM
To: “grubeo@myway.com”
Subject: Re: Ticket #5521-10002736: Solution Suggested (You inactivated my account with no prior notice!!!!!!!)

A solution for your issue has been suggested by Jenn Link.
Solution:
Hello, I am sorry for your loss. This is not something that we are able to extend on an account by account basis. Once the account was re-activated it was only allowed for one additional day since over 30 days were already given.

Because we had an overwhelming surge of requests to restore inactive accounts, DotPhoto has extended the grace period. For a very short while, it will be possible to restore your account. This will end when our old server account is no longer available and this may happen very soon. Please take action immediately. Extensions are not possible.

PURCHASING A MEMBERSHIP IS THE ONLY WAY TO RESTORE AN INACTIVE ACCOUNT.
· Purchase a paid membership plan with a credit card – Login to your account – If you DO NOT purchase a membership, your account and ALL it’s contents WILL BE DELETED SOON. Once deleted it can not be recalled.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Jen L.

dotPhoto Support

Ticket Information:
Ticket #:5521-10002736
Date Created:10/9/2009 10:01 PM EDT
Summary:You inactivated my account with no prior notice!!!!!!!
Details:To whom this may concern,

Ticket #:5521-10002128

Apparently you did not even really read the email I sent you, because YOU ACTIVATED MY ACCOUNT FOR THE ONE DAY I WAS AT THE FUNERAL!!!!!!!!! Was I suppose to leave my grandmother funeral to appease some ONE DAY ONLY ACCESS to my account. This is completely unacceptable behavior. Since Dot-Photo is holding all of my photos hostage, I need access to my account to purchase my membership and access my pictures. Is there someone I can talk to beside a customer service rep, preferably management on this matter? Because the snide comment “of the three emails you sent me” rubs me the wrong way. It is 2009 & people use SPAM FILTERS that could account for the fact I never got “the Three Emails you sent me in September!!!!!” Are you really this pompous as a company?

Unbelievably appalled

Gregory A Rubeo

By: bezolala

bezolala — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:19:41 +0000

dotphoto is suck…. I login to acccount today and found more than five albums disappear and I email their customer services support@dotphoto.com and they reply “Perhaps you have saved other albums on other servicews”…… this is ridiculous, I just want my photos BACK!!! How can they delete my photos without a warning!!!!