Two of the big box brands in the photo project, storage, and print industry made the headlines this week – and made their way into your inbox and mine.

“FOREVER® Storage is very relevant in an insecure world with a very real digital cliff” (Meakam 2023 January 06)

Sitting on the precipice of that cliff are COSTCO & SHUTTERFLY. Are they holding your memories teetering over the edge of an abyss?

1. Costco announced that they are ending their photo center altogether. Their customers have a year to reclaim anything that is held in their storage there. Costco members have the option of moving photos to Shutterfly.

       (As I typed “Costco members,” it occurred to me that membership suggests an extra bond between Costco and their member-customers. It certainly doesn’t seem as if that bond is being honored if they are abandoning what they offered when that membership commenced.)

2. Shutterfly has made two announcements – first, they are ending their photo sharing site in MARCH (only two months away, and details are not yet available); second, they delete all photos for anyone who hasn’t made a purchase within the last 18 months.

       (See SHUTTERFLY’S TERMS OF USE HERE. Again, notice – terms of “USE.” You are a user, not a client, not someone receiving “SERVICE” or client care.)

We have known for some time that Shutterfly holds your photos hostage. (And they don’t store other media types like audio, video, and documents.)

Shutterfly makes it difficult to retrieve the photos you’ve stored. (You can only retrieve full-resolution photos by purchasing a DVD.) They require activity to continue storing files on the Shutterfly site, and they guarantee nothing in terms of the security of your photos. Plus, they store only photos and the projects you’ve made on their site.

Costco is the very definition of a big box store.

It has always baffled me that so many people will trust the seller of toilet paper, tires, and tomatoes with their photos. Now, Costco is recommending Shutterfly. Shutterfly, by virtue of its constant acquisition of other photo sites, is becoming a sort of monopoly. This certainly doesn’t incentivize Shutterfly to provide real care to their customers.

Legally, Costco and Shutterfly must prioritize shareholder’s profits.

If something isn’t profitable for the shareholders, they get out of that aspect of their business (i.e. Costco’s Photo Center – first, in-store and now on-line – and Shutterfly’s cancellation Share Sites) regardless of the impact on their customers.

 

It has been less than a year since Costco removed its photo centers from physical stores.  Now their offer of an on-line option is being eliminated as well. Why would you trust them to recommend a next option when they failed to provide what they offered less than a year ago?

None of this qualifies as a new trend; after all, cloud storage is not a cost-free perk for the company to provide. We’ve already seen Google Photos, Amazon, and others reduce or eliminate their offerings.

• Kodak Gallery closed in 2012 – accounts moved to Shutterfly.
• Webshots closed in 2012; accounts not migrated to Shutterfly were deleted.
• Google photos eliminated high quality backup & unlimited free storage, 2020.
• Shoebox shut down in 2019 – photos not moved were deleted – users had 30 days to see the e-mail from Shoebox & take action. THIRTY DAYS.
• Flickr only allows 10-minute video segments. Max.
• Amazon Photos allow only 5GBs of your storage to be used for video. (That’s about 5 hours worth of video.)

There is an easy, cost-effective, and permanent solution to this dilemma, though.

For starters, FOREVER® is fundamentally and legally different. We are a for-profit, PUBLIC-BENEFIT entity. That means we make capital and raise money for our shareholders, but it’s not just about shareholders. We must also deliver the public benefit of preserving our clients’ memories FOREVER.

FOREVER® offers longevity (100 years beyond your lifetime), secure friends & family sharing at no extra cost, a secure website – always – where only you can see your full library, viability of your files, preservation settings that extend your storage beyond your lifetime, and we have a 4.8 out of 5 in our reviews on TrustPilot.com.

As our FOUNDER & CEO, Glen Meakam said,

“We take shareholders, living clients, and deceased clients into consideration EQUALLY.”

(2023 January 06)

No one else offers what we do. The reason?

First, for us MEMORY CONTENT is our number one priority. It is not a P.S. to other products. It’s not a lure to capture other business.

Second, for us, you are our CLIENT, not a transactional customer. We value the relationships we build with you.

Third, with us, you get me – a living, breathing human being who cares about your memories as much as my own.

At FOREVER®, “Our service is designed to preserve your Content through natural disasters, wars, terrorism, economic depressions, and other events that cause major disruptions in society. We secure your Content using high quality storage at multiple data centers at geographically diverse locations and have backup and recovery plans to restore access as soon as reasonably practical.” – 4.1 FOREVER® Terms of Service

Our GUARNTEE FUND is in place to ensure all of what we offer.

A large portion of each FOREVER® Storage purchase is deposited in this endowment fund (started in 2012).

 

There are a number of reasons FOREVER’s Guarantee Fund should give you peace of mind.

1. Should FOREVER® become insolvent, our Guarantee Fund provides the means for us to maintain your content for two years and then move and pay for alternative storage. (4.2 Forever Guarantee in the case of insolvency.)
2. Our Fund provides for the migration of files to new file-types when/if the industry changes require it.
3. The funds are restricted, allowing us only to withdraw the amount needed for specifically defined activity on your behalf.
4. We are carefully investing your funds – and we do consider them YOUR funds in the sense that we work to be good stewards of the financial expenditure you made to create your account and preserve it for generations. Take a look at our INVESTMENT POLICY.

FOREVER® Storage is like life insurance for your memory content.

• We start by giving you 2GBs of storage to test us, learn about our storage product, and try sharing a few files or creating a photo project. (CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT HERE.)
• Along with that, after confirming your e-mail invitation, we give you a coupon that can be used for any product purchase – you don’t have to spend a minimum to try it out, and you can combine it with any other discount offered in our DEALS TAB.
• As you work with our storage (or other) products, you have a say in what happens in product development. Just send us an e-mail with your ideas and suggestions.
• If you purchase storage, load files, and never log in again, our guarantee still applies. We will continue to care for your memory content. Just be sure your heirs know where to go for the family memory content. PRINT THIS FORM & keep it with your will and other important documents.

Let’s talk, and I will help you to find a final, permanent, FOREVER home for your memory content. Consultations are free and tailored (or TAYlored) to your needs! It is always my honor to assist you because your stories matter to me.

E-mail [email protected] or text 717.440.2559 to set up a time to chat.

 

Sources not embedded in hyperlinks, accessed 2023 January 08.

¹https://ktla.com/morning-news/google-photos-paid-storage-alternative-cloud-pictures-richontech/

²https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_image-sharing_websites