Photopoint Offline All Day~What Gives?

Self | 12/14/01 | Self

[Merovingian]

Photopoint has been nonfunctional all day. Hope this is not a repeat of the fiasco last Summer. Anyone with information?

[Snow Bunny]

I can't write what I wish would happen to these Photopoint people, but I sure as heck am thinking it and strongly too.

I asked my agent how many I had there and he said about 1700 pictures.

I am ao angry and I feel badly for you too and everyone on here that thought they were dealing with good business people.

[RonDog]

I can't write what I wish would happen to these Photopoint people, but I sure as heck am thinking it and strongly too.

I asked my agent how many I had there and he said about 1700 pictures.

I am ao angry and I feel badly for you too and everyone on here that thought they were dealing with good business people.

All may yet be well. We have been through this drill before.

See:
More news on the PhotoPoint situation! [Free Republic mentioned!!]
Posted on 07/16/2001 09:53:36 PDT by RonDog

One of the BEST sources of information is FReeper HKDragon2
(aka Michael R. Tomkins, at The Imaging Resource)

See their BREAKING NEWS page, but, as a courtesy to HKDragon2, please do NOT post the "full text" of his articles here on FR.
He has requested that we only post PARTIAL QUOTES, and include a link back to his website, i.e.:

Tuesday, December 18, 2001

More on the PhotoPoint situation!
13:28 ET - Site still down for a fourth day as reader emails continue to flood in...

We told you yesterday about a major outage ongoing at online photofinisher PhotoPoint.com, and whilst we've yet to elicit any comment from our contacts at the company, some reader emails do shed more light on the situation. One such email came from Andrew Murphy, who provided info and photos from the offices of Pantellic Software Inc. (the company behind the PhotoPoint service) last July when the... (More)

[RonDog]

From:

Shutter falls on PhotoPoint site

Dec 17, 2001 5:48 PM PT
Shutter falls on PhotoPoint site

Online photo site PhotoPoint has been unavailable for days, wreaking havoc with thousands of customers who store pictures on the popular site.

The company began referring some 1.25 million current and former customers to partner EZ Prints for printing and other services in a Dec. 7 e-mail message. The note said the shutdown was due to technical difficulties, but it left unanswered the bigger question of when, if ever, customers would be able to access their PhotoPoint files.

Executives at PhotoPoint and parent Pantellic Software, which acquired the service this summer, could not immediately be reached for comment. Web sites for both companies were unavailable Monday. A published company phone number listed as the contact for both companies had been disconnected. --Evan Hansen, Special to ZDNet News

[Zon]

I also save (not just bookmark) good material I find online, like the Diogenesis Operation Enduring Freedom photomontage posts.

I learned that lesson the hard way six years ago book-marking pages and then getting the dreaded "404 file not found" message when trying to return to them. Most recently, today I was looking for a page to grab a quote from but the page was no longer available. Fortunately, goggle.com caches pages and I was able to retrieve the cached page from there.

[Snow Bunny]

Thanks RonDog !!!! I appreciate it very much.

[RonDog]

There is now MORE news from HKDragon2 at http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS.HTM.

Perhaps the folks at www.EZprints.com will ride to the rescue:

Tuesday, December 18, 2001

PhotoPoint - the plot thickens!
23:25 ET - Has the online photofinisher reached the end of the road...?

An email forwarded to us by IR reader 'Sandy' suggests that the outage at online photofinisher PhotoPoint might be more permanent than the many users who've emailed us since the site went down on Friday have been hoping. If you're not familiar with the situation, PhotoPoint.com was transferred to Pantellic Software Inc. from its prior owners last July, and at that time the site was down for several... (More)

[Howlin]

Ah........um...........is it down for good? (Sorry, I'm late to the party!)

[RonDog]

Ah........um...........is it down for good? (Sorry, I'm late to the party!)

So far, it has been a re-run of their actions last July (see the old FR thread, linked above):

They shut down access to their website, and then don't answer the telephone. VERY bad PR. Again.

The last time, as you may recall, their "parent" company (Panhellenic) rode in on a white horse, and re-opened the website after about a week of frustrating, "no comment" dithering - eventually restoring full access to ALL of the images previously stored on PhotoPoint, to the great relief of MANY subscribers. So there is a precedent to support my hoping for the best now.

IMHO, we will have a few more days of uncertainty, and then a NEW, new owner will step up to the plate. Perhaps EZPrints.com. The merger of PhotoPoint into a MAJOR player with "deep pockets" (financially) - like Kodak - would be nice, but unlikely.

[Merovingian]

Thanks for the update, RonDog. I'm not counting on anything. I read a few of the threads at the site mentioned above....Doesn't look to good, even worse than in July. Have you any info on that ofoto.com site?

[LegoZ81]

I believe we may be hosed...... http://photo.epson.com/

[undergroundwarrior]

Ron, Thanks for the information.

Foolish me, staying with PHotopoint. What are good, easy to use options??

[Merovingian]

Leg, Are you saying that Epson is synonymous with photopoint???

[RonDog]

Leg, Are you saying that Epson is synonymous with photopoint???

From the previous thread:

Here is something that drifted off the eBay Images/HTML Chat board -
but not before WE grabbed it for posterity:

Posted by austinpostercompany (413) on Jul-14-01 at 17:26:46 PDT
Auctions

PHOTOPOINT UPDATE

I just got an email from Epson Photocenter....here it is...

Hi;

Our affiliation with PhotoPoint is limited. We share a common photo gallery with them and they store our photos on their servers. Other than that, we are two exclusive sites with separate login and separate user databases. Regrettably, we can not access photos stored with PhotoPoint.

I cannot comment on the status of PhotoPoint, although I believe they are having technical problems. My advice would be to be patient.

Sounds like pretty good advice to me, for now. ;)

66 Posted on 07/14/2001 19:04:48 PDT by RonDog

11 Posted on 07/16/2001 10:19:10 PDT by RonDog

[Merovingian]

Hmmmmm.....Guess we have no choice..With our sniffer dogs here I'm sure we will hear it on FR fast!

[Snow Bunny]

I think it is MIA for good and will probably come back under a different name to rip of more trusting people.... DemoRATS must have been in charge,what do they care.

Off with their heads I say.....LOL..... If I don't try to laugh about it now I will just stay outraged.

[RonDog]

I think it is MIA for good and will probably come back under a different name to rip of more trusting people.... DemoRATS must have been in charge,what do they care.

Off with their heads I say.....LOL..... If I don't try to laugh about it now I will just stay outraged.

This BREAKING NEWS just in from FReeper HKDragon2:

Thursday, December 20, 2001

Epson PhotoCenter offline!
11:51 ET - Problems at Pantellic looking worse all the time as major customer announces plans to bring its photo-sharing site in-house...

IR readers Al Mark and 'AlohaBev' just dropped us a note to point out something which really does seem to hammer yet another nail into the coffin of PhotoPoint.com and parent company Pantellic Software Inc. Epson PhotoCenter, an online photo-sharing site hosted by Pantellic which has thus far remained immune to the problems that have plagued the PhotoPoint site recently, has suddenly been taken offline... (More)

SUPPORT HKDragon's investigations, and CLICK THIS LINK, to go to his website for the REST of his update! Please visit his site, and help keep this FReeper reporter on the "cutting edge" - ahead of ALL the rest of the media!

And please send him (by e-mail) any information that YOU may discover, to: Michael R. Tomkins, The Imaging Resource

[Merovingian]

Just checked the 'effed' company.com: Saw this:

ask the jerkoff why he didn't at least alert his "valued customers" before shutting down. DALE GASS Telephone (902) 835-7131 Address 2 French Masts Lane Bedford, NS B4A 3W6 What a true asshole.

[2Jedismom]

Sure not looking good!

[Merovingian]

Saw another post on 'effed co.com: "Called Dale, he sighed when I asked him why they didn't post a notice, said, he's got bigger problems and hung up. I think for the rest of the month I'll call him at 2 in the morning and ask, maybe he'll get in a more talkative mood. Happy 'effin New Year Dale"

[2Jedismom]

There's gotta be a way to set up a class action lawsuit or something...I mean right here at the holidays with all those people on eBay that use photopoint as part of their business?

I had over 400 photos on photopoint when they stopped making it a free site. I sat up late every night for a week downloading them to my harddrive, then I deleted all of them on the site and said "phoo-ey on you"!