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?

[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"!

[Merovingian]

I don't know about a class action, if they have no money, only the lousy lawyers fill their pockets. I had upgraded to premium with 2000 pics. I had learned from July, though, so had copies everywhere, but it sure was a pain in the ass to redo alot of work..I won't have the great travel albums anymore, which is a real shame. Important pics I have parked on my own site.

[Merovingian]

Found this:

The Metropolitan Halifax Chamber of Commerce strongly encourages you to refer to this online directory of member businesses when in need of any product or service. Bookmark this page and visit often! You'll be supporting fellow Chamber members and businesses which, like you, are committed to the economic growth of our community. Pantellic Software Inc. 1505 Barrington Street Suite 107 Halifax, NS B3J 3K5 Mr. Dale Gass Phone: (902) 492-8341 Fax: (902) 492-8342 Email: inquiry@photopoint.com Url: http://www.photopoint.com

[LegoZ81]

what i was tring to say is since that they used pantablah's... servers and now that there thay are transitioning to their own does improve the outlook of the situation

[RonDog]

THIS was posted in a thread called Photopoint Shutdown on the eBay Forum - "Photos & HTML Disscussion Board":

Photopoint Shutdown
ocean2sand  (222) (view author's auctions)
7:56am December 19, 2001

The following article is from the local Haifax Newspaper I thought some of you might be interested in:

Wednesday, December 19, 2001 Back The Halifax Herald Limited

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shutdown leaves PhotoPoint subscribers out of the picture

By Bruce Erskine / Business Reporter

A Toronto photographer is one of many shutterbugs around the world upset with PhotoPoint, a Halifax-based dot-com photo-sharing firm.

"I think it's unconscionable," says Ingrid Romanowsky, adding that she can't retrieve digital photo images that she paid to have stored on PhotoPoint's Web site.

"I haven't been able to contact anyone with the business."

PhotoPoint subscribers from as far away as Vietnam and Holland have also contacted this newspaper about the shutdown of the company's site.

Robert Boudreau of Saint John had about 800 of his railroad photos in albums on the PhotoPoint site and used it to share images with other railway enthusiasts around the world.

Mr. Boudreau said Tuesday that the site seemed to go down last Thursday or Friday, and he thought at first it was a simple technical glitch.

He said he paid $19.95 US to use the site but wasn't too concerned about the money, although he said it took a lot of time to scan his photos in to it.

But he said he'd heard that people who used the site to post photos for eBay and other online auctions could be seriously out of pocket due to the closure.

"There was no notice," he said, or provisions to transfer photos to similar Web sites. "People would love to get their images back."

PhotoPoint operated one of the world's most popular photo Web sites, with 1.6 million members. At one point, the firm had hoped to be listed on the Nasdaq exchange.

In July, Photopoint Corp. (USA), developed by Halifax-based Pantellic Software in 1998 but operated as a separate U.S. company since 1999, was reacquired by Pantellic after being taken over by liquidators in California.

The PhotoPoint Web site shut down briefly during the reacquisition.

Pantellic CEO Dale Gass said in July that he'd been deluged with phone calls after that shutdown. PhotoPoint site users were demanding repayment of the $19.95 US subscription fee. He said at the time that the firm would honour those memberships.

Ms. Romanowsky, who said her annual subscription fees had gone up to $45 US, said PhotoPoint has an obligation to tell subscribers what is going on with the firm and should return their photographic images.

"Companies just can't do this," she said, adding that she doesn't have any backup for the images she stored on the PhotoPoint site.

"I'm very concerned," she said. "It's not right to take people's images away from them."

Pantellic reportedly had 54 employees in Halifax in July, but its glass doors at the Maritime Centre were locked on Tuesday and the reception area was deserted.

A woman in blue jeans who answered a buzzer at the door but didn't identify herself said she couldn't comment on the firm's status.

She said the company's staff had been reduced to about 18 people recently but that she was the only person there on Tuesday.

She took a message for Mr. Gass, who was supposed to be in the office sometime Tuesday, but he didn't call back.

Subsequent phone calls to the office were taken by an answering machine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright © 2001 The Halifax Herald Limited

This LOOKS legitimate, but I have NOT been able to personally verify it at http://www.herald.ns.ca/.

[Merovingian]

Thanks, RonDog.....I found this interesting from the ebay thread:

lorenceg@webtv.net (98) (view author's auctions) 12:43pm December 19, 2001 (#6 of 14) Can't trust anyone.Just went to paypal and took all my money out.About Epson the strangest thing happened. When I joined 2 days ago I filled in all blanks name,address ect ect they wouldn't let me pick a password. They said I'd get an email with the password.And low and behold I got the email with the same password that photopoint gave me when I signed up with them about a year ago.Strange......

[RightOnline]

OK, I'm one of the schmucks who ponied up 20 clams (just last month, mind you) to use PhotoPoint........and now the bastards are shut down (I'll bet "permanently"). Anyway, like most of you, I looked for an alternative.

Didn't take much. A quick Google search on "photo sharing", and I found www.imira.com. It's sponsored / run by Ulead (I use their scanning software; good stuff).......a reputable company........and it costs nothing to store 20 MB of photos, has a few other cool freebies, etc. It ain't perfect, but should help as a quick fix.

[Constitution Day]

I also just joined PhotoPoint & didn't even know they were down.
Luckily, I have backups of all my photos.

I will check out Imira.com, thanks.

FRegards,
CD

[Merovingian]

Thank you, I will take a look, RightOnLine!

[RonDog]

HKDragon2 has posted THIS update on his website:

PhotoPoint: Is no news bad news?
Friday, December 28, 2001 17:57 ET - Two weeks into the online photofinisher's outage, there's still no comment to customers or the media...

Regular readers will be well aware of the problems for online photo-sharing and photofinishing website PhotoPoint.com, which vanished without warning on Friday, December 14th - along with the website of parent company Pantellic Software Inc. Our efforts to contact anybody at the company have been thoroughly unsuccessful thus far, as have attempts by other media outlets such as CNet and local newspapers... (More)

In the REST of the article (please CLICK HERE to give HKDragon2's webpage some hits, there is a link to one of the BEST reviews of OTHER photo sites: www.andromeda.com's Guide to Online Photo Albums.

[Registered]

1.2 million users and hardly a blip on the radar screen. BLIP.

[LegoZ81]

Amazing isn't it how they just can disappear like this.... after charging people for a service.

[LegoZ81]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-8398159.html?tag=lh bye bye :(

[RonDog]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-8398159.html?tag=lh

See also:
PhotoPoint parent shutters operation
Posted on 1/10/02 1:15 PM Pacific by Uncle Sausage

PhotoPoint parent shutters operations
By Gwendolyn Mariano
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 7, 2002, 2:35 p.m. PT

The parent of online photo site PhotoPoint.com shut down last month and is liquidating its assets, but it expects to announce a plan to return photos archived with the service within one or two weeks, the company's president said Monday.

"While Pantellic has ceased operations, we are actively working on a solution for people to get copies of their photos," Pantellic President Dale Gass wrote in an e-mail. "There will be an announcement at www.photopoint.com, and members will be notified via e-mail when this is available."
.
.

Gass' statement is a rare public communication from privately held Pantellic since the PhotoPoint site was pulled down without notice in mid-December. The shutdown left some 1.25 million PhotoPoint members in the dark about the status of their accounts and personal files, offering a cautionary tale of the evanescent nature of business in cyberspace.

For the past several weeks, numerous PhotoPoint customers have complained of the outage in e-mails to CNET News.com, including some who said they had not made backups of their photo files.

"I was one of their paying customers and have now lost about two years worth of pictures that I had on their albums for storage," one reader wrote to CNET News.com. "I did not have any backup copies because I thought that was what I was paying for...These are pictures that cannot be replaced. They are that of my grandchildren, kids, parties, vacations, and the construction of our house. I am heartsick about it."

According to Gass, Pantellic has been unable to communicate with its customers since a "substantial amount" of its networking equipment was seized on the day the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based company ceased operations.

In a letter to Pantellic creditors, the company said it closed Dec. 14 and had asked creditors to make arrangements to retrieve its equipment. It was unclear how much equipment had been claimed or how the liquidation would affect the company's ability to preserve data formerly in its possession.

The letter, dated Dec. 31, warned creditors that equipment they take possession of "may contain data or intellectual property secured by another creditor."

The company said it expects to have outstanding debts between $4.7 million and $5.5 million and no assets of any substantial value after secured creditors reclaim its property. As a result, the company does not "anticipate that there will be any return to unsecured creditors," the letter said.

Asked in an e-mail about the physical whereabouts of its equipment, Gass replied that he was "not really at liberty" to answer.

The demise of PhotoPoint comes as the online photo market is shrinking, leaving only the strongest players on the field. In June, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers-backed Zing.com closed its consumer operations. That same month, Ofoto was swept up by Eastman Kodak. And in October, mail-order processor District Photo bought online photo company Snapfish.

For its part, PhotoPoint has been passed around like a hot potato. Pantellic spun the company off about two years ago and scored around $11 million in venture capital financing for the start-up. But venture capital firm Sherwood Partners shut it down and sold some of the assets back to Pantellic in July. After a five-day outage, the site returned but began charging for its services.

Gass said Pantellic took all good faith measures possible to try and keep the PhotoPoint site alive, but in the end, he blamed bandwidth costs and the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in driving the service out of business. He said the company stopped charging credit cards, cashing checks, and taking print orders from "the instant we knew our viability was threatened."

He added that the company only belatedly realized that some of its customers were relying on it as the sole keeper of treasured photos.

"While we always intended PhotoPoint to be a means for people to share their photos, and not a photo archival service, we now realize that some people kept their only copies of their photos on the site," he said.

[Snow Bunny]

photopoint can go jump off a cliff !!!!

They are thieves and have no class at all. ALL they had to do if they were honest and NOT liberals would have been to send an email to each of their accounts , saying we are broke and cannot do this anymore, please get your photos off our site by such and such a date.

Did they do this , NO!!!!!!!!

They will never have my sympathy and all I lost was the cost of what I paid to belong. I have my photos on tons of floppy's and CD's.But they stole, lied and led their subscribbers on......typical LIBERALS!!!!!

[RonDog]

Here is a "Photopoint" ping to FReepers who posted on these recent threads:

*Fading photos*
Photopoint comes up blank, frustrating digital camera users
Posted on 1/5/02 10:47 PM Pacific by Registered

hey photopoint is out of buisness
Posted on 1/16/02 8:57 PM Pacific by ATOMIC_PUNK

See the update on post 73 of THIS thread.

[RonDog]

They are thieves and have no class at all. ALL they had to do if they were honest and NOT liberals would have been to send an email to each of their accounts , saying we are broke and cannot do this anymore, please get your photos off our site by such and such a date.

Did they do this , NO!!!!!!!!

I know what you mean. There is no excuse for their behavior.

This recent article appears to say that they WILL now be "opening" the website soon, so that we can recover our images - FINALLY! - and store them somewhere else.

[Snow Bunny]

LOL......LUV ya RonDog...we sure were put through alot by them. I really messed with the Canteen threads big time.

(((( hug ))))

[RightOnline]

"He said the company stopped charging credit cards, cashing checks, and taking print orders from "the instant we knew our viability was threatened." "

Bulls**t.

The Lovely Wife signed up in mid November. TELL me these clowns didn't know that they were in SERIOUS trouble long before then.

This is exactly the same as a contract painter taking money to buy paint to do your house........knowing full well that he'll be out of business in a few weeks.

They probably won't be sued since it's nearly impossible to place a dollar amount on pictures alone....

[RightOnline]

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

When we joined the ranks of the "PhotoPoint-stiffed", I searched around and found www.imira.com. It's owned and operated by Ulead, a respectable company that's known for imaging / scanning software. Decent site, but we've had trouble getting to it now and then (I suspect server problems on their end, as hundreds of thousands of former PhotoPoint users search for an alternative and land upon them). Worth checking out, though; 20 MB of photos for free.

[Merovingian]

THANK YOU, RD.....Just this morning I took a look at that site "EFFED Company.com", saw NO update since 12/17/01!!!! Will remove that stupid site from the bookmarks!

I hope this is true, and we are able to retrieve our pics!!!!!

[Merovingian]

CHECK this out: Looks like there is a faint pulse to be detected..

Updated: Wed Jan 30 13:00:40 AST 2002 PhotoPoint.com is currently offline. Please check back here (www.photopoint.com) for further developments.

[Snow Bunny]

Thank you for letting me know. It would be great to get our photos then never trust them again ever.
Thank you for pinging me , that is very kind of you.

[RonDog]

You are correct! Good find, Merovingian!

Clicking on THIS link: http://www.photopoint.com gives THIS message:

PhotoPoint.com

Please click here to continue.

And, clicking THAT link leads to: http://www.photopoint.com/statusupdate.html with THIS message:

Updated: Wed Jan 30 13:00:40 AST 2002

PhotoPoint.com is currently offline.

Please check back here (www.photopoint.com) for further developments.

Hmmmm....

[SamAdams76]

That website (whose name shall go unmentioned here) has a hilarious forum, by the way, called "Happy Fun Slander." They basically trash the companies unmercifully and while many of the comments are sophomoric, there are some pretty good one-liners. Definitely a site for adults only however, and even those must have a sense of humor and a high tolerance for profanity.

[RonDog]

See also the BREAKING NEWS page at the "Imaging Resource" website:

PhotoPoint: A chance to restore photos coming?
23:08 ET - Online photofinisher which vanished so suddenly may give subscribers a chance to download their missing images...

A few weeks ago (back on January 8th) we told you that online photofinisher PhotoPoint.com, the site run by Pantellic Software Inc. which vanished without warning in early December, had finally admitted that it had ceased operations. At that time, we also noted a faint glimmer of hope for the many PhotoPoint subscribers who've emailed us seeking a way to get back their photos...Many people seem to... (More)

If you click the link, you will see that HKDragon2 was nice enough to include a PLUG for Free Republic in his report. Thanks, Michael!

[Merovingian]

LOOK AT THIS:

Updated: Tue Feb 12 10:57:30 AST 2002 PhotoPoint.com is currently offline.

Please check back here (www.photopoint.com) for further developments.

I would like to assure people that their photos have not been lost, and are safe. However, due to the bandwidth, hardware, and labour costs, we are unable to put the site online.

Please take a moment to answer this survey. Only surveys with valid PhotoPoint username/password will be considered. Your first submission is the only one that will be taken into account. Please answer honestly, so we can do what is best for the membership.

This information will be useful in determining how best to move forward in allowing people to possibly get their photos back and/or have their photos online again. We are looking at various options for finding PhotoPoint members a new home.

Thank you for your feedback.

Email address: Password:

If PhotoPoint is not able to come back online, I would be interested in getting a CD-ROM of my Photos, for $24.95 plus shipping:

Yes No

If PhotoPoint is able to come back online, I would be willing to pay $5.95 per month for the service:

Yes No

eBay photo hosting, or the ability to host photos pointed to by third party web sites is:

Not important to me, and I would still be interested in the service.

Essential to me, and I would not subscribe unless this were available.

Please notify me via email if you are able to offer any of the above services:

Use the email address of my account, as above Use a different email address:

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?????

[Merovingian]

They want to sucker even MORE money out of their customers!!! I have to go look for my pword!

[Merovingian]

SEE POST #86!!!

[Merovingian]

SEE POST #86!!!

[Merovingian]

SEE POST #86!!!

[Snow Bunny]

What nerve. I cannot type what I wish to happen to these people at Photopoint. But it is not pretty.

Thank you Merovingian my friend for all you do.

[Merovingian]

It's pretty obvious what they are up to...They are appearing to be CONSIDERING restarting the business. If they are super criminals,they are hoping to scoop up the maximum numbers of $24.95 and again run with the money, OR if they are sincere, they will base their decision on the numbers of fools who actually say they will pay $5.95/month...

If on the other hand, the majority of people say they will NOT pay the $5.95/month, they will just not start up again...I would NEVER trust them with my photos again. I actually wanted to be able to download my thumbnails...I have all the others on discs.

[jmp702]

Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunately I'm going to have to go with option: If they are super criminals,they are hoping to scoop up the maximum numbers of $24.95 and again run with the money

Pure extortion of people who are desparate to retreive their only copy of photos.

[Merovingian]

I will do the same..If they rip me off, it's just another $24.95....AND, if they come through, it would be worth it to get the pics..

[Snow Bunny]

I agree with you completely.

[Cacique]

Fortunately I have backups of all my photos that were there on CD's and zip disks sno great loss there.

The only regret I have is that I paid those SOB's for a full year of service and barely got three months out of them. Lesson learned is to keep backups of everything. We'll have to scour for other services where we can dump photos to attach in our posts.

These guys went to the same business school as the Enron executives. I say Screw them, don't give them any more money.

[Merovingian]

I know how you feel..I really think I have them all on various disks...I also wonder how they could give me all 2000 of my pics on one lousy CD?? Did you notice that? They don't specify any number that they would put onto that disk for $24.95...

[RightOnline]

Thank you for the heads-up.

BTW, The Lovely Wife found yet another site that she really likes for posting pics and is now using www.photoisland.com. Works great. :)

[Merovingian]

Thanks...Have been uploading all of my Travel pics...Works very well..Use friendly...

[RonDog]

For an UPDATE on this story, see:

Welcome to Photopoint.com -- We REALLY want to see how dumb you are!
Email to "members" | May 2, 2002 | Photopoint.com

Posted on 5/2/02 6:22 PM Pacific by Howlin