• Shutterfly

Shutterfly

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Overview

Shutterfly has a rating of 1.4 stars from 975 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Shutterfly most frequently mention customer service, christmas cards, and photo book problems. Shutterfly ranks 143rd among Photo Printing sites.

  • Service
    284
  • Value
    264
  • Shipping
    271
  • Returns
    162
  • Quality
    236

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 8.8%
Positive
7
Neutral
0
Negative
73
160
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How would you rate Shutterfly?
Top Positive Review

“Beautiful Books and Cards”

Wanda K.
2/15/24

I've created 27 projects over the past 15 years on Shutterfly. This includes 15 different photo books. Each and every time, I've always received excellent, professional customer service and beautiful books. I custom design all my books. There may have been a couple of times over the years that I needed Shutterfly to help with a mistake. However, they stand behind there products 100%. If you aren't an experienced design person then ask for help. Use high quality photos! Remember Shutterfly didn't take the pictures. The photo quality of books and cards depend on what you upload. Low quality photos will create poor quality projects; so don't blame Shutterfly for your photos. They will make what you approve. Start your project early enough to allow for help and receive book in ample time in case the book or cards need to be possibly replaced if it's the direct fault of Shutterfly.

Top Critical Review

“Poor performance”

Beth T.
8/23/24

I ordered three photo books. The order was processed, they gave me a delivery date and then only one book came in the mail. No explanation- I figured it was an error and called customer service. I was told that it would come in two shipments---Why? This makes no sense and was a huge inconvenience. Now I see all the complaints I understand this is not a one off. I will not use them again. Way too expensive for such poor service!

Reviews (975)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

christmas cards (114) photo book (92) delivery date (44) customer service (366) photo books (92)
Thumbnail of user robertd275
Canada
1 review
1 helpful vote
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February 22nd, 2017

If you don't live in US, most of their deals will not apply despite what the website claims. Website is extremely misleading. Small print disclaimers are scattered across the website. You would have to spend hours reading and playing detective to figure ou what you're not getting

Thumbnail of user scottj85
Texas
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 23rd, 2017

If you want to spend hours loading photos and then receive your calendar with the photos turned sideways and heads cropped out, this is your place. Can't wait for August where my wife is walking on the beach... upside down. Just threw out 2 calendars... and $30.12/23/17

Thumbnail of user pamelah1920
Kentucky
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
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December 12th, 2022
Verified purchase

I have used Shutterfly for years but all of a sudden their quality and service has hit rock bottom. I ordered a huge amount of prints to use in a scrapbook. Imagine getting them and they were NOT in any kind of sequential order. I am STILL sorting through almost 4,000 photos and trying to match them to the destination they were taken at in order to get my scrapbook done. Soooooo disappointed and the only response Shutterfly had - we don't guarantee prints being in order. Seriously!

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Thumbnail of user caseyr165
North Carolina
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 14th, 2021
Verified purchase

I placed an order on November 30 for a very important milestone birthday gift. It was not received by the date of the event (2 weeks later) and when I checked online it said it was delivered December 3 but it was NOT. The tracking information showed that it was sent to the local post office, then routed to 3 other post office locations, then it somehow marked it as delivered. I asked Shutterfly to address the issue. I was on hold for 30 minutes, twice. I interacted with their chat bot 3 times. Still, they did not address the issue and my loved one did not receive their gift. Do NOT order important gifts from them. They do not care to address the problem if an item does not arrive.

Tip for consumers:
Do not order from this site, they will not stand behind their orders and you could be left without a personalized gift which is the very reason you go to a site like this (to have a special gift for a special occasion).

Products used:
My product did not arrive.

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Thumbnail of user melissab1417
California
1 review
3 helpful votes
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December 24th, 2020

First off they did not review the pictures I made on the site therefore cutting off the head my daughter in the 1st picture of the calender I made for the grandparents when it clearly showed her on my laptop. 2nd they did not take out my money for 2 weeks after my order which is completely no ok! Which made my holiday account overdraft. After I had it all budgeted and now I have a late fee! All business transactions are 3 to 5 days. I will never use them again! And they don't even send your orders at the same time.

Thumbnail of user kb1opx
Massachusetts
1 review
0 helpful votes
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April 21st, 2023
Verified purchase

Ordered 30 pics on Monday. Paid 15$ for expedited shipping on a $5 order. Was supposed to be delivered on Friday. Arrived in town next to mine Thurs afternoon. Notified today it will be delivered Monday. Wanted it by Saturday to work on a project this weekend for a memorial next week. Now I don't have the items and they will be arriving in the same time frame they would have if I hadn't paid the exorbitant fee to have 30 pics delivered in 5 days instead of 8-10 days. What a JOKE. Thanks for nothing Shutterfly and DHL. Guess they don't bother delivering on the weekend.

Tip for consumers:
They take your money for "expedited" shipping and it sits in the next town for 4 days

Products used:
Pictures

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Value
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Thumbnail of user maryh356
Minnesota
1 review
0 helpful votes
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August 24th, 2017

I took them up on a couple of promos and felt like I got a good deal until checkout and I realized my order would cost over $25 to ship and there were no other options. Snapfish charges much less for shipping. I will go with them from now on.

Thumbnail of user caitlyns13
Texas
33 reviews
126 helpful votes
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August 31st, 2018

I have used Shutterfly for the last 6-7 years and have yet to be disappointed. I have customized my woven blankets, pillows, mugs, etc. and the product has always been exactly what I wanted. The shipping is pretty standard and the prices are reasonable. The website is easy to understand and navigate and their products make for great Christmas presents! I also love the coupons they send me right to my email that always me to get free shipping or x amount % off items. It is wonderful!

Thumbnail of user utannag
Colorado
1 review
3 helpful votes
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April 15th, 2023

I ordered graduation announcements for my daughter and the envelopes came with the return address printed on the back left side of the envelope and they won't replace them with the return address as it should have been printed on the front left of the envelope, but they want to refund me $15.60. Seriously? What a joke! I'll never use Shutterfly again. I suggest you not either if it is something important to you!
If I could give 0 stars I would!

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Thumbnail of user conorm44
Kentucky
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 19th, 2020

Ordered Christmas cards the 1st of December, still not arrived and will not get to family before Christmas. Would have picked a different shipping option if I had known this. Customer service apparently are aware of this issue but did not warn their customer's before they place their orders. Very disappointing customer service.

Thumbnail of user tracilynh
Texas
1 review
2 helpful votes
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December 14th, 2019

Despite paying for expedited shipping my order didn't ship to arrive on time. I did not get any update from shutterfly as to my order being delayed and it turns out that on the day it was supposed to arrive it has not yet even been shipped. Upon calling and having to sit on hold they still cannot tell me when my order will arrive and literally asked me "well what do you want me to do?" honestly i want them to provide the service i paid for!

Thumbnail of user sydneyh75
Pennsylvania
1 review
8 helpful votes
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December 28th, 2020
Verified purchase

Save yourselves! Placed an order for Christmas gifts on 12/10, paid extra for expedited shipping... it's 12/28 and I'm still waiting for the items, and have received ZERO response from Shutterfly customer service via Twitter DM (messaged them 4 days ago). UPS says that they haven't even been given the packages to ship yet (while Shutterfly initially tried to blame it on the couriers).

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Thumbnail of user susana709
Arizona
1 review
12 helpful votes
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May 20th, 2020

For the amount of money they make and how big their company is, you would think they could afford to have tracking on their shipments. I have had multiple orders lost, misplaced and they have also informed me that they do not know what happened to the order. Another situation where the order didn't arrive and was lost, they didn't even notify me. When an order actually does arrive it takes weeks. Also, getting a hold of a customer representative is also a joke and the wait time is ridiculous. Probably because they have so many issues with their orders. And when you finally do get a hold of someone, everyone tells you something different about what happens to your order. It's a shame, because they have good products. I'll never order from them again.

Thumbnail of user nony6
Florida
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 15th, 2023

This is the last time that we will order thru shutterfly! It took 3 weeks to get are prints! They were bent when we received them! Shutterfly has gone down hill every year! This will be the last time that we order from them!

Tip for consumers:
Will take a month to get bent picture!

Products used:
Pictures

Service
Value
Shipping
Quality
Thumbnail of user jcp21
Georgia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 20th, 2021

I was always pleased to order pics from Shutterfly but over the years, they made more and more difficult to do simple thing like order prints. Both the phone & chat customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I am sorely disappointed.

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Thumbnail of user williamk2104
Michigan
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
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November 5th, 2022
Verified purchase

Shutterfly uses "Mail innovations" for it's low-cost shipping option. In my experience, this is the worst of all shipping options available anywhere, and the next-best option is too expensive. If I'd known this was how Shutterfly shipped, I wouldn't have ordered from them.

Thumbnail of user maryj1330
Canada
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 13th, 2020

I was ripped off because the app never converted my purchase to Canadian dollars. Beware! Was not expecting to have to pay an additional $70 extra. Plus they were late delivering and the quality is not worth it. Better off going with Costco's.

Thumbnail of user lr433
Washington
1 review
1 helpful vote
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November 25th, 2021

I absolutely loved my photo book, the quality of the pictures and the hard cover were a very high quality. I'm so impressed I will definitely order more. I've ordered various items from Shutterfly and have always been so impressed. I ordered a tumbler recently and those pictures turned out fantastic as well. Thank you Shutterfly!

Thumbnail of user chrisp176
California
1 review
1 helpful vote
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December 7th, 2016

After only receiving half the envelopes we contacted them three times and was reassured the replacement envelopes were on the way. Fourth call, still nothing. Looks like Christmas cards won't be on time this year.

Thumbnail of user kimc724
Pennsylvania
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
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December 21st, 2020

Like so many of my fellow reviewers, I ordered photo Christmas cards in the last week of November. Here it is a month later and while I have a notification that the cards shipped on December 2 (18 days ago), tracking has not been updated since. Last Friday I placed an order for photo Christmas cards at CVS and had them within hours, in time to mail by the post office ship-by date. Thank you CVS! If the Shutterfly package ever arrives, I will refuse to accept it, and I will be contesting the charge and getting my money back. I thought this company had a good reputation. Shameful that they're no better than a scam.

Thumbnail of user kellyt663
Kansas
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 1st, 2021

I've used Shutterfly for over 20 books and now it is almost unusable. I've worked over 10+ hours and have only made 5 pages in my book. It freezes, changes picture locations, deletes pictures I've placed, backgrounds from my favorites disappear. It used to be so easy to move pictures, text, stickers. NOW it takes 3 extra steps each time I want to move something. Why the flip did they change their format when it worked so well? You can't make pictures the same size anymore. You can't align pictures like you used to. I've never seen anything take such a leap BACKWARD and make things WORSE rather than BETTER... Unbelievable. Guess I will abandon my annual vacation picture book which I pay about $100 for and make it on Snapfish.

Tip for consumers:
Go to another photo site. Shutterfly will bring you to tears with frustration.

Products used:
Abandoning Shutterfly photobook and will make it on Snapfish, instead

Thumbnail of user timothye146
Michigan
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 17th, 2021

Order didn't arrive. Offshore customer service promised a refund. It was never processed. Next rep knew nothing about what previous reps had promised. Again, promised refund. Never processed. After several contacts I finally decided it wasn't worth $42. They kept the money and lost a customer but I don't think anyone cared.

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Thumbnail of user jeffrap
Missouri
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 1st, 2022

So I've been ordering things from Shutterfly for quite some time and I never had a problem occasionally I would have to reorder something because it would get lost in the mail but that was okay but I ordered a calendar for 2023 it got lost in the mail twice they sent me a third one the photos were all blurry and half of them were the ones that were on the other two calendars well the lady was really nice and customer service she gave me an $8.98 gift card for my next order and I'm like I'm not ordering from this place again at least not a calendar anyway

Tip for consumers:
If there's any way possible make sure all your photos are small enough and don't look blurry to you because they don't tell you they're blurry also beware most cards photo books and other products from here are shipped to UPS and then to the post office they may get lost

Products used:
Calendar

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Value
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Thumbnail of user mikes4683
Massachusetts
1 review
0 helpful votes
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October 10th, 2023

I ordered a custom bandana as a demo to promote business. Once received and checked we would order 100 or so. Went through the online order process and paid. Got the email that everything was set and order was being processed. Two weeks later...nothing. Checked and saw order was "tracking" but only label was printed. Went to online help because a call didn't work. They reordered my product and said sooo sorry, we will get it right out to you. Two weeks later...same thing. I gave up. They wanted to give me a 50% OFF coupon...? Seriously, how about telling me what happened and how you were going to fix the problem.

Products used:
none

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Value
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Thumbnail of user amandak99
Massachusetts
1 review
2 helpful votes
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December 22nd, 2017

Ordered cards and paid extra for fast shipping. Was given an email confirmation with a guaranteed delivery on 12/22/17. Then got an email that my order had shipped on 12/20/17 (did not notice right away that the email now said 'estimated' delivery). Clicked on the track it on Shutterfly and then used the tracking number provided by USPS and both say estimated delivery 12/26! Ridiculous! Contacted customer service twice and both times they said they were getting ready to ship and I should have 12/24. I explained that was not satisfactory and they offered to refund the expedited shipping - are you kidding me! You lied, you can't fulfill my order as promised and you think that refunding the shipping will resolve this!

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From the business

Create photo books, personalize photo cards & stationery, and share photos with family and friends at Shutterfly.com.

Company Representative

Thumbnail of user levih42
Levi H.
Typically does not respond to reviews

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