YesVideo

I dropped 3 reels of film off at Costco on 7/15 and was told to expect e-mail updates all along the way as my order was received and processed. When I hadn't heard anything by 7/24 I went online to check the status. Nothing in the system. I called and after a long period on hold was told they had received my films in on 7/18 but were "way backlogged" and hadn't entered them into the system. They said to check again today so I did. Same thing. Calling now I'm told they're way behind due to a "coupon offer" and it will be an extra week or more.

I didn't use a coupon and paid full price. It's not my fault they are too busy or don't have enough people. To have the box just sitting there and not even being entered into the system seems like they just don't care. "We'll get to you when we get to you." Well, I have a good 50+ reels more to do and based on this test batch I sent them it's very unlikely I would use them again.

I wouldn't be 1/2 as annoyed if they had sent a message saying "Sorry, we blew it, here's where things stand". Instead it's complete silence on their end.

I saw the advertisement for Yesvideo in a Costco mailer and thought 'what a good idea': I could finally transfer my old 8mm films from the 60s (which had all only been viewed once, after I'd originally spliced them together), to digital format. Then I saw the part of the advertisement titled "What we won't do" (provide digital files of the material (DV video) - which aren't the DVD type of file but they need to make them anyway in order to make the final DVDs which have about 25% of the original pixel data in them - not noticeable unless you're interested in quality reproduction) and decided to send in one test reel composed of snippets of random scenes that didn't really fit in with anything else in my collection - just to see what the service actually provided in an end-product.

So here's what I got. As advertised, I got two DVDs and the ability to view their contents online, free of charge, for a period of 90 days from the time of purchase. That part is all well and good. Here's the rub (which may not bother some people who don't care about detail which mimics the original - and there are many, probably most people don't actually care as long as it's easy): The 8mm film, which is taken at 18 frames per second, is transferred to a medium (DVD) which plays them at nearly 30 frames per second (29.97 fps to be exact). This can cause frame-rate issues.

I e-mailed Yesvideo support and asked if there was any way they could arrange for me to either download the original DV files or to make them available on DVDs - all for a fee of some sort, of course - I wouldn't expect this service to be free. It turns out they don't do High-end, DV transfers which is what I thought they did.

They were very courteous but not at all knowledgeable in their responses, effectively repeating the party line that they offer no option for purchasing the original DV files, which they already have on their system but won't sell to the purchaser of their product.

My resort is to begin looking around for a service which caters to anyone interested in retaining as much of the original film information as possible. Does Yesvideo save your memories? Yes, but only about 25% of them.


Addendum as of Thursday, June 6, 2013:

After corresponding with Darian Patchin, the Director of Online Marketing at YesVideo, Inc. as a result of my initial review, and having Darian offer to do no small amount of research, he determined that the equipment which Yesvideo uses to produce their DVDs does not produce uncompressed video files which was what I was interested in. His offer to refund the entire cost of my test transfer was a more-than-fair approach to resolving my original issues. His perseverance in pursuit of that resolution was rather remarkable - he had to put up with me, after all, and that's no small accomplishment - trust me. The speed issue seems irrelevant in view of these facts.

Now, it's important to say that uncompressed video's primary purposes include the backup of the material on your films and as a starting point for creating the MPEG-2 files ultimately copied to a DVD. For most people this is unlikely to be an issue. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about; you can always 'down-convert' an uncompressed video file to the much smaller compressed files on a DVD. The reverse isn't possible; You can never 'up-convert' from a compressed MPEG-2 file (DVD file) without losing some of the detail. The amount of detail, which is lost in any compressed DVD file, is unlikely to be noticed by anyone watching their footage on a screen which is less than 60" in size. It is likely to be noticed by anyone interested in extracting single frames from their data.

I'd like to insert what might be a pertinent comment; KEEP your original 8mm films even after having them transferred to DVD. 4K or Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) may not be everywhere - yet, but it's certainly coming. Even though 8mm film is based on triacetate (except Fuji Super-8, which is polyester), it's still a decent medium for fairly long-term storage, as long as you don't subject it to light or high humidity or high temperatures. With a DVD to watch, you're going to be less tempted to run it through a projector anyway.

I do think it's a shame that my six attempts to arrive at a resolution through the Customer Service representative led, not as a result of any intention on her part (she was very courteous but lacked the tools to effect a resolution), to a dead-end and that it took a review on Resellerratings.com to elicit a response which then led to a very fair resolution.

UPDATE: Thursday, July 25, 2013

On Monday, July 15, 2013 I tried to reach Darian Patchin, the Director of Online Marketing at YesVideo, Inc. to inquire if the refund check his supervisor had promised would be coming any time soon. The e-mail came back with : Recipient address rejected: User unknown. Whoa, Darian Patchin no longer worked at YesVideo??? Hmmm, let's see.

On Friday, May 17, 2013, I tried to reach Justine, the Customer Service representative I'd communicated with previously, before I was contacted by Darian Patchin. I'm still waiting for a response but not with bated breath.

Now I wonder what happened to Darian Patchin. Did he change his name? Did he die shortly after our last communication? Did he leave YesVideo of his own accord? Was he fired because he offered a refund? YesVideo isn't saying.

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UPDATE: Monday, July 29, 2013

So I just got an e-mail from a Beverly at YesVideo.com - the (current) online marketing manager at YesVideo saying in part "Darian is no longer with YesVideo but I would love to help you get that refund. Could you please tell me your name and order ID so I can look up your information? Thanks! -Beverly"

This makes it sound like I hadn't already sent all of the pertinent details to Darian Patchin immediately prior to his sudden departure. That would be a mistaken notion. I will forward the e-mail I'd sent to Darian Patchin on Thursday, June 06, 2013 with the original attachments of my receipts. Let's see what happens, shall we?

I also got an e-mail from an Emma, someone on The ResellerRatings Team notifying me that they'd posted a response. It seems to be the case that you'll never get a response from YesVideo unless you post about some SNAFU on ResellerRatings.com. Take notice; e-mails are likely to be ignored - mine were.

Evidently, and I don't blame them for not saying more, (see http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-YesVideo-RVW797559.htm) Darian Patchin is gone (as if that wasn't evident from the deletion of his e-mail account). Also, they seem not to transfer any open items to someone replacing a departed employee.

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Re: **Update 7/30/13 Reply** (below) - Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I've received no e-mails from Customer Support yet. I've received emails from a Beverly (online marketing manager) and an Emma (The ResellerRatings Team). Emma wrote me to look at this latest post. It's an odd way to find out that my ". . . refund has been processed and is ready for you at your local Costco location."

Would that be at any Costco location? Would that be only at the Costco location where I placed my original order? Will I need to contact them first to verify that I'm not making an unnecessary trip to the wrong one? What could possibly go wrong?


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Re: **Update 7/31/13 Reply** (below) - Tuesday, July 30, 2013

You wrote:

"Hi luerwulf,

Could you please check your spam folders? I personally replied to the email you sent me and had our customer support email you to that same email address as well. I was cc:ed on the email so I know that an email was in fact sent to you. If you have any questions you should reply directly to the customer support representative in the email as that will result in the quickest reply.

As for your refund, you should return to the Costco location that you originally placed your order from. The refund is there waiting for you.

Thanks!"

We seem to be able to communicate through resellerratings.com but not through e-mail.

First, the fact that customer support got your e-mail address right doesn't mean that they got MY e-mail address right. I've received nothing from them.

Second, as I wrote you in response to your e-mail notifying me that you had posted the mentioned response;

"Hi Emma,

I read your post. It might be helpful for you to communicate via e-mail. I send nothing to spam folders and have received no e-mails other than these (your) notices to look at my post. I check every e-mail. Please verify that you have used the correct spelling of my e-mail address. You clearly have it."

Third, It's difficult to respond to an e-mail I didn't get. You may have forgotten that I'm still waiting for a response from them to the e-mail I sent to them on Tuesday, July 16, 2013:
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: RE: Case Assignment Notification - Case #319 [ ref:_00D407JWc._50040QxyO3:ref ]
I mean, all they need to do is press 'REPLY'. Do THEY check their SPAM folders?

It's funny that you seem to have no difficulty sending e-mails to me while customer support can't manage it.

As for the refund check, which Darian Patchin referred to on Thursday, June 06, 2013 when he wrote "Our customer service team is going to cut you a check for the full amount of your transfer"; your post seems to suggest that, to get a refund, I will need to drive 44 miles (22 miles each way) to obtain it.

Thankfully, the manager at the Costco Photo department gave me his e-mail address to which I've mailed my e-mail to Darian Patchin from Thursday, June 06, 2013, containing the same information as the e-mail I sent to you on Monday, July 29, 2013. The manager at the Costco Photo department promised to mail me a check for the full amount of the transaction as was originally promised by Darian Patchin.

I sent YesVideo two 8mm reels, 96 slides and 4 VHS tapes. Each DVD that I got back was filled with wonderful memories that had been lost for years. The quality was great, the care with which each of my pieces of media was given was exceptional and the finished product was perfect. I would certainly use the service again.

I placed an order for a few VHS and 8MM tapes to be turned into DVD and was completely impressed with the quality and the quickness of the turnaround. When I need to do this again, I will be happy to use them again!

We transferred all of our old 8mm home films to DVD using Yes Video though Costco. We were very excited to get them back and had them make copies for everyone in my family. What a disappointment! We got them back and found that they put them in the wrong order that I had labeled them, plus they took them off the old reels and respliced them out of order. Not only that, but the films were jumpy, like when the tracking is off from a VHS tape. I called their customer service and they said that's a common occurence and can be corrected by adjusting the projector. OK, then why didn't they do that in the first place? I had them redo the DVD's, and when I got them back most of the jumping was corrected, however, I noticed that the total length on the DVD's differed substancially from the originals (we had 3 separate DVD's made). Looking into this further, we noticed that there were films and parts of films on the original copy that weren't on the redo and visa-versa. THEY WEREN'T PUTTING ALL OF OUR FILMS ONTO THE DVD! Also, one of the DVD's had a different ratio on it causing the film to look zoomed in and cropped. I again contacted their customer service and returned the DVD's for another redo. The third time I got them back they finally got all the films onto the DVD, but the jumping was back on one of them and another still had the wrong picture ratio. This time when I called them they told me this was the best they could do and they would not correct it. So,after 7 months, not only is this company completely irresponsible and incompetent, but they settle for imperfection with your precious home videos. Yes Video? More like, No Video!

I wanted to transfer our video to DVD for YEARS. The videos are old (from the 70s and 80s) so I feared that the quality would be poor since the film was very likely in bad condition.

When I got my previews, I thought they were OK, kind of grainy. But when I got my DVD O WOW!!! They were awesome. My sister cried when she saw video of our dad and grandmother again in a very high quality restoration. My mom loved seeing her kids as "babies" again. And my nephew got a kick out of seeing his father and aunts/uncles as kids.

Transferring video to DVD is not cheap - I didn't expect it to be. But I was surprised at the very reasonable rates and high quality of my returned product.

I sent in most of the rest of the videos to be restored, so we can't wait to see our old film again.... Yesvideo made my family so happy.

I had 5 VHS's made into DVD's. I found the whole experience to be very easy and fast. The website was easy to use. I received an email with status updates several times. The DVD's and my original VHS's were returned to me very quickly. Plus I was given access to view all of my videos online before my package was returned to me. I would reccommend this service to anyone!

I have a number of Super 8 films I want to convert to DVD format. I had one done by another company about a year ago and while the end product was acceptable, it took quite a long time. Saw a Groupon for Yes Video and decided to give them a try, could not believe the quick turn around, from sending the film to them to receiving the DVD back was about two weeks. Price still seems high to me so am waiting for more options on the remaining films.

Sent in dozens of my Dad's slides from the early 60s as well as a weddding vhs tape that I haven't viewed in probably 10 or more years. They transferred everything to a DVD. It turned out great. While the quality of my VHS tape wasn't great, the fact that they were able to do anything with it was awesome (I sent it in broken).

Also, I had a discount code (don't remember the percent off, but it was meaningful). Overall the process was easy but not painless as I had to gather up all those slides and count them to accurately understand the cost. But, the memories I now get to share are priceless.

I am currently having mixed feelings about this company. I have not yet received my order back, but my cousin and my sister both did and I was very happy with the results. The reason why I am having mixed feelings about this company is because my cousin and I both sent our package out at the same time, and she got hers back about 2 weeks ago. My package was sent out on October 10th, and was received on the 16th. I wrote an email (on November 3rd) and they told me that my package was put into processing on October 20th and that it can take 3 weeks and that my order should be done in a few days. It is now November 11, 8 days after I wrote that email, and my order is still in processing. I just checked my order status and my shipping date has ONCE AGAIN been pushed back. This time the shipping says the 19th and the delivery date as 11/26. This was supposed to be a birthday present for someone, but I doubt that I will have it back in time. I didn't think that it would have taken a month to do.

I'm in the process of converting old 8mm & super 8 film to digital. I used YesVideo, via Costco and I'm so appalled by the quality of the transfer I'm planning on asking for a refund. The good news is I only gave them 3 rolls of film as I'm comparing their quality to 2 other companies, but without a comparison, they could even match my attempt and projecting the film onto a wall and recording it with my DSLR.

They did a decent job at color correction & exposure correction, but the video was more pixelated than some YouTube videos and they couldn't even get the frame rate correct, so there is a lot of blinking frames and the audio from Christmas 1979, sounds more like a Chipmunk special than real life.

Their quality if on par with what I would expect if I let the tech guy down the street convert my film.

I found an old home movie, 8mm film, in my father's belongings. I decided for Christmas to get the film converted to DVD. I took it to Walmart on Black Friday. They outsource to YesVideo, where you get the DVD and are able to share the video on their Cloud. Walmart screwed up. The girl who took my order didn't know what to do and put it aside. A week went by and I received no notification from Yes Video that they received my order. I go back to Walmart, they say that because it was Black Friday, it would take a little longer for UPS to make their deliveries. I give it another two weeks. Nothing. I go back to Walmart. They find my film in a drawer. So they mail it and they tell me that they will pay for all costs. Meanwhile, Yes Video sends me no notification that they received the order. In addition to contact with Walmart, I am also contacting Yes Video. First, it takes their customer service 3-5 days to even respond to your complaint. Then they ask for the order # --- everytime because they cannot keep things straight.

What happens next --- my order was processed and delivered back to Walmart. I had to call Walmart to find out because Yes Video had no knowledge of my order! So, I got the DVD. However, that was in January. It is now the end of March/beginning of April and I still have no access to the video on their Cloud. Everytime they send me a link, it goes to the main page of my account, where it tells me to "Place an order". This service is wretched. They do nothing to go out of their way for the customer and it is as if customer service is toying with me. Horrible service and it is still not resolved.

This was suppose to be a Christmas gift. Now it may not even be an Easter gift.

I bought a groupon earlier this year.. 3 vhs tapes were converted to dvd. I had a few problems with a couple dvd's, but the problem was fixed! Great customer service! Would use them again !!!!

Paid $250 for transferring 40 8mm to DVD. Quality very poor - dull, dark, colorless with smooth jazz music that was anything but. Played original reel on old projector - reel quality excellent. Will request refund but doubt I'll get one.

I too was very disappointed in the quality of the transferring of my old but very good 35 mm European travel slides done by YesVideo. Mine were also of very poor quality on my DVDs when I got them back; first of all they did not do them in the order I had them for transferring them so that I jump from one location to the next as I view my photos - London in one frame, hop to Paris next, and so on. And the color? What color: so muted there are NO true colors; and all are fuzzy. I am just glad I did not do my family photos first; am working on them now to have transferred to DVD but will definitely not drop them off at Costco again. Hoping to find another company to do this for me.

Yes, the 8mm was from 1983, so I expected decay. The sample video Sam's Club shows depicts poor quality to very good quality using their special technique.
Apparently, the special technique was broken, not turned on, or is an utter lie.
Had I had a preview, I would have told them to trash my 2 reels of 8mm film. Instead, I paid for an awful DVD of heavy snow, even though the video was taken in 1983 in the Dallas, Tx summer.
UGH.

i can just restate all the complaints every one else has had. I used this company twice and have yet to be able to view either of the videos on line. When i called on the first one, they just kept telling me the video was enabled, so i must be doing something wrong. I fell for that and quit trying. i just had a second dvd made and cant view it on line either. customer support told me i should be able to see it, which does me absolutely no good. They opened a "technical ticket". READ THE REVIEWS. THERE ARE ALMOST NO GOOD ONES

I sent several 8mm and 16mm films to them via Costco for digital conversion. Almost ALL the digital video is in REVERSE. That is, people diving backwards from the pool OUT of the water back onto the pool deck, swimming backwards, etc. After a dozen phone calls including speaking to the manager several times, who - in turn - allegedly spoke with his production manager, I was told "the movies cannot be fixed, they were SHOT BACKWARDS." To people reading this, I kid you not. This MINDLESS statement blew me away. I tried explaining to these alleged video conversion experts that in the days of FILM it was IMPOSSIBLE to shoot a movie backwards. PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE, since film is a record of time passing in front of the camera. CRICKETS on the other end. Obviously, the film had either not been rewound or rewound improperly! Very common back when people had home projectors.

I will NEVER again entrust ANY work to YesVideo because they are CLUELESS.

After I wrote the above review, I read more of the other reviews and they reminded me ... there was a period of about 3 weeks during which YesVideo had NO IDEA where my movies were. After I'd first gotten them back at Costco, taken the disc home and seen the videos in reverse, I sent everything (including the original film) back for redo. AGAIN, YesVideo was absolutely CLUELESS! I was almost in tears. These 16mm movies were from 1944 when my uncle had just returned from WWII! I thought they were permanently LOST!

AS ANOTHER REVIEWER WROTE: COSTCO, ETC. PLEASE TAKE NOTE. This contractor is worse than harmful to your customers and YOUR good names!

I had Yesvideo.com transfer 4 commercials that were 30 seconds each from a VHS tape onto a DVD. The company I work for made these public announcement commercials in the 1990s. Since Yesvideo.com had a "special instructions" box and they included creating chapters on the DVD of the contents, I asked then to make each 30 second commercial a separate chapter.

Weeks later I received my DVD. All 4 commercials were made into one movie. The chapters were just selected at random spaces and each chapter had 1/2 of one commercial and 1/2 of another in it.

Then as an added bonus, Yesvideo.com took parts of our public service commercials which dealt with teen suicide and gang violence, deleted the commercial audio and replaced it with 1950s rock and roll on one and lounge piano on two others! Watching a gang beat a kid to death to 1950s rock and roll music was pretty shocking.

I complained to yesvideo.com which told me that they do not look at or edit the tapes sent to them and that it is all done randomly by computer. They had no answer when I asked them what the "special instructions" box was for then. No refund was offered. They clearly do not seem to care about the customer's wants or satisfaction. The DVD from yesvideo.com is so offensive that we cannot use it in our company archives.

I found a local company who transferred the commercials for me onto a DVD and did it exactly as I wanted and for a cheaper price.

Going with with yesvideo.com was a total disappointment, waste of time and money.

I had 9 old but in good condition 35mm slides and asked for them to be put on DVD. Took just a couple weeks but the quality of the DVD was really poor....very fuzzy images and poor color. Can't imagine there was any quality control as the results were so poor. Wouldn't use again or recommend for 35mm slides