On our recent trip to Disney World, we utilized their Photo Pass service, where they give you a card with a barcode that their park photographers scan every time they take a picture of your family in the parks. After you get home, you go to their website and view your pictures, with the option to purchase any or all of the pictures. While we were there, we received a special card that had a discount code good for 40 percent off the cost of any prints we purchased. This was the start of our problems with their service. When I tried to purchase pictures from their site, I entered the discount code, and it kept rejecting it as an invalid code. I made absolutely sure I was entering the proper code, and it kept rejecting it. Their site lists no phone number, only an email contact, so I had to email them with the issue and wait for an emailed response for a few days. When I did receive a response, I was told that they had to go in and enter the discount manually, and that I could only purchase the photos that were already in my shopping cart as my going in to add or subtract anything to the cart would likely make the discount disappear. No big deal, I had the prints I wanted in the cart already. I went in to purchase the prints, and the discount was there, so I went to complete the purchase. Then came my next problem. I entered my credit card information, and it came back as rejected. Thinking that was odd, as my card is in good standing and had more than enough available credit on it, I wondered if I had mistyped some of the information, so I tried to type in the information again, taking pains to make sure that every single number was correct. It was, and, again, the transaction came back as rejected. Since the Photo Pass site has no phone number, I was unable to call them to see what the issue was, but I did call my credit card company. The customer service rep I spoke to said that there was not a problem with the purchase and it was, in fact approved by them when the intial request went through, so he wasn't sure why Photo Pass was saying it was rejected. In other words, their system was acting up in some way, as my card was not denied by the bank that held it, but Photo Pass's system kept telling me it was being rejected. So, once again, I had to send an email off to Photo Pass, as I wasn't even sure what was going on, if maybe the order actually was going to be filled and the "denied" response received was just a system error, and, in that case, if I was going to receive more than one order. I honestly had no idea what to expect at that point, but I also wanted to make it clear that my credit card company had stated that they had NOT denied the charge, so it should have gone through. I waited a few days for a response, which was basically a customer service rep for Photo Pass condescending to try and explain to me how the credit card purchase process works, and tryin to tell me that the purchase had not been approved by my credit card company but was sitting out there as a hold still any way, and that I was confused. I replied that I was not confused as to how the credit card processed worked, but that the credit card company had been very clear with me that they had NOT denied the charge, it was, in fact, approved by them, and if Photo Pass was claiming it was denied, it was a system error on THEIR part, but my card was not denied. And I reminded them of the other system error on their part, with the discount code that was not working that required manual intervention on their part, and that there seemed to be some issue on their end that was causing some issues with orders, and maybe they needed to research this and double check with the credit card company about whether the transaction they put through on that date was denied or approved.

Their response was to send back a copy of my account history showing that, on their end, the order shows as not processed, which, hello, I know already, that's the whole issue. They basically refused to admit that their system was acting up, despite the very obvious evidence to the contrary, and they refused to do anything to look into the error and correct it, preferring, instead, to act like I was an idiot who didn't understand that they didn't process the order, like that wasn't the whole reason I was writing them--I KNEW they didn't process the order, and it was because of their system errors that I was trying to get them to correct so they WOULD process my order. As a result of all of their dancing around the real issue and treating me like a moron, the window of time in which I could purchase pictures from my trip expired, and I ended up with nothing for my effort. It made me decide I would definitely pass on my next trip when one of the Photo Pass photographers tries to take pictures of my family or hand me one of their cards. They clearly don't need my money that badly if they went out of their way to not get it, preferring instead to indulge in circular arguments that repeatedly pointed out the exact same thing I was writing to them about in the first place.

Their service is overpriced and not worth the trouble to try and buy some of their overpriced pictures. Just bring along your own camera and take some good pictures yourself. It's much cheaper to print your own at one of the numerous websites out there that sell prints from your memory card. And they don't cop an attitude with you and refuse to answer your questions or address your issues.