Leave a Review Chatbooks Family Photo Albums
Just signed up for a subscription and…frustrated
So far not impressed. I just signed up for 6 books yearly and am reconsidering this after trying multiple times to make a book for my daughter for her graduation and getting kicked out and having to start again instead of there being ANY way to save a book you’ve been working on! So dumb. Selecting photos I am not able to see them enlarged so it’s difficult to select the correct photo. Also, there is no way to save a book you are working on. I have an account and I selected too many photos and app would not let me continue, but in trying to deselect photos some of the photos just stopped showing up and all I see is white space where the photo should be (nope it’s not my wifi connection strength). I had over 130 photos selected and now the whole thing is just gone! I have to start again. Over an hour putting this together just wasted. If this app is going to help save time, please allow people to save their books they work on to their account so they don’t have to start again! It makes me want to just go back to Shutterfly where I know my work in progress will be saved. So frustrating.Show lessLynseed33
Developer Response
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about the issue you experienced. Typically, when you're logged into your Chatbooks account while creating a book, your progress is automatically saved. It seems that didn’t happen for you, and we’re currently investigating the cause to ensure it’s resolved. If you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at support@chatbooks.com. We’d be happy to look into your account and provide the help you need!Great concept, awful app and lost credits/books
I’ve lost 17 credits/books due to weird app glitches. I’ve emailed the support team and did not receive any feedback about getting my credits back or a refund. I’ve had numerous issues with the app where it doesn’t “show” my photos, it’s just a white box. When the photos do show up, it takes forever to choose and preview the book. It’s currently been “loading” for over 10 minutes and it becomes frustrating and a waste of time. When I close the app to restart, I’ve lost all the work/photos that I chose and have to restart. I’ve had credits “expire” on a certain date but when I try to choose photos/print the book on the day of expiration, the app does not allow me to do so. It says the credit is already expired. You would think if it expires June 2, then June 2 would be the last day to use it. After paying $390 for potentially 36 books, 17 have expired, 9 books printed, and I currently have 10 credits left until next year. I even bought a friend a year subscription as a gift and am embarrassed for the trouble she had too. Super upset about my lost credits, app glitches, and no response after emailing support.Show lessR.Emby
Developer Response
Thank you for taking the time to review our app. I’m sorry to hear about your frustration with photos not loading and credits expiring and have passed along your feedback to our product team for review. Please be sure to complete any updates including your phone's software. We'd love to know more about what you're experiencing if you'd like to reach out to customer support support@chatbooks.comGreat concept, awful app and lost credits/books
I’ve lost 17 credits/books due to weird app glitches. I’ve emailed the support team and did not receive any feedback about getting my credits back or a refund. I’ve had numerous issues with the app where it doesn’t “show” my photos, it’s just a white box. When the photos do show up, it takes forever to choose and preview the book. It’s currently been “loading” for over 10 minutes and it becomes frustrating and a waste of time. When I close the app to restart, I’ve lost all the work/photos that I chose and have to restart. I’ve had credits “expire” on a certain date but when I try to choose photos/print the book on the day of expiration, the app does not allow me to do so. It says the credit is already expired. You would think if it expires June 2, then June 2 would be the last day to use it. After paying $390 for potentially 36 books, 17 have expired, 9 books printed, and I currently have 10 credits left until next year. I even bought a friend a year subscription as a gift and am embarrassed for the trouble she had too.
Super upset about my lost credits, app glitches, and no response after emailing support.Show lessChange in policy
I’ve been using Chatbooks on and off since 2017. I’ve been creating a series of books, one for each year since 2020. I just printed last years edition of the series last week. When I logged in today to start this years book I was notified that to continue any series you now have to purchase at minimum 4 books per year. I have always said Chatbooks has great quality products for their price and I kept using them to keep my books organized in one place if I ever needed to reprint them. If anything ever happens to the books I’ve had printed, I’ll have to opt into a payment plan to gain access to them. Absolutely garbage policy and I will no longer recommend Chatbooks to anyone. Update: I just tried starting a yearbook since that’s what I previously used the series for. Apparently with the yearbook you have to add all your photos before you can see the book. With other products you could add just one photo to get started then continue building the book. I guess the next option for me is a classic book but k don’t understand why functionality is not consistent throughout all products.Show lessRatatouille03
Advertising needs to be clearer.
I saw an ad for the monthly mini books on Facebook or Instagram and thought it would be perfect for my little girl since she LOVES pictures but of course she always ends up ripping them. Chatbooks has a “Toddler Guarantee” and after watching the ad and checking out their website I thought the mini book was going to be more like the Indestructibles children’s books that don’t rip. I was so wrong. It’s definitely my fault for assuming this but I also think the messaging in their ad and the info on their website could be clearer about what the book & pages are REALISTICALLY going to withstand since they only replace is one time.
When I received my book it was already kind of torn and peeling on the spine. Also, the app crashed on me several times while trying to make this book and there are no prompts in the app showing you how to customize your book/photo pages so I didn’t figure that out until after sending this first book to print so I’m a little disappointed about that.
Otherwise, print quality is good. I honestly don’t know if it’s worth it to even continue with the subscription I purchased. Maybe I will just to try it out another month and go from there.Show lessjadeesquivel.15
Developer Response
Thank you for sharing your feedback with us! We have a hight standard for our books, so if yours was torn or peeling upon arrival, we absolutely want to get that taken care of for you. Please reach out via email at support@chatbooks.com, live chat, or SMS so we can make that right! We'd also be glad to help troubleshoot with the app crashing. And while our Monthly Minis aren't toddler proof, we do honor a free replacement once per book within the year. We apologize for any confusion and thank you again for the feedback!Easy way to document memories
After years of using other memory book options, I switched to chatbooks a few years ago and love how simple both the creation and final product are with this app. I have it set to add my “favorite” pictures to an ongoing subscription but can also come review the book for changes. I tend to fill a book every 3 months with 60 pages, including collages. Our pictures range from big events to day-to-day living. I love that I can change the title of the book to fit the current happenings but have it remain sequential to the series. I’ve made speciality books and they turn out just as well. The only thing I wish was an option was adding collage pages in the subscription series easily, like it I favorite 5-6 pictures from the same event, I’d love to create the collage in the app. But as it stands now, I’d have to create it in a separate app and add it to the book as one picture. Otherwise, this app is darn near perfect.Show lessDaveplot
Won’t save work, IG series is messy
My experience using this app has been beyond frustrating. I am trying to create an Instagram series consisting of about 10 years of select posts. First, I could not sign into my IG. Then they updated the app so I could sign in, but I had to start the Instagram series in a very roundabout way through the web rather than the app. Finally I began the tedious work of editing down my automatically selected “IG series” of 50 unedited books; I selected/excluded posts, changed the layout and captions, etc, getting through about 2 of the 10 years of posts and, I imagined, saving the rest to work on later. Only when I signed in again, the entire process started over- the volumes I edited disappeared, and I once again was shown a series of 50 unedited books as if I’d never signed in before. I contacted support to figure out where my work had gone, and they gave me a few irrelevant suggestions with nonexistent steps, and then simply abandoned the chat without an explanation, follow-up on my response to their suggestion, solution, or help (and this was NOT due to abuse of any sort on my end). Perhaps this process is more straightforward if you are not looking to archive old IG posts, but for my intentions it is an absolute mess.Show lessLittle Amico
Developer Response
Thank you for taking the time to review our app. I'm so sorry to hear your experience was not a positive one. It seems your Instagram Series may have been initially created in a guest account. I have sent you an email directly and look forward to troubleshooting with you soon.Loved It Until I Needed Help
I first want to say that I find both the browser and the app a little clunky. It's not always easy to navigate to where I want to be. Secondly, I have a subscription for two books a month from Instagram and when I get the email it never links me to the correct place to review. Lastly, I recently had an issue where I needed to recreate and re-print books in my subscription. It took me over a week to get a resoonse from customer service, and even once I got the customer service person the responses were very long in between and now all I want is a confirmation that my books are back on schedule and I keep getting an email from the Help Desk asking if my issue is resolved as though they are not seeing my responses - so disappointing. In the past if I've had an issue it's been taken care of without a problem and now I feel like I've been abandoned. If you have customer service set up for texting, someone needs to respond - I finally had to find an old email to reach anybody. Good customer service is so important, and I feel like I'm dealing with a whole different company from the last time I had to contact you.Show lessClanky8
Developer Response
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide feedback. I’m sorry to hear about your frustration with the lack of communication. That's certainly not what we want to hear and is not typical of Chatbooks Support. I'd love to provide some personalized care and ensure that you're completely taken care of. Please reach out to support@chatbooks.com and ask for Jen. Thank you again for your valuable feedback.Simply the best
I love Chatbooks! I have ordered many gifts through the app, and it is simple and my projects always turn out beautifully. I love Rifle Paper Co., and I highly appreciate their collab with them!! I once had a huge issue with shipping (my own fault) and they were so quick to resolve the problem and refund me. I love listening to Vanessa’s podcast and honestly that’s the reason I keep coming back, I love supporting someone who seems so genuine and good. She is making a difference for good in the world! Last praise— I had started making this year’s family Christmas card on several other websites but always ended up feeling overwhelmed by choices and formatting issues. I opened my Chatbooks app and made my card from start to finish in 5 minutes, and for a better price than all of the other “big card” websites! I’m so excited to get my Christmas cards because I know they will be beautiful. I’ll stop now, but I could go on and on! Simply the best!Show lesslwade2011
Hate the recent update
I have been a user for many years and every month we print a mini book for our son and we all love looking at the photos. I am a busy parent and one of the main sources of my son’s picture is from his daycare mobile app, which saves a low-res photo but at least we get to see him playing and laughing. I have been putting tons of his photos from the daycare into the mini books, but for some reason i can no longer add those low-res photos. They just don’t show up when I open my album on the phone. I understand that pictures need to have a good quality for them to look nice on the book, but if customers don’t mind then why can’t they add low-res photos? Without those photos I was only able to collect 13 out of the 30 that’s needed to print the book. So I had to add redundant photos and even some photo from the next month in order to fill the gap. Bring back the functionality to select ANY photo we want… or I can definitely see myself switching to another platform because this just doesn’t make any sense.Show lessminma1987
