SouthtreeReviews 381

A problem with original order was taken care of by one Anna Varek who took my case and walked it through to be right with no problems she was personable with me all the time while my order was shipped back to them free no less through the process called me talked to me e mailed me and returned properly done. I am sure all companies have problems at times but in my case through Anna my problems were solved I would use them again and soon shall to have more movies put on disk. THANKS ANNA! (Jack T)

I sent in some old VHS tapes and 3inch film reels that belonged to my late parents. I couldn't be happier with their service! I got everything back in under month and everything was transferred perfectly. I have no idea why there are so many negative reviews. I feel like 1 or 2 angry customers have multiple accounts that they post reviews on. A customer service agent told me that they ship out over 100 orders a day, so it seems that the vast majority of people are generally happy with this company. With my experience in restaurants I know that people who dislike a company are far more likely to leave reviews.

Anyway, I would recommend South Tree to everyone!

The good news is I sent 4 reels of film to Southtree and they converted the film to DVD. There is nothing special about the quality of the conversion, some of the film on DVD is jumpy and contains lighting problems. Although I sent names for each of the films and expected them to use the titles for each reel, they converted all the reels together into one 53 minute DVD
I mailed the film on 8/25/13 and received the DVD on 11/16/13.
Per post office tracking they received the package on August 31 2013. Southtree said it was delivered on Sept 10. Southtree appeared to make up bogus steps so I would think they were doing something. Here are all the steps they sent via email'

Shipped Oct 29

Final Review Oct 13

Digitizing Film Oct 11

Production Queue Oct 1

Reviewed Sep 20

Barcoded Sep 14

Delivered Sep 10

Order Confirmation Aug 27

I sent three reels of movie film that is 35-40 years old to convert to DVD. Two of the three were a wedding from 1968 and another was a dance recital from the '80's. I enclosed instructions to have the wedding film put on one DVD, and the dance recital put on a separate DVD. It took much longer to have my order processed than it should have, and like other people have said, they only move you up in the queue when you contact them to ask about your order.

The order arrived in the mail, and I received the two wedding reels back with one DVD, per the instructions, but the other reel was missing.

I contacted them to ask what happened, and it has been months now, and the missing reel is GONE. They lost part of my order!

I am just so sad about this, the missing reel is completely irreplaceable and meant a lot to me.

I was told by Southtree that it is not uncommon for customers to say they are sending X amount, then for Southtree to receive something different. The issue is, they don't verify the two. If you say you're sending three reels, they don't check to see what they received when they get your order and contact you if there are discrepancies. I absolutely, positively sent three reels, and only two were returned.

Handling decades-old materials should be a delicate process, but clearly they are careless.

Their pretty website and Facebook postings make it seem like they are a good company, but they are not. There are clearly flaws in their process, of which customers like me are victims.

Like others, it took 3 additional weeks then it should have. I only got a rush on my order cause I complained repeatedly and angrily:)

We received two discs that were not of our order. I have no idea who it actually belonged to.

The VHS to DVD didn't work. It seems like they had the machine on the wrong channel or something. They start out fine and then the screen goes blue.

Photos were not touched at all and some were cut off.

This place is a joke! Not only did it take close to two months to get a sign that my videos were supposedly close to being done but it took me to call them and play phone tag for a week to actually talk to someone. When I did they said they were working on it and it should be "soon." That was as specific as it got. The icing on the cake was a couple of days after my call and close to two months after I sent the videos they called and said they can not transfer my type of tape! WHAT!? I called them before I even placed the order to make sure they could do it. They sent these bogus emails to make it appear as if they are actually working on my order but the reality is they weren't. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken two months to tell me they can't transfer my videos. I was going to use the content as part of a video for a family milestone and they left me high and dry! AND, they charged me to ship the tapes back. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT USING THIS COMPANY. They never even acknowledged two emails I sent after they misrepresented their capabilities and most definitely over promised and under delivered their services. Run and run fast!

I also wish ZERO stars was an option. AVOID SOUTHTREE. Maybe a few people got lucky and nothing was messed up, but for my family they lost a tape of a precious memory, and all the other tapes they sent back were messed up... and it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a straight story from anyone or to have customer service contact you back, and they never answer their phone. This is a horrible sham of a company: more like children with techie toys then a business. It is despicable that this "company" dupes you into sending them priceless and irreplaceable memories only to lose and damage them. Shame on you Southtree.com, especially shame on you for playing Christian music on your customer service line... I don't think Jesus would lie to people, take their money, lose their property, and then lie about it or never call the person back... HORRIBLE

1. Took several months to receive the DVDs to 3 VHS takes. Had to call and email multiple to be eventually "moved up the que."

2. When our order finally came - the original VHS tapes were not returned and the instead of receiving the 3 copies we ordered - only one was sent.

3. after several attempts to contact them - I eventually got someone to tell me they would review the order if I sent the DVDs back at my own expense - no thanks - not waiting another 6 months for the only copy I have of these left to be reviewed.

Total joke. Groupon buyers beware.

Southtree your fancy new website doesn't make up for your terrible follow thru on orders and customer service.

I sent three 7" reels of Super 8 film (spliced Polaroid Instant Movies) last prior to Thanksgiving to Southtree Digital Media. They didn't acknowledge receipt till 2 weeks after the PO said they had arrived, then nothing till... Two and a half months later the reels were returned with a note that said there was nothing on them!? [so much for my groupon]. Apparently their equipment is sub-standard. I'm surprised they are still in business. One star - because Zero stars is not available.

I took my reels to a local spot in Brighton, Michigan (American Video Transfer) and I got them back inside of a week. They look great.

I would give 0 if I could.

I had 2 separate orders from them, both sent beginning of May.

Slow, slow, slow. Just received this week. Would have been fine to wait if it was worth it.

EVERYTHING was wrong!

2 DVDs were blank. 1 of my original VHS was MISSING. 2 VHS were damaged by them. 2 things couldn't be converted even though they said on the website it could. Photos scanned were so BLURRY you couldn't even tell what they were. 1 DVD was of a family I have NO idea who they were.

DO NOT trust these people with your precious memories. TERRIBLE! Won't give refund, just "credit" on next order. YEAH RIGHT! Not sending them anything else.

Overall, sent over 12 items. Not ONE thing came out right and 3 VHS of memories were RUINED (And I feel bad for the random family's memories I got!)

After looking around online at several different video transfer places, I went with Southtree due to their snazzy website which promised great service and good prices. Uh oh - let the fun begin.

Sent Southtree 15 old video tapes in Oct. 2012 to have them put on DVD's. I was so excited to give them as Christmas gifts & after years of procrastinating, I was finally getting this done! Long story short - Southtree messed up my simple order again & again from the beginning. Fast forward to SIX months later and finally in March 2013, Southtree shipped my complete order. Happy day, right?!?! Nope. Turns out Southtree sent the package without a complete address label - AND used cheap shipping without tracking to the door. To this day, my package remains lost and I have zero DVD's and one of my original videotapes was lost in the mess. Not to mention - my money wasn't refunded until I filed a credit card dispute.

CONCLUSION - I wouldn't recommend Southtree in a million years. Their right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing & they were unbelievably careless with my videotapes. I was more than patient with Southtree for the first many months - but my experience with Southtree was a complete train wreck. Soooo, save yourself some grief - you'd be much better off to buy a machine and do it yourself - or take your tapes to a reputable local video transfer service.

Stay away! I shipped an order for transfer of 6 mini-DV tapes to data DVDs to Southtree on September 30,2012 and they didn't input it into their tracking system until November 8. An "Agent of Happiness" contacted me on December 11 to let me know that my order wouldn't be ready until "early January" because of their busy holiday season. They did not actually ship my order until January 25, and then only after I sent several nasty-gram emails threatening to contact the Better Business Bureau. I was told on January 21st that "We do not normally do this but after speaking with my manager and head tape technician I was able to make an exception and mark your order as a priority. This means it is pulled from normal processing and placed in rush processing." Rush processing?! My tapes had been in their possession for almost 4 months, and it then required "rush processing", as if they were doing me some big favor? At the time I placed my order, their website claimed a turnaround time of 4-5 weeks.

Of the 6 DVDs that we FINALLY got back, 2 are audio only with no video (just a black screen). We checked all of the tapes before we sent them off, and there was definitely working video. 1 DVD doesn't work at all. So of the $95.70 that we spent for their services, we didn't even receive half of the products we paid for in working order. They have ignored our request for a partial refund. Terrible service all around.

I would not recommend Southtree. The service was slow, I sent my negatives and one movie reel back around the first part of February. I called several times inquiring "How much longer?" They were good about getting back with me I have to say that much for them, but it was always the same story, we got swamped and are running behind a little. I finally received them the end of May. I wish I could say I was happy with them, the reel played with everyone upside down which I had them send me a new one corrected and the negatives were very disappointing. During this time span I had bought a CanoScan 8400F Color Image Scanner on ebay and scanned the actual picture, it also came with trays for negatives but was intimidated when I first got it and thought they could do a more professional job with negatives that I would. I was wrong. I then freshened up the pictures with VueScan software. It did a better job restoring the picture than they did with the negatives. I even had them in order with music playing in the background. I would not recommend anyone waste their money on Southtree, even with the Groupon coupon I paid to much for what I got!

I would give them 0 stars if it was an option. Not only did it take forever to get my videos back, they lost one and can't find it. Now I have no DVD or video of the memory from 30 years ago. Oh and to throw sand in the wound, they will not refund my money for the list DVD. I've never had such a bad experience with a company. Customer service is awful. Unfortunately I trusted some of my most precious belongings to them and now I will never see it again.

Anyone looking for a good company, try Yes Video. Much better quality and always available for help!