Andy, who was considering sending ~1200 35MM slides from Oregon, for scanning at Saugus Photos Online, wanted a couple of references. One of the references I gave him was a recent customer, Dave.
The following is a list questions e-mailed by Andy to Dave. Below each question is Dave's answer. The entire exchange was cut and pasted "as is" from their e-mails to me on 1/21/07.
"Andy
Thanks for the email. I recently completed a scale project with Jim and was very, very satisfied with him. I would definitely recommend him without any hesitation. Answers to your questions below:
1. What kind of project was yours?
Jim scanned ~600 slides for me (I have over 1,200 but ultimately decided, in speaking with Jim, to scan only about half of them. That alone saved me a lot of time and money!)
2. What did he do for you?
He scanned the 35mm slides, cleaned them up using PhotoShop and delivered the photos to me in TIFF and JPEG formats on DVRs that I could download to my PC
3. Did he do a good job for you?
Excellent, excellent job. I have seen the quality of work others have delivered and Jim is far superior. What makes him better is that he takes the time to touch up the photos
4. What he on time for delivery?
He was flexible but was able to complete the order in 2-3 weeks. Faster than others
5. Was his price as expected?
Yes it was. He honored his price quotes and was clear upfront about the cost of scanning and cost of DVRs. In my case, there was no shipping costs b/c I picked up and dropped off the slides directly, but I assume he'd be upfront about that as well.
6. Should I entrust him with a 1200 slide show (irreplaceable) and send it across the country to have him scan it for us.
This is the tricky question. Do I trust that Jim will take care of the slides and do a tremendous job? Absolutely. The issue is whether you entrust the post office to do a great job. I am personally risk averse, which is the reason I hand delivered the slides to Jim, but if mail was the only option and I could get comfortable that the post office would take care of them, I would not hesitate to send them to Jim. In fact, I have recommended Jim to some of my clients outside the Boston area. What I might suggest is that you send Jim a subset of the slides initially (perhaps 200-300) as a way to trial this and also as a way to build the relationship with him. I shared my slides with Jim in 2 batches and found that we had very good conversations about where to take the project after the initial batch was completed. It also gave me a chance to make sure I would be satisfied with the work, which I was.
I set a very high bar for folks with whom I work and Jim is clearly at that level. The key issue you need to get comfortable with is #6, which ultimately is a personal decision. If you have not already done so, I might recommend that you ask Jim for references for folks who have used mail and see what they say.
Good luck and I hope this helps, David"