I recently joined up to SMSPup mainly due to lack of credit for my mobile. Yes, I use it up quite quickly so I wanted a free, easy way of being in touch via sms with family. Just the odd sms when I am at work. Besides, where I work – there is poor Optus reception for mobiles.

The way SMSPup works is by sending you promotional emails, and you click on them or sign up to their products (if you want to) and you get points. Each point is worth 1 free sms, which is mainly what I use it for. Their free sms service is quite prompt. So far I have not experienced any delays at all, but I have only been using it for a few weeks.

Anyway, I got a promotion to getting 50 free prints at Snapfish. This is a HP photo print service, and their prices seem reasonable. Anything free must be great right! In true Mr Feedback spirit, I quickly jumped onto this opportunity (sorry GetDigital). Here is my analysis:

The process
The uploading process was quite stream lined, and because my photos were quite small in size I just uploaded them individually. Didn’t bother with their quick upload software. I had a similar experience recently with GetDigital – read here. The best thing about Snapfish is that they offer UNLIMITED ONLINE STORAGE OF YOUR PHOTOS, as long as you buy something at least once every year. I wonder if they accept cheap purchases once yearly to get free storage. Seems like a great way to beat the system, because Flickr and other professional photo storage options can be expensive. Especially if you have thousands of photos. All those memories, and no where to put them. Ok, back to “the process”.

I created my album, and within minutes was able to upload all my photos. Then I confirmed checkout. I got an email confirmation, and I can easily view my “free order” in my Snapfish account.

Value
Anything free is great value, but there is fine print. Remember my post about reading fine print – Commonwealth Bank La Trobe! Postage and handling charges apply, and they are $2.95 for standard mail, and $6.95 for express mail. The thing is, the total cost of printing even if you paid $0.15 per print (which is their lowest option) is $7.50. The postage prices depends on the number of prints though. You can get a full list of charges here. Like GetDigital, you can do other cool things with your photos.

The quality
The quality is little bit better than GetDigital, I must say. This is despite the photos I uploaded being taken from a 2.1MP camera. I suspect it has something to do with the compression algorithms that GetDigital use, as opposed to SnapFish. I used the standard print size, with glossy paper.

The package
I received a confirmation email 2 days after I placed my order, which isn’t bad. Certainly not as quick as GetDigital, but I am impressed so far. I received the package 5 days after the order (which was placed on a business day with no upcoming weekends), so a bit slowish. However, it was free so I am willing to negate the “slowness”. It was neat packaged, and I liked the sign on the front which said: “Photographs, do not bend”.

No figure rating, but overall service was excellent.
I am not going to give a figure rating for this service, because there are some bias and confounding factors if I was to compare to GetDigital. The first one is that I paid for GetDigital, and this was free. The second one is that GetDigital’s order was more than 4 times the size of SnapFish, so printing and delivery comparisons are not a true/accurate representation. Due to these factors, a figure rating would be inappropriate comparing the two. On an isolated basis, SnapFish was excellent, and I am certainly impressed. As for SMSPup, I would certainly continue to use the service.