Southtree

I have a box from Southtree that has expired, but the website very clearly says that if you pay a small fee they will reactivate the box. I called to reactivate and the recording said it was a 5 minute wait... 20 minutes later I gave up. Then I emailed... no response... then I submitted a question through the website... no response. I guess I am throwing away the box. Based on the reviews regarding the quality of the service, maybe I am better off cutting my losses. Zero stars.

It's been over 2 months and I ONLY sent one video to try out the company. Not sure if they've lost it bc I've not heard back from anyone. How can one video take months to convert?! So disappointing! Horrible company- people are trusting them with their memories and then they have no means of contacting the company. Obviously many might be the elderly and no phone number. The number provided - no one answers.

I'm adding to this bx I'm a regular on google and did not run into any reviews for Southtree. They're making good money but don't care at about your feelings or memories. Pay extra and find someone local. Not sure if it's a coincidence that Southtree finally got back to me after this review: This is the email I received after 2 months of them having my video. Good thing I did a test run!
"Hi RAJ,
Your order is progressing in our facility! Now that everything has been prepped and ready to go, we're just waiting on a spot to open up so that we can start transforming your items from analog to digital."
Our technicians are experts at optimizing every inch of our 50,000 square foot facility, and so we should find a spot for your items soon!"

Are you kidding me? Progressing?! Prepped?! It's one video! We SHOULD have a spot. What does any of this mean?! Ridiculous 🤦🏻‍ you can see the or took a month for them to get the video to their facility and THEN I got the option to wait another 3 months or pay extra. No options for a refund that you initially paid AND sooo impersonal that the emails is giving me options to unsubscribe. This is not a promotional email. Someone should be updating us! Don't do it

I placed my Southtree order on October 7,2023 and was told that it should take 10-12 weeks for my tapes to get digitized. Not only did my order take 5 months, but when I received my digitized videos, two of them were silent and one of them was missing a portion at the beginning. I payed $227 for this and truly expected better for the price. When I contacted Southtree about this, they told me to send those tapes back, but I have no intent to do this as I believe they would take another 5 months to arrive. I plan on getting these tapes digitized somewhere else and I recommend others get their tapes digitized somewhere else as well!

I would give Southtree zero stars if it was possible. This company is essentially stealing people's money. They converted 5 mini DV tapes for me into 5 digital files. Sounds easy right? Wrong... two of the files simply won't open. The remaining 3 well how best to put this... are utter garbage. As well as one of the files just having gray scrambled static, the other two are grainy black and white images converted from full color tape recordings.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! They will take your money and tell you it's your fault that the tapes are bad and that is how they were converted. They take no responsibility for poor quality instead pocketing your cash and telling you to suck it up if you don't like the results.

Awful awful company - avoid like the plague.

Pros - I received my originals back.
Cons - it took months to complete my order. Customer service is terrible, basically non existent. They don't leave the link up long enough to download your pictures. I wouldn't trust them with my memories again.

Their estimate is 10-12 weeks. My order is pushing 20 weeks and the only response I receive to inquiries or complaints is "sorry for your inconvenience." Southtree is not holding up its end of our good-faith agreement.

I have been given reasoning related to high volume and short staff. Here's the problem with that: A company which is truly committed to the customer experience does not pass its inconveniences and problems on to the customer. Southree's challenges are not mine. Customers should not be the ones to make sacrifices for a company's inability to properly staff, adequately hire, or effectively manage workload.

Staffing shortages abound, but good companies step up, exercise basic work ethic, and maintain a positive customer experience. High volume or workload is something for which most companies strive. This is an indicator of business growth. Lack of preparation for growth is not the customer's fault. So, the customer should not bear the resulting burden.

I had a great experience using Southtree! They were excellent to work and they they kept me informed every step of the way. Some of my tapes were falling apart and they somehow managed convert them. It has been such a blast watching old Christmas and birthday celebrations when my kids were so very young. Such sweet memories. Along with the thumb drive I got for myself, I got each of my kids a thumb drive made as a Christmas gift so they'll have their old memories forever too. Thanks Southtree!

After 3 months I received the transfer of 4 video cassettes and 4 audio cassettes. There were the following problems with that. They never corrected those and never refunded my money.

1) Two of the MP4 files were IDENTICAL. Since two were identical, they completely missed transferring one of the cassette. Those that were transferred to MP4 had really bad resolution/quality. When I play the original cassettes on my VCR, they have far better quality.

2) I had clearly asked for and paid for 1 DVD per video cassette. They just sent me a thumb drive with MP4 files. No DVDs. They never sent me DVDs despite my asking over and over again.

'Please don't waste your money. They are not cheap. Please stay away from this company.

I sent Southtree 95 Hi8 Sony Camcorder tapes for conversion to mp4 files. Their website is slick, but their quality control is horrible and their customer service to correct the problems has been exceedingly viscous. They returned one box of tapes very poorly packaged. I sent twice as many tapes to The Digitize Center where there were no problems with any tapes. I wish I had searched the web for reviews of Southtree before buying. Their reviews on Yelp and elsewhere are very bad. Avoid Southtree.