RANT: Shutterfly can't Add Pictures

I haven't used Shutterfly in a long time, so I decided to use one of their Free Print offers and give Shutterfly a spin again. But it's a bit hard to use the service when you can't upload pictures!

The text on the pages of their Add Pictures flow refers to buttons that don't exist! If you don't put a BROWSE button on the page or a NEXT button you can't really finish the Add Pictures flow. No Added Pictures = No User Engagement.

I tried it in Firefox 2. This is the page I received when I clicked Add Pictures (highlighting added during screen grab). I couldn't find the Browse button. Somewhat hard to load an image if you can get to the file on your PC.

So I tried it in IE6. After a few pages of errors because it couldn't load the page. But I got past the login and clicked Add Pictures.

Well, now. It's a different page layout. But once again, a button is missing. This time it's the NEXT button. As a guess, I hit Enter and it worked.. took me to the next page in the flow.

But no dice. Once again, the page refers to the mystery BROWSE button.

So what should I do? Maybe it's time for me to completely ditch Shutterfly completely, which I've pretty much done over the last year or so. The occasion email offer and looking at friends shared albums is all the gets me to their site anyways.

And for this problem to happen the same day that Multiply releases some brand spanking new features! Omen?

Rant: Pay for Bad Service - Airline Baggage Fees

If you've traveled recently you probably know about the airline baggage policy changes. The increased fees for baggage have been changing for quite a while, but for me it's getting pretty ridiculous. These fees look to be last ditch efforts for an industry in a steady state of decline.

NOTE: Pay attention to baggage policies BEFORE you buy your tickets. The extra fees you pay for baggage may make it worth buying a more expensive ticket that allows for more baggage. And at least know your baggage weights before you leave home -- in some cases it's cheaper to pay extra baggage fees online instead of at the airport. And be careful packing those large suitcases, it doesn't take much to get to 50lbs (typical weight limit for luggage on economy tickets).


Expedia recently sent me a nice link to updated baggage policies for an upcoming trip (see the image or Expedia's link).

What strikes me as 0dd is American Airlines' baggage policy. Currently they are the ONLY airline charging for your FIRST checked bag! And they have the WORST rate of mishandled bags - 6.85 Mishandled baggage per 1000 passengers. The other large airlines aren't great either, but AA is the worst of this list. (sorry for the poor images, still figuring out SnagIt).


Isn't this some type of leap of faith?

"We suck so pay us more and then we can make it better."

I can see the unintended impact of this policy. Anyone else see a plane load of people trying to cram over sized carry on bags into the overhead?