Bay Photo Lab

I used Bay Photo for prints several months ago, and while I found Emerge to be annoying, I had an overall positive experience. However, I tried building two albums in Emerge recently, and it has been a disaster. First, after several hours spent on creating 50+ pages in two albums, Emerge has stopped working, and it appears there is no solution. Customer service has indicated that there is no way to copy projects from Emerge to Professional ROES or Bay Designer, so my only option is to START OVER FROM SCRATCH with Professional ROES or Bay Designer — all of my time wasted. Second, I did not know that Bay Photo is phasing out Emerge (which would have been helpful to know prior to starting my projects and during several subsequent interactions with customer service about questions on creating albums (!)).

Received my first batch order from Bay Photo. I ordered 12 photo prints on styrene and they came out exceptional. The order was packaged very well to ensure no damage during shipment. Everything from beginning to end was high quality. Very pleased and will stick to this company for additional orders.

I had placed an order for holiday gift calendars online through ROES. When the order arrived there were several errors in production (i.e. alignment of photos, type of calendar delivered versus what was ordered). Within 45 minutes of receiving the order, the folks at Bay Photo (thank you Katie!) had allowed me to reorder the items and review the submittals to insure that everything was in order from my end.
Just 5 days later I have received the new calendars where everything is in order and Bay provided them at no further charge for calendars or shipping.
In addition to the excellent quality of the product, the level and quality of customer service was excellent. Keeps satisfied customers coming back.
Job well done with my thanks — Tom L.

Excellent color; excellent paper; fast efficient service. Prices slightly more than CVS but product night and day

Wish I could not award any stars! This absolutely the worst lab in the country. I’ve been a professional photographer for 31 years and I’ve tried many labs. All of my friends in the industry have said to stay away from Bay Photo. I now know why. Decided to send a few orders to them over the last month and they messed up 5 of 6 orders. And every mess up was the same… it was a problem with their employees in production. They could not get that when we ordered 4 of one shot and 8 of another shot, you should not switch those photo counts around. When they were contacted (many times) they only reply was that their system was perfect and did not make those kind of errors. I told them to look at ROES ordering, which showed the correct information, but they denied they did anything wrong and, here’s the catch, we’d have to reorder and pay again if we wanted the correct prints! Simply put, they are just not worth the hassle for fair to poor product. Stay away from this lab if you’re new to the industry. They’ll burn you!!!

We had placed our first cluster metal prints order online and we are immensely pleased of the outcome. We encountered minimal difficulty with their ROE which were almost immediately resolved by a phone call to their customer service. The ordering procedure was easy and straight forward and the turn around time is really fast. We received the metal prints within a week. The quality of the prints were simply the best in the market. We checked out a local photo lab that specialized in metal prints as well before going with Bay Photo. Without a doubt their framing is superior in quality. In addition, they have more options available in terms of mounting, surface appearance even corners. We found that ordering clusters is better in value (20% less) than ordering individual. Of course take into consideration the quality (ie resolution) of your photo you are printing though they have few options that cost extra to edit or enhance your picture. We printed our wedding photos that were taken professionally so it came out really wonderful.
The packaging and delivery were done professionally. We were really impressed of how it was all wrapped, boxed, protected and secured. No worries ordering from afar. Two thumbs up to Bay Photo Lab from us.

excellent customer service. the kindest woman helped me navigate my work firewall to upload my prints. she even expedited my order so i had them in time for fathers day. great quality to boot. thank you bay photo!

Do not believe any of the bad reviews on this page! I’ve been a pro photographer since 2009 and I have never found a printing company with such fast turn around, accommodating customer services and impeccable products. My company Studio Dizon (
) has been using Bay Photo for years and my clients have nothing but praises! Take it from a pro who knows! Best of luck Bay Photo!

I will put 5 solid stars for their great customers service. I ordered a metal print. The package was shipped with FedEx and dropped off in front of my door. Unfortunately, it was not there. Probably stolen. I called Bay Photo Lab and reported the issue. Michael, without any questions re-​issued the order. I picked up the package at the nearest FedEx office after 2 days. The metal print looks great. Thanks again Bay Photo Lab!

I’m surprised to see bad reviews cause I always get great products from Bay Photo Lab. High quality and very efficient. Clients are always very happy! :)

I love you, guys! You make my life/​work easy! 100% can rely on you. I am a professional photographer at Highlight Your Wrinkles Photo Atelier. You are super fast, very professional, amazing customer service. I wish I knew a lot of English phrases to describe how good you are and how happy I am. Highly recommend!

I love Bay Photo. Their metal prints are fantastic and their customer service is exceptional. When I had trouble with two different shipments being damaged by the courier they quickly reprinted and shipped. Also they have helped several times by calling and advising about pixellation before my project was printed to insure I got the best possible resolution. I do think the ROES software is not the friendliest out there but I have managed to get through it.

I would love to give Bay Photo a 5-​star review for the quality and speed of the delivery.
I ordered one 8×12 metal print on 12/​28/​2014, and chose FEDEX ground shipping. The product arrived today (½/​2015). It took less than 5 days.
The quality of the metal print is excellent. It looked very professional. If I could, I would give them 10 stars!

I’m very disappointed in the products I got. The website said I was ordering a set of 8 wrapped button magnets and on the website it has a photograph of them… they looked very nice. I ordered two sets of 8 and two round magnets. I tried to order a metal print as well but they wanted to charge me shipping twice because they can’t ship them together apparently.
We got the magnets today and guess what? They are super thin and look like stickers! I called the customer service line and a guy answered who wasn’t helpful at all. I explained what I thought seeing as the website says they are wrapped button magnets, the program I ordered on said they were a set of 8 wrapped button magnets and my order slip says «Your own design magnet.» He just kept saying «uh…yeah…well that’s what you ordered.» So I explained that the site was misleading and I understood it was my fault on the round magnets because they did not say anything about wrapped button magnets, however the set of 8 we really feel ripped on. I ordered through Bay because it clearly seemed on their website they were cheaper than a website I was using before, however that’s not the case any longer. The employee explained the price difference and it’s over the price I was paying before for nice wrapped button magnets. I said that it seemed I wasn’t really getting anywhere with him because he kept saying the same thing over and over and he said nothing. So I repeated myself and said goodbye and he said bye and hung up. He didn’t try anything like asking if I wanted to replace them and send them back or if I wanted to just get a refund and send them back… nothing. Terrible terrible customer service. We are disappointed to say we are on the look out for another printing company… local this time.

I am reviewing my first purchase from Bay Photo Lab. I ordered a very large framed metal print. The quality of the product is first class. Very well done, consultation received on finish was correct; frame really sets off the piece. My only complaint (minor) is that they attached the hanging wire in the portrait orientation rather than the obviously correct landscape orientation. Even though they are in Santa Cruz, apparently whoever worked on this had never seen a boat!
My problems are related to mixed customer service. Advice about finish was spot on. The ROES experience was miserable-​difficult to use and will not display impact of promo code until item is ordered. I like to make sure my discount is applied before that point. Heard nothing about completion and had to call for status only to find it had already been shipped. No shipping info (including tracking #) until I asked.
They make a great product. Customer service needs serious improvement.

I went through Bay Photo to have my wedding album designed and produced. Jennifer Brugman was my contact at Bay Photo who worked with the Design Team. Jennifer answered all my questions, was extremely patient and along with the Design Team delivered an impressive product. They went above and beyond. When I instructed to remove 14 sides from the album to cut costs, my wedding album arrived with the 14 sides INLCUDED and the final cost even less than what she had quoted me. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised which put a huge smile on my face.
**THANK YOU JENNIFER BRUGMAN & Bay Photo DESIGN TEAM!!!**
I have also used Bay Photo for prints of photos. They are priced well and look professional. Quick turnaround in production. My order: 16 — 4×6’s, 1 — 16×20 cost me $ 19.50 with shipping.

Simply phenomenal. I ordered 3 metal prints and 2 thinwraps. I ordered on Sunday from Chicago and had the prints on Friday. The service is phenomenal and the prints look great. Their software, process, follow up all was exceptional and I’m glad I went with them. really!
–Vivek

I have ordered from BayPhoto twice, both on metal prints. For reference I am currently using a very high quality monitor, professionally calibrated, with proper lighting. When my images are viewed on my computer, or on printed paper they are spot on.
I had one image from Bay Photo printed on metal about 1.5 months ago, and it turned out perfectly. Good crisp image, quick turn around, and no hassle. About a $ 130 order.
I subsequently ordered a larger print of a another image I had taken, but made it much larger than the last, total cost was about $ 250. This time the image arrived at minimum ½ but closer to 1 stop underexposed. In print and in studio they are perfect. WB is good, lighting is good, everything good. Large, expensive metal print… not even close.
Very frustrated. I’m considering looking for an alternate source of metal prints. BayPhoto has made it very difficult for me to try them again. I can’t afford to have clients hoping they didn’t blow the reproduction, only to have to pay AGAIN to have them ‘fix’ what wasn’t broken.
**********************************
Update 1÷25÷2014
Kirsten, at Bay Photo emailed to let me know that they will be sending out a new corrected image to replace the print that was not satisfactory.
Now that’s customer service and I appreciate that very much. I have adjusted my rating and will not happily recommend Bay Photo.

I am a full-​time professional photographer. I’ve been using Bay Photo for a few years now and I am very pleased with the service and quality. Here’s why…
Speed: I live in NY about 3000 miles way from Bay Photo. I can upload a photo today, and it FedEx delivered tomorrow morning.
Quality: The pictures always look better than I imagine them. I always enjoy opening a box from Bay Photo and seeing how good they prints look.
Variety: They offer everything my studio would ever want. In fact, they offer so much, I cannot show my clients everything. But, if I client asks for something specific I’m sure Bay has it if it has to do with printing.
Service: I’ve only ever had one issue and it was resolved immediately without any hassle.

I’ve been using Bay Photo for what seems like forever now. When I use to shoot with film, the shop that was across the street from the 2 story parking garage was my go-​to location. I use to love to come there to buy film, get my photos developed, rent darkroom space and shoot the breeze with whomever worked there. But times have changed. Behold busting into the digital world with the rest of ‘em!
So now that I’ve gone digital, I am excited to marry the geek life of my love of computers with photography. I do most of my own editing at home with photoshop, so I just needed some enlargements made because I’ll be honest. Driving to Santa Cruz is not always convenient for all of my printing needs. For whatever pictures that I don’t care about, I order through Walgreens because they love to spam me with coupon codes. But for something special, yeah, I’m going to use a real photo lab. But *hint, hint*, I’m a total whore for coupons so if you want more of my business, spam me with them.
My first start out of the gate with online ordering was a rocky road. I used the Bay ROES Complete and my orders kept getting lost into cyberspace. It would take days to figure this out so I had a bunch of lost time, in a count down to printing engagement photos before my friend’s wedding. Tech support was somewhat helpful. I’m pretty computer savvy to begin with so I know when something doesn’t work, change your approach. So I tried the ROES Emerge software. Success! No more lost orders! Yay! IMO, they should just take down the links to their old software. It doesn’t work right.
When I came to pick up my enlargements, I was once again wowed by the quality of photos. What is even better is all of the products that they have on display at this location. I’m going to pick up my aluminum gloss print this afternoon. I can’t wait to see it!
The only bad part of this location is the parking. I went mid-​week and because of the surrounding businesses, people trying to park outside of natural bridges, etc, parking seemed to be scarce. Even all of the visitor parking for the building was taken. So I have a tip for you on that! If it looks like there’s no parking in front of the building, circle your car around the back. There is parking near the side near the entrance but it may not be obvious at first. We learned this by walking around on foot to scout for our next trip.