Sorry, really dodgy post title – this is a rant about Lulu. Not the 60s singer, obviously, but the online print on demand supplier.
I made myself a calendar, featuring my landscape nudes, with a view to possibly offering it for sale via the Lulu site. As recommended, and probably essentially, I ordered myself a copy to check it looked OK. The website told me that it would be 3 – 5 business days to print, then 3 – 5 days to ship. Sure enough, about three days later I received an email telling me it had shipped, and I waited for delivery. And waited. And waited.
Five weeks later it turned up. I had selected the cheapest shipping option, but even that was nearly a tenner on an item that cost about the same. To get an trackable shipment would have cost over £50!
So, until Lulu can offer a cost effective and reliable shipping method for UK customers, I won’t be using them again. Shame, as the calendar looks great, but I can’t imagine a potential customer being happy with a five week wait and a doubling of the price to buy it. Next year I’ll be looking at other options for calendars.
Incidentally, I had logged a support call with Lulu after about four weeks of waiting – as I’d been told 3 – 5 days – and basically got a brush off that told me they wouldn’t assist with untrackable purchases – apparently spending £10 to have an item posted to you is no guarantee that it’ll turn up. The support basically told me, very politely, that they wouldn’t do anything even if it never turned up (whether I’d have got more joy from my credit card company is something I won’t discover, as it did eventually turn up).
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Yes, it’s an Americanism, and yes, it’s just an excuse to sell stuff/dress up in daft clothes/get stupidly drunk, but what the hell, it’s also an excuse for some themed photos. The full Halloween gallery is here, from a couple of shoots. And now to prepare to spend the evening with the lights off pretending I’m not at home in case any trick or treaters stop by!
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I’ve been trying to decide whether to take the plunge on a new phone for a while now, and specifically whether to get a smartphone. On the one hand I like the idea of a simple phone that just does SMS and calls with a battery that lasts long enough that I don’t even have to think about it.
On the other hand… most of my life is online. I use the internet far more than I actually speak to people on the phone. For my trips away this year I’ve been lugging a laptop and spending money on Wi-fi in hotels. And, of course, I’m a gadget geek and long overdue a new gadget (well, not strictly long overdue – the SB900 flashgun was fairly recent, but hey…)
The iPhone was a natural choice but everyone and his dog owns one of those. Do different was actually the motto of my university when I went there (I think they’ve changed it to something a bit more corporate and go-getting these days). So, after much deliberation, I ended up with a Palm Pre.
If you believe everything you read on the internet you’d never buy anything, as reviews only ever seem to be posted by people with an axe to grind. My experience so far is that it’s a great gadget, really slick on the internet stuff but has a few minor glitches. The synching with email accounts could be more configurable (I really don’t want everyone I’ve ever emailed from my google account to end up in my phone book). Battery life is probably below par, even by smartphone standards. And yes, it does feel a bit fragile.
But overall, I think I’m happy. Time will tell – only had it a few days, so will have to see what it’s like to live with over the next few months.
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I was planning to spend today scouting out a location for a shoot next week, but the weather seems to have put paid to that and I don’t fancy mooching around in the rain. So, I’ll be a good boy and get back to editing bunker pictures instead. Might clean the house, too, if I get bored photoshopping (and I do get bored, very bored, photoshopping!).
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On Saturday I attended the sixth shoot at the Secret Nuclear Bunker near Brentwood in Essex. A gallery will go up under group shoots in due course but here’s a couple of samples. First off, it’s AmorinStar:
Then LydiaT is struck by the horror of war 
And finally, Rio_S
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Welcome to my brand new shiny blog. I don’t really expect anyone to read it, but I had a sudden urge to learn a new bit of software, so I thought it might be fun (in a sad and geeky way, naturally) to see if i could integrate a blog with the rest of the site. It’s a bit cobbled together and I certainly haven’t done a proper job of all the techie integration (copy and paste on the css! heavens, what an amateur…)
I’m not sure about leaving comments – I think I’ll be paranoid to start with and have them all moderated until I get to know how the system works.
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