Southtree

This place is a joke! Not only did it take close to two months to get a sign that my videos were supposedly close to being done but it took me to call them and play phone tag for a week to actually talk to someone. When I did Southtree said they were working on it and it should be "soon." That was as specific as it got. The icing on the cake was a couple of days after my call and close to two months after I sent the videos they called and said they can not transfer my type of tape! WHAT!? I called them before I even placed the order to make sure they could do it. They sent these bogus emails to make it appear as if they are actually working on my order but the reality is they weren't. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken two months to tell me they can't transfer my videos. I was going to use the content as part of a video for a family milestone and they left me high and dry! AND, they charged me to ship the tapes back. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT USING THIS COMPANY. They never even acknowledged two emails I sent after they misrepresented their capabilities and most definitely over promised and under delivered their services. Run and run fast!

Yep, pretty awful. After many weeks or months of waiting and praying, you will receive SOMETHING back. Sometimes I get a sense that the reviews on sites like this are overwhelmingly negative because only the pissed off customers post something; the satisfied customers never speak up. In this case, I think maybe all their customers are upset. That's why they're always on Groupon; they'd never sell their services by word of mouth otherwise.

I made the mistake of buying a second set of Groupons before receiving back my first set of slide scanning orders. I think the second set actually came back worse than the first. Southtree were not completely out of order like my first set, but instead of vertical photos being scanned properly, they were now letterboxed left and right and cut off top and bottom - almost like they switched scanning equipment or something.

After going through the files and finding this, I spoke up. They sent me a return form and I carefully packaged everything back up for rescanning and shipped it off on my dime. Everything came back lumped together on one CD this time... with the vertical scans looking exactly the same as before. Oh, and they e-mailed me a coupon for some hypothetical time when I'd want to use their services again.

Saw an advertisement about south tree conversions of VHS tapes to disc format. I was very nervous to send my precious memories out in the mail to an unknown company that I have never tried before. Decided to leave an email discussing and confirming pricing. Slithered responded less than 1 day and reassured me that Southtree would be the company to work with. They notified me every step of their process as to receipt, processing and timely shipping of the finished product. I received the box of my vsh tapes and new discs just in time for Christmas! Their work was so professional, each disc was in a separate envelope, labeled identical to each VHS tape. My sneak review of a few of them left me so excited to give this collection as a Christmas gift. Needless to say, when my family opened the box and I explained what they were holding, the entire family cried, even the teenagers who realized all their baby Christmas videos were included in this collection. Thank you Southtree! Getting my next batch ready to send out soon!

I sent a VHS tape to be transferred to DVD. The DVD I received had no sound. I called and spoke to customer service and the promptly emailed me a return label. Great! The second DVD had no sound and after speaking with customer service I returned it again. Now I get the third DVD and while there is sound the picture is fuzzy and jumpy and hard to watch. AND I noticed that now there is now a sticker on my VHS tape the reads " this tape has some existing damage" There was NOTHING wrong with the tape when I sent it to Southtree and now Southtree have possibly destroyed my original wedding video. I am sending the tape to another service and hopefully my tape is ok and I can get the job done right. And BTW, I have gotten no response from Southtree regarding the " damage".

UNBELIEVABLE! I ordered a transfer of a VHS tape to CD and it has taken 2 times to get it done but unusable. Unfortunately, the first time the CD came to me with scratches and finger prints on the data side - exactly what Southtree tell me to avoid in an insert with the CD. I sent it back for reprocessing. This time I get a label stuck to my VHS tape storage box saying " Sorry... but there are permanent tracking issues due to damage or age". I find the tape storage box was damaged while in their possession. The damage is extremely hard to do since the tape storage box is made of heavy plastic. No one said or indicated any problem of this type existed during the first processing. I sent the VHS tape back to them the second time in the same packaging it was sent to me. No one indicated the package was damaged when it was returned to them so, it had to be badly handled and damaged during the second processing.

I gave them a perfectly good unused tape for processing and they ruined it. Totally unprofessional and irresponsible. They lack all capability to do a simple task. LOSERS!

I am a big fan of Southtree transfer services. Southtree have earned my confidence and respect by the way they care for their customers and the quality of the final product. I dont even mind that Im forever embarrassing myself on these old tapes; I feel good about Southtree and I do recommend them often. For comparison let me share my previous experience with a video transfer service that made me leery to repeat the process until Southtrees customer reviews convinced me to take another chance.

More than a few years back, I had one of my videos transferred onto a dvd by a service provided through a local drugstore. The process was long, and I was kept in the dark throughout the entire processI was not sure if my tape was lost or in a techs hands. My original video tape had a short blank spot followed by at least 30 minutes of additional footage. The service I used did not include this extra time on my dvd and cut the transfer as soon as it recognized a blank spot, there was no human involvement. I didnt feel this service cared one way or the other if they lost my video and didnt bother reaching out to me with my complaint.
To date I have had four orders of multi tape shipments transferred onto dvd by Southtree. First of all, they ask you to post onto their fb page what you are sending and they respond! Then every step of the way they email you about your material and inform you which part of production it is in. Then after shipment you immediately have a tracking number. They have great prices (many sales!) and they offer a variety of upgrades. Southtree amaze me on how fast they are able to process my orders. Soon I will be moving along to preserving my photographs.
As Im getting older, and there is not always a tomorrowIm happy to have found a service that I trust and finally get this long wanted process completed.

While the work was adequate, their information is terrible. I had Super 8 movies that I wanted on dvd. I never imagined that Southtree wouldn't add the sound! It was only after I got the dvd and found no sound that I went searching on the help site. They answer one question "Can you capture sound from film?" Since I KNOW you can I never read that question. Shame on me. Here's their answer:
Sound on film reels are rare and at this time, we are no longer able to process the audio line with film reels. Less than 1% of film reels had a sound line, even fewer movie cameras recorded on this line, and at this time we are no longer able to source a film unit from our vendors that can digitize this part. We are able to digitize film reels and create great video files for you to enjoy.
If I had seen this I never would have used this company and would have gone to one of the MANY companies that do digitize the sound. I will now have to purchase the same service from a competent company and be forced to pay for the service twice. This is not good business!

To those considering sending in your priceless memories to Southtree, please take a moment to read what I have to describe as my single worst consumer experience to date in my life. This is the first time I've ever posted or written a review of a product good or bad, but I can't stomach the thought of others going through what I'm going through so here goes.

1) The order took almost 3 months to process when the website says 4 to 5 weeks. Amanda the Agent of Happiness claimed it was due to equipment issues

2) As of today, Southtree has lost one of our original VHS tapes. It was not included in the return shipment and no DVD or data disc was returned for it either. Amanda the Agent of Happiness stated she believes Southtree may have sent to another family. This is a priceless irreplaceable memory that I have no idea at this point where it is at and it is a sickening feeling. Making it worse is an email communication today with Amanda, where she alludes to whether there really ever was a 16th tape. Unbelievable.

3) Sent us another family's DVD, including the birth of their child, etc. A very private video that I'm sure this family is not happy is in our possession and control. Who knows what Southtree is telling them or if they even know which family it is. I had to send Southtree a picture of the DVD today as they have no record of it being sent in our shipment and wanted to try and track down the family.

4) 1 of the 15 standard DVDs returned to us was unlabeled all together, which if this was the only issue I could have lived with as it actually was our video.

5) The Secure Label # system (sticker placed on each of the originals) does not sync with any of the files found on the data discs they sent back. Of the 15 data files on the data discs, one of them is completely blank and I really don't have the time or energy to set up a VHS player, 8mm player, my laptop and the DVD player to try and make sense of it all. That is why I sent them in in the first place.

Considering I have a missing original, another family's DVD, a random labeling system, it is suffice to say I feel completely duped by Southtree. I spent over $300 for this?
They have offered to have us send back the 15 tapes they did not lose to get the labeling and order correct on those, which I will not do for obvious reasons. They even said they would expedite it, but totally glossed over the missing tape until I pressed the issue hard via email. And by the way, there is no direct telephone # to talk to anyone so only when they call you can you talk live. Email can be effective but is sure makes it easy to hide when you want to.

Amanda has stated they have never lost a tape ever, and yet she rattled of 5-6 titles from other tapes in their possession as we speak that were "misplaced" to check if they might be ours. Finally, in email communications Amanda is touting they have the best internal controls in the industry and their competition have even approached them to procure the process/technology, which is all great except when you have a customer whom has a current lost tape and was sent another families video. In the same email communication, Amanda alludes to the fact that maybe there wasn't in fact a 16th tape, which is sickening and appalling at the same time, considering all they have wrong with this order to begin to question whether we sent this one in.

Unbelievable is all I can say. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!

Photos and videos are priceless memories of our lives. Southtree made it possible not only to relive those memories but preserve them very well as well. The conversions from VHS to digital and audio cassette tape to digital were high quality; the videos did not show the usual signs of aging, and the music were as crisp as yesteryears'. Southtree also keep you up to date as to the progress of your project and they do so interestingly, humorously and consistently. Southtree actually missed to convert two of the most important VHS tapes so I sent them back for conversion and they did so with no additional fee including shipping back and forth. I am very pleased with Southtree's service and will definitely strongly consider Southtree again once I have my hands on my trunkload of old photos, videos and music.

Bought a sale Southtree had right after Thanksgiving. The sale allowed me to get 3 of my VHS tapes turned into DVD's. I received the final product in mid February, and all the DVD's had tracking problems that the VHS tapes did not. Went back and forth a little bit with customer service and they gave me a refund. Overall, I waited almost 3 months and ended up right back where I started. They also use Fedex Smart Post which adds on another week basically because of how slow it is (2-3 days added each way). Very disappointed with my experience overall and will never try them again.

Also, be wary of their advertising. I bought this because in big lettering they said that the legacybox would be received by Christmas. This means that you will get the initial box to put your tapes in and send them by Christmas. Everything about this company is slimy - their marketing included.

Update: Be wary of really good reviews. Seems they come in bunches and they seem very fake.

A friend of mine recommended this company, and I have been wanting to transfer my VHS tapes for quite a while, but every site was very expensive. She told me Southtree was a good deal, and it was. The % off was nice, and although it was a little pricey for me, I still thought the price was better than other places. I got my first order, and was very pleased with the quality. The tapes are 30 years old, so Southtree had some wear and tear, but overall good quality. There were 2 tapes that were not transferred, and I called and they sent me the label to return them, and they are doing them for me no extra charge. I haven't received my second order yet, but I am sure it will be fine. It was very good to see my family members that are gone now, and also my children when they were little. I am expecting my second order this week. If I have an issue with this order I will tell them. But it was a positive experience. 4 stars because I had to send back 2 tapes.

First let me start by saying I really wanted to like this company. I did a quick search on them and tooled around on the website and saw the good things Southtree were doing in the world. I felt at the time it was a good choice. I bought a package on Groupon that was $75 for $250 worth of services. I sent in 12 tapes to have one dvd and one data disc of each tape.
According to the website, from the time the videos arrive they are cataloged and put into the system so you can see each process they are in. NOT true. I sent my videos in 2 days after I ordered the package. I sent them Fed Ex and had a tracking number so I would know when they got there. They were dropped off on January 10,2013. Only after about 3 weeks of checking did I make my first call to them to find out why they weren‘t in the system. I talked to "Amanda". She said they were a bit behind. I figured, okay, they had a lot of Groupons sold so maybe that's why it took so long. Another week went by. I started looking at reviews then. I wasn't liking what I was seeing either. They were put in "Media Process" on February 5th and this is where they stayed for 12 weeks. I called on March 19th and talked to "Amanda" again. She said they were having some equipment problems and it might be a bit longer. I had planned on calling on Monday 22nd but when I checked the "track your order" and found they were on their way home, I didn't. When they finally arrived I found all of my originals as well as the two sets of dvds I ordered. One set is for viewing the other was data for the computer. The regular dvds had labels matching what I had written on the tape. My originals had a sticker with my order number and another number 1-12 corresponding to the number of tapes I sent in. I watched the dvds first. I guess right here I should note some of the footage is unwatchable. Its like the tracking should have been adjusted. Now I'm not sure if it was the tape I sent in or them not paying attention to it while they were recording. I will find that out when I try to convert this again myself. I'm hoping my footage hasn't been damaged in the conversion process. I wont know this for awhile. I watched all of the regular dvds. I would say about 75% of the footage is okay. The next day I decided to check out the data dvds. When I opened the box I found 7 data discs of mine and two data dvds that didn't belong to me. I was also supposed to have one of each. Now, I'm not mad they doubled up on the data-- put 2 tapes on on data dvd -- but its random. For example I had 4 tapes of Disney. These should have been put together. The data discs were not labeled either. When I went into the file on the computer it was listed as my order number with a 1-12 at the end. This did not correspond to the number label on the original tape. I had to write on the disc so when I eventually try to make copies I know which tape I'm looking for.
Now on the subject of the dvds that weren't mine... I had read in one of the reviews that someone else had gotten another person's order. I decided that rather than sending them back I would try to find who they belonged to on my own. There was nothing but an order number on the dvd itself. The person who shot the footage put all kinds of addresses in the footage on this tape. It was from a Christmas in 1987. I googled him and found he is deceased. I was able to locate a family member from the addresses on the footage. I called them and I'm sending it directly to them.
Now I'm going to address this like a child's report card. I would like to explain my reasons for rating them a certain way.
Quality-D: I'm giving them this because 75% of the footage is watchable and data dvds were unorganized and because they sent me someone else's data dvds.
Timeliness- F: If you can't deliver in the time frame stated on the website don't say that you can. Please make this realistic for the customers.
Price-C: I guess I got what I paid for. I would have been pretty upset if I paid full price for it.
Customer service- B: Every time I contacted the company I got a call back from Amanda. While I know she was kinda making excuses for the length of time, at least she called back and treated me with respect on the phone.
Would I use this company again? Sad to say no. As much as I worried myself over the last 4 months I will buy the converter and do it myself. No one has as much respect for my memories as I do. Lesson learned.

I had Super 8 film starting in 1975 when my oldest son was 9 months old. Over the following years I filmed lots of family, a good number that are no longer with us. Filmed as family grew along with vacations and just normal times. Then these went into storage for 40 plus years and no way to see them. Finding Southtree, Southtree offered great pricing to digitize these tapes. Ordering was easy, I received a box to pack the tapes up, the shipping both ways covered by price. I got emails to let me know what was going on, which I appreciated. I got my order back and I have to admit watching the videos, it was such an emotional moment to see all that was on them. I really would recommend these folks to process your old tapes, film, and pictures. Great price compared to most places I found.

TL; DR: Southtree lost my tapes and are not helping to locate them or offer solutions.

I sent Legacybox/Southtree three miniDV tapes to be converted. While I received the Legacybox to pack and return to them at my old address, I moved the next week and updated my address on the confirmation card of contact information included in the box. End of story, right?

Nope.

After receiving notice that "my item had been delivered," I emailed them because I had not received my tapes. Days went by with emails unanswered. I finally hear back that "it is not their policy to send it to an address different from the order address." Well, then why have the address confirmation card in the box? This policy is not stated in their materials included in the box or on their website. Had this been communicated anywhere, I would have followed procedure for change of address. And clearly someone who unpacked the box had to check the address confirmation card and ignored it, no? I pointed this out to the representative and asked how we could find a solution. No answer.

I called them for help, they promised to call back and never did.

I tweeted them for help. Not only did my tweets go ignored, they changed their username in the meantime. Even their CEO ignored my request for assistance.

Finally, their director of customer service got back to me. She was helpful and responded in a timely manner. Our research into what happened the package lasted only a week, because just this morning when I emailed her for an update, I received an automatic reply that she had quit the company.

I am now back to square one, with my tapes out there, somewhere. Legacybox says #MemoriesMatter to them, but they clearly do not take that mission statement to heart. Their customer service is poor, their CEO doesn't care, their policies unclear, and I am heartbroken as a result.

It has now been over a month of this nonsense. I'll be disputing this with my credit card company, but unfortunately no amount of money will bring back my memories on tape.

UPDATE 11/30/15: Over four months later and I still have no information from them on where my tapes could be. Buyer beware and stay away from Southtree and Legacybox.

I would not recommend Southtree. The service was slow, I sent my negatives and one movie reel back around the first part of February. I called several times inquiring "How much longer?" Southtree were good about getting back with me I have to say that much for them, but it was always the same story, we got swamped and are running behind a little. I finally received them the end of May. I wish I could say I was happy with them, the reel played with everyone upside down which I had them send me a new one corrected and the negatives were very disappointing. During this time span I had bought a CanoScan 8400F Color Image Scanner on ebay and scanned the actual picture, it also came with trays for negatives but was intimidated when I first got it and thought they could do a more professional job with negatives that I would. I was wrong. I then freshened up the pictures with VueScan software. It did a better job restoring the picture than they did with the negatives. I even had them in order with music playing in the background. I would not recommend anyone waste their money on Southtree, even with the Groupon coupon I paid to much for what I got!

Stay away! I shipped an order for transfer of 6 mini-DV tapes to data DVDs to Southtree on September 30,2012 and Southtree didn't input it into their tracking system until November 8. An "Agent of Happiness" contacted me on December 11 to let me know that my order wouldn't be ready until "early January" because of their busy holiday season. They did not actually ship my order until January 25, and then only after I sent several nasty-gram emails threatening to contact the Better Business Bureau. I was told on January 21st that "We do not normally do this but after speaking with my manager and head tape technician I was able to make an exception and mark your order as a priority. This means it is pulled from normal processing and placed in rush processing." Rush processing?! My tapes had been in their possession for almost 4 months, and it then required "rush processing", as if they were doing me some big favor? At the time I placed my order, their website claimed a turnaround time of 4-5 weeks.

Of the 6 DVDs that we FINALLY got back, 2 are audio only with no video (just a black screen). We checked all of the tapes before we sent them off, and there was definitely working video. 1 DVD doesn't work at all. So of the $95.70 that we spent for their services, we didn't even receive half of the products we paid for in working order. They have ignored our request for a partial refund. Terrible service all around.

Consumers Beware!

Do NOT do business with this company! I live in the same city as these people & read about them in a local magazine. I was so excited to give them my business. HUGE mistake!

Last year I decided to surprise my parents. For Christmas, my sister & I collected all of our old video recorded tapes (most we hadn't been able to watch for years because the old tape recorders were broken). We wanted Southtree to convert them over to DVDs so we could watch them all again. My sister & I are grown, so there were several tapes from our childhood - it was a very large order and cost over $500. I turned the tapes in to Southtree in July. I checked on the order in October and the beginning of December, and each time I was promised that the order would be shipped in time for Christmas. Southtree even had a guarantee on their website saying that no matter how large the order, if it was placed by a certain date (and mine was way ahead of the cut-off date), it was guaranteed to arrive before Christmas. It was VERY important that my order arrive before Christmas since it was the ONLY thing my parents were getting for Christmas since it was so expensive.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve, and my DVDs still haven't arrived. It's a joke that they even have a phone number listed because they never answer. Someone did respond to my email; however, he was "so sorry" but my order was not going to be ready for a few more weeks. REALLY?

So, here we are, Christmas Eve, and we have NO gifts for my parents. Not to mention the HUGE disappointment that the idea I've been working on since the summer & the "big surprise" was now a complete failure. There are no words in the English language to describe how INFURIATED I am at this company - still a year later. I had to work Christmas Eve, so I had to beg my husband & mother-in-law to go last minute shopping for my parents so they would have something to open on Christmas. All the stores close early on Christmas Eve, and I wasn't going to get off in time before they closed. WORST Christmas EVER for my family.

Oh, but it doesn't end there! I wrote a very strongly worded email to Southtree (again, because they will NOT answer the phone), and demanded they give me my videos, DVDs, and money back. For all my troubles, they generously offered me another set of DVDs at no charge. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I finally received my original videos & the DVDs a couple of weeks AFTER Christmas. I sent numerous emails demanding my money back but to no avail. One girl at Southtree even had the nerve to tell me that my DVDs were ready by Christmas - they just overlooked my order & forgot to mail it out. SERIOUSLY WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT EVEN IF IT WERE TRUE? Is that really supposed to make me feel better? Is that your justification for not giving me my money back? I repeatedly told them that giving me an extra set of DVDs was not sufficient enough to make up for what they did to me and my family. They repeatedly ignored me.

Now, a year later, my family has had enough time to view all of the DVDs. Not a single one of them was labeled correctly. We've had to relabel all of them. And 15 of the DVDs are extremely poor condition. My recommendation to anyone wanting to use Southtree for this service is just to buy the converter & do it yourself. You will have a better quality product and will save yourself a lot of money and grief.

This company is dishonest, provides poor quality products, and has terrible customer service. I would not recommend Southtree to anyone for any reason.

Southtree is an Excellent and Professional resource! I'm so very happy that I found them! It has provided my family and I the ability to easily watch and share videos from the past. The process is all outlined, clean, and easy. The company has a great website that explains everything and "walks" you through the process. You just label and mail your tapes and mail them. Southtree expresses positive caring for your memories and updates you along the way. I received my orders in about 5-6 weeks each time. The DVDs are professionally made and look great! The DVDs I've received (about 20) are clear as can be considering the tapes I are 10+ years old. I had both VHS-C and 8mm tapes converted.The DVDs come labeled and as soon as you insert the disc, the table of contents comes up and you hit PLAY! That's it! I've had some DVDs also come in the Digital version which allowed me to share a video right to Facebook after using my Windows software. I am not tech savvy and I did it in 20 minutes, made my own little movie out of my home movies.
Definitely give Southtree a try! You won't be disappointed. The cost is very reasonable for the awesome quality. When you sign up for emails, you will receive notifications of their discounts which occur often!
Excellent company to work with!

I've now sent in three total orders covering a LOT of media, including 8mm, VHS, and Betamax format, and 35mm slides. None of my orders were all one format, but a mix. While the service and quality is excellent, albeit a bit slow (which is fine as I'd rather the techs take their time and get it right!), I find the process of creating an order to be a nightmare. The system is based on a "piece" model, where a single video reel or tape is a single "piece", the order form requires one to select 3, 6, 12, 24, or 48 total tapes "pieces". What if I have 20? What if I want slides? First you need to figure out that a "piece" constitutes 25 slides... then you could organize 100 slides, or 4 pieces of slides... then I could add those 4 pieces to my 20 video/movie items to make up a 24 piece order (20 movie/video pieces and 4 35mm slides (100 slides)...

I don't know how to do it better, but I'd prefer the ability to create my own bundle of whatever number of movies I may have; and, have a "per slide" scan cost and simply count up all my slides and pay a per-piece cost and done. In that way I can easily leave all my slides in their existing box of 24 or 36 slides, WHICH are then also logically grouped into a chronology from first to last. Instead Southtree end up in zip-lock bags of 25 slides, with a single "piece-numbered" bar code. I find it confusing to place my order without a customer service rep to assist, and very tedious to package them up. I strongly suspect I'll encounter the same when I decide to tackle all my photo albums, which are generally populated by topic of some kind.

Sort out a better way to order, and this review goes to 5 stars immediately!

I would give 0 if I could.

I had 2 separate orders from them, both sent beginning of May.

Slow, slow, slow. Just received this week. Would have been fine to wait if it was worth it.

EVERYTHING was wrong!

2 DVDs were blank. 1 of my original VHS was MISSING. 2 VHS were damaged by them. 2 things couldn't be converted even though Southtree said on the website it could. Photos scanned were so BLURRY you couldn't even tell what they were. 1 DVD was of a family I have NO idea who they were.

DO NOT trust these people with your precious memories. TERRIBLE! Won't give refund, just "credit" on next order. YEAH RIGHT! Not sending them anything else.

Overall, sent over 12 items. Not ONE thing came out right and 3 VHS of memories were RUINED (And I feel bad for the random family's memories I got!)

I responded to a facebook post with a "deal" about getting videotapes transferred to disk.

Gather a bunch of ten to send in at Christmas and shipped... got confirmation on January 2nd that Southtree had been received, then another update and then an update on January 25th that my items were being "sorted"... and then the updates stopped and I contacted via chat today Southtree (because they were not taking customer phone calls) to get an update since it has been over two months. I was first told that my videotapes had been converted and were being uploaded to thumb drives. Ay nd we went back and forth and I was told that the original estimate of 6-8 weeks is just that an estimate and that they would see what they could do to get me out of production sooner. And that there was an update posted to my account yesterday (but I got no email)... with a status. I have no idea when I will be getting my items but I feel like I have just gotten a heapload of bs... here's hoping that the quality is at least reasonable. I'm feeling really dumb for having trusted this vendor!

I originally only sent 5 VHS' to be converted to DVDs to be sure I would be happy with the result and also I was a bit skeptical as to whether or not my VHS' would have gotten lost. Upon receiving my tapes Southtree contacted me immediately to let me know Southtree received them. They continually updated me as to the status (where my tapes were in production). When I received them, I sat and watched all five in one day. The one that was originally from my parents' Super*8 was from 1947 through 1979. I laughed, cried and applauded as I got to see everyone so vividly, so happy; lost so many years ago to me. I immediately sent the next 11 VHS tapes to Southtree and I have been kept up to date on a regular basis as to where they are in production. Southtree THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GIVING ME BACK MY MEMORIES!
Joan Steever - Morristown NJ

I heard about Southtree through Groupon and jumped all over the opportunity because I had been wanting to convert our 3mm tapes for years. We could not watch any of our videos because our video recorder broke and I don't even think Southtree make that type anymore. Using Southtree was so easy! Their website walks you clearly through all your options and makes it so easy to just package everything up and send it off. And I forgot that I get all my originals back too, which is great "just in case". I received my DVDs back sooner than I thought and just before Christmas. They look great and the cost was definitely reasonable. Years after taking these videos, this past Christmas was filled with so much laughter as we sat around watching videos of the kids when they were young! We were in tears! So pleased!

This place is rocking it! I sent photo slides that had been given to me from my grandmother. These slides were taken between 1950 and the late 1980's, but regardless of the date taken, Southtree all came out great. What I personally loved about Southtree is that they provide updates throughout the production process - everything from them receiving your package to them prepping your product to be digitalized. It took only approximately 8-10 weeks for the process to be completed, which is pretty quick in comparison to the rest of the industry. Southtree individually cleaned each photo slide I provided them, and then put them on a CD data disc. The moment I shared with my family, it instantly revived memories that had been buried with these old photo slides that hadn't been touched in over 20 years.

Overall, I would highly recommend Southtree, and plan on using them again.

I also wish ZERO stars was an option. AVOID SOUTHTREE. Maybe a few people got lucky and nothing was messed up, but for my family Southtree lost a tape of a precious memory, and all the other tapes they sent back were messed up... and it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a straight story from anyone or to have customer service contact you back, and they never answer their phone. This is a horrible sham of a company: more like children with techie toys then a business. It is despicable that this "company" dupes you into sending them priceless and irreplaceable memories only to lose and damage them. Shame on you Southtree.com, especially shame on you for playing Christian music on your customer service line... I don't think Jesus would lie to people, take their money, lose their property, and then lie about it or never call the person back... HORRIBLE

Actually I am disappointed. I took the extra 3 reels of Super 8 reels I had to Wal-Mart (Yesvideo) (because you only had specific amounts I could get so I did the 24 but had 27 reels). Southtree only charged me 33.03 for all 3 charging by the feet actually transferred not the number of reels and not only did I get the film on a DVD at no extra charge, 33.03 was total for everthing) but the included dozens of snapshots from the movies, also printed some on the DVD case and 3 choices where music was a background if I want to use them, then a week later the even sent me access to online viewing of photos & quality was just as good. I ordered from Southtree during the half off deal and paid 229.95 for 24 reels and only received them on a thumb drive and would've had to pay 40.00 more if I wanted a DVD, Yesvideo didn't charge extra for the first DVD & I could've gotten additional medias for less than 10.00 and also am able as with Southtree able to make my own copies. I know where I will go in the future and it will be "YESVIDEO" I would've saved money & gotten more for my money also. If I hadn't gotten the before Christmas half price offer it would've cost me over 400.00 and you wanted to charge an additional 45.00 for the 3 extra reels without all the extras Yessvideo included that I only paid 33.03 for. Very disappointed!

Was a little pricey, but worth it for what Southtree can do, IF done properly. Was impressed with the step by step emails I received, nice to get information through the process. Was EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED when I received our items back. The video was put on to DVD, however there was no sound to it. The audio we had put on CD was horrible- it reminded us of the playback you get when watching ghost hunting shows- you don't hear anything other than a faint sound in the background.

We understand that they may not have been able to do any better, however then they shouldn't have processed the order and should have notified us. SO SAD that I don't have the audio in the video of my Dad or the audio of him playing guitar and singing.

Seriously not worth the amount we paid. We thought a "professional company" would have provided better service. I really feel like I was scammed :(

All I can say about this company is that Southtree go the extra mile to get it as close to perfect as could be expected based on the physical conditions of the tape given them.

In my case I gave them a foreign PAL video tape I had gotten from England of an episode I couldn't find in the USA and so didn't know what condition it would be in since I couldn't view it on my NTSC only VCR.

I was very impressed with this company from beginning to end as they gave me blow by blow information in regards to how my tape was doing. That wasn't the most amazing thing however to me. What really impressed me about this company is based on the finished product I could see that they bent over backwards to make this a success.

Even though they put a sticker on the product apologizing for not being able to rehabilitate it to a flawless reproduction what I found was true dedication and true concern for the customer they were dealing with and here is why.

When I put the DVD into my player I noticed there was a menu with two subtitles. I didn't expect to see any as I opted not to pay the extra for titles but decided I would create my own when I had time. When I discovered why their were subtitles my respect for this company just skyrocketed because what I saw was a lot of toiling over my tape to get it as right as it could be.

You see the first title was there original attempt which was as their sticker said not so great. HOWEVER the second title which was the whole videotape again was much better in quality. I called them sharing my appreciation for the time they took to do this project and to think they would send me both of their conversions. SOUTH TREE told me they do this because they want to make sure they do everything in their power to get it right and if someone discovers a way that could better the condition of the product they will rerun it and then give the customer any attempt that was tried to make the project a success.

I just want to say a big thank you because of you SOUTH TREE I am able to view a show that is very rare to find and that in fact I would not have been able to do myself unless perhaps I wanted to invest in every piece of equipment needed and spend the time to do it but even than I would need an assistant so they took the headache out of it and for a very low price of less than $30 not only converted the tape to the North American Standard NTSC, not only did they digitalize the tape but they went the extra mile to redue the conversion when the first attempt was less then par for the finished work so that I could have an end product that was a joy to watch instead of giving headaches do to bad quality visual and audio.

Thank you SouthTree for working on my video tape that was in less than ideal condition and making it acceptable to watch and a pleasure to relive.

I purchased this service in order to create DVD backups of old family VHS cassettes. From the most basic perspective, this expectation was fulfilled. However the customer service was horrendous and details of my order were so grossly flawed that I will never recommend this company or use it again.

Before placing my order I did a lot of research on similar companies and to find reviews for this company's service. I felt confident that my family videos would be in good hands and I liked the idea that my package and conversion would be tracked online with updates.

When I noticed that my box of 10 VHS cassettes, very carefully packaged and using the printed label received from Southtree, had not yet been received by the company I contacted customer service via email. The reply said that it was normal and probably the result of "the weekend". Assuming a delay of about two days due to "the weekend", I expected it would be received and processed shortly thereafter.

After three weeks went by since my shipping date I again checked the status online, and again saw that the package had not even been received by Southtree. It is worth noting that I was shipping from Ohio to Tennessee, according to the Southtree mailing label.

I contacted customer service and was given a generic copy/paste response about how secure and special their shipping method is - but no response or explanation whatsoever about why it was taking so long, and no apology. Nothing on the Southtree site indicates such a gross delay in shipping *to* their facility, and all the website content assures buyers of a smooth process with updates at every step.

Within a day or so of my third message, now containing a lot of all caps words, I magically received a notice that my package had suddenly been received. (No human reply to my last message, however.) Then the tracking emails began trickling in, informing me of the each step in the process. I awaited the return of my originals and new DVD backups, hopeful that the result would make up for the horrific customer service.

When Southtree arrived, my cassettes were not packaged nearly as carefully as I had sent them out. One of the cassettes was outside of its case, and there was no padding in the package. Then I opened the DVDs and started noticing that one, two, then *all* but two of the 10 DVDs had gross misspellings on the labels. Each of my VHS cassettes had properly spelled labels and all Southtree had to do was copy what was written, but they obviously did not. "Concert" is spelled "Concet". "Spring" is spelled "Sprinmg". And so on. Some letters were added; some were omitted. A simple spellcheck would have caught every single error - now printed on the labels of DVDs which were intended to be "archival" quality.

Next I watched the DVDs to see what the quality of the recordings might be. It's awful. Beyond terrible. There are no indexes, and the formats are different between different DVDs - some have tracks, others are all on one track. The video quality skips and is snowy / pixelated. The sound is distorted or missing altogether. Some DVDs appear to repeat the entire cassette's content a second time, which I suppose might be considered a bonus, but it makes it very difficult to fast forward or rewind to a specific spot. One might assume that these quality issues reflect the quality of the VHS cassettes, but it does not. In the majority of cases, the issues I found on the DVDs are not present on the original VHS cassettes.

This service really was a waste of my time, energy, and money, and was absolutely NOT worth the risk of sending out our family's original videocassettes. I would like to have my VHS cassettes backed up to DVD but I will look for a different company to convert the rest. I absolutely DO NOT recommend this company.

Was attracted to their ad and sales price. Sent them a large order (50 plus VHS C) tapes for conversion. Given a 6-8 week turnover time and Southtree advertised complete labeling of DVD's if given the information. All my tapes were specifically labeled. Never heard from them after initial correspondence that tapes were received. Their online status check never worked. Started to get concerned after the 8 week mark and never heard from them. Emailed them and got a response that they were working on it and would let me know when shipped. I explained that it was a gift and needed by a certain date. They rushed and shipped within a week, which was great. However, when I received, 90% of the DVD's were mislabeled. I spent hours watching them, relabeling and truthfully the finished product looks crappy now with a handwritten label over a crossed out incorrect label. Kind of embarrassed to hand off as a gift like this. I emailed them to see about getting some kind of credit back for the this mishap. All they offered was to send the DVD's back to them with the correct labels and they would re run and send back to me in two weeks. I didn't have that time and they wouldn't reimburse anything either. Very disappointed. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY! So many others out there... do yourself a favor and go elsewhere, even if it costs a little more. I guess you do get what you pay for. Quality of DVD's was poor too.