Southtree

I sent three reels of movie film that is 35-40 years old to convert to DVD. Two of the three were a wedding from 1968 and another was a dance recital from the '80's. I enclosed instructions to have the wedding film put on one DVD, and the dance recital put on a separate DVD. It took much longer to have my order processed than it should have, and like other people have said, Southtree only move you up in the queue when you contact them to ask about your order.

The order arrived in the mail, and I received the two wedding reels back with one DVD, per the instructions, but the other reel was missing.

I contacted them to ask what happened, and it has been months now, and the missing reel is GONE. They lost part of my order!

I am just so sad about this, the missing reel is completely irreplaceable and meant a lot to me.

I was told by Southtree that it is not uncommon for customers to say they are sending X amount, then for Southtree to receive something different. The issue is, they don't verify the two. If you say you're sending three reels, they don't check to see what they received when they get your order and contact you if there are discrepancies. I absolutely, positively sent three reels, and only two were returned.

Handling decades-old materials should be a delicate process, but clearly they are careless.

Their pretty website and Facebook postings make it seem like they are a good company, but they are not. There are clearly flaws in their process, of which customers like me are victims.

I sent in four super 8mm films and one 16mm film (double perf). The whole process took about a month or two, which is perfectly reasonable to me as I'm not in any rush. All of the super 8mm films were scanned, but the 16mm film was returned unscanned, although I was not charged for the 16mm film. The scans of the super 8 films were of decent quality, especially for the price of $15 per film. The files I got were mp4 files with a resolution of 720 x 480 with a bitrate of 3310kbps at 17 frames per second. I'd say that Southtree are good for draft/general purpose use. It is an inexpensive way to see what is on a reel of film and to decide if you want to spend the money to send it to a high end film lab for a high resolution telecine transfer.

I'm disappointed that my 16mm film wasn't transferred and I never really received a reason why other than "the lab was unable to transfer your film". The website says that they can transfer 16mm films, so I'm not sure why mine was rejected.

I look forward to using Southtree in the future as I purchase a lot of films that need a quick, inexpensive digital copy.

I have included 3 still frames from one of the super 8mm films that they transferred for me.

Where to start! I guess from the beginning. I have always known about all sorts of media transfer places, but just was not comfortable sending all my VHS tapes for fear of them being lost in the mail, but upon recommendation from some close friends for Southtree, I took the plunge and sent just a few at first.
I was extremely impressed with the whole process that Southtree has in place from the moment Southtree receive your media to increments of the process. I was so comforted knowing what was going on throughout the whole process, and upon receiving my new DVDs, it is a blessing beyond belief at how inexpensive it was to turn memories onto DVDs that can be easily watched any day and that are preserved that much longer than my old VHS tapes of which were 21 years old! I definitely recommend Southtree for any media service. They are always emailing coupons and discounts all the time so make it very affordable and you don't miss a good sale if you decided not to act on the most recent discount, they are great group of people there in Chattanooga that really understand how to do this type of job well and bless families.

It has been exhausting doing business with this company. After reading some positive reviews I purchased 2 coupons from them through Group-on. BIG MISTAKE. First coupon used I sent them 16 VHS tapes to convert to DVD. Second one used to convert 17 mini-tapes to DVD. I reviewed all the tapes prior to shipping them. There were some minor flaws with them (tracking line that would come and go here and there) but nothing major. When I received the DVD's half of them had issues. One DVD returned had a Hollywood movie on it that was not on any of tapes? Three of the DVD's had half the footage recorded that was on the tape... like someone stopped it before it completed the conversion. Several DVD's either had serious tracking or volume issues. Southtree slap a note on the tape basically stating "did the best we could but...". Now you would think, maybe it was the tapes? But here is the kicker, I checked the tapes at home AGAIN! And did not find any issues. I returned the tapes with the converted DVD after explaining the issue and received replacements. Of these replacement DVD's, some that had major video issues the first time but no volume issues now had major volume issues but the video was fine? Another note attached to the tape with that message "sorry", Plus, like the 1st shipment, a few DVD's did not have the full footage of the tape. Now I'm really steamed. How could the volume be fine the 1st time but not the 2nd time, where as the video was fine the 2nd time but not the 1st time? And what is with cutting the tape short? So now I speak with a supervisor (Josh) whom says "here is my direct email, I'm going to handle this personally". Okay, great! Send these back for a 3rd time. Half come back converted fine. The other half... more issues. I have spent so much time reviewing my original tapes to check for flaws... then checking the converted DVD's 2-3 times. I'm talking hours that I don't really have. I've dealt with several other conversion companies over the years and never had any major issues. You should be able to send in your items for conversion, receive them in the allotted time, seat down and enjoy them. My experience with Southtree has been anything but enjoyable.

After looking around online at several different video transfer places, I went with Southtree due to their snazzy website which promised great service and good prices. Uh oh - let the fun begin.

Sent Southtree 15 old video tapes in Oct. 2012 to have them put on DVD's. I was so excited to give them as Christmas gifts & after years of procrastinating, I was finally getting this done! Long story short - Southtree messed up my simple order again & again from the beginning. Fast forward to SIX months later and finally in March 2013, Southtree shipped my complete order. Happy day, right?!?! Nope. Turns out Southtree sent the package without a complete address label - AND used cheap shipping without tracking to the door. To this day, my package remains lost and I have zero DVD's and one of my original videotapes was lost in the mess. Not to mention - my money wasn't refunded until I filed a credit card dispute.

CONCLUSION - I wouldn't recommend Southtree in a million years. Their right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing & Southtree were unbelievably careless with my videotapes. I was more than patient with Southtree for the first many months - but my experience with Southtree was a complete train wreck. Soooo, save yourself some grief - you'd be much better off to buy a machine and do it yourself - or take your tapes to a reputable local video transfer service.

Please be aware, this company LOST a priceless 8mm film that I sent to them to be converted to digital format. Do not trust them with your irreplaceable memories.

I purchased a deal from Living Social for a 3-item LegacyBox conversion kit (This company Southtree operates "LegacyBox" just in case this wasn't clear from previous reviews). Despite their 'intricate' tracking system that Southtree boast about, one 8mm film that I sent in was never logged into their system. Upon receiving an email that only 2 of my 3 items were logged in, I emailed them immediately. Customer service suggested that I sent in an incompatible film format. As I informed them that this was not the case, my order was supposed to be reviewed before it was shipped back to me. It was not reviewed, but instead simply shipped back and only 2 of the 3 items I sent in were returned to me. I have been in contact with the customer service manager numerous times, who cannot give me any kind of detail about my case but only keeps answering that there is an 'open investigation' into locating my item. It has been over two months and if my film has not been found by now I have little faith that it will ever be located.

Just to be clear, I packed the three items to be converted myself and sent them in the box that was sent to me by LegacyBox. This was not a postal service error, it was an error on their part. I wish I had read these reviews before I chose to send these films in to be transferred, as I see that I am not the only one to have their items lost.

This company promised to handle my media with care and professionalism. I sent them more than 500 slides and after a surprisingly short time, my slides were returned to me with an enclosed cd supposedly containing my converted media. I placed the cd in my laptop and discovered that Southtree had sent me the converted pictures of someone else's media. This means that they are processing the media of more than one client in a common area. I contacted them via "chat" (the only offered option other than email) and they refused to talk to me on the phone, claiming their phone lines were down. They offered me no restitution other than "send your slides back and we will process them again in two weeks. It has been well over two weeks now and still no slides... I am very dissatisfied with the lack of professionalism demonstrated by this company. I trusted them with decades of memories and they have acted irresponsibly. I have yet to receive my converted media and original slides.

Had two different orders. One for 6 VHS tapes that are about 30 years old. The next was for a small reel tape that was made from an AM radio station in 1968.
My experience with the two transactions was great. Southtree kept me informed of where in the process my tapes were. I liked that. My first order was for the VHS tapes. Considering the age of the tapes and the number of times Southtree had been re-recorded I was very pleased with the way they came out. Some things were missing but I expected that because of the way the tapes had been carelessly stored. (Or was it just that I forgot what was on the tape?) The reel tape came out pretty good also. I have to admit that I was surprised.
I would recommend Southtree. They were great to work with and responded quickly when I had questions in the middle of the process. They made me feel like my order was important.
Mary

I only gave them 1 star because that was the lowest I could select! I sent in 19 tapes. I got 15 back. One CD was so bad I couldn't watch it, the even cut out most of the music that was on it. Other CD's were duplicates. Southtree also had some video that was copied over other video. They were grainy, and poorly copied. Its not as if these were 20 years old or more. Some were only 5 years old. They also sent me back VHS tapes that they claimed were blank when I know for a fact that I did not send them blank tapes. I am assuming they erased them by mistake. I filed a dispute with my credit card company for the full amount. Please don't fall for their special offers of $5.00 a tape... its not worth a penny! I am now out $82.00 as well as video they erased! I sent them to the company via USPS and they got them in 3 days. They shipped them back to me via Fed ex which was then transferred to USPS, It took over a week for me to get them back once they were sent.

If you want to lose your precious family memories and give them money, then go for it. Otherwise, use ANYONE else. Southtree lose your stuff, then refuse to continue communicating with you and never offer a refund. They are a sham and should not be allowed to continue business. How could they possibly lose so many people's items?!?!? WTF.
Update 2/22: After I filed with the local BBB, I didn't hear anything for a while. Suddenly the date that Southtree/Legacybox was due to respond - they found my items. I have no idea where they were or how they lost them, but they were not with FedEx, they were at their facility. I received my original items back and the conversion files. I am so, so thankful to have my items back. Do not let up on them if they lose your items. They did a nice job converting the items, but the whole rigamarole of losing my items, denying knowledge of where they were, etc. I wouldn't trust them with my items in the future, but they did get my stuff back.

I saw the ad pop up on Facebook. It sparked my interest and made me start thinking about changing the format of the Hi8 videos that I have detailing special events in my family for the last 17 years. I was hesitant about sending the precious memories through the mail, but I needed to do it because the tapes were starting to show degradation. I checked quite a few local places and the costs were incredible. I kept sitting on the fence and finally decided to do it. I received an email with 45% off processing that I could not pass up. I packaged the 41 - Hi8 tapes I have and padded them up in the box. I followed the instructions that I received from Southtree for shipping my precious cargo and handed them over to the people at UPS. I am not going to lie when I tell you how worried I was. I thought about it all night after I dropped them off. The next day, I received notification from UPS and Southtree that my memories had arrived and I was kept updated by Southtree through the whole process. The turnaround was pretty short and I received a quality product copied over to DVD format. I opted for the thumb drive, and I cannot tell you how great it is to have 17 years of memories available to me on just one thumb drive. The quality of the DVDs is great and I have been reviewing the files on the thumb drive for days. Great job to Southtree! Highly recommend them to everyone.

The quality was excellent, but I am disappointed that my instructions were not followed. I was told if I grouped my slides and labeled them and included instructions that my photos would be organized into folders on the thumb drive sent back. With 372 slides over a ten year period I spent a lot of time grouping them by date so when Southtree came back I would know what year they were taken. The photos were not grouped or named in anyway that would tell me their date. I was disappointed that I was told this could happen and I spent the time organizing them and it didn't happen.

My order also took 71 days from arrival at the lab to receipt of the thumb drive in the mail. Processing time was less than 2 days so most of the wait was queue time. So if you're in a hurry this may not be the best company.

I must say my rating would be better if I was rating only my converted tapes. I have received my tapes back and so far everything seems in order... THEN... I received another box from them and to my surprise I received someone else order as well. I have a box full of 8MM tapes that are not mine. I first emailed Southtree asking for a return label as I cherish my memories and would hate to lose them but Southtree kept telling me they were researching how to get me a return label? What? I am overseas but I have access to the US Postal Service. It should not be that difficult. I have contacted them, I have escalated to a supervisor and apparently not one of the people that works there can figure out how I can ship this via the US Post office. Really?!? Needless to say I am still after two months of back and forth trying to get a return label to ship these tapes back to them. I even asked them to give me the owner of the tapes email address as I am sure they would be willing to pay for the shipping themselves just to get their memories back. DO NOT RISK YOUR MEMORIES WITH THIS COMPANY!

I purchased a Starter Legacybox which allowed me to have 3 items copied. I submitted a VHS tape, an audio micro cassette and a set of 24 film negatives. I shipped all the items in the Legacybox in July. When the box was returned to me only the VHS tape was returned. All the film negatives and micro cassette were missing and Southtree had nothing in their system to indicate they ever received them(even though all items were in the same shipping container and I was never contacted that it arrived damaged or open). I also sent an order form detailing what I sent. They have no idea where my items are and the latest email implied that I "may" have sent the items. I was also sent back a box with someone else's safe label. They do not even know who initially opened my order(where I believe my items were lost). I am very upset that I will never see these items again. Response time is slow they were supposed to call me back with an update... big surprise no return phone call!). Inventory and photograph everything before you send your materials to them because you may never see it again!

The good news is I sent 4 reels of film to Southtree and Southtree converted the film to DVD. There is nothing special about the quality of the conversion, some of the film on DVD is jumpy and contains lighting problems. Although I sent names for each of the films and expected them to use the titles for each reel, they converted all the reels together into one 53 minute DVD
I mailed the film on 8/25/13 and received the DVD on 11/16/13.
Per post office tracking they received the package on August 31 2013. Southtree said it was delivered on Sept 10. Southtree appeared to make up bogus steps so I would think they were doing something. Here are all the steps they sent via email'

Shipped Oct 29

Final Review Oct 13

Digitizing Film Oct 11

Production Queue Oct 1

Reviewed Sep 20

Barcoded Sep 14

Delivered Sep 10

Order Confirmation Aug 27

Steer clear of Southtree! I bought 3 Groupons to have my video tape collection converted, and I wish I had seen reviews before making that purchase. I did read some reviews prior to sending in my orders, so I made return address labels with my contact info and order numbers and made sure there was one on each tape. Well, I received my orders in acceptable time--about two months--but I also received another customer's order. It wasn't mixed in with mine--just a separate box with my address on it, but someone else's videos. Not only did it have this customer's precious home movies in it; included for some reason was the original written order form with complete credit card number, expiration date, and security code. Not cool!

I emailed Southtree to ask how I should deal with their mistake. I was asked to print a FedEx label, repack the box, and send it back to Southtree. When I requested that Southtree arrange a pickup at my house since there is not a FedEx location conveniently located near me, I was told they could not do that. Since I don't have a FedEx account, I could not do it myself. The Southtree Rep (whose emails always began with "Hey, Susan" as if we were teenager buddies) then informed me that her internet research indicated there was a FedEx location only seven miles from my zip code. They were offering me no compensation/refund, yet expected me to make a 35-minute round trip drive out of my way. Ridiculous! Of course, I wanted to make sure the other customer got her videos, but I thought Southtree should make every effort to minimize my inconvenience since it was completely their error. Finally, the informal "Agent of Happiness" (as they call themselves) checked with her manager and scheduled the FedEx pickup. I put the package out, it was taken, and I haven't heard anything else from them.

I have only watched snippets of a few of my DVDs, and the quality is disappointing. Also, I went to a lot of trouble putting clear character-limited labels on each tape so my Dvds would have titles printed on them, but none were labeled. More work for me!

Maybe it was a good price for the conversion service, but this is not a responsible company. Don't entrust your memories with such careless people.

I've been trying to get my family's 8mm movies converted for some time now. My dad had amassed some 30 containers of (12) 200-400 foot reels so I knew it would not be inexpensive to take care of this. Finding Southtree and sending some samples allowed me to see an end to this tunnel. Some of the movies we really did not care about anymore. Others, like mine and my sisters birthdays and family gatherings are quite nice to look at again without getting out all the projecting equipment and waiting for the sun to go down to watch them. The colors and quality derived from a small 8mm square is amazing. Granted some of the 1950's movies are a little darker than I would like, but that is an issue with the film, not the conversion. So, we have undertaken this conversion of all important movies and Southtree has some great prices and services to boot. I'm looking forward to getting the balance of the movies we need done by Southtree.

Southtree had a sale on fb for developing tapes, any tapes, for $5. I didn't notice the dates of the sale and 2 days later when they finally replied to me that my 8mm tapes were included, in my excitement I put my order in. The invoice that I paid, which came from them, stated that I owed 54.95.
they let me know when they received my order and also sent me progress reports. So far, so good. I was beyond excited... some of my tapes were 50 years old.
towards the end of the process, I get an email, telling me there was a balance of over $100. What? I paid the invoice that THEY created. The agent then tells me (with a flippant attitude) that he'll make a deal with me and only charge me half of that. I told them to send my tapes back to me or honor their invoice. They refused and my tapes arrived back home today.
its the principle of the whole thing. It was their mistake, I'm sure the whole transaction was nearly completed. Why they couldn't just eat their mistake is beyond me. Not very good business sense. I wouldn't recommend this company. Not very ethical.

I recently bought some groupons for Southtree. Southtree save about 70% over retail Southtree prices. Their service and shipping was excellent and fast. I had the dvds and original films back in less than 3 weeks. I had about 1200' of 8mm and 120 35mm slides converted to DVD. When I first viewed the DVD I thought Southtree had neglected to properly focus their equipment. BUT, I was viewing it on a 4k 65" Samsung. I was so convinced it was not focused right, I got out my old projector and then played the original 8mm film. Turns out it was focused properly, but you just can't get that much data onto 8mm film. When I was watching on TV it was being enlarge at about 200x. The 35mm slides were pretty good, but I didn't think they were as good as what I can do with my Minolta Dimage IV slide scanner. I was correct. I rescanned 4 of the 35mm slides I sent to them, and my images came out sharper and with better color than what Southtree delivered. But for someone that doesn't have a $600 slide scanner, southtree is a very good value (if using groupon). There are other companies that might produce a slightly better scan, but you will probably pay twice as much. BTW- I had southtree scan the slides because after I had all of my 8mm scanned, I still had value left on the groupon. I will scan the rest of my slides myself. In a nutshell, Southtree is a very good value if you have old films or slides and don't have the equipment or expertise to do it yourself. I have included 2 images. The more yellowish one is a full res closeup from Southtree. The other is a full res from my scanner. Even though southtree scanns at a higher resolution, my scan came out more clear.

Just received my first order from Southtree. Sadly, it will be the last. The quality of the product did not come close to meeting the hype mentioned on the website.

My order was small - the digital scanning of fifty 35mm color slide transparencies. I figured that if the order turned out well, i would send in about 250 more. The website indicated my order would be processed by a skilled "technician" who would carefully scan and optimize each slide. Apparently the term "technician" is used loosely at Southtree.

The quality of the scanning work was seriously substandard. Some of the images that were sharply focused on the slide were seriously blurred - some to the point of being worthless. In some instances, focus was inconsistent on the same slide. Other slides were scanned backwards-something that would be obvious to a "technician" who was actually checking his/her work as each image was scanned.

The most serious deficiency was dust contamination. The slides that were returned to me were obviously cleaned of dust at some point. So it is unclear to me why there were so many dust spots on the finished scan files. Either the slides were cleaned AFTER the scan, or the scanning equipment, itself was contaminated. Many scanner manufacturers offer software that will mitigate much of the problem with dust spots. Southtree apparently doesn't offer this.

Quality of Work - POOR
Speed - POOR (It took two months to process the order)
Communication - OKAY (emails were sent to advise processing steps)
Recommendation to others - Find another vendor!