Sam's Club Digital Photo Center Reviewer's Comments

Sam’s Club was the only photo printing service in our review to receive a perfect score for the quality of prints. Every picture we printed with them was clear and crisp with excellent color balance. Coupled with great prices, Sam’s Club really knows how to develop a photograph.

Sadly, there were many disappointing aspects of Sam’s Club Photo Center including a more difficult than usual uploading process, shorter active member time limit and inability to download their additional photo uploader application.

Sam's Club Digital Photo Center Screenshots. Click for more
       


Ease of Use - Ordering Process:  

We had no difficulties uploading our images to Sam’s Club photo printing site; however, to do so you must first have a Sam’s Club card with valid membership number. Unlike our other bulk discount store service, Costco, Sam’s Club forces you to prove you are a member right off the bat.

Additionally, we found that uploading your images took longer than most services we evaluated and when you clicked to order a print, instead of taking you directly to a shopping cart checkout site, you are redirected to their prints and gifts page, where you have to select “order prints” in the left navigation menu to go to your checkout screen.  Overall, the service was harder and more confusing than the other digital photo printing services in this review.

Quality of Prints:  

To test for quality, we sent the same digital photos to all of the online photo developers we reviewed. Sam’s Club was the only digital photo service to receive a perfect score for it’s quality of prints.

• Sunset: The lighting of the sunset and lighting of our models were excellent. No obvious color distinctions.
• Black and White: This was the truest black and white photo we had printed. There was the perfect balance of blue, red and yellow, without looking sepia or rusted.
• Aerial: Our aerial image was taken on a cloudy day in London. Sam’s Club cleaned up the photo making our buildings look bright and clear without over yellowing the print.

Note: To check quality, we took each set of prints received from the online photo developer and laid them down, side-by-side for comparison.

Pricing:  

Sam’s Club offers excellent pricing for home delivery, and even their 1-hour in-store option is reasonable. We liked the 2-3 day in-store option, and although the price on that was a little more expensive than the home delivery option, it was still extremely completive. However, we were charged tax.

Service and Site Features:  

Photos selected for home delivery are only available in glossy finish, those selected for 1-hour pickup are only available in matte finish.

Sam’s Club offers all the typical features you’d expect to see on a digital photo printing service. However, they will only store your photos for 60 day, typical storage for competitors is 1 year.

Additionally, we were disappointed that Sam’s Club free photo organizer download would not work. We tried installing the software several times and the application would not open; therefore, we had to use their basic uploader, which we felt was limited.

Shipping Costs/ Turn Around Time:  

We gave each service 1 to 6 business days to deliver our photographs. Sam’s Club met this time frame with no problems.

Sam’s Club charged $1.20 for shipping. Which was more expensive than most of the services we reviewed. It cost Sam’s Club $.97 to ship our photos. That left $.23 for handling. The cost of shipping goes up when you order more than 10 photos.

The photos arrived in a standard paper photo folder, packaged in a lightweight cardboard envelope.

Summary:  

Sam’s Club is a great place to print your photographs if you are already a member and like ordering prints frequently. Their prices verses quality is unmatched. However, for the novice user you may find this service frustrating.