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[Vanhorn]

  I'm one of those individuals who has followed SDCFans.com for years but has never posted anything.
  With multiple annual visits over the last 34 years my family has visited Silver Dollar City hundreds of times, yet it remains for us a magical place. When I enter the front gate of SDC I shut the door on life. I forget my cancer and heart attacks and get lost in SDC charm. We raised our children in this atmosphere and they are now raising their children with these same ideals.
  For these last 34 years we have had one or more tintypes taken each year and with over 50 tintypes prominently displayed in our living room, they serve as a historical testament to our family's past and growth.
  It is with sadness and grief that the current proprietors of the tintype shop, Ashley's Antique TinType & Photos (a subsidiary of Ashley Nostalgia) have ruined the process of having our tintype taken. We have had very negative experiences for the last several years with Ashley's for which they do not seem very eager to remedy. This includes both customer service as well as product quality
  What follows is the email I sent to the following websites: Ashley Nostalgia, Ashley's Antique TinType & Photos, Silver Dollar City Office as well as several affiliated forums sites.


   Let me start out by saying that my most prized possession is my families 34 year collection of (50+) tintypes from Silver Dollar City. They document my children growing up and now their children growing up and they each hold a cherished memory. They are prominently displayed in our living room (for daily reflection) and would be the first thing I would try to save in the event of some disaster. These prints represent more to my family than just a 'snapshot' of a vacation destination, as most customers regard them. This does not mean, however, that myself, or any customer, should accept inferior customer service and/or inferior products.
  My most recent encounter (23-24 July 2015) was a combination of both of these.
  After getting our photos taken I explained to the employee who showed us the electronic proofs that I wanted two 5"x7" prints and NOT an 8x10" as was written on his order. 
  When I arrived at the checkout counter I noticed the numbers 8"x10" written on my order receipt. I explicitly told the register employee that I wanted two 5"x7" prints and not an 8"x10" as was written on receipt.
  When I went to pick up my prints the next day I found an 8"x10" print of my order. I had to go back a second time to pick up my newly processed prints only find that an employee had printed two 5"x7" prints of the wrong photo. Finally at 9:30PM, after a third visit to your shop, I finally received the correct prints in the correct size.  I'm sorry but this is totally unacceptable service.
  I cannot believe that this is the way you run your business; employees who obviously pay no attention to the customer and multiple employee's making the same mistakes multiple times.
  This is not the first time we have been disappointed with your service. We have encountered multiple, documented, issues for the last 4 years.
  2014. Extremely slow service wherein it took over two hours to go through the process of taking photos of four individuals including our two-year old granddaughter who was crying uncontrollably after waiting so long. This was due to various employee's extremely slow service and the flirtatious actions of other employees, who also "hit" on my 17-year-old granddaughter.
  The tintypes we received were extremely washed out, especially the facial features.  We complained to the manager, who reprinted several more unacceptable prints, and then decided to take our grievances to Ashley's HQ. It took more than a month to get the matter rectified and to have our prints mailed to us.
  2012-2013. Scratches (roller lines) in metal prints. After multiple reprints (some at another processing facility) we accepted the most lightly scratched prints.  Again a long drawn out mail process. It's obvious that multiple Ashley processing machines at multiple Ashley locations are flawed or damaged to the point that they produce the same scratches in the same position on all prints. And yet you continue on apparently without correcting these flaws.
  One would think that putting out inferior products and unacceptable customer service for multiple years would be unacceptable to an employer, so it's hard to understand where your loyalties lie. It's evidently not with customer service and obviously not with product quality.
  Unfortunately for us, and other customers. You are the only photographer in town producing metal prints.  Of course we have the option to go into Branson, take an 'old time' sepia photo and send the paper print to one of the online tintype printers. I am perfectly comfortable with doing that in order to avoid the multiple negative issues with Ashley Nostalgia and would recommend it to anyone.
  I am submitting this email to: Ashley's Antique TinType & Photos at Silver Dollar City, Ashley Nostalgia's main office and several other affiliated Ashley sites. I am also submitting it to: Herschend Family Entertainment, Silver Dollar City's Official website, their Fan website, their customer service website, TripAdvisor, Fodors Travel and RipoffReport.  I feel that 4 years of unacceptable service warrants such unfavorable yet documented press.
   

[Junior, too!]

Sorry to hear of your difficulties. God bless!

[mhguy77]

Paying what they require for those pictures, you have every right to be upset.  Errors of picture size by minimum wage employees is one thing.  Poor quality of the product is certainly worth mentioning.  This is a company that rents from SDC, maybe you need to share this info with them as well.

[joshblakebran]

My brother in law and his wife had the same issue 3 years ago. They annually got pictures but it was such a mess the last time they stopped getting the pictures from SDC and started getting them from a shop on Branson Landing (they just wanted antique pictures-don't know if it is tin type or not). They were so frustrated the last time they got the pictures as SDC it wasn't funny. We wasted a lot of our day waiting forever for them to get dressed because it was so slow then getting the correct product. Sorry to hear about your experience.