Artkive - Save Kids' Art

I’m a busy working mom so when I heard about Artkive from a friend, I was psyched. I sent in artwork for both of my kids in one box and they professionally photographed all of it and tagged by kid and age. I had hoped to do this at home but I just could never make time and honestly the photos would not have turned out even half as good. I got one keepsake book for each kid, and my kids love looking at their books and showing it to their friends. I chose to have Artkive send the art back, but I honestly don’t even need the originals anymore. My kids and I are enthralled with the books. The service is expensive, but they do everything for you and it’s worth it. Highly recommend!

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I started artkive years ago when it was free, then one day they decided to put their pocketbook first and their customers second. They informed their users there would now be an annual fee (over $100) to continue to save their photos. If you want your photos back without the fee you had to get on your pc and download each photo individually within 30 days. Once you cancel your membership they delete all your photos!! They like to tell you what a great deal membership actually is because your annual fee goes towards a photo-book, but photo books cost in the $150+ range so I ended up paying over $200 for the ability to keep my digital photos for a year and make a book. You can just as easily use one of the many free photo apps and make a photo book for $30. I gave it two stars because taking a photo and having the ability to assign your child’s name and age is a handy feature. You can still do this elsewhere without the financial hit. I just think of this as an underhanded company.

We love our photo book and impressed by creativity of laying out the artwork to capture the sweetness of our son’s first year of life artwork. The major issue is that for our personal experience, artkive did not use the centrally managed profile information to ensure artwork was being sent to the right home. I had changed our home address when I ordered our book, which arrived at the front door of our new home. Not even a week later I was emailed by artkive notifying me they sent the box to my old address. I responded and said it’s the wrong address and the follow on email informed me it was delivered to our old home. The artwork is not at our old home nor is it the responsibility of the new homeowner to keep track of our mail. I have tried, to no avail, to speak with someone about the matter. Artkive will not respond to my emails and I am absolutely gutted that I do not have the choice to dispose of my own child’s artwork rather it was decided for me with no resolution. Of course it comes with risk to entrust someone with such a task however, I had updated my information and the company did not reference my centrally located profile data. I wish you all the best with the service and don’t wish upon anyone else losing all of their baby’s footprint artwork ):

What an amazing concept this is, especially when you have no idea what to do with the crushing amount of artwork kids bring home from school on a seemingly endless basis. Order a box, pack it full with the child’s art and weeks later receive a beautiful bound, hardcover book that looks like something out of a museum gift shop. Now I don’t have to feel guilty throwing the artwork away. It’s displayed nicely and takes up way less space. The people that thought of this must be parents. It’s genius! Wish I would have known about this years ago.

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This was a great photo storage app for artwork but their new “membership” requirement and pricing is ridiculous. If you want to spend a few hundred a year on a single photo book of art then great! Or you can just upload the pics to a Shutterfly album (or any other photo storage app) and make a $30 photo book there. When I emailed their customer service about my complaints I got a super nasty response. Now that I’m here reading the responses to the reviews, I’m seriously shocked!! WHAT KIND OF CUSTOMER SERVICE RESPONDS LIKE THIS?! Artkive should take some of the money they’re making from this price gouging scheme and hire a legit PR person, they must have teenagers sending these responses. I would advise NOT using the this app, I don’t think this company will be around long enough to actually deliver anything.