Preface: ScanCafe sent us the following threatening letter from their lawyer then hired bloggers to write stories stating that we attacked them. In fact, you probably found this page through one of those stories. Here is the real story, without the spin.
As you may know by now, ScanCafe is marketing company that outsources the labor to workers in India. DigMyPics is a family owned and operated photo scanning business that happens to do some occasional marketing. Since we're the #1 company in our segment, ScanCafe pursued a strategy to damage our reputation in their quest for venture capital and an eventual Initial Public Stock Offering. Those blogs and other anonymous contributors to the comments on those blogs are part of that smear campaign. We hope most people will see through all that and find that we're just an honest family run business working hard everyday for our customers.
-Scott and Annette Crossen
Click here for more information about how our company compares.
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ClicScanCafe Threatens
Various Photo Scanning Companies with Bogus
Lawsuits using a Letter of Intimidationk here to read the July
2007 Update to this story.
February 5, 2007
ScanCafe is a 3 month old photo scanning company that mails
their customer's photos to Bangalore, India to perform the
scanning work. We've tried to
arm visitors to our website with the facts so they can
make an informed choice concerning the risks their photos
undertake through such handling and transport.
Most people care a great deal about their photos and
recognize that they are irreplaceable and would never even
consider letting a company ship them overseas. We
don't believe ScanCafe makes it nearly clear enough that
they will indeed ship their customers photos to India.
Just try to find it on their website. Get your reading
glasses out because you're going to have to read through
pages and pages of fine print and even then you'll find only
a passing mention of a facility in India, then further down
you'll find another statement that says they may process
your photos in any of their facilities. Hardly a
definitive statement about sending their customer's photos
off to India. In fact, do a search on Google for
scancafe india. You'll find the first two
pages in the results and the most information are on these
pages at DigMyPics, not ScanCafe. If they are so proud of
their India outsourcing operation like they claim in their
retort to this page, why not put it in their
advertising, up on their main page, and on their pricing
page in big, bold letters? Anything less should be
considered less than honest with their customers about their
practices.
On February 5, I, like several
other photo scanning company owners, received a letter from a lawyer
representing ScanCafe threatening to initiate litigation
against us and demanding that we remove any and all
information about Scan Cafe from our website. I view it as a
clear attempt by ScanCafe to suppress unfavorable
information about them from the marketplace. While the
other companies are quite small, just the threat of hiring a
lawyer was enough to cause them to relent to ScanCafe and
remove the information from their websites. We,
however, decided we would not be bullied and decided to
publish the threats for all to see.
One of
ScanCafe's complaints with us is that we said "...and they never
mention those facts on their website" while talking
about how they ship their customer's photos to India.
As stated in the letter, there is mention on their website
of the fact that they ship their customer's photos to India
but it's buried deep within a long, wordy page that is
easily overlooked. We were looking specifically for
that information and couldn't find it when we read through
it after the company first launched their business a few
months ago. We suspected they did ship their
customer's photos outside the USA and we were looking for
such a statement on every page we could find but we finally
confirmed it by calling them and asking them directly.
They also complain that we state that their customer's photos are outside of ScanCafe's control. We actually state that
the photos are outside of their customer's control, but
since they brought it up, the photos, while traveling to
India, are
outside of ScanCafe's control, too, and are under the control of
the shipping company and/or airline en route to India.
Unless, of course, they are hand carrying those photos there themselves
in the overhead bin and under their forward seat. I know
that when I travel, especially to the third world where
corruption and theft is rampant, I don't let
the airlines handle anything I wouldn't want to lose. I
carry those items with me and don't let them out of my
sight. Of course, ScanCafe may have a statement on their
website stating that they hand carry their customer's photos
to India and I just couldn't find it. Let's just hope
I don't get another threatening letter about that tomorrow. Scott Crossen
www.DigMyPics.com
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American Justice System Abuse
You can't win a lawsuit against someone who speaks the
truth. Their tactic here is to intimidate their
competitors hoping
that the threat of having to pay a lawyer to defend
ourselves will be enough to bend us to their will and thus
suppress information about scan cafe that is unfavorable to
them.
Their intimidation tactics apparently did work with at least
one of their competitors as we noticed that they removed
truthful information about Scan Cafe from their website on
or about the same day we received our letter. We suspect
they received a similar letter. It's an abuse of our legal
system and it is shameful.Here is the letter I received from ScanCafe's lawyer,
Diana Fung of DLA Piper.
Please review this scancafe document. Our Lawyer reviews scancafe letter |
July 2007 Update: ScanCafe has finally decided
to be more up front with readers and has started publicizing the truth about their so called
"Revolutionary Process", which consists of
nothing more than physically mailing people's
photos to
Bangalore, India
where workers there will scan them. Given the fact that
they didn't take this approach from the start, they either had a miraculous
change in character or, as a direct result of the pressure
we put on them to be truthful about it, they decided it was
better to embrace their "process" rather than have us make
them look like they were hiding something.
Unfortunately, the other companies which received a similar
letter, fearing costly legal expenses, fell victim to ScanCafe's
bully tactics and agreed to their demands, essentially
relinquishing their right to free speech on the subject.
Just to be clear, this issue isn't about bashing the
competition or
"Made in America" patriotism as ScanCafe's
propaganda
machine has attempted to spin it in order to divert
attention away from the real issue. It is about the safe
handling of your photos and the risks involved in sending
them on such a long, arduous journey through airports, airplanes, third world government checkpoints, customs,
freight handlers and whatever service retrieves them from the
airport in Bangalore as they make their way to their final
destination. It's about transparency. Its about you knowing
and understanding the risks you accept by choosing a company
that will ship your photos overseas. If you find those
risks acceptable, well, at least you now have the benefit of
making a decision based on knowing about those risks.
We've found that our customers have a strong emotional bond to
their photos and the memories those photos represent.
Losing them or even the risk of losing them is not an
option, no matter how much money they think they could save. Our
professional photographer clients realize
that their photos are their biggest asset and often their
life's work and not something with which they're willing to
take such risks. We don't think anyone should make
such a decision lightly, and certainly not without knowing
all the facts. Although it may sound self-serving,
we've feel we have a responsibility to provide the facts so
you can make your decision based on the truth and not on
marketing hype or spin.
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