FAQs
Pricing
Does this really cost only $29?
No. The minimum order size is $99, and most customers with larger orders pay a few hundred dollars (still much cheaper than anyone else). The $29 refers to the amount of the deposit on your order. For a $300 total order, you have the option to pay $29 now to begin the process. The other $271 will be charged at the end, after the digitizing process is complete, and just before we ship you back your digitized memories.
Full pricing details are on our page for video and photo scanning prices.
How much does this cost?
Memory Fortress is the best-priced way to digitize your memories. While the detailed Pricing page is located here, the average orders we receive are about 35-36 cents per loose photo and roughly 50 cents per photo in an album. We priced all of our video transfer service very competitively as well. We priced it to make it a straightforward decision for you. Our average competitor is MORE THAN DOUBLE those prices.
Is there a limit to how much we can send you?
Not at all! We are designed for larger orders. If you send us several million photos, we will simply buy more equipment and hire more people. We’ve been known to send trucks out of state to pick up very large orders from customers.
The volume discounts confuse me!
No worries! Pick up the phone and call us at 678-579-2249 if you would like detailed pricing estimates. We can talk through it over the phone and email you a rough estimate while we chat.
In general, the volume discounts give between 10-30% off our standard pricing. The incentive is to send in everything you’ve got! 90% of our customers qualify for volume discounts of some kind.
What is included with photo scanning pricing?
All of the things our competitors do not give you!
- Color correction.
- Cropping.
- Correct image rotation and orientation.
- Folder system creation!
- Sharpening.
- Customized file names!
These are not extras … it’s built into our standard pricing!
Read the small print on competitor websites and you’ll usually find that NONE of these are included.
Again, read the fine print on their website. Do they:
- Have any volume discounts?
- Have a 5-day turnaround policy?
- Have customized file names (is the tape name represented in the file name)?
- Offer DVD, flash drive, hard drive, and cloud delivery options?
- Pick up the phone when you call them?
- Have free return shipping?
- Back up your files on their server at no cost to you?
The answer is – they probably do not do any of these things. Memory Fortress prices on video are very reasonable, and no company delivers more frills for the buck.
How does movie film pricing work (8mm and 16mm reels)?
Simple – All of it is priced at 29 cents per foot.
Why do you have distinct pricing options for delivery devices?
Becasue the vast majority of our orders have some real complexity to them. Usually, the head of a family might want to get all of the extended family memories converted at once. He/she might have four kids and ten grandkids. There will usually be a mixture of DVDs, USB flash drives, and a complex cloud delivery. Not all memories go to all family members sometimes … it’s up to us to customize a delivery solution for large extended families that makes sense.
Are you going to sell me a prepaid box?
No! NEVER! Prepaid boxes are a scam! Read the reviews …
Process
What’s the typical turnaround time on an order?
We are designed to be a high volume processor, so we strive for 1-2 days on smaller orders and 4-5 days on larger orders. There are a few special situations where we have a 10-business-day turnaround standard (really large orders, and uncommon formats), but most of the time the timing is about one week. Our Deliverables page is here, and goes into more detail about turnaround time, by format.
Full pricing details are on our Pricing Page.
Are you going to send me a prepaid box?
No! Never! Those companies are scams. Please avoid them at all costs.
Will I get my original photos and videotapes back?
Yes! Absolutely! Along with your new digital media. You’ll be doubling the memories. And it’s free return shipping to you, assuming we’ve got the minimum order size of $99 or more.
All processing happens in the metro Atlanta area, and is completed by US citizens. We have increased our office space over the last couple of years to add more processing equipment and people.
Memory Fortress
2180 Satellite Boulevard
Suite 400
Duluth, GA 30097
How large are the largest orders?
Photos – More than 100,000 photos in a single order.
Videotapes – Many orders more than 100 tapes.
Movie Film – More than 20,000 feet in a single order.
Slides – More than 13,000 slides in a single order.
Scrapbooks – More than 2,500 pages in a single order.
How will I know what is happening to my analog memories after I send them to you?
By email and by phone. You will receive an email and/or phone call at each of the following touch points:
- Order received online (payment)
- Box(es) received in the Memory Fortress shipping room
- Order is finished processing and payment is due
- Successful payment
- Order has left the Memory Fortress production facility
- Order has been shipped
How does Memory Fortress handle photos in albums?
Pictures in albums are not a problem at all. We will carefully remove the pictures from the album, process them, and then place them into labeled plastic Ziploc bags when we are done. We charge a little extra for this, but it’s still far less than others charge for loose pictures.
If the pictures are stuck to the album itself and cannot be removed, we can still process them, it just takes a little extra time and effort.
When we ship your order back, you will receive both the empty albums and the labeled Ziploc bags with all your photos.
How does Memory Fortress handle slides that are in carousels or other containers?
Send them however you like! We will remove them, process them, and return them to their carousel. There is no extra charge for this. If we receive them in carousels or trays, you will get them back, in those carousels and trays, in the same order.
What formats do you accept?
All prints (paper photos), slides, negatives, VHS tapes, 8mm videotapes, miniDV videotapes, and 8mm film.
What about organizing things? How do you handle that?
If you include detailed instructions when you ship to us, we will organize it according to those instructions. For example, if you send us 3,700 photos in sections of 1,100, 500, 800, and 1,300 with a note, you will get digital versions and there will be four separate folders on your DVD or flash drive, holding those quantities. Without instructions from you, we will organize them in the same way that we found them when we opened your box. Three shoeboxes will result in three digital folders. We will organize it to your specifications, no matter how complex it is.
See our Organizing Memories page for more information.
What’s the typical turnaround time on an order?
We are designed to be a high volume processor, so we strive for 1-2 days on smaller orders and 4-5 days on larger orders. There are a few special situations where we have a 10-business-day turnaround standard (really large orders, and uncommon formats), but most of the time the timing is about one week. Our Deliverables page is here, and goes into more detail about turnaround time, by format.
Full pricing details are on our Pricing Page.
Will I get my original photos and videotapes back?
Yes! Absolutely! Along with your new digital media. You’ll be doubling the memories. And it’s free return shipping to you, assuming we’ve got the minimum order size of $99 or more.
Where does Memory Fortress process each order?
All processing happens in the metro Atlanta area, and is completed by US citizens. We have increased our office space over the last couple of years to add more processing equipment and people.
Memory Fortress
2180 Satellite Boulevard
Suite 400
Duluth, GA 30097
How large are the largest orders?
Photos – More than 100,000 photos in a single order.
Videotapes – Many orders more than 100 tapes.
Movie Film – More than 20,000 feet in a single order.
Slides – More than 13,000 slides in a single order.
Scrapbooks – More than 2,500 pages in a single order.
How will I know what is happening to my analog memories after I send them to you?
By email and by phone. You will receive an email and/or phone call at each of the following touch points:
- Order received online (payment)
- Box(es) received in the Memory Fortress shipping room
- Order is finished processing and payment is due
- Successful payment
- Order has left the Memory Fortress production facility
- Order has been shipped
How does Memory Fortress handle photos in albums?
Pictures in albums are not a problem at all. We will carefully remove the pictures from the album, process them, and then place them into labeled plastic Ziploc bags when we are done. We charge a little extra for this, but it’s still far less than others charge for loose pictures.
If the pictures are stuck to the album itself and cannot be removed, we can still process them, it just takes a little extra time and effort.
When we ship your order back, you will receive both the empty albums and the labeled Ziploc bags with all your photos.
How does Memory Fortress handle slides that are in carousels or other containers?
Send them however you like! We will remove them, process them, and return them to their carousel. There is no extra charge for this. If we receive them in carousels or trays, you will get them back, in those carousels and trays, in the same order.
What formats do you accept?
All prints (paper photos), slides, negatives, VHS tapes, 8mm videotapes, miniDV videotapes, and 8mm film.
What about organizing things? How do you handle that?
If you include detailed instructions when you ship to us, we will organize it according to those instructions. For example, if you send us 3,700 photos in sections of 1,100, 500, 800, and 1,300 with a note, you will get digital versions and there will be four separate folders on your DVD or flash drive, holding those quantities. Without instructions from you, we will organize them in the same way that we found them when we opened your box. Three shoeboxes will result in three digital folders. We will organize it to your specifications, no matter how complex it is.
See our Organizing Memories page for more information.
Shipping
Where do I ship my order?
The shipping address is:
Memory Fortress
2180 Satellite Boulevard
Suite 400
Duluth, GA 30097
And you can call 678-579-2249 as well for help! This address is also our corporate HQ, and everything generally happens right here.
Full pricing details are on our Pricing Page.
How should I package my photos and videotapes for shipping?
You need to get a sturdy box, and tape it securely at the bottom and on the sides. There is no such thing as too much tape, where your precious memories are concerned. And once you’ve placed everything in the box, we strongly recommend filling in the gaps with bubble wrap, or old newspapers … anything that will keep the memories from shifting. Most importantly, you should include a note to us with a few basic details:fName
- Address
- Phone Number
- Guesstimated quantities (number of photos, number of slides, etc.)
- Resolution (for photos, slides, and negatives)
- Any pertinent folder instructions
All detailed instructions for packaging and shipping to Memory Fortress are on the Organizing Memories page.
Who pays for Return Shipping?
Memory Fortress pays for return shipping on all orders over $99. The customer pays no return shipping, only inbound shipping prior to processing.
Do you offer rush service?
Generally … no, because everything we do is rush service. You will get your order back within a week, even if you don’t want it back that fast. Only the very largest orders take us more than five business days to process.
That said, if customer needs something immediately (like the next day), we typically charge them the overnight fee we pay FedEx for overnight shipping.
During the holidays (November and December), there are a few customers who wait until the very last minute to engage us. In these cases, if the order must be delivered before Christmas, we do add a 50% rush fee on the entire order to move it to the front of the line.
Can I bundle several forms of media, such as photos, videotapes, slides, and negatives, all into one order?
Yes, and the best way to do this is to fill out the Order Now form and estimate your quantities for each format. You will only be charged $29 at that time. For really complex orders, we tend to hop on the phone right away so we can better understand what is coming and how to handle it.
Most of our customers send in multiple formats in the same order, so we encounter these situations everyday, and encourage it.
Why should you preserve your older memories at all?
Right now, those memories are irreplaceable. There is likely only one copy of them, and you are in possession. If you do not take action, the media will degrade over time. In fact, your memories have been slowly degrading for years already. More importantly, all of those images have stories behind them. The people behind those stories won’t live forever. Neither will you. When the people are gone, the memories won’t mean much to those left behind. That’s why you absolutely must preserve those memories so that you and your loved ones will live on long after you are gone.
What is the best way to preserve these analog memories?
Converting them to a digital format is by far the best way of ensuring they will be preserved. Not only is the world quickly becoming all digital, but it is incredibly easy to share and enjoy memories once they are digitized. There are a wide variety of storage options available: Portable hard drives, flash drives, DVDs, and many cloud options. All of them make organizing and sharing incredibly easy. Once memories are in digital format and tagged properly, a new world of enjoyable options appears.
What makes Memory Fortress the best option to preserve your memories?
We’ve been preserving memories in one form or another since 2009. But more importantly, we believe strongly that everyone deserves to be remembered. For that reason, we charge far less than our competitors. We also turn orders around very quickly – even the largest orders usually take less than one week. By being the best option on both price and speed, we don’t want to give you any reason to not preserve your all-important memories.