Shipping and Logistics

Let’s Answer A Few Frequent Questions …

 I Have A Bunch Of Stuff To Send To Memory Fortress … How Does This Work?

The process is fairly simple. You gather all your materials and organize them the best you can (important links below). Then, you get a box (or boxes) from around your house, or from the UPS or FedEx stores. Please not not use a flimsy Amazon Prime box! Pack your sturdy box well! Then, ship it to us, preferably using UPS or FedEx. You pay for shipping on the way to Memory Fortress. And Memory Fortress pays all shipping on the way back to you once the job is done. We will discuss shipping specific formats down below …

What Is The Address For Memory Fortress? Where Are You Located?

Memory Fortress

2250 North Druid Hills Road NE

Suite 128

Atlanta, GA 30329

That’s Not In My City! Do You Have A Location In My Area?

No. Not unless you are in the Atlanta, GA metro area. All of the companies that digitize / transfer memories have exactly one location in the country. It is not cost effective to have multiple locations. Therefore, it’s a shipping exercise for 75% of our customers around the country. The vast majority of our business is shipped.

I Happen To Be In The Atlanta Area … Can I Come In Person?

Sure! Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm. If you have a heavy load, call us at 678-579-2249 when you are 5-10 minutes out and we will roll a cart down to the parking lot to unload you. Just park right in front of the blue awning.

Saturdays we are open 10am-2pm! We are not open on Sundays!

Does All The Work Happen In Your Office?

Yes. We don’t ship it out to a third-party for fulfillment. With a five-day turnaround policy, we have to do it right here!

How Secure Is Your Facility?

Very secure. It’s called Memory Fortress for a reason. There is a triple-lock protection system in place. 1. Locks on the outer door. 2. Another lock on the inner door. 3. And door locks for each room in our offices. 4. On top of that, your memories are secured in individual crates to prevent getting mixed up with any other orders.

Should I Use The US Post Office To Ship To You?

No. Please no. Do not use the US Post Office. Not if you can help it. Use UPS or FedEx instead. For the love of God. We could write entire blog posts about not using the post office.  Oh wait we did.

How Will Memory Fortress Ship Back To Me?

Via UPS or FedEx, always. And you will get the tracking number for your return boxes as soon as you pay the invoice, typically within an hour. Memory Fortress pays return shipping for orders above $200. And orders below $200 only cost $15 on your invoice.

Do I Need Any Special Packing Materials?

The UPS Store or FedEx store will always have everything you need, but here is a quick list of possible needs:

• Sturdy box(es)
• Rubber bands
• Ziplock freezer bags
• Bubble wrap

Is There Anything That MUST Be In The Packages I Send To Memory Fortress?

Yes! We MUST have your:

• First and Last Name
• Phone Number
• Email (that’s how we invoice you when the job is done)
• Return Address (so we know where to ship)

And it’s also helpful if you write us a little note that details any special instructions.

Most customers fill out the online order form, hit print on the email confimration, and throw it right in the box. That way, when we open the box here, the email confirmation page is the first thing we see, and it’s already got your name, phone, email, and return address on it. But if you don’t do that, a little sheet of paper with your handwriting works just as well!

What If I Have VHS tapes?

It’s helpful to pack VHS tapes tightly in the shipping box. If you feel they will float around the box in transit, defintely rubber band a few VHS tapes together. You don’t want the cassette cases breaking en route! A tightly packed box with little wiggle room is the best way to make sure nothing breaks.

What If I Have Camcorder Tapes (VHS-C, miniDV, Hi8, Digital8, Video8, other 8mm)?

Camcorder tapes have the same instructions as larger VHS tapes, except here it’s even more important to rubber band them together.  These tapes are harder to repair than VHS tapes, and the quality on camcorder tapes is generally higher than VHS. Let’s not lose the memories because tapes were bouncing around! Pack tightly, ship banded. You can use freezer bags with the smaller bags if you want to make groupings of tapes.

What If I Have Loose Photos?

Best bet is to separate them into groups, give each group a name, and put the photos in ziplock freezer bags with the group name on the outside. Stack the bags of photos in the box(es) and ship them that way. Again, check out the Organizing page for more detail on this. Rubber bands help too, especially if you aren’t using freezer bags.

What If I Have Photos In Albums?

Just stack them in a larger box and pack the edges with bubble wrap or some other packing material so they don’t slide around in transit. For safety, please try to keep boxes at 40 pounds or less. You should split heavy shipments into two or more boxes if necessary.

What If I Have Scrapbook Pages?

Same instructions as above with albums … except you also need to remove the scrapbook pages from bindings and plastic protectors. Please stack the pages in the order you want. If you have multiple scrapbooks, one neat trick is to use a kitchen garbage bag (the 13 gallon size) and put each set of scrapbook pages in its own bag. So if you have three scrapbooks to send us, you will have three garbage bags stacked on top of each other in the box. That helps us keep them digitally spearated as well!

What If I Have Slides?

• Slides in carousels – you can ship them that way, but it will take up more room / more boxes and shipping will obviously be more expensive.
• Slides in small boxes – these usually hold 20-40 slides each. Please ship them just like that. Most people have several dozen smaller boxes that they ship in one larger box.
• Slides in linear trays – these usually hold 36 each. You can ship them as is – just put several trays in one larger shipping box
• Slides that are loose – lots of people use the freezer bag method mentioned above for photos. Just group loose slides in groups of 20-40, rubber band them in two directions, then place the rubber-banded group in it’s own freezer bag. Label each bag with the folder name so those images will carry the digital name you want.

What If I Have Movie Film (8mm, Super 8, 16mm)?

These will be movie film reels with diameters of either 3″, 5″, or 7″. Just ship them as is, and make sure the ends of the reels aren’t flapping around. These tend to ship very safely. Again, pack tightly just in case.

I Really Want To Send Using The US Post Office (USPS)!

We do not recommend using the US Post Office! We are not responsible for lost or delayed materials! Please don’t do this! Pay the extra couple of bucks like we do for UPS or FedEx!

If you must send via USPS becasue there is no other option near you, please make sure you get a tracking number!

10-Day Turnaround Time

• Loose photos, more than 10,000
• Album photos, more than 6,000
• Slides, more than 1,500
• 35 mm Negatives, more than 1,500
• Videotapes, more than 75
• Disc replication, more than 50
• All scrapbook orders
• All 8mm  and 16mm movie film (reel-to-reel)

We convert all your memories right here at our facility in metro Atlanta, processed by US citizens.