Do not order your Christmas cards from Snapfish and print at Walgreen's.

I've had 2 bad experiences in a row with them now. I ordered some Halloween cards from them in October, and they never seem to have the order completed when they tell you it will be complete. At least I did get the Halloween cards, even though they were late. That is more than I can say for the Christmas cards.

I spent around 3 hours last Saturday evening working on a design for our Christmas cards. I was using a similar theme to the "All we want for Christmas is a state championship" on the right side of the page. I spent a lot of time editing the photos - I had put together 3 different pictures from football games this year. I made 2 versions of the card - one in color and one in black & white to see which looked nicer in the preview. I took a lot of time experimenting with a lot of different templates to choose the nicest one. The point is - I really put a lot of time and effort into it!

So, I finally perfected the card and sent it for printing at Walgreen's. Snapfish's site told me that the cards would be ready on Sunday morning by 9:20. Remembering my Halloween experience, I did not show up at 9:20 for the cards. Instead I waited until after 11:00. I went in and it took them around 30 minutes to even locate my order in their system. Originally they told me they did not have it. I kept insisting that they did, and finally they found it. But their machines were still warming up, so they hadn't started printing any photos yet for the day (STILL warming up at 11:00???). I was told my order was first in line to print as soon as the machines were warmed up. So, I left somewhat agitated, but planning to return later on Sunday to pick up the cards.

I went back in around 3:30. Surely that would have given them enough time, right? After all, my order is first in line, right? Wrong. It's still not ready. After about another 15 minutes of investigation, I am told that my order has been CANCELLED. Yes, cancelled. Seriously. I wait another 5 minutes or so while they check to see if they can resend it for printing. Nope. It's just GONE. And I really think the lady behind the counter could not have cared less. By this time I had spent about 3 hours designing the card, made 2 trips up to Walgreen's, and waited almost an hour...and still had NO cards. And even better, all my work on the design had been deleted.

I will NEVER, EVER place a photo order with Walgreen's again.

I went home and designed a different card through WalMart's site, and this time I just opted to have the cards shipped to me at home. I'm not getting out in the crowds for a third time to get Christmas cards. At the end of the day it seems to have worked out quite well. I am paying around $30 less through Wal Mart, and I received notification that my order was shipped to me yesterday.

Also, just FYI: WalMart has all the same templates for cards that are on Snapfish's site, and they are less than HALF the cost. I ended up changing the theme of our card, so now we won't be sending out any cute football cards (it just took too long to get that right the first time). But I am pretty happy with the card I designed. It will work out okay, even though it's not as cute as the original card.

So, that is my Christmas card drama.