Photobook UK Reviews 

Unexpected £57 customs charge on a £200 order – extremely disappointing

Having ordered from Photobook UK previously without issue, we recently spent approximately £200 ordering several personalised photobooks. Considerable time went into designing them, and delivery was advertised as free.

Only after ordering did we receive demands from courier Aramex for an additional £57: £42 import VAT and a £15 administration fee. That’s an unexpected increase of nearly 30% just to receive goods we’ve already paid for.

It appears the books are being shipped internationally, despite being ordered through a UK-facing website. Photobook’s terms say import charges may apply, but this does little to prepare customers for such a substantial additional bill.

More concerningly, HMRC guidance VBOOKS3130 explicitly states that qualifying printed, bound photobooks are zero-rated for VAT. Our books have hard covers and flexible, permanently bound, printed pages, which appear to meet those criteria. We are therefore questioning why 20% import VAT has been charged at all.

It is particularly frustrating to face a £15 administration fee for processing customs paperwork when we are now having to investigate whether that paperwork was correct in the first place.

Looking through other Trustpilot reviews, it is apparent that customers have been raising similar concerns about unexpected customs charges for years.

We have contacted Photobook Worldwide and Aramex to challenge the charges and are awaiting a resolution.

We don’t want a refund for the books or to cancel the order. We simply want the personalised books we spent hours creating, delivered for the price agreed at checkout, with the correct UK VAT treatment.

A deeply disappointing experience from a company we previously trusted. Buyers in the UK should be aware that the advertised price may not be the final amount they are asked to pay.

Update following Photobook’s response:

Thank you for responding, although I would prefer this attention to be directed towards resolving my existing customer service enquiry, which your team has already acknowledged and is investigating.

I didn’t post this review to seek customer service through Trustpilot. I posted it to warn other potential customers about unexpected charges.

I fully understand that import duties and taxes exist. However, Photobook knows exactly what products it sells, where they are manufactured and which country they are being shipped to. Customers should therefore be given clear information about likely additional costs before purchasing, rather than a vague warning that charges may apply.

Your response also fails to address my central concern: whether these photobooks have been correctly classified for UK VAT purposes.

If this is satisfactorily resolved through your normal customer service channels, I will gladly update my review to reflect that. Until then, my concerns remain unchanged.

I put together a photo books on their site and put it in my basket but it was expensive around £150 so I left it, they sent me an offer today with 50% discount on photo books so I thought woo nice. Went in their site put the exact same book, details etc in and the book went up to £300 minus the 50% £150!!! So the same price. Plus when you order prints they mix them all up. I ordered 500 off them and it took me hours trying to get them in order.

Ordered a personalised luggage tag but was disappointed with the product as the text on the back came out so small that it is barely legible. I contacted the company who showed me the proof that I approved; except the image was much larger/clearer. They explained it was not possible for the proof to be more accurate. An odd response and poor experience overall.

It was also disappointing that the delivery charge for such a small item was about £10 (more than the item itself). It then became clear that the item was made in Asia and shipped to the UK. Not so Photobook "UK" then.

Extremely incompetent. They have no idea where my pictures are. All they keep saying is wait, wait, wait, and have changed the date I am suppose to wait 3 times. They give you a link that provides no information on tracking, they refuse to help try & track down your order. You can’t actually talk to someone. Every reply is a standard scrip, and probably not even seen by a real person. No empathy. My pictures could be with anyone, they have no idea. Do you want strangers having hold of your pictures? They are a joke, they won’t reprint my order or provide a refund. Despite me asking at least 3 times. I have no idea where to turn now, they are so unhelpful. This is very distressing. Avoid!

How convenient that I cannot respond to their reply below. For context I have been in touch with their customer service for the last 3 days. I have numerous emails from them. All refusing to assist in finding my pictures & refusing to reprint or refund. Therefore they have all my details already. This response is another delay tactic & a way to palm you off as a customer. They do not care.

I always love doing memory utilizing photobook! it makes our travel very special! Photobook is expensive on the other hand but it’s worth it. I hope photobook staffs read this and maybe lower their price a bit? hehe overall 100% satisfied!

The pricing of their photobooks feels very deceptive. Firstly the threshold to qualify for free shipping is very high; over £129 spend. I therefore bulk created a number of photobooks.
I navigated the unnecessarily complex voucher/ discount code pricing strategy to then find that although my basket contents had a combined value of over £270, I was still going to be charged £46 for shipping.
Photobook are sneaky in that they allow a cheaper product price by purchasing vouchers for the product upfront but this does not contribute to the final basket value.

I had used the online chat prior to purchasing any vouchers to ensure the voucher fit the product I was trying to buy, and this gave me wrong information.

Overall, a shame because the Photobook creation system is easy to use. But the pricing feels like it is trying to trip you up.

AVOID AT ALL COST. BETTER company’s out there .
So I ordered a photo book from them which had additional pages etc. They had put the wrong date on the cover from what I ordered and when I told them they had made a mistake they refused to replace the book with the correct date on it or a refund. The date was 10 years different from what I had put on there . They acknowledged the mistake but apparently my problem now. Even after I showed them my order and the book I received with photos
Customer service is terrible.
Will never use this company again.

I placed the order on 7th December and was advised AFTER placing the order that the delivery would be 21 to 23rd Dec. Disappointingly long, but at least in time for Christmas as it was to be a much anticipated present. I was then informed by Google that it had been despatched on the 12th Dec and the Royal Mail website said that they were expecting it on the same date. They still are...21st Dec! I checked the the Google site again which now states delivery before the 29th December, and yet yesterday, was advertising the same books for delivery in time for Christmas.
There is NO escuse for this. The book cost in excess of £100. Was the fact that the offer was for free postage the reason for this delay? It is hugely disappointing and has let a lot of people down.

Amazingly I have d an email today from Royal Mail tracking stating that this parcel is due to be delivered tomorrow....Christmas Eve!!

They printed my book with 'Your text appears here in gold foil' on the front cover!! When I advised they originally said they would replace the book free of charge. Now they have changed their minds and said it's my fault! How is this my fault?????
DO NOT USE this company!
Order No: FP246982241437

The quality of production and finish never disappoints . Turnaround times always efficient and never disappoints .

Trash website, bought on a Sunday with their express delivery, meant to arrive Wednesday, spoken to them on the same day, meant to arrive Friday and still yet to receive. So don’t trust their delivery dates and definitely don’t pay extra as it clearly doesn’t mean jack.

Edit: My name is definitely the same, I have been refunded a week later. Not worth it, no help at all. They ask you to contact them but you end up speaking to an AI bot, they also don’t supply tracking information for your purchases. Whack company

Edit:

In response to the reply—I searched extensively and found no privacy settings. I then contacted support and they told me that the only way to resolve the issue was to delete my account. Upon deleting my account, the photos were still online on a public and unencrypted link. It took a week of me hounding their support team for them to be deleted. The response to this review is disingenuous and the support team has consistently contradicted themselves and given me poor advice, resulting in precious, private photos remaining for sale to anyone who finds the public, unencrypted link. Protect your data, avoid Photobook.

Original review:

After contacting support about their questionable privacy policy (which they confirmed had a mistake in it), I cautiously placed an order.

Minutes after submitting my order, I received an email saying that a photobook (of my photos) had been shared with me.

I tested the link using private browsing and was absolutely horrified to see that my private photos were publicly available via this link for literally anyone to buy. It's a feature called 'Share it' and there is no discernible way to turn it off, opt out, or remove your photos from it.

I am absolutely fuming at how brazen Photobook UK are with such personal data. It's unforgivable. I've contacted support and will be escalating my complaint formally.

If you value your privacy, don't touch Photobook UK with a barge pole.

Yet another superb Photobook. This one is an Imagewrap Photobook and captures some great memories. The software is easy to use and allows you to be very creative. Plus the service great. I will be back!

Have been using Photobook UK now for over 5 years to produce a range of different books. Mostly lay flat Hard Cover Books of around 40 pages. Today received my latest three creations. All beautifully bound very well packaged and perfectly printed as shown to me whilst I designed them through the easy to use Project Design Pages of the Photobook website. As an additional bonus I can now also allow others to view the same books on-line!

Photobook has always been my go-to app for creating photo albums, and after many years of using it, it still doesn’t disappoint. The quality is consistently excellent, the design tools are intuitive, and the finished product always feels special. It’s my trusted platform for preserving precious memories, and I’ll continue using it for many more projects to come. Highly recommended!

We were delighted with the album the photos were excellent quality and the hard back album was well made all in all a really good experience it re captured all our holiday

I was delighted with the results of my photobook project. I had been apprehensive about the quality of reproduction, as I have spent my career in the graphics and print industry and have 'seen it all'. The software supplied, which is straightforward to learn and use, is comprehensive and adequately accommodates the manipulation of text,
illustrations and photos. I've had five copies
made, both hardback and softcover, and am anticipate ordering more, maybe at a bulk rate for say twenty or so, if Photobook undertake such an order?
Anyway, once again, I'm highly impressed with the whole process and look forward to working on more Photobook projects.

Lovely photobook created of our holiday in Alaska & San Francisco. App was easy to use & had useful templates. Quality of book excellent & quick turnaround & able to track shipment.

The website was easy to use and quite intuitive. I was in a bit of a hurry and therefore didn’t use any help from the site trusting my own instincts and past experience with similar sites. The voucher codes worked ok at the end of the process but I was a wee bit confused when started the project and coming back to it but in the end all went well. I ordered two copies and both arrived well ahead of time which was good. Thought postage a bit pricey but just accepted it. Delivery was well handled and was tracked from the point of being sent out. Good communications. Liked the ability to forward to friends and family and electronic view of the book - a nice bonus I wasn’t expecting! The quality of paper, binding, covers and sharpness of print were all good and there was the option of paying for higher grade paper and binding amongst other services.

Excellent quality!!
Very sharp,great colouring highly recommend.