News Update on ScanMyPhotos.com [30 Minute Photos Etc.]

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UnFairCreditCardFees During the Holiday Season and Beyond

From the front sales counter in this battle against the credit card cartel and its member banks comes this holiday story.

This afternoon, a customer at 30 Minute Photos Etc. presented her debit card, which was nearly invisible to distinguish from a traditional credit card.  It was processed as a debit card and the key pad handed to the shopper to enter their PIN number.  She said “oh no, I want this processed as a credit card.” 

What did this mean?  We are charged a much higher interchange fee, rather than a flat-rate, and the consumer still has the funds quickly withdrawn from her account.  The card association’s are conditioning consumers to insist that their debit card be processed as a credit card, even though fraud rates are much less for PIN, rather than signature payment transactions on the MasterCard and Visa network.

[commentary: WayTooHigh.com]

News on Merchant Interchange Lead Plantiff, Mitch Goldstone at CES

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ScanMyPhotos.com CEO Mitch Goldstone to Speak at the Consumer Electronics Show.   Goldstone to speak in Las Vegas at the “Spotlight on Imaging” CES panel on Tuesday, January 8th.

IRVINE, Calif., Dec 17, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) — ScanMyPhotos.com, today announced that president and CEO Mitch Goldstone will speak again at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES(R)) as part of a panel discussion entitled: “Spotlight on Imaging.” The session is cosponsored by Picture Business Magazine and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA(R)) which produces the 2008 International CES – the world’s largest consumer technology trade show.

The panel discussion at the 2008 International CES will take place on January 8, at 3:00 p.m.  It will include essential topics about the future of the photo imaging industry and the commercialization of new digital imaging technologies to inspire and enhance the consumer photo imaging experience.

ScanMyPhotos.com, a division of 30 Minute Photos Etc. operates a retail and ecommerce-based photo imaging company that provides super-fast nationwide digital scanning and related photo imaging services. Goldstone and partner, Carl Berman, well-known leaders in the photo imaging industry founded 30 Minute Photos Etc. in 1990 as a retail-based photo center in Irvine, CA.

Today, the company and its ScanMyPhotos.com division provides a variety of photo memory services and products to help picture-takers preserve generations of family memories. These include services using: “Perfectly Clear” photo enhancements by Athentech, professional DVD data discs produced by Microtech’s robotic DVD publishing system, Lucidiom self-service digital photo kiosks, and KODAK’s award-winning i660 document imaging scanners – the engine behind the company’s capacity to digitally scan 1,000 photographs in under ten-minutes.

ScanMyPhotos.com helped commercialize the KODAK document imaging scanners for the photo industry and is profiled on the Kodak.com website. The photo entrepreneurs created a local walk-in and “fill-the-box” scanning service for consumers to order prepaid USPS Priority flat-rate boxes which are mailed out the same day it is ordered. Consumers fill the co-branded USPS and ScanMyPhotos.com prepaid boxes with as many pictures as it can hold (more than 1,600 4×6″ photos). All orders are processed and digitally scanned as jpeg files at 300 dpi and mailed back the same day. The prepaid box costs just $99.95 – consumers also receive a free box when they purchase two prepaid boxes so they can have more than 5,500 photo snapshots scanned for $199.90.

ScanMyPhotos.com, has scanned nearly four million pictures from around the world and was recently profiled or mentioned in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Women’s Health Magazine, The Orange County Register, Family Tree Magazine, Popular Photography, Direct Marketing News and scores of other media and Internet / blog coverage

lead Plantiff, Mitch Goldstone to Address CES

The co-founder of 30 Minute Photos Etc and ScanMyPhotos.com will be announcing in December that he was invited to again address CES: the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January. This is the world’s largest consumer trade show and is the second year that Mitch Goldstone has been invited to present.  As a well-known photo imaging industry speaker, he regularly explains how technology has changed the entire photo imaging industry and created entirely new revenue centers, such as the super-fast nationwide photo scanning service which his company has become famous for.  He expects to again use the example of how credit cards were once cost-based; requiring extensive paper work, thick carbon copy receipts and manual imprinter machines.  Today, just as with his photo imaging and scanning business, everything is lightening fast and much more cost effective.  What he once charged $5.00 for is now low as 2.5 cents.  Conversely, the member banks are accused [by us] of continuing to conspire to illegally fix billion of dollars in fees; fellow retailers are forced to accept whatever charges are demanded.  As a retailer and ecommerce business, 30 Minute Photos Etc. and ScanMyPhotos.com are beholden to Visa and MasterCard and their 80% market power.  Most ecommerce businesses are forced to accept those two leading payment cards to stay in business.

More details on CES in December.

 [Source: WayTooHigh.com]