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PastBook Review 2025: Important Update!
Look:
Originally we wrote this post early 2021 when the company was decent, but after receiving multiple complaints about Pastbook in the past few months, we’re updating it.
So…
I kept an eye on them after I received a comment from Lou Ann on January 9, 2023:
I thought this was rather unusual, and took the extra step of forwarding this message to the PastBook team to make sure she’s taken care of.
See my email sent on January 10th, also CC’ing Lou Ann:
The very same day I receive an unsatisfying response from one of their reps:
I thought I’d give them time and will follow up again later.
And I did follow up 10 days later:
And again I got a general, unsatisfying response:
I found this very suspicious, so I thought I’d wait a bit longer and see what happens.
And what do you know?
In February I received several complaints about PastBook – either the book wasn’t delivered, or the quality was terrible, or they couldn’t get in touch or get a refund.
See for yourself.
Eva Loran’s comment on February 1, 2023 where she mentions she didn’t get the order, even though she’s paid for it:
Sheryl Meng Fields complaint about Pastbook published on February 16, 2023:
And Walt wysk’s concern on February 18, 2023:
(And now I’m updating this post on February 19th.)
After seeing a sudden flow of negative reviews of the company that was once decent, I’m forced to warn folks to be careful to deal with PastBook.
Many users are now asking is pastbook safe to use, and based on recent evidence, there are legitimate concerns about their reliability.
The amount of recent complaints about bad quality, unfulfilled orders, or not getting refunds is concerning, don’t you think?
Instead, I recommend you check out Mixbook, a #1 rated photo book company (with nearly 30k 5-star reviews).
PastBook Complaints (Video Update)
What Is PastBook?
What is Pastbook?
Pastbook is a company that provides photobook services to people who need it. They focus on providing assistance to social media users who want to put their collection of photos in an actual book. They have pre-designed layouts that you can choose from and have your album ready in no time.
Aside from that, they can also make customized calendars, posters, and even cards that you can send to your loved ones and friends. With this, you can better share your life story to those people who are very dear to you.
Is PastBook worth it?
2025 update: After a number of negative reviews and complaints, we don’t think it’s worth it.
It’s not just a photo book, but you can choose to create posters, calendars, etc. And it’s a great photography gift idea.
(Keep on reading to find out what’s so special about this company.)
What are its features?
Just like any other companies, this too have its own set of features that you need to check out. Here are some of it:
- PastBook Pricing
When it comes to services like this, it is imperative to check out the various pricing plans available for you. Even if financial resources is not an issues, it is still wiser to check out the price-quality ratio of the products you want to avail of. That way, you can have the best value for your money.
This company gives you different pricing options to choose from, depending on your preference. They can create a PB with a minimum of 16 pages and a maximum of 500 pages. Check the plans below:
-
- 16 Pages (Soft Cover)
- Small (8.5 x 6″) – $20.40
- Large (12 x 8.5″) – $25.40
- 26 Pages (Soft)
- S – $30.00
- 26 Pages (Hard cover)
- S – $39.00
- L – $43.00
- 50 Pages (Hard)
- S – $53.00
- L – $65.00
- 100 Pages (Hard)
- S – $68.00
- L – $83.00
- 200 Pages (Hard)
- S – $84.00
- L – $99.00
- 300 Pages (Hard)
- S – $99.00
- L – $114.00
- 500 Pages (Soft Cover)
- S – $110.00
- L – $125.00
- 16 Pages (Soft Cover)
You see, these prices are relatively higher compared to other companies offering the same services. However, they do offer an automatic 35% discount upon checkout to compensate for this.
And if you wanted to get a higher discount rate of 40%, you just need to purchase another copy of the book that you can give out to family and friends.
Now, as far as shipping fees go, it depends on the size of your ordered PB and where in the world your location is. You will know that in the checkout area.
- One click photo book
This company also boasts about their fast and easy scrapbook creator. In fact, they advertised it as one-click photo book. This means you no longer need to do the layout by yourself.
You can simply send them the pictures, or have your photos from social media accounts linked to the site and you’re ready to go. Their editing team will do all the work for you and all that’s left to do is wait for the product to arrive at your doorstep.
However, if you have the time, you can also arrange the pictures on your own. This way, it will be more personalized and customized to your liking.
You can choose which images should go to a certain page, or which photos should go together, stuff like that. But if you plan on editing your pictures itself in the site, there’s only very little you can do. If you want, edit your photos ahead of time before importing it to PastBook.
There is also this thing called Facebook Book or Instagram Book. For this part, you will need to access your social media page/s and select a specific timeframe for the images you wish to include.
It could be something on your timeline and feed, or in an album you created in the past. Once you are done setting the timeframe, the site automatically collects your pics with its captions. And you have the option whether to include the captions or not.
- Mobile App
They also have a mobile application where you can directly create your PB. The thing about this one though is that it is only available for iOS devices.
There is still no mention whether they are going to create separate apps for Android users unfortunately. So if you have mobile phones not running on iOS, you have no other choice but to use the desktop version.
There are three different applications you can download from the store.
One is specifically for Facebook, the other one for Instagram, and the last is called My Year. The last one lets you create your PB based on the selected year you wish to include. It can come from IG, FB or even your phone gallery, or a combination of everything.
For the first two apps, once you log in to your account (FB or IG), your photo book is automatically created based on the timeframe you chose.
However, these apps have one downside: it doesn’t let you save your work unless you place the order. So if you just want to try it out and don’t plan on ready ordering the item, might as well do it on the PC version.
- Desktop Editor
If you want to do more than just have the apps pull out your pictures from your social media accounts, you can opt for the PC version instead.
Here, you will be able to add cover, edit it and put some descriptions along the way. However, the editing tools are very limited since this targets people who want to have it the easy way. So editing here only means cropping or rotating your images.
Other than that, you have to do it before going to the site.
- PastBook gift code
In this site, they also give you the chance to give e-gifts or e-vouchers to your friends and families. There are 3 options you can choose from: $25, $40 and $50 gift cards. This will allow your recipient to redeem a 26-page, 50-page, or 100-page PB respectively.
The last and most expensive option gives you the best value for money, by the way.
All you have to do is purchase the gift card and an email will be sent to you containing the voucher code. You can send it to anyone you like and have them create their very own PB at the site.
There is also this option where you can pre-pay an FB year book to your friends. The pricing is the same with the regular PBs. You can choose how many pages it will be and which kind of cover it will have.
You just have to send the gift link to your chosen friend and they will be able to choose whichever photos they want to include in their own book.
✓ Pros
- Easy to use
- Variety of layout designs to choose from
- One click creation
✕ Cons
- A bit pricey
Final Verdict
2025 update: PastBook used to be a decent choice if you want to keep you photos as mementos you can share with families and friends. Some might find it a bit pricey but you do get what you pay for, that is, good photo and paper quality they use for your book.
Seeing multiple Pastbook complaints and negative reviews, I don’t think it’s worth it, and you should tread lightly when dealing with this company.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is PastBook legit?
A lot of you have been asking if PastBook is a scam or not.
Well, I’d like to tell you that you with the 2025 update, there are too many complaints coming from YOU, the readers, who left comments here under this review.
I can’t call them a fraud without more information, but the latest information that’s come to light is full of red flags.
Please leave your comments below if you also feel that you’re unhappy with this company for whatever reason.
Q: Is PastBook customer service reliable?
As far as customer service goes, this site used to be okay. You could create a ticket and send it to them to raise your concern.
Emails and site chat box is the only way you can reach support, and while they sometimes respond to queries, as we’ve seen above, they were pretty generic and didn’t give any concrete answers.
Q: How long does it take for my photo book to arrive?
2025 update: As seen from some of the comments submitted below, it seems many have not received their orders even a month or two later.
This depends where you are located. But the average standard delivery date ranges from 7 -10 days. Of course, you need to be prepared for some delays because there might be some things that could happen with the parcel that is out of the company’s control. An example would be courier’s slow moving deliveries.
Now…
I’d like to hear from YOU:
- Do you have any complaints or issues with this company?
- Anything else to add to our Pastbook review?
Let us know in the comments below!
About Author
Kate Janelle
Photography enthusiast and content creator at Digital World Beauty. My main objective here is to create a valuable resource for you with honest tech gear reviews, course recommendations, and how-to tutorials.
I made up a pastbook recently and could not be happier with the result. The quality is first class and i am more than happy to recommend this as a perfect way to record you photo memories.
Hi Peter, appreciate sharing your experience with this company!
I have used Pastbook twice in the past after travels. I love the outcome. When I post to Facebook, I provide a lot of information about the places in the text, and often label my pictures with the location or what it is. I like that Pastbook picks up at least the label info, so I don’t have to recreate it. When I asked for help, I received it.
The books are gorgeous and I have them on my coffee table to remind us of those travels.
Hi Carolyn, thank you for sharing your experience with the PastBook company! Appreciate you 🙂
I ordered a book on facebook in October and they took my money and I haven’t gotten the book. I sent them dates and bank info and nothing. My pictures are gone and no book or refund.
Hi Lou Ann,
Thank you for your comment. If you remember, I CC’d you in an email to them and asked them to follow up through with you.
When I haven’t heard anything with them, it seemed like a red flag to me, and I mentioned that I’d be forced to update a review on them.
And what do you know? Since then, several more people left messages here and it seems there’s a concerning trend of them doing a sloppy job, so I will have to urgently update the review.
Let me know if they did end up contacting you back or getting a refund!
They put photos in the calendar that I ordered that are not supposed to be there. I’m trying to contact them and no answer. They already withdrew my money from the bank.
Hi Eva,
It seems that this company is doing a bad job lately based on the comments I’ve been receiving under this review. So I’ll be updating the post and warning people to be more cautious.
Thanks for letting us know!
I have created a pastbook on 3 separate occasions. I was satisfied until I received my last book. I had selected a cover photo, but when I received my book, everyone’s head was cut off. I was very disappointed. Not only that, but I could never find a contact number for customer support to voice my concerns. I will not use pastbook again for this reason.
Hi Sheryl,
When Lou Ann first left a comment here, I personally emailed Pastbook reps (I had one from a long time ago), and let them know of an issue.
However, they also haven’t responded to me and haven’t helped that woman too, which I found suspicious.
And since then I received several more comments pointing to people’s money being withdrawn, the quality being terrible, and the books not being received.
It sounds a bit borderline fraudulent activity, so I’ll be updating my posts to let people know that PastBook went worse and worse.
Thanks for your email!
I ordered a book in December. It’s now February 18th and they say the book can’t be printed. ?
Based on the comments under the review here, people have multiple complaints about Pastbook now, so I’ll be updating the post to warn people.
Were you able to contact them and get a refund, Walt?
I ordered 3 Pastbooks in December 2022 which arrived just before Christmas a decade of memories of their grandparents from when 1st grand daughter was born to 10 years later when my husband was 80. Great quality and really pleased with the books BUT.
One of the books I sent to Australia and Hermes (Evri) managed to loose the book after collecting and before flight to Australia. I contacted pastbook and they said no problem and sent a link for me to order another copy.
I went through the copy that I gave to my husband and got rid of the items that shouldn;t of been there and updated the narrative that seemed to have disappeared and the correct order in the replacement book.
It took 5 hours to do but was happy to recreate the missing book. I then paid for it on my credit card on 3rd February and it wa supposed to be deliverd on 14th Feb.
On the 22nd February I then sent Pastbook and email asking where my book was, I then got this reply?
While reviewing your book we detected that there are several missing pictures in the book. This happens sometimes when Facebook / Instagram changes the source code. Since there is a significant amount of missing photos, it is easier to recreate the book to make sure that all of the photos are in your book.
You can recreate your PastBook in a few moments, just start here:
Once created, you can proceed with the Checkout. The refund will be issued for your current order with missing photos. I then spent another 5 hours recreating the book yet again and updating the front cover which had the wrong photo on it and all the other mistakes that I had updated on the 3rd February book I had made.
When I got to the checkout then the price was £20 plus postage more that the original book I had created in December 2022. Having sent 3 emails to Pastbook and not received a reply I’ve checked the link they sent me for the book and all the alternations I did on the 3rd and the again on 22nd have been lost again and the price hasn’t been adjusted and I still haven’t received a credit for the amount I paid on 3rd February.
What shall I do now what is the other company that does this would I have to recreate all the narrative again ? Who actually owns Pastbook? I presumed it was Facebook I was dealing with?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you
Hi Angie,
I’m sorry you have issues with Pastbook, they were once decent but seems something changed in 2022 and there’s a HUGE amount of complaints about them, either the quality is terrible or they simple didn’t deliver the photo books. And no refunds as well, apparently.
I didn’t dig into it, but I don’t think Pastbook is Facebook, they likely just leveraged the platform’s photo system for their business.
My suggestion would be to contact your PayPal or credit card company that you used to pay for these services, let them know about the possible (alleged) fraudulent activity, and you can even share this article or this video with them: https://youtu.be/GzN34AjxHrU
I hope this helps and good luck to you getting your money back!
Never got my book and they say it was delivered. Sill ask for a refund and if not given I will ask PayPal or my credit card to deal with it.
That’s a good idea to do, Marilyn!
After seeing so many Pastbook complaints, we’ve urgently the post, as well as created a video about it: https://youtu.be/GzN34AjxHrU — please spread the word!
We need to warn more people that something has changed with this company and they don’t seem to be fulfilling their duties.
I have received six lovely Pastbooks over the last few months that that I am delighted with, two of which my grown kids gifted me. We had no problems. Perhaps problems could be due to increased production?
Hi Barbara, thank you for sharing your experience!
Interesting thought – it could be one of the reasons indeed.
It’s still quite concerning why the company failed to refund/respond to people who left their complaints in the comments here.
And when they responded to my emails, they were generic, maybe even automated.
I don’t know what’s happening, but a lot of people saw issues with Pastbook.
Maybe it’s a temporary thing, and they will resolve any issues they may have.
Thanks for stopping by!