FAQ

What is the process for working with Packrat?

1. Schedule an appointment to drop off your media in person.
2. Bring all of your media to your appointment. We'll give you a detailed price estimate with a timeline for completion. We publish all of our pricing right on the website, so there won't be any surprises. We'll get started once you approve the estimate.
3. We do the work!
4. We'll send you examples for approval. Once you approve, we'll send you an invoice.
5. As soon as you pay the invoice we will deliver your digital files.

I'm not located near Chicago. Can you still help me?

Yes. While our neighbors are our favorite customers, we are still happy to work with people located elsewhere. Don't schedule an appointment on the calendar, though. Give us a call and we'll talk through your project.

How can you deliver my files?

We can deliver the files onto storage drives you provide, like a USB drive, or we can load them directly into a cloud storage provider like Google Drive, iCloud, or OneDrive.

We can also provide you with a USB drive, but Illinois laws require that we charge sales tax (10%) on the entire service. You can avoid paying sales tax if you bring your own media or use a cloud storage provider. We're not happy about it either.

Can you convert ____ to ____?

Maybe! Give us a call and we'll see what we can do.

Do you use AI to perform your services?

In some cases, yes. Transcription, image restoration, and audio restoration are great applications of AI technology. We try to use this technology responsibly, efficiently, and ethically. If you have specific concerns about our use of AI we're happy to discuss them.

We did use AI to generate the illustrations for this website. We edited away most of the silly mistakes but a few remain. For example, the rotary phone above has too many holes.

Do you offshore, outsource, or subcontract your work?

No. We do everything from our Northbrook, IL facility. We're a small independent business and intend to stay that way.

Are you a legit business, or is this a scam?

If you have read this far, you can probably guess the answer by now. Give us a call, we're nice folks.