Extremely Irate at Photographer

visualfx

One of my first posts here. I guess it's partly to vent, and partly to ask for suggestions. Here's the scoop:

Met our photographer at a wedding show. Talked to the actual photographer and owner of the company for over 2 hours, left and came back to talk to her for another hour. Did some research, found a few reviews on the company. So we decide to book with her. She was really insightful and friendly and appeared to be the real deal.

Fast forward to engagement photo session. We took our engagement photos at the end of October. We went in for a viewing and weren't really that impressed with the few that were decent to frame from someone who did this professionally. Not a huge deal, we can get over that. However, it took over 2 weeks to get them onto her website for us to look at and decide which ones we wanted to use for our Save The Dates (Which she was supposed to take 2 of our choices and use them for the STD's). Again, not a huge deal. No response to phone calls or emails until beginning of December. We've confirmed again which pictures we wanted to be used. Here it is a month and a half later, and still no STD's. We are getting married in May so STD's really are useless at this point. We still have not received word. She texted back twice randomly at 11:30 PM (Who texts their clients this late!?!?) saying she would call the following day. Has done that twice but does not follow through. We have emailed her several times, called the studio and her cell phone numerous times leaving voice mails. We do not want to be a pest, but for the money we have paid for their services, this customer service SUCKS! Anyone else in a similar predicament? Suggestions? If this is the crappy service we are getting now, we are paranoid what kind of service will be used at our wedding. We also need our guestbook created with photos from our engagement session which will obviously take time as well. Who knows how long that will take to get done? Always interesting to read others posts on here. Hopefully you ladies (and guys) can help us out. Thanks!

photokitty

How much have you paid her - i.e. more than you are willing to lose? 

I would be very concerned about her unprofessionalism. Once she takes the photos you are at her mercy. If there is any issue you can sue and get your money back, but that's not what you want - you want good photos in a timely manner.

I would see about my option to cancel - realizing it probably means forfeiting the deposit - and booking someone else who is more reliable and can pro due the level of work you are looking for.

Sorry, that sucks. GL!

visualfx

We have been making payments monthly so the majority of the package price is paid for. Just wondering if anyone else has been through similar circumstances.

photokitty

Sadly circumstances like this are really apples to oranges unless you can talk to someone who has worked with this specific photographer. Again I would be very concerned and I would make this known to her. I would not pay her any more money until you get things resolved - bt it sounds like that's not going to be much help sorry

visualfx

We can't make anything known to her. She doesn't answer our calls regardless of which number we call or time of day that we call. She doesn't return calls from the voice mails we have left. And she doesn't return emails. She is basically unreachable. We are going to go to her studio and see if that gets any results. Otherwise all we can do now is contact the local news station who does stories on crappy companies and tries to get consumers their money back and filing a small claims suit against her. Who knew this is what we would be stressing out about 4 months before our wedding.

HisGirlFriday13

I would call her one more time and say, "If we do not hear from you by X date, with XYZ competed, we will be taking legal action."

I would also already be shopping for other photogs, because I would be HELLA nervous to have this chick shoot my wedding. 

Jen4948

HisGirlFriday13 said:

I would call her one more time and say, "If we do not hear from you by X date, with XYZ competed, we will be taking legal action."

I would also already be shopping for other photogs, because I would be HELLA nervous to have this chick shoot my wedding. 

All of this.  Since she couldn't be counted on before your wedding, I wouldn't want her to shoot your wedding-especially if you have to threaten her to get her to follow through on what she's already shot.