I can't get in touch with my photographer. Advice

mattncat2010

Hello! I cannot get in touch with my photographer. We did our engagement session two months ago and since receiving my pictures I have not been able to get a hold of him. Our wedding is in a little over 4 months and I'm starting to get worried that I'm going to end up with no photographer. Does anyone know legally what I can do? Please help, and please only advise if you know for a fact the advise you are giving is accurate. Thank you

ElisabethJoanne

If you want legal advice that you're assured is accurate, contact a licensed attorney and pay him his fees.

If you want friendly, free advice, keep reading.

What have you done to contact him? How many phone calls? E-mails? Have you tried both? Maybe one is down. Over how long a period? Maybe he's on vacation. It's a slow season for wedding photographers, good time for a vacation. Have you left messages, or just plain not been able to get any message to him?

In terms of contacting him, you're allowed to contact him however you can come up with. Use the contact info on your contract. Google him for his non-business contact info. Check social networking sites. Depending on your answers to my other questions, this might be rude, but it's legal.

If you think he's totally gone missing and want to hire a new photographer, your best route is to send a certified letter, return receipt requested, to the address on the contract. Say you will consider him in breach of your contract and will hire a new photographer unless you hear from him in the next 2 weeks. Keep a copy. If he contacts you, great. If not, you can hire a new photographer, and if he tries to collect on the contract, you can site the letter.

A certified letter usually has to be signed for, but the Post Office has left certified mail at my home with no signature, so it's not a fail-safe.

You can also do nothing, as chances are there was no continuing communication provision of your contract. Then if he doesn't show up on the wedding day, you can frantically hire a new photographer. Then sue the other photographer for the difference in price.

mattncat2010

I've tried phone calls as well as november. I've been trying to contact him since november with no luck. My weddding is in 4 and a half months so I'm already starting to panic that I won't have a photographer. At this point what we have decided to do is go ahead and send him a certified letter and if we do not hear from him within a few days of him receiving it, we are going to send another letter stating that we are breaking the contract. We are getting married in June which I know is a busy month so I can't wait forever to get another photographer. 

But I have tried to contact him through email, phone calls, even his personal facebook. My mother has emailed him as well. Every time I call I get his voicemail. I understand photographers have lives as well, but you do not just disappear and return no calls to one of your brides, especially when I'm paying you. 

I'm at the point that I just want to be done with him. We paid a deposit which I'm sure we won't get back, but I don't even care about the deposit because I don't want to work with someone who is completely unreliable. 

cliffordmatheson

A certified letter is a good idea - pay the extra couple of dollars and request "signature confirmation" which means the letter carrier has to get a signature to complete delivery.  If I were you, I would also go back to your notes on how you came to this photographer in the first place. If it was a referral from another vendor or another bride, go back to them and tell them what is happening and ask for their advice - maybe they have better access than you. Same goes for references you checked - do the same with them.  If you hired the photographer without a referral, without a background check or references - then you might be heading for a disappointing outcome. There are far too many scammers who do whatever it takes to get the full payment and then never show up. There are also some scammers who will show up, pretend to take the photos, get the final payment and never be seen again.  Do you have a contract?  If so, if you don’t get relief from the above suggestions, take it to your local consumer protection agency and ask for help. They have the law in their bag of tricks and can often help. There are also some local TV channels who investigate consumer problems.  Read your contract again, carefully.  Don’t wait for your wedding day.