Nearly 5 months later, and I'm still fighting with the photographer. Sorry I just need to vent...
With my photography package, I was supposed to get 1 album, 30 "units" towards enlargements, and a composite photo. So at the end of January, I compiled a list of everything I wanted in the album, the composite, and the enlargement and shipped it off to them via email. We've communicated through email before, so I thought it was OK.
Well, 2 weeks goes by, no response. I call them, and they said the girl managing email no longer does. It's a new girl now, but they found my email and they are working on my order. I should hear something within 2 weeks.
Well, two weeks goes by, still nothing. It's now the beginning of March. H and I go on our cruise, and we still haven't heard anything from them. So I call and call. Finally, March 22nd the girl I spoke to in February answers and I ask her where my order is. She says, "There was an issue with the composite, but it's being worked out and should be another 1-2 more weeks."
3 weeks go by, I send an email -- with a read receipt. I get the read receipt, but no response to my email. I called on Thursday, but they didn't answer or they weren't open. So I called yesterday afternoon, no answer.
Finally, I called today and got the owner of the company. He had never even seen my composite photo, and there was still a problem with, and it never got worked out. Nobody called me to tell me that there was an issue, so I assumed everything was fine.
So then he starts telling me how this girl is trying to work 2 jobs, not giving him 100% and customers like me are getting forgotten about. And proceeded to tell him that he was going to fire her over this.
Really? I don't want to be responsible for getting someone fired!
Just seems highly unprofessional to me. Argh...
/vent
Re: Vent: Photographer
If she's doing all those things that her boss says she's doing, then she deserves to be fired, and it's not your fault in the slightest. So don't you dare feel guilty about it.
I would give him one last chance to make it right. If you don't get your photos in the next two weeks, then I would send him a letter and CC it to the Better Business Bureau. This is unacceptable, he is the boss and you are a client and he should damn well be living up to his contract.
Books read in 2012: 21/50
I agree with Baystate - it's not your fault that the girl might get fired. You never know, he could have been making up the story to divert blame for the severe delay that you've had (and others, too, presumably.)
Give him this last chance to make it right, again like Bay said, and then move the issue forward. It's been too long with too many chances.
Sorry you have to go through all of this!
Thanks ladies. This makes me feel better. I'll definitely contact the BBB if I don't hear anything within the next week like he promised.
Thanks for listening
Just another vent... feel free to ignore me. Haha. They sent me a mock-up of the 11x14 composite photo. And I hated it. They took one of the pictures and cut-off half of DH's head. The font was hard for me to read, and there was an issue with the border that I couldn't get over. So I called them and asked them to change 3 things about it, and it'd be great.
The owner had me talk to the girl who'll be doing the actual changes. I'd tell her one thing I wanted to change, and she sounded like she wanted to get off the phone. But I didn't let her hang up until I explained all three. She said, "Ok you want the border changed, the font changed, and make it so your husband's head isn't cut-off. Got it."
About an hour later, they sent me another proof... They fixed the border, but the font and DH's head were still wrong... I just keep thinking, "This is going to be hanging in my house for 50+ years, I don't want DH's head cut-off!"
Here's the first proof:
Here's the 2nd proof:
Am I being ridiculously picky??? (sorry it's too big, you have to scroll
)
Font is a matter of taste... I neither love nor hate this one, but there are some I can't stand.
But I think most people do want their husband's head in their framed wedding photos LOL! I saw someone's wedding photos (as in the ones they had up at home) where they had the back of the groom's head and only half his face. I noticed it, found it strange, and speculated that the bride was egotistical.
without tooting my vendor horn, i am "in this industry" and this is NOT okay! this is easy to fix - increase the vignette border to fit your husband in better (or...if all else fails...reduce the size of the image) and drop some of the wording down and around the base of the photo - there is TONS of room at the base in which they can work with.
you are exactly right that this is something you paid for to share in your home for the rest of your life - in my opinion you should find a way to get in touch with the owner of the business and use him/her as your main point of contact moving forward. i wouldn't even entertain communicating with the rest of his employees who are clearly not doing what they need to be doing. as the owner, it's the least he/she can do for you considering the ridiculous circumstances that have been occurring!
i really hope this gets better for you - i have to admit that even as a member of this industry i had to wait almost four months just to get my cd of images and i was NOT a happy camper.