What Would 3T Do? (Not IF Related)

limpetfan · December 2011

I am at my absolute wit's end - so I'm hoping someone here may have a good suggestion on what DH and I should do!

DH and I got married ~20 months ago. We hired a fancypants NYC photography studio for the wedding, and we were generally happy with the pictures. BUT... we STILL haven't received our wedding album!! We went to the studio after the wedding for an "album design meeting" with the head of the studio (during which we shelled out $300 more because we wanted extras in the album that weren't included in the package we paid for), and we were told our album would arrive in 6 months.

That was over a year ago.

DH and I have both made repeated attempts to contact the studio - phone, email, etc. - and we have received no response. Actually, that's not true, I got an email from the head of the studio once, around the time the album should have been delivered, saying they weren't doing well because of the economy, he'd had to let people go, so his production was behind, but we'd still be getting our album. After that, he stopped responding whenever we've tried to get a status.

My main issue is, in addition to having our money, this guy also has all our negatives (which we were promised once the album was complete), AND he has all the proofs of our favorite pictures - the ones we wanted to go in the album. I'd be perfectly happy at this point if he just refunded the album money and sent me the negatives and proofs, and I'll go get my own damn album made. But he won't respond, even when I left a message suggesting this.

We don't know what else to do -- the photo studio is in Manhattan, so it's not really feasible to just show up at their door (though maybe we should). We don't think it's enough money to go to small claims court, because a lawyer will cost more than that. All I want are my negatives! Any suggestions or ideas??? Anything???

honeygirl500 · December 2011

Yikes! That is so awful, I would be so upset. Maybe try reporting them to the BBB. Sometimes that strikes them into action as they feel like they are forced to do something to fix things. However, if they are going bankrupt, (and probably this depends on where you live) you might be out of luck.

If anything perhaps you can work out some sort of arrangment where you can receive the negatives in the very least. That is a horrible situation, I feel sad for you.

limpetfan · December 2011

honeygirl500:
Yikes! That is so awful, I would be so upset. Maybe try reporting them to the BBB. Sometimes that strikes them into action as they feel like they are forced to do something to fix things. However, if they are going bankrupt, (and probably this depends on where you live) you might be out of luck. If anything perhaps you can work out some sort of arrangment where you can receive the negatives in the very least. That is a horrible situation, I feel sad for you.

You know, this is something I never thought of until you suggested it!

veenuslal · December 2011

OMG, how totally unprofessional! I say, show up the studio, get your negatives and demand your money back. If he doesn't want to give you the money take the negatives and give them a horrible yelp rating.

Native+Girl · December 2011

You've got more tact that I do! I agree with the PPs. Report them to BBB and show up at their door! It's easy to ignore a voicemail, but it's a lot harder to ignore an angry bride!

Amyaggie97 · December 2011

I agree with the PP. Contact them by certified letter outlining your complaint and let them know that you if can not reach a resolution (negatives, money back, book, etc.) by X date then you will have no choice but to file in small claims court. Make sure you have decided between the two of you what will make you happy before you write the letter and go to court. Good luck.

kathrynlo · December 2011

Ugh! That is just horrible!

I would definitely do as previous posts have said and report them to the BBB. I would also try contacting them via certified letter making them have to sign for it. And make sure you keep a record of every single time you have contacted them, via phone, email or stopping by, and keep copies of emails, letters, etc. The more documentation you have the better.

I am not sure how feasible this is out your way, but here in Buffalo we had something similar happen with a wedding photographer. They called a local news station, where they take your complaints and follow up on them, its called "Call 4 Action." Once they did a news story, more couples came forward with the same problem. They original couple didn't end up getting their money back or the album, but they did get their negatives and proofs and another wedding photographer offered a discount to make their album. Just a thought, but having something like this brought up in the media seems to get people's butts moving.

Daisies1706 · December 2011

I'd leave a message for him saying that if you don't hear back within so many hours, you're calling the police. At this point he can be charged with theft in some states (Minnesota has a Theft by Swindle statute) and a lovely chat with policemen usually delivers fantastic results.

But I can be kind of an @sshole when people ignore my repeated complaints.

farmerlynda · December 2011

Ugh, what a pain! If I were you, I would write a don't-mess-with-me letter or email indicating my planned course of action: to file in small claims court and contact the BBB (and/or well-read wedding blogs). In the letter, outline the timetable and the number of times you have tried to contact the company: this shows you mean business, and would be useful if you decided to take it to small claims.

Use legal language (possible even citing relevant code), and make sure the letter is fairly formally written... this has always worked for me. It has even worked with huge companies like BofA who over the phone refused repeatedly to refund a fee that they had wrongly charged me -- one well written email promising to take them to small claims and explaining why I would win, and boom, I got my money back.

limpetfan · December 2011

Thanks for all the feed back, ladies. I'm definitely going to try a few of these suggestions!

maggie2324 · December 2011

I'm not trying to defend them because that's not right at all. When you run a business like that, customer service should be the most important thing. You should be getting a call back within 24 hrs... That's ridiculous!

Ok, so my sister is a photographer (has her own business) and so I kind of know how it is. Most likely, they're not trying to steal your money and they are honestly that far behind. Albums can take my sister over 10 hours to design and that's after the photo editing is complete. It's not like they have a full time person that can crank out 4 albums per week either.

I got married in April of this year and my sister was my photographer. I wanted her to design an album for me as a Christmas gift (I was going to pay cost for it) and she said 'no way!' I have yet to even get a CD of my pictures at full res... I have some Facebook quality ones from her and a bunch that other people took. Albums realistically can take a year or more for her to ship out to customers. I have no idea if your photographer takes tons of time to design an awesome album or not, but he may.

Anyway, it should be no problem to refund your album money if they don't have time to do it. My sister is always happy when people don't order an album because she doesn't even make much profit on them.

limpetfan · December 2011

maggie2324:
I'm not trying to defend them because that's not right at all. When you run a business like that, customer service should be the most important thing. You should be getting a call back within 24 hrs... That's ridiculous!
Ok, so my sister is a photographer (has her own business) and so I kind of know how it is. Most likely, they're not trying to steal your money and they are honestly that far behind. Albums can take my sister over 10 hours to design and that's after the photo editing is complete. It's not like they have a full time person that can crank out 4 albums per week either.
I got married in April of this year and my sister was my photographer. I wanted her to design an album for me as a Christmas gift (I was going to pay cost for it) and she said 'no way!' I have yet to even get a CD of my pictures at full res... I have some Facebook quality ones from her and a bunch that other people took. Albums realistically can take a year or more for her to ship out to customers. I have no idea if your photographer takes tons of time to design an awesome album or not, but he may.
Anyway, it should be no problem to refund your album money if they don't have time to do it. My sister is always happy when people don't order an album because she doesn't even make much profit on them.

If I had gotten married this year I'd totally agree with you about turn around time. I got married in 2010, though. It shouldn't take nearly 2 years for a professional (who charges clients >$6000) to provide an album... or at least a digital disc of pictures.

maggie2324 · December 2011

limpetfan:
maggie2324:
I'm not trying to defend them because that's not right at all. When you run a business like that, customer service should be the most important thing. You should be getting a call back within 24 hrs... That's ridiculous!
Ok, so my sister is a photographer (has her own business) and so I kind of know how it is. Most likely, they're not trying to steal your money and they are honestly that far behind. Albums can take my sister over 10 hours to design and that's after the photo editing is complete. It's not like they have a full time person that can crank out 4 albums per week either.
I got married in April of this year and my sister was my photographer. I wanted her to design an album for me as a Christmas gift (I was going to pay cost for it) and she said 'no way!' I have yet to even get a CD of my pictures at full res... I have some Facebook quality ones from her and a bunch that other people took. Albums realistically can take a year or more for her to ship out to customers. I have no idea if your photographer takes tons of time to design an awesome album or not, but he may.
Anyway, it should be no problem to refund your album money if they don't have time to do it. My sister is always happy when people don't order an album because she doesn't even make much profit on them.
If I had gotten married this year I'd totally agree with you about turn around time. I got married in 2010, though. It shouldn't take nearly 2 years for a professional (who charges clients >$6000) to provide an album... or at least a digital disc of pictures.

I completely agree! There's no reason not to have a disc of the pictures!!! I just wanted you to understand how much work goes into an album. There's also no reason they couldn't give you a revised timeline. Completely unprofessional! Calling the BBB is a great idea... I'd just give them a warning first.

Yes I got married in 2011... I have no idea if I'll even get my pictures in 2012 though... But it's my sister so a totally different situation. Oh and that economy excuse is a bunch of bull. Photographers make great money as long as there's work... It doesn't sound like your photographer has a shortage of work...

limpetfan · December 2011

maggie2324:
limpetfan:
maggie2324:
I'm not trying to defend them because that's not right at all. When you run a business like that, customer service should be the most important thing. You should be getting a call back within 24 hrs... That's ridiculous!
Ok, so my sister is a photographer (has her own business) and so I kind of know how it is. Most likely, they're not trying to steal your money and they are honestly that far behind. Albums can take my sister over 10 hours to design and that's after the photo editing is complete. It's not like they have a full time person that can crank out 4 albums per week either.
I got married in April of this year and my sister was my photographer. I wanted her to design an album for me as a Christmas gift (I was going to pay cost for it) and she said 'no way!' I have yet to even get a CD of my pictures at full res... I have some Facebook quality ones from her and a bunch that other people took. Albums realistically can take a year or more for her to ship out to customers. I have no idea if your photographer takes tons of time to design an awesome album or not, but he may.
Anyway, it should be no problem to refund your album money if they don't have time to do it. My sister is always happy when people don't order an album because she doesn't even make much profit on them.
If I had gotten married this year I'd totally agree with you about turn around time. I got married in 2010, though. It shouldn't take nearly 2 years for a professional (who charges clients >$6000) to provide an album... or at least a digital disc of pictures.

I completely agree! There's no reason not to have a disc of the pictures!!! I just wanted you to understand how much work goes into an album. There's also no reason they couldn't give you a revised timeline. Completely unprofessional! Calling the BBB is a great idea... I'd just give them a warning first.
Yes I got married in 2011... I have no idea if I'll even get my pictures in 2012 though... But it's my sister so a totally different situation. Oh and that economy excuse is a bunch of bull. Photographers make great money as long as there's work... It doesn't sound like your photographer has a shortage of work...

No worries - I knew what you were going for I side-eye this guy for pulling the economy card because he has 4 photographers working for him, and I KNOW they make good money because I had to pay it! Thanks for the insights!

hootie123 · December 2011

I gave you my thoughts on FB - but I would note that I made my own album in my publisher and it was so easy and turned out beautiful. I hope at least you can get the files.

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