Photographer Concerns :( (Update Page 12) x

Changing my mind again already. Been going over what you have all said and I'm thinking she needs to be cancelled still.

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I think we will to Rhys. Going to speak to a new TOG tomorrow then deal with current one.

Mrs C makes a good point. The photographers contract may well specify that they are the sole pro tog.....IF you change this for any reason then you "may" be in breach of the contract......and thereby not eligible for any refund.

Apologies, I have been missing from the forum for a week on a major project and should have posted more about this earlier....I always promise my couples that I will be available at the end of a phone or email to answer anything that may worry them...its part of the peace of mind process that I like to give couples in the run up to their day....

Peter

In truth, yes. I have often received messages from vendors and friends asking me to "like" their pages. I believe that any likes worth anything are those that come from people that aren't liking your page just because they are friends with you or in a group which shares likes around to boost their stats.....

You can buy fb likes, twitter followers and pinterest pins. If the demand is there you can buy anything.

I wouldn't trust anything you see on the internet which is why it's good practice to put as much out as you possibly can about yourself.

Even the big boys are using dirty tricks. I had Georgina Ullah, media sales executive from Confetti.co.uk pretend to be a guy called Alex in order to fake an inquiry so as to harvest my email address. 8 hours later they sent me a media pack.

But that's a different story, for another day, for a separate thread. I'm still very angry about that and am waiting to calm down a bit before I do a big online thing about it.

Thanks all.

We are cancelling.

Got to back track on my 'will give you the benefit of the doubt' I said last night.

Within 10 minutes I knew we had made a mistake but I was just too worried about losing our money.

My wedding photos are not worth it, even if I do lose the money.

The money paid is not worth it compared to never receiving my photos / regretting this.

Don't know whether to go in with a 50% back (so she keeps 50% deposit) or push for full refund.

It is her own fault after all, but I think its pretty unlikely we will get it all back now.

Hi,

I think you're doing the right thing, if you don't cancel it'll just be something that worries you in the run up to your wedding day.

If you're also having doubts about whether the quality of her work is good enough for what you're paying, then that's a good reason to cancel too.

I doubt you'll get your deposit back, but you could always try pushing for a full refund and if not just say you want 50%.

Ali x

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Thanks.

Will keep you all posted!

If anyone has any tips about what I should definitely include in our cancellation notice let me know.

I've never actually done this before :-/

So far its a big rambling list !

Version:1.0 StartHTML:**** EndHTML:**** StartFragment:**** EndFragment:****

I wanted to try to give you the benefit of the doubt but on further reflection, I can't. Even since speaking to you, to be honest, my concerns have not been calmed. I'm a nervous wreck that your going to continue to provide the service that you have been, which is not satisfactory.

You are more than aware that I have been to arrange our first consultation meeting. I contacted you in various different ways to try to do this. You knew I was trying to contact you on Facebook, as you eventually e-mailed me to say you “couldn't open the messages” and advised me to e-mail instead. I did that, and you ignored me by e-mail then too. If your not available or having problems with all of your contact details then you need to make your customers aware of that. The lack of communication on your part is completely unacceptable, regardless of the reasons you have for it. Customers don't pay suppliers to then be worried that they won't be able to get hold of them / pursue the service they have paid for.

I arranged two appointments which you cancelled. You didn't do anything to try to re-arrange them, and ignored my attempts to do so. You could have called us to re-arrange but you didn't, instead you decided to ignore it and let it get to this stage.

Yesterday morning you would have known I was concerned by the direct message I sent. You could have easily spent 1 minute to reply and say 'I will get in touch later' but you didn't. Instead you let me think that it was going to be ignored just like all the other attempts.

As for the other feedback I have heard, I just think it is extremely convenient that we are all having the same problem. As for them now being 'happy' – I disagree, I think relieved is a much more appropriate word.

I know that we have an argument here to have all of our monies refunded and I will pursue this if I need to. Please can you acknowledge receipt of this message and advise when you will refund the £775.00 we have paid. I will not take this further, advise anyone that we booked and had to cancel, and leave any negative feedback anywhere as long as our monies are refunded in a timely fashion.

I will be sending a letter to your home address saying the same as the above by recorded delivery.

Sounds fine - re the refund though I'd ask for this within a certain time period - perhaps 28 days, her idea of a timely fashion may be different to yours...

After that paragraph I'd add something along the lines of "If you do not return our payment within this time period we will be forced to pursue our claim via the Small Claims Court."

Also second paragraph you've missed out a word think you meant to put "You are more than aware that I have been trying to arrange"

Hope that helps a bit, no doubt you'll get some advice from others soon too ?

Thanks very very very much. Will add that all in.

I'm just sending you something I found which might explain some things OP...

I think that sounds good. If I'm not too late, just a slight spelling error and a slight addition:

If you're not available or are having problems

Cringe! Thanks Kharv :-)

Ha no worries

I would perhaps delete the reference to the small claims court as there is no such thing anymore. Instead you could say something like 'if I have not received a full refund of monies paid within 14 days I will be making a money claim against you through the county court without further notice to you'.

I worked in law for a long time.

Sorry my mistake - didn't realise that was the case. Thanks Rochelle ?

No worries . It's all dealt with by one central court now and it's very simple to make a claim. All done online by filling out a short form and everything is done automatically, although you are given dates when to take the next steps.

Lit should be very easy to make a claim this way but let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Thanks Rochelle. Do you think we could actually do this if we needed to? I don't know if she's stumped us with it by replying yesterday? Although surely lots of people who get taken to the county court do the same - don't provide a service then as soon as someone threatens legal action they try to provide it but its too little too late?

Sent.

I feel nothing but relief!

Its been read.

Isn't it funny how active they are on facebook now... when before it always seemed to be broken for them!

Fingers crossed we get the response we should (full refund agreed) and quickly.

Thanks Nessa. Sorry to hear you have been having problems too.

Well I have been reading this thread for past few days and from what you have said and received back I'm of the opinion that you are def doing the right thing... It's just a shame that you have had this awful experience for a occasion which should be far from what you have had to deal with.

The fact you have paid £700 something up front is a awful lot of money...it is to me anyway, and for someone to act like that with such a great responsibility is very sad, not just for yourself but for the fact she's not understanding how very important role she has in a couples memories of the day, for anyone in the wedding buisness her morals alongside her attitude to customer relation is shocking, and maybe she should stick to taking pictures of flowers or something.i know you have stated in your letter about not using negative feedback etc against her if she pays full refund back, but I do think its important other brides are aware..not sure how that could be done, but lets hope they read hitched !

Good luck on your quest for a new photography I hope this is a lesson learnt said women

There's nothing at all to stop you making a money claim. If you don't get anywhere then I would write a formal letter giving her 7 days notice that you intend to make a claim. Then if you don't get anything go ahead with the claim if you feel you want to. If you want the wording for the letter just drop me an email. I won't be around until Tuesday though as I have a family funeral in London to go to.

Thanks. I know what you mean RE feeding back to other brides but I'm hoping this might be a bit of a boot for her to sort herself out. Also, I knew it would be a good argument to get our money back! As we could do a lot of damage with word of mouth really. I wouldn't want to be the reason for someone's business collapsing though :-/ but obviously I hope no-one else has problems.

UPDATE:

I've had a response that was kind of reiterating excuses and urging me to meet her to rebuild the trust. Funnily, she explained how she had already told me why the other clientS had problems, then said to me to speak to someone who is using her for a wedding later in the year as she is sure they will reassure me etc (I know this person which is why they specified them). I've already spoken to her! She is one of the people who I told you all about RE having to chase her a million times with no response. As she said 'problems with clientS' - and I only know of this person (who the TOG obviously doesn't think has a 'problem') plus one other there is obviously even more than I know of (which I figured anyway).

She said if I still don't want to go ahead then there will be no arguments over a refund.

I've said a meeting won't change the experience I've had (I wanted to say if you had just done the meeting in the first place we wouldn't be having this problem!) and I want a refund, along with saying how I thought it was for the best as both parties need to be comfortable etc and I don't think that is possible now.

Waiting for her to get in touch to discuss how / when I'll be refunded. Not holding my breath until I have it in my bank.

On another note! I have an appointment with another TOG tomorrow - they look A-M-A-Z-I-N-G ! And what a turn around in terms of setting up the appointment, only enquired last night. Thats the sort of service I like!!!!

FURTHER UPDATE:

I'm being sent three cheques to cover our refund on Tuesday this week that I can put into the bank on the last Friday of the month. Not sure why I'm getting three? Different bank accounts?

Thanks Rochelle, hoping it won't be necessary but will see what happens in the next 24 hours.

Sorry to hear about the funeral x

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It is! :-D Redeemed herself by refunding. I would have gone to town on this otherwise I think, I know what I'm like!

Thank you all SO much for your support and advice on this.

I don't think we would have pushed for a cancellation etc without you all encouraging it and I cannot tell you how happy I am that we have!

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