Hi
I'm looking for some advice as the photographer we initially booked is not responding to my phone calls or emails.
We met this photographer at the Bluewater wedding exhibition earlier this year. We initially liked him and arranged to meet with him for a consultation. He was happy to come out to visit us in west London, he is based in Kent, to discuss what services he could provide. He did photography and videography which was good for us as we were looking for both and at the time it made sense for it be covered by the same company. We talked though the packages and thought that we liked him, in the heat of the moment and feeling quite excited that we were moving along with the plans we agreed to book him and paid a large deposit for both the photography and video, we did not sign the contract however. Later that day I realised that we had not seen the terms and conditions and was not entirely convinced that I was happy with the work, he says he uses a number of wedding photographers and videographers to cover the weddings and that they work with Brit Asia quite a lot but I was not happy with the quality of photos.
I contacted him the following day asking him for clarification on matters, he said he would be able to get back to me a few days later as he was covering a wedding. I rang him on the Monday, i was still waiting for him to respond, to discuss the concerns I had, as we were yet to see any video footage and asked for the terms and conditions on the contract. He was quite surprised that I had asked for the terms and conditions and said that people don't usually ask for these and that they are not usually sent out. I enquired about the cancellation policy, he said he would be flexible but it sounded like he don't know what his own policy was, he said it would be difficult to cancel if it was a month or so before the wedding date, but would be able to work something out if there was more time, I then said what if I told him the following day that I wanted to cancel, he was taken back and said he would talk to me tomorrow and hung up. I grew increasingly concerned and emailed him the following morning to put the cancellation in writing and seeing as we were still in the cooling off period requested, for a full refund of the monies paid 7 days before. I contacted the Guild of Photographers, as according to his paperwork he is a master craftsman, and found out that he not a current member at all. I have phoned and emailed the photographer numerous times and written to him expressing my concerns and that he has acted unlawfully and he has not responded, I contacted citizens advice and followed their advice of writing again, to which I still had no response. The only option I see at the moment is getting a lawyer involved. The concern I have with this is that we would need to pay for this and could potentially be putting additional funds into resolving this when we have a wedding to plan and property to buy.
Over the two months this has taken place it has been been very frustrating to try and resolve, I find it very unprofessional of him to not contact us at all even to acknowledge the cancellation and that he has misrepresented himself as an elite member of an association.
I would appreciate of any advice you can give in how we can take this forward. I feel we have been treated very unfairly.
Many thanks
