Hi everyone
i would really appreciate some other people's opinion on the situation that me and my husband are now in!
we got married on 22 July. We paid £575 for our photographer to take pictures of us getting ready up to the speeches. Before the wedding we gave have a list of the pictures we specifically wanted at her request. There were two photographers there on the day and they were lovely girls.
i hadn't heard from her for a while and I messaged her on 15 August just to see if she had an idea of when we could expect our photos. She told me that everything was fine and I would get them in a couple of weeks obviously we were both really excited.
Then on 17 September she sent me a message on Facebook saying that our photos were ready to view online. She very flippantly also mentioned that her memory cards got corrupted and so the pictures that were taken outside of the church were wiped. What this actually means is that all of the group photos were gone plus the pictures from the ceremony. This now means that we do not have a single photo of us and/ or our family. At this point she was still hopeful that she may have been able to get them back. She then messaged me a couple of weeks later saying she couldn't get them back and I asked her to send the cards to me. My cousin had a look at them and he is a bit of a genius when it comes to computers and their corrupted files were not even on the cards. The cards have been used since our wedding and he thinks overwritten our pictures. I asked her if she has the corrupted files anywhere else and she said she does not.
we have both found this situation extremely stressful as she hasn't even been particularly sorry about the situation. Her initial message to me contained no kind of apology at all. It took me to point this out to her to actually get an apology from her.
she has provided us with 400 photos. 100 of these are just of random things, there are about 10 of me and my husband and the rest are of me getting ready and of random guests. A lot of them are duplicate. There is not a single picture of us with any of our family. There is not even a picture of me my husband and my step daughter! The reality is, the pictures we have received are album page fillers, we can't do anything with them. I also feel so cross and upset about the situation now that I can't even look at them without getting upset.
Initially she offered us £150 back. This then went up to £250. Considering that she has not provided us with a single picture on our requirements list I have asked for a full refund. She has said that this isn't fair because it wasn't her fault. I can't help but feel that it was because she obviously didn't back our photos up at all. I also think she is being untruthful about what has actually happened - of my cousin had the corrupted files he would be able to get them back! There were also two photographers taking the same pictures, I can't help but feel that it would be extremely bad luck and very unlikely that both cards would become corrupted at the same time?! I would also feel very different about everything if she had dealt with it differently. She has made no other offers, for example another shoot or even offering to edit guests photos. The only photos we are actually happy with are the ones of me getting ready. I therefore accepted that she made of £435. She is now however saying that before she gives us this she wants to send the cards to the manufacturer to see if they can recover them. She said if they cannot she will pay the money back to us in instalments! This has obviously made me very cross because I didn't pay her in instalments! I have told her that I will send the cards back to her when we have received the payments. Of course the photos are worth much more than the money to us but we have completely lost faith in her and of getting them back!
any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!