Portrait Innovations |
| United States, Indiana |
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Consumer reviews about Portrait Innovations |
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IronMuffin
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Mar 11, 2012
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rude and rough
People who sit there and take it is what happened to customer service. Whatever happened to get up and walk out when presented with poor service?
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NotsoHappie
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Nov 14, 2012
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Portrait Innovations Portrait Innovations of Wesley Chapel deceptive marketing, false advertising, high prices, low quality, disaster
For several years now, we've used a local JCPenny (owned & operated by LifeTouch Photography) for all of our family portraits. We've been generally happy with that service which, on average, costs $80 and includes a TON of photos PLUS 40 holiday cards. We are also able to purchase at a constant/set price all of the HI-RES images on CD from JCPenny including a copyright release form. This November 2012, we decided to try something different.
At the Wiregrass Mall in Wesley Chapel FL, a new photo studio named "Portrait Innovations" opened for business. In summary, our experience was unsatisfactory. We will never return there nor recommend it to anyone.
Here's a list of reasons:
1) Overcrowded studio. The place was PACKED to the point it was severely distracting on several levels. (A) All the children waiting with their families were LOUD, playing in the centrally-located play area as well as (B) throwing balls / toys into the open photo rooms which were currently in-session by different families. (C) It was very difficult to focus on the package choice process, due to the noise level and other customer sitting nearby and staring at the large monitors with all of our personal data displayed (name, home address, phone, etc). In comparison with JCPenny, there was never more than three families present; the customer currently being photographed, the prior customer choosing their package, and the customer waiting to be photographed next. The JCP studio was ALWAYS quiet and well-mannered.
2) Deceptive marketing. We were enticed by a low-price ad of $14.95. While most ads are designed to lure customers, this one was completely deceptive. When we first sat down to review our photo session, the sales rep's first pitch was for all of the photos taken. Cost? $494.00 USD. I nearly fell off the chair and had to restrain myself not to get up and walk out. When we asked what the advertisement was offering, we were told it was "CHOOSE ONE POSE ONLY" and have it printed on the variety of formats offered in the ad. This was despite their shooting over 70 images during our session. We definitely feel this was a scam, especially in comparison to our prior years' experience with JCPenny Portrait Studio who never attempted such deceptive marketing measures.
3) Three shots per pose. They only shot three photos of each pose, even if someone blinked or one family member wasn't looking directly at the camera. There was no obvious on-the-spot checking to see if the photographer captured the intended shot. This was not the case with JCP who had a nearby monitor in which they reviewed each and every shot before moving onto the next pose.
4) No placement of subjects / blocking faces. We kept expecting the so-called photographer to place us or, at least, advise us to adjust our positions in reference to the shot and others in our group. This did not occur and, as a result, we had shots where one person was blocking a significant portion of another person's face which destroyed the shot. Again, this is contrary to our experience with JCPenny portraits.
5) No training. When I asked our young photographer where they were trained, they confessed to having NO professional or commercial photography experience prior to working for Portrait Innovations in Wesley Chapel FL at the Wiregrass Mall. They said that the studio offered some training but it focused more on the "protocol" (as they put it; meaning the 3-shots-only as discussed above) and the proprietary software and up-selling process that followed. While I understand that we all have our first job with little to no experience, this does fully explain the other complaints I have mentioned in this blog.
6) No retouching. While many (but not all) of the shots were decent, they all were raw. Neither the sales process nor automated software performed any retouching whereby a photo is "softened" or processed in a way that reduces the wrinkles, blemishes or other imperfections one would get while shooting at the HI-RES (10MB and above) quality that their professional cameras captured. JCPenny Portrait Studio offered this non-intrusive processing on our prior years' photos and it only enhanced the holiday images that were chosen in our package. For those not understanding what I mean here; the high-resolution photos are intelligently processed by software that recognizes eyes, teeth and other features which are then protected from the "softening" process, so as to retain the crispness of those features. When performed properly, it beautifies the overall photograph.
7) Deceptive CD. (A) The package came with a CD but it only contains the LOW-RES images from the session. Moreover, each digital image has a footer with the studio's name and website address. The studio "encouraged" us to share the low-res images on Facebook and other social websites, clearly at their gain, thanks to the embedded marketing on OUR paid-for photos. Fortunately, using simple and no-cost tools such as WWW. GETPAINT. NET, one can easily and quickly crop off the marking footer from these photos.
(B) Following suit with 7A, the CD contains encrypted versions of the hi-res images, in a file-format ".PI2".
8) Digital images are not retained. Session photo images are NOT available on-line for reordering. In fact, Portrait Innovations was quick to inform us that ALL of our photographs would be DESTROYED after we left the studio. Hence, the CD being the only copy of the session and, regardless of how much money one spent, the images would REMAIN encrypted and would therefore require additional purchasing to order more/different copies .. and all this by revisiting the studio with CD in-hand. This is VERY different from JCPenny Portrait Studio who otherwise provide ALL of the session images on CD - in BOTH high-res and low-res - INCLUDING a digital COPYRIGHT RELEASE thereby allowing the purchaser or their extended families to make copies at any printing facility of their choice such as Walmart, Walgreens, etc.
In summary, we would never again use Portrait Innovations photo studio in Wesley Chapel Florida (nor any other location). Moreover, we would not recommend Portrait Innovations to anyone who would also be upset by the aforementioned issues, should they likely occur during their session .. or by having their precious keepsake digital memories held ransom for a cost.
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malazaus0502
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Nov 14, 2013
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Very unsatisfied customer a loyal customer
I went today to have pictures done for my family as a surprise for christmas with my two daughters and my niece with the 12.99 special that was running and my sister had scheduled her pictures to be done for her daughter that day I originally had my pictures scheduled on sunday the 17th at 4 pm but since my sister was going to be there today I figured to save ourselves time and gas we would just have them done today and the lady we reserved the pictures with told us that would be ok that they were back to back and be able to use the coupons that we had no one ever told us just because my niece was in my picture my sister couldnt use the her coupon for her own session. The traveling manager at the store was very rude to me and just merely offered me the customer service number after 30 mins of talking to a CSR on the phone after repeadetly asking for a manager she reluctantly gave me one who in return made me go through my whole seneario once more and then was very rude and nasty to me talking to me like I was a complete idiot and that I was wasting her time on this call and she in return wanted to speak with the manager there at the time (whom that was the first time in all the years I have been going there had ever saw that individual) he took the phone and they were laughing about something and after about 10 mins of wasting my minutes on my own cell phone when he didnt even have the decencey to call the customer service number himself for me he handed me the phone back and walked away and never came back to me to say anything. In return the lady on the phone who claimed to be a manager still would not do anything to help me out to be able to get my photos for the promotional price they both in return were arrogant and extremely disrepectful. Any person who doesnt help a customer when in return it was a fault of theirs or employees should not be in management nor should be ever allowed to speak to customers on the phone. In return I wasted over 2.5 hrs there trying to get a simply situation resolved and in return never got any satisfaction but embarrasment and my blood pressure at its peak. Both indivduals were not at all helpful and treated me like I was just a nobody. I have been going there for years getting my portraits done I have referred several of my customers from my store there and many family and friends. But as of today i have posted on my facebook and other sites to all my friends family and customers to never return to your establishment and boycott such ignorance. The most disrespect I have ever encountered in my life I am a manager myself and the customer is always the one who is right and that simple adjustment could have been made instead it turned into a huge spectical that it didnt need to be and upon that you will have lost many customers and thousands of dollars in return I will post this in my working establishment and to anyone I know who have come there to have their photos done to never return for the disrespect I was shown today over a $12.99 special. So I hope that I do receive a response from you because I am very unsatisfied and upset and I will be going through every BBB that I can find in Ohio and in your Corporate office establishment to make sure this is addressed accordingly. No one should ever be treated in this manner it was very ridiculous and I let the manager know how upset I was before I left and what I intended to do and he acted like he could have cared less about the situation he just wanted to attend to his other customers in the store and wanted nothing more to do with me or my business.
My name by the way is Tanya Kemp my phone number to contact me personally is (330) 323-6469 Shenika (manager on the phone at customer service) Carl B. (traveling manager at the Massillon store) I do expect a call to be returned to me and some sort of compensation. I wanted to also tell you that as I was walking out with my family the whole establishment including the traveling manager and workers were all laughing at me and talking about me the whole time I was leaving the establishment. So I do expect something to be done about this because this was totally uncalled for in ever way.
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BeGe5912
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Jan 17, 2015
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bad bad bad
Had family photos taken while everybody home from all over US. Waited 15 minutes while workers visited in front of us while our 6 small kids had to wait. Had a horrible photographer, he had not one idea, kept asking what we wanted, at one time said I'm suppose to take 60 shots can you think of any? At first there was someone to help get kids to smile, but then a worker came and took him to help unpack boxes. I'm sure they were very important boxes. It was very difficult to complain at time, as this was a gift and didn't want to be ungrateful. When I went to pick up stuff I told manager about problems and he said yeah we had problems with that photographer and he is gone. I asked him to refund some of the money to the person who gave the gift and he said the only thing he can do is say he is sorry. Wow talk about poor customer service. He said we should have talked to him at the time, but he wasn't there and after 1 hour of being there the 3 babies wouldn't have been up for more photos, and there was no way to come back as people from all over US. Never go to Omaha location!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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thomassonya
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May 1, 2015
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Terrible customer service
The absolute worst customer service I have ever received. The lady, Jesica (Store manager) all but told us to shut the "f" up so she can finish talking because we did not want to buy all the pictures. Before I found out that she was the store manager I thought she was just a worker. I guess with a store manger being so rude what xan you expect from the store. When I called to make a complaint they said they would not call me back so that means the complaint is going nowhere!
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dlr6
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Sep 25, 2018
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Poor Customer Service
My family and I take family pictures every year at Portrait Innovations in Wyomissing, PA. Every year has been wonderful except this year. This year we experienced an extraordinarily long wait time, a photographer that clearly was not prepared with poses for our family of 5, staff that was dressed unprofessionally, no greeting upon entering or apology for the wait time but what was worse was my encounter with the "manager" Uniqua Baly. Ms. Baly was pushy and aggressive had a POOR attitude from the moment we walked in, did a poor job at explaining packages and pricing, became argumentative with me because I wasn't making selections fast enough as if it was my fault that she had the office over booked and understaffed. I had to remind her several times that I was a paying customer and that my family has gone to PI for several years to which she informed me that she had other appointments to tend to and that "EVERYONE comes there yearly to take family photos" as if my money was not needed or wanted. The experience was BEYOND terrible to the point that my family and I left without making a purchase. The best part (sarcasm) is that I asked Ms. Baly for her name and the number of her supervisor and she gave me the wrong number----- When you have to tell the manager of a place how to behave appropriately with customers - that means it's time to get a new manager. At this point, if Ms. Baly, remains employed at the PI in Wyomissing, PA I will take my business else where unless she is thoroughly re-trained in customer service. I'm not usually one to write reviews but this experience with Ms. Baly at PI was so RIDICULOUS I felt compelled to warn the public about her lack of professionalism. Considering the portraits are not cheap - customers ought to be treated FAR better.
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