While visiting my local grocery store a couple of months ago, I was approached by a seemingly nice girl who was advertising a "special" for a portrait studio company called United Studios of America. She told me that they were having a special, a $99 package for only $10! It seemed worth it, for such a low price, and I figured, why not? I had been wanting to get my daughter's pictures taken that week, and this seemed way too good to be true. I paid my $10, and was told to come back in a week at a scheduled time. So, I did just that.
I came back to the grocery store a week later at the scheduled time, and when I got there, I was appalled to find that the 'set' was apparently held in a very tiny, dirty, and cramped employee breakroom. I had to pay a $6 sitting fee to sit in a small, uncomfortable plastic chair outside the room, while holding my restless 11-month-old daughter in my lap. There were people in front of me who were having their kids' pictures taken, so I ended up waiting around for well over twenty minutes, even though I was scheduled at a very specific time. When it was time to have my daughter's pictures taken, we went in to the breakroom and I noticed that the backdrop that they had set up was very dirty and full of dark, clearly visable stains. I even asked the photographer if they would appear in the photo, and she said that they "edit them out". The photographer rushed through taking my daughters pictures, and didn't even get her to smile once, which was surprising because my daughter always smiles for pictures. Overall, it was a terrible experience at that point. I left, deeply regretting my decision to have my daughter's pictures taken there, but figured the worst was over. As it turned out, I was wrong.
I received a phone call some time that week to come pick up my daughter's pictures at said time and date, which I thought was a little odd. I figured I would've been able to simply pick up her pictures whenever.
So, I arrive at the 'scheduled' time and had to wait in line for forty minutes, and there were only two people ahead of me. I wondered why it took so long to pick up photos, because I had expected to show up, pay, and leave. Finally, when it was my time to pick up my pictures, I sat down and this girl pulled out a vanilla folder. She pulled out two sheets, one large sheet with my daughter's portrait, and then another sheet with a 4" x 6" and some wallet sized photos. She said that this was what my "special" — which was $10, plus a $6 sitting fee — covered. I was a bit disappointed because I knew that they had taken better photos of her, and it's as if they picked the worst one to be the one that I got for the special price. Then, the girl whipped out a ton of other photos that they took of my daughter, including a calendar and little "Seasons Greetings" cards. They were all, for the most part, adorable, except for this one where my daughter made the most awkward face. It reminded me of a really bad school picture, one where you accidentally blink, or look away from the camera. This is the part where I started to see what they were trying to do. The girl told me about a "package deal" they were offering, that came with three enormous canvas-sized portraits, and all of the pictures. She told me that most studios charge over $1,600 for the package, but today she would charge $600-and something. My eyes bugged out of my head. I declined, and said that I really wasn't interested in the canvas portraits. Honestly, I thought they were a bit ugly, but I didn't want to be rude and admit that. So the girl asked if that was too much for me, and I said yes. She then said, "Well what about this..." and basically told me what it would be if they took one of the canvas-sized photos out. I declined again, and she took another one out. Finally I said, "Look, I really am not interested in these, I just want her regular pictures." I could tell the girl was starting to get annoyed, which really began to tick me off. She began having a frustrated tone in her voice. I asked how much my pictures would be, and this is where my jaw dropped — $25 a sheet! I was in disbelief. "What?! Sears doesn't even charge that much!" I exclaimed. She then began to tell me that "Yeah, Sears is a lot cheaper and we can't compare to that, but ours is much better quality." Whatever! I started to realize exactly what they do. They are scammers. They draw you in with a seemingly hard-to-pass-up deal. You're supposed to get a large picture, then some wallet sizes and a 4" x 6" for only $10, which seems great, but they take a ton of other pictures as well. Then they pick the worst one, and make that the one you receive at the special price. Then they lay out all of the other (better and more adorable) photos in front of you to tempt you. They know that it's hard for somebody, especially a parent having their children's portraits done, to say no, so they try to sell you all of them at ridiculously high prices. At this point, I was so mad I wanted to cry, because I really wanted all of the pictures, but I wasn't willing to pay $380 for them. That was just too much. I told her that I will just keep the one my deal covers, and buy one more sheet, my favorite one.
At this point the girl was getting flustered. I whipped my checkbook out to ask her who to make the $25 out to, and that was when she said, "Wait, I'll tell you what. I don't do this that often, but I'll do this for you today. I will cut the price in half and give it to you for this..." and what was originally over $380 became $160. Honestly, that was still a bit high but much more reasonable considering all of the pictures it came with. I ended up agreeing, mainly because I wanted to get the heck out of there. I couldn't say no, how could I? It's like they dangle all of these adorable pictures of your kid in front of you, knowing you're going to end up buying them. But when they saw that I was about to walk out of there, and that they ended up wasting all of their money printing out all of these pictures for nothing, that's when they succumbed to their last resort and cut the price.
What a scam. I cannot begin to tell you how ticked off I was when I left. Never again. Next time, I'm going to Sears. Every aspect of this experience was horrible and unprofessional, from the photographer, to the room they took the pictures in. I was livid, and even filed a complaint through the grocery store's main office. It seriously felt like being at a used car dealership, how they try to "haggle" you with the price. I don't want to leave this alone. I want to let everybody know how much of a rip-off they were. Never do business with these people, ever!
Melissa
Tolleson, Arizona
U.S.A.
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