My wife and I brought our daughter in for Christmas photos. We did not get started until at least 30 minutes after our appointed time. The actual photos turned out well, and the photographer did a good job. However, these were the only positive remarks I have about this studio.
When the photos were done, we were rushed over to a desk area with a large LCD screen. After waiting another 20 minutes, another lady (seemed to be a manager) came over to go through the photos with us. She rushed through the photos so fast I wasn't sure I wanted to stay for the rest of the visit. However, the $9.95 offer seemed pretty good, so we toughed it out.
The typical bait-and-switch scam ensued, with the first price of pictures starting around $199 or so. My wife and I paid about $1100 for our wedding photos, and to put this in perspective, we have posters, tons of pictures, digital rights to the photos, all of the digital photos, DVD slide shows, a photo book, and the photographer spent 6 hours at the wedding and 2 hours in a pre-wedding session before. For about 1/10th of the cost, Portrait Innovations is trying to sell us less than 10 poses, only about 10-15 printed photos, and NO rights to the digital photos.
In addition, the picture-showing lady would not budge one bit on packages. I have absolutely no use for 36 wallet photos of the same picture. Families like big pictures to put on the wall, and *maybe* a few wallet size photos. None of the packages were personalized for our family, and each photo outside of a package deal is $15, or 3 for $24.
I can print a photo at Walgreen's, with the same quality, for $2.99. Why on earth would I go back to a company that wants to charge me 5x what it really cost?
I would buy the full resolution photos on a CD for $100. But since they give me no option to, I will NEVER go back to this company. The hassle of being rushed, the proprietary business model, and the outrageous prices are more than enough to stay away.
Needless to say, this is one customer that will not be returning and will actively ensure that friends and family stay far away.
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