Bad experience at The Picture People!!

[papal]

Ok, so we get this coupon in the mail from The Picture People . For 0-3 months you get a free sitting and a free 8x10. Since i had never done a professional photo of Leela before i decide to take her thinking it might be fun. Stupid me.
I make an appointment for Saturday which is probably a mistake on my part because obviously there are going to be more people on a weekend. Anyway, they tell me to come in at 6.50. We get there in time and have to wait for atleast 45 mins. When our turn finally arrives Leela is hungry, bored, tired, dirty and sleepy. So i feed and change her. So now we have to wait another 20 minutes. When our turn arrives (again), the photographer is pretty grumpy and goes on about how her day has been so long etc. Anyway, she takes pics and is able to get Leelee to smile a couple of times. She keeps insisting we shoot some Valentine pics with some heart shaped foam things that say 'Be Mine'. I say NO and she looks at me like i am crazy. 'How about a purple backdrop?' she asks. 'It will make Laila look like royalty'. First of all its LEELA. Second of all, my child is not royalty and i dont want her looking like royalty and can you give me the black background like i have been asking for the last five minutes please?????
We finally go home and come back the next day at 1.00. The pics are supposed to be ready the day before but are not. So we have to wait an hour. The pretzel place is conveniently next door and i drown my frustration in a big cinnamon pretzel. We go back and when we get the pics, half the shots are missing. The ones with the black background that i wanted are not there. I ask the photographer and she is like 'i know they are there.. i will look them up for you after my shoot'. And wait another 45 mins!! I dont think so. I ask the manager and he does not find the pics!!!! He shows us all the negatives he has and talks down to me like i lost the negatives or something!! Hello! You wasted my freaking weekend you inefficient people!!! Finally, i just take the one free pic that we get and they give me attitude that i am wasting their time for not buying anymore!!! EXCUSE ME!!! _I_am wasting YOUR time???? And then they want me to buy some kind of package for free sittings for a year!!! HAHAHAHAHAH! Morons!I wanted to kick the guy iyou-know-where but stopped myself.
Stupid Picture People. Never ever will I go back there again. I will pay thru my nose and get a professional photographer in the future!! Or just take pics myself... i think the pics i take turn out just as good. Plus they are candid and not posed shots.

Phew, feel better now that i have vented!!

ETA: Here is the picture. Leela is looking off to the side (where i was standing), giving a fake smile and i think her expression says 'mom, get me the hell out of here'. heehee.
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/2511.jpg

Rashmi
(mom to Leela, born 10.17.03)

[deborah_r]

Sorry you had a bad time! That sure makes me not want to go to Picture People!

I'm kind of surprised they gave you an appointment in the evening with a baby. Not generally baby's happiest hour anyway. I can't believe how ruse and unprofessional they were.

The only experience I ahve so far is with Sears. I was dreading it, but it turned out OK. Our appointment was on a Saturday and they hardly made us wait at all, just a few minutes. And the woman was very nice. I was worried because it just seems like those places are so impersonal...our pictures came out OK, not great, but I wasn't expecting great so that was OK.

I hope your next experience is better!! And Leela looks very cute but the picture is not so good, I agree.

[Melanie]

I'm sorry. I've had mixed luck with them as well. For some reason they can't center the photo to save their lives, either. If there's a few of us it is without a doubt that someone's foot will be cut off and there's 3 feet of blank on the other side.

[mamahill]

We have a "No Picture People Policy" at our house. They are owned by Hallmark and when you have your picture taken there, you sign away all rights to the picture, so for all you know, your Leela could show up on a greeting card some day, without you even knowing about it (or being compensated for it).

Good for you for getting your picture and NOT signing up for anything else. Those things are such gimicks. We have had great luck with just taking pictures at home:
http://homepage.mac.com/joelandsarah/PhotoAlbum1.html

[papal]

Are you serious??? I did not sign anything while i was there.. actually there was a form they made me fill out....arghhhh!!! !@#!@#%$#%.
The pics they took were so bad that Leela is not going to show up on any cards, of that I am pretty sure!

Ainsleigh is such a cutey Sarah! You two red-heads look wonderful! Great pics!


Rashmi
(mom to Leela, born 10.17.03)

[mamahill]

Thanks - but yep, that form has some fine print. Although if your photographer is that big of a jerk with everyone, then their pictures are definitely not making any cards. And Leela looks adorable but definitely looks like, "Mom, I'm way too cute to be sitting here posing with this shmoe. How about we gets us some pretzels?" LOL!

[vikivoly]

Rashmi,

Sorry about your experience with The Picture People. I think I heard that exact same story about 5 times already!

Sarah,

I love your new avatar, but the "kissy face" picture is the most adorable thing I've ever seen!

[August Mom]

I can totally relate. We went to Picture People for our first "professional" picture too. We had to wait 45 minutes and by that time DS was no longer smiley and happy. He was hungry. Our photographer was not good at posing him, wanted to use strange props/costumes, wasn't good at getting DS to smile and couldn't get him to look into the camera lens. Our pictures were ready in about an hour. I really didn't like any of them. I ended up choosing my freebie (which had a shadow along DS's body and weird discoloration in 1 corner) and vowed never to go back.

My SIL had an even worse experience, having to go back several times to see the photos.

I would never recommend Picture People.

[snp624]

I'm sorry about your bad experience with Picture People! I've read about the story (of them using pictures for their ads etc) on the boards while ago. I haven't had any professional pictures of DD taken yet, but it won't be Picture People!! But Leela is super cute :)

Sarah, just wanted to say I love your pictures! I agree with Vicki. "kissy face" picture is adorable!

[amp]

Rashmi - Sorry your experience sucked! We have gone to Target twice now with fairly good results. We pick late morning appts. right after DS's nap, so he's fairly tolerant. And if I call far enough ahead (a few weeks) we can usually get our pick of times. Plus, the earlier we go (I think the pics open at maybe 10 or so) the less backed up they are, so that helps lessen the waiting time. Once we had to wait, once we didn't. They asked me up front what kind of pics I was looking for and stuck to it. I asked for simple background, no silly props and they followed that. They also worked as much as possible in a short period of time to get a smile. We've been pretty happy so far. And we bought pics, so don't know what kind of pressure we'd have felt to pick some, be we sure didn't feel any high pressured sales tactics. And no club to pay for or join, no sitting fee, and the free 8x10 you spoke of. You do have to wait a couple weeks for you pics though. And you don't get a lot of time (maybe a half hour) or so depending on the child's age (they ask when you make the appt). Obviously, a lot depends on the photographer, but I just thought I'd mention that we have a positive experience.

[nitaghei]

Yikes! That's bad. Leela's a doll, though!

BTW - we had an excellent experience at Target - though it's in Columbia, so a long way away for you. The photographer was right on time; got everything done in 10 minutes, lots of great smiley pictures. And this was in early November - when everyone was there for Christmas pictures. I had a coupon I printed off the Target website, so I got this vast number of pictures for about $15. The only annoying thing was that I had to go back to pick up the pictures - they charged a ridiculous amount to mail them. I would definitely use them again, though I'm saving up for a "real" professional photo package this Spring.

Nita
mom to Neel 01/05/03
dog mom to a cocker and a PWD

[khakismom]

Sorry you had such a nasty experience Rashmi!!

I've been to Picture People a few times and had mixed results. The main problem that I have with them is that they print out the picture that THEY think are the best. I've gone in there, looked at what they printed for me, and told them that I know there were better pix. Sure enough, 5 minutes later they come back with better ones. UGH!! Why not show me proofs of what you took so I can pick out the best picture of my kid?!

Also, the thing about signing your rights away to the picture only happens if they ask you to sign something for a specific pose. Kathleen took a 1st birthday pic with her finger in her mouth that was adorable and they asked if they could use it for their ads. I signed something giving them permission to do so.

IMHO, I think most photo places are going to have problems with appts, and people being late, and things running behind. But I also agree that PP seems to be one of the biggest offenders.

[kransden]

I am so sorry. There is no excuse for that. I took dd there for VD pictures. They did a good job of getting her to laugh, but the camera captured the scrunched up "klingon baby" look not the brillant smile she has. As someone else said, they can't get their pictures centered at all! I got 2 poses at n/c because I didn't want to wait for them to fix the mistake. I think I'll take dd back there, but not until she is much older and can ham for the camera better. The pictures are just so expensive compared to Sears.

Karin and Katie 10/24/02

[mamahill]

Vicki & Sumio - aww shucks, thanks! That is now DH's wallpaper at work:).

[Marisa6826]

Sarah-

Those pictures are so awesome! And you are one gorgeous Mommy, I might add :)

We use .mac for photos, but I didn't know about the slideshow thingie.

Will have to look more closely at it.

Have you done their little bound book? I've been thinking about doing "A Year in the Life of Sophie".

-m

[Momof3Labs]

Another PP hater here, too. Even with the freebies, it isn't worth it. We've had great experiences, though, at Kiddie Kandids (in BRU) - their photographers have done much better with Colin, and they can edit (re-center, close ups, etc) the pictures right there for you. They also show you the pics as they are taken so you know if you have good shots or not. Finally, you get your pics in 10-15 minutes - that I can handle!

[Momof3Labs]

The kissy face picture is adorable, but you gotta love the pockets pic, too!!

[lrucci]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. We have only gone there one time, when Kyleigh was 2 1/2 months old. We went in the morning and only had to wait about 5 minutes. I think we lucked out and got a great photographer. She was really good with Kyleigh (she has a 2 year old, so I think that helped). Iwas watching a few other photographers when we were in there and they just weren't as personable with the kids. They had the "let's get this picture over with" attitude. Her pictures did come out really cute and we ended up spending more money than I was anticipating. I was a little disappointed though that they picked out the shots they thought were best. I thought we would see proofs of the 5 different poses and pick from there. We also had a slight problem with one of the pictures not being centered. Not sure if we'll go back. I think that with digital cameras and the great photo programs around, it's just as easy to take great pictures at home and print them out yourself. At least this way you have control of the picture you get and you can always do it over if it doesn't come out as you had hoped.

Lisa
Mom to Kyleigh Elizabeth 7/19/03

[MelissaTC]

UGH! I am so sorry that you had a sucky experience with PP. I was not a fan when I went there this time last year. The photographer was terrible and couldn't connect with Matthew at all. And Matthew is pretty easy to photograph, imo.

We have had great luck with Wal-Mart of all places. I found a great photographer there that uses Wal-Mart to pay the bills but does freelancing on the side. Her photos were always great. I then discovered Portrait Innovations and I *LOVE* them. They take SO many photos that you have lots to choose from. They go easy on props and I like that too. I hate props...lol. Their photos are digital so they can touch them up right in front of you and your photos are ready within 10-15 minutes. I also love the fact that once you spend $60, you can get all your shots on cd for free. I have printed out some of the shots here at home on kodak paper and they look great!

BTW, Leela is adorable :)

[mamahill]

Thanks - I actually HATE having my picture taken, so thanks! We just barely connected to our .mac account and I'm still trying to figure stuff out. I don't know anything about a little bound book. Where is that?!

Right now I'm trying to figure out the whole file sharing stuff. Grrr.

[papal]

It is strange how a few days manages to fade the memory of the day we had Leela's picture taken. After hearing what you all have to say about Target, BrU and others, I might be brave and try one of them after a month. In 4 months Leela has got more photos taken of her than i had in my entire lifetime (including the wedding!). I am going insane trying to organize all of them!!

Thanks for all your support and thoughts. In a strange way it felt good knowing that other people have been traumatized by The Picture People also.! :)

[mandye]

I'm really sorry you all have had bad experiences with PP. I for one have only had good experiences with them--in fact we have another appt tomorrow. It probably helps that my friend works there and does Hailey's pictures, but when they printed them out I saw every single one. In fact, I thought "What a waste of paper and ink!" (or whatever they use to print them) because they printed out packages of each pose--just in case that was the one I wanted.

Just thought I'd put my two cents in...

Mandy

[KMommie]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents... Our PP also is horrendous at keeping to their reservation times. Both times I went, we had an appointment, waited an extra HOUR before getting our pictures taken. Then, when we come back in an hour to look, the pictures are NEVER ready to view. The photographer, both times wasn't very good at getting DD's attention, DH had to stand right behind the photographer to get her to smile. The backdrops get all scratched up, and you can see them in the pictures, once they stop using those beanbag things. I kept feeling like I had to go back, because I joined that club and have FREE sheets coming to me, if I can endure another sitting. The other thing is that when the pictures are printed, the lines are all off when I go to cut them, and some of the 5X7s are always off (too small).

Last week, I decided to take DD on a whim to Kiddie Kandids. It was a much better experience. The props were better, the photographer was great. She was a lot better at setting up the shots, getting DD to smile a REAL smile.

So, that free sheet at PP is just going to rot. I'm never going back there.

Jeannie
mommy to Kiki 4/18/03

[jvorhis]

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience with The Picture People. We were going to try that place after my daughter was born but opted for Sadies (www.sadiesonline.com) instead. They were awesome and we got great pictures.

Jenn
Mommy to Emma 9/10/03

[lukkykatt]

I've used the Picture People off and on over the past with generally good, and some great results. We just had our first bad experience there this week.

The photographer was great with the kids, and we actually arrived there clean, fed, happy and cooperative - which is a minor miracle. When I got the pictures back I was sick - it was like some here have already said - every picture but 1 was either off center (to the point someone's limb was cut off) or the top of my older son's head was cut off. And most of the pictures were GREAT - except for the fact that the "photographer" couldn't center the dang picture!

Since I wanted to send the pictures with VD cards, I just ordered 3 sheets of the "ok" picture, which was the only one where all body parts were intact. I pointed out the fact that I was ordering the only one I could and was told I could always come back for a re-shoot - getting two kids ready again to have their picture taken - NO way! So, the next day I went back to pick up the one sheet and it wasn't there. So the woman said she would quickly print 2 sheets and not charge me. When she brought it back, it was of a picture that I hadn't even been shown the night before and it was really cute!

By now my head was ready to explode, but I realized it wasn't this person's fault. I explained the whole thing and how I never wanted to go back there again (except I paid to be in their "club" when I ordered my Christmas pix). She was VERY nice and gave me the names of the 2 people who she thought were the best.

The reason for this whole long-winded post is to say that next time I will go much more in advance if I know it is a busy time of the year, and I will make an appt. with a manager (both the names she gave me were mangagers and she said they were the best). Maybe this will help someone else.

[MinnieMouse]

I have to chime in here that we have been going to PP since dd was 5mo and she is now 2.5yo....we have NEVER had a even a marginally bad experience with them. EVERY time we have walked out of there with OUTSTANDING photos of our daughter. We tried two different local Sears stores and both were horrendous. I recommend PP to every mom and grandmom I meet and they have all had great experiences there as well.

I attached probably my favorite picture of all of them ...



http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/2722.jpg


I would suspect that it would change from store to store. We have NEVER waited more than 15min from any appt time to get our pictures taken. We have waited a bit FOR the photos...sometimes 15 or 20min over the time they gave us...but Beth was happy and we are in the mall so one of us just takes her out and about to run around just outside the store.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience.

Christine

[JenCA]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I've never used the PP, and your experience has made me question whether or not I ever will!

For what it's worth, I think your daughter looks adorable in the picture. :)

[papal]

Christine... that is such a great picture of Beth! She is adorable. I am glad you had a good experience at the PP. Like you said, customer service is probably different from store to store, and maybe i got them on a bad day (it was a saturday afternoon)... but after the experience i had i would not go back again. I am going to try Target or BrU or a professional photographer (if $ permits) the next time around.