Cancelling photography contract... Need advice!!! It's long but please read :-)
I am thinking of cancelling our photography contract, but I would like some insight and advice from other brides before moving forward. Here's a little back story:
Our photographer is one of the 'recommended vendors' from our wedding venue. We have seen the company at showcases and looked at albums, and finally set up an appointment to meet with them. We booked a contract, left a $500.00 deposit (which is non-refundable) and were ready to start doing business.
We had our engagement pictures done, which came out nice. We had met the photographer to pick up the proofs (which was kind of out of the way - it was more near him that us) and had no problems up until this point.
We wanted to get 'Save the Dates' printed, and I was going to use an online source myself. Our photographer mentioned he has a printing company that he works with, so me being the person I am (I have a hard time saying NO), said 'sure let's go with that.' He had TWO magnets to pick from, and we couldn't even use those because there was a calendar that would be printed on the magnet and the picture we chose wouldn't work with that format. So I ended up settling for a card-type style, which is beautiful, but still not what I wanted.
So, I met him at another showcase to order the STDs. I filled out all of the information CORRECTLY and he said he would order them and it takes about 5 days for them to come in. This was on a Thursday in the middle of March. I called him back almost a week later because there was a conflict with our date...we didn't realize it was on Good Friday so we had to move the wedding up a week. So I explain to him, and he says OK that it is not a problem and he is free for our new date. THEN he mentions he DIDN'T EVEN ORDER the STDs yet... a week later!!! This was OK with me because our date changed, so it worked out. But I should have known that this was a preview of what was to come. He tells me to call him back once we confirm the date change will all of the other vendors. So I called back an hour later and no answer. I left him a message and even shot him an email and no reply. I had also sent a subsequent email to verify EXACTLY how our names and info should appear. Both of our last names are spelled like 'AbCdefg' and this has always been a problem for both of us and wanted to make sure they were punctuated correctly. So he responded to THAT email saying 'Ok, not a problem, talk with you soon.'
FINALLY I hear back a week later (the next Wednesday), and he tells me he is ordering them THAT DAY. Wellllll another week passes, still NOTHING. I sent him an email AGAIN trying to find out what's going on, no response. So a month later, this past Monday, he calls me to tell me the STDs are FINALLY here. He asks where I want to meet to pick them up, so I said somewhere convenient for us both. So he basically makes me travel 7 exits on the LIE when he only has to travel 1. This kind of pissed me off, but I was happy to finally have the things, so I didn't really care. So I get there, open up the box, and they are WRONG!!! They spelled my fiance's last name 'Abcdefg' instead of 'AbCdefg'. I SPECIFICALLY STRESSED THIS TO HIM! So he tells me it's too late to do anything that day, that he will call the printing company first thing Wednesday morning.
I thought it would have been nice for him to call me after he spoke with them, just to put my mind at ease and reassure me it's going to be fixed. I heard nothing, so I emailed him to see what the outcome was. No repsonse. So Thursday (yesterday) I tried calling him three separate times from morning until afternoon, and his phone was OFF.
I am so upset and bothered by this. I am feeling like photographers should have an eye for detail AND should be reachable. Am I overreacting and being too harsh??? I understand people make mistakes, things happen. But don't you check your work before presenting it to a client? And when he showed them to me I even said 'This is why I even emailed you the info again to make sure it came out correct because I KNEW this was going to be a problem!' His response was 'I didn't look at the email, I went by what you wrote.' EVEN STILL... my handwriting is EXTREMELY NEAT and I WOULD NOT misspell my fiance's name. And besides, our names are all over the contract, checks we have given, etc. Even if it was the printing company's fault, it would have been nice for him to call and say 'Just wanted to let you know I spoke with them, they are reprinting them and they should be in next week.'
I REFUSE to pay for the second batch because this wasn't OUR mistake. I honestly just want to be done with this whole thing and find another photography company we can TRUST.
Any advice, input, or ways of wording a cancellation letter to this company would be GREATLY appreciated!!! I would rather lose some money and have peace of mind then to deal with this! Pictures are forever!
Thank you guys!
Our photographer is one of the 'recommended vendors' from our wedding venue. We have seen the company at showcases and looked at albums, and finally set up an appointment to meet with them. We booked a contract, left a $500.00 deposit (which is non-refundable) and were ready to start doing business.
We had our engagement pictures done, which came out nice. We had met the photographer to pick up the proofs (which was kind of out of the way - it was more near him that us) and had no problems up until this point.
We wanted to get 'Save the Dates' printed, and I was going to use an online source myself. Our photographer mentioned he has a printing company that he works with, so me being the person I am (I have a hard time saying NO), said 'sure let's go with that.' He had TWO magnets to pick from, and we couldn't even use those because there was a calendar that would be printed on the magnet and the picture we chose wouldn't work with that format. So I ended up settling for a card-type style, which is beautiful, but still not what I wanted.
So, I met him at another showcase to order the STDs. I filled out all of the information CORRECTLY and he said he would order them and it takes about 5 days for them to come in. This was on a Thursday in the middle of March. I called him back almost a week later because there was a conflict with our date...we didn't realize it was on Good Friday so we had to move the wedding up a week. So I explain to him, and he says OK that it is not a problem and he is free for our new date. THEN he mentions he DIDN'T EVEN ORDER the STDs yet... a week later!!! This was OK with me because our date changed, so it worked out. But I should have known that this was a preview of what was to come. He tells me to call him back once we confirm the date change will all of the other vendors. So I called back an hour later and no answer. I left him a message and even shot him an email and no reply. I had also sent a subsequent email to verify EXACTLY how our names and info should appear. Both of our last names are spelled like 'AbCdefg' and this has always been a problem for both of us and wanted to make sure they were punctuated correctly. So he responded to THAT email saying 'Ok, not a problem, talk with you soon.'
FINALLY I hear back a week later (the next Wednesday), and he tells me he is ordering them THAT DAY. Wellllll another week passes, still NOTHING. I sent him an email AGAIN trying to find out what's going on, no response. So a month later, this past Monday, he calls me to tell me the STDs are FINALLY here. He asks where I want to meet to pick them up, so I said somewhere convenient for us both. So he basically makes me travel 7 exits on the LIE when he only has to travel 1. This kind of pissed me off, but I was happy to finally have the things, so I didn't really care. So I get there, open up the box, and they are WRONG!!! They spelled my fiance's last name 'Abcdefg' instead of 'AbCdefg'. I SPECIFICALLY STRESSED THIS TO HIM! So he tells me it's too late to do anything that day, that he will call the printing company first thing Wednesday morning.
I thought it would have been nice for him to call me after he spoke with them, just to put my mind at ease and reassure me it's going to be fixed. I heard nothing, so I emailed him to see what the outcome was. No repsonse. So Thursday (yesterday) I tried calling him three separate times from morning until afternoon, and his phone was OFF.
I am so upset and bothered by this. I am feeling like photographers should have an eye for detail AND should be reachable. Am I overreacting and being too harsh??? I understand people make mistakes, things happen. But don't you check your work before presenting it to a client? And when he showed them to me I even said 'This is why I even emailed you the info again to make sure it came out correct because I KNEW this was going to be a problem!' His response was 'I didn't look at the email, I went by what you wrote.' EVEN STILL... my handwriting is EXTREMELY NEAT and I WOULD NOT misspell my fiance's name. And besides, our names are all over the contract, checks we have given, etc. Even if it was the printing company's fault, it would have been nice for him to call and say 'Just wanted to let you know I spoke with them, they are reprinting them and they should be in next week.'
I REFUSE to pay for the second batch because this wasn't OUR mistake. I honestly just want to be done with this whole thing and find another photography company we can TRUST.
Any advice, input, or ways of wording a cancellation letter to this company would be GREATLY appreciated!!! I would rather lose some money and have peace of mind then to deal with this! Pictures are forever!
Thank you guys!
