Accent Photography

I have read and re-read the letters that were submittedThere are many inaccurate items mentioned within the letters, but instead of writing letters to clarify my position and what really happened, I am ending my participation in this back-and- forthSince the complaint is with the 4-4ximages that were suppliedI will offer to give a refund for the amount of those images ($60) once I receive the original copies returned to meSincerely, Sharleen Scholz

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me I would like to hand deliver on Feb or March prior to noon Please have Sharleen call and to confirm a time so we do not waste time since studio does not have operating hours that is open Once we hand off the photos, we expect payment in a bank check or cash
Regards,
*** ***

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
This "photographer" saying and running off about WE had a teacher fired is FALSE The school had major issues, and the teacher was not qualified to teach a high school class to elementary students The school was hiring unlicensed teachers to save money and it was NOT me who had the teacher fired My daughter asked for a new teacher last year when seeing "Santa" AKA photographer brother as a Christmas Gift My daughter is an honor student and as the entire class was having a difficult timeat the same time the principal falsified her own credentials as being qualified and long story short and has nothing to do with this person view of us - the school pastor removed half the staff at the end of the year for this reason and for reasons of inappropriate actions between students and staff that were not known to us until after school was out in June It was NOT US and I take this as an attack on me and personally which is not right and VERY unprofessional of her! IF she goes and tells others we did this, it is a lie and deformation of character! The emails sent stated she was in a tight time slot and the event was her daughter in a play that night otherwise I would need to wait until December I hate waiting for December since her pictures are always ones not ready until the week of Christmas I have done small packages for this reason; and this year I wanted to get the mail out to sister-in-laws in ** and ** and then to have the kids pictures ready for my parents in hopes for Thanksgiving which she could not deliver and I never complained on this I wanted it then earliest so that my parents could have on display with many of the extended family visiting in December I don't use situations as an excuse on why the pictures was needed before ChristmasYes, my father is going for cancer treatment and in fact, recovering from another surgery NO it was not stress why I wanted pictures to look nice My "disabled" son does not look disabled, and he has social issues, but is not afraid of touch or being close to othersCrowds and loud noises bother him, he is not an object, he is a person and he has autism He has removed his shoes in the past and this time we did not catch it and the professional photographer did not see it through the lens either I guessWe don't see what she sees in the lens when takenIt is nice she wants to play "single" parent and the responsibilities that come with it Yes, we used her in the past since 1996, we then only returned to her studio in the last years We have not had pictures done multiple times every year as she implies In fact, kids Communion pictures were not done here, or family portraits at *** *** and neither of the photographers has a Christmas background to be honest Saying we were here all this time, is only half truth We liked your work and we came back We used this studio at Christmas for her background and she was comfortable working with a child with autism We have always been shown what it looked like PRIOR to orders and our questions were answered PRIOR to order We always saw the pictures cropped and centered correctly prior to orders This time, the pictures on a website were NOT cropped and NOT centered as one would order I many questions and stated that my parents wanted a few 4xand it could tell a story I left her an email with the pictures and sizes and thought I would see the cropped pictures before ordering I had no idea she was leaving on vacation without her daughter and stressing the single parent thing as the reason of not following what she stated to me in the email she would get back to me when she returns and let me know She FAILED to do what her email stated She was made aware of the pictures that were selected for my parents, as a story and she responded, yes, the pictures sure do tell a story and agreed The price list she sent me, she stated to my husband and me was discounted I learned when we picked them up it was not I had photographer just a basic picture of the kids in front our his tree to get by this Christmas I did not copy anything and in fact, the pictures are still in the purple bag not touchedThe 8xand 5x7's that I ordered and not part of the dispute were mailed out Last December, it was discussed to come in early for a picture with the holiday background and she told us LAST YEAR she usually has or days ready in October I hate waiting until December for pictures when I need to mail the 5x7's out to family that was in our order I was told that the 4xonly came in a booklet and she agreed to remove since I did not need the book style This style per her pricing sheet came in two picture sizes My pictures should not have been smaller than the 4xas ordered I left a voice message that went unanswered and then I decided to sent an email that she replied she went on vacation I get it,; but the fact is you deliver what the customer orders She runs a business and should be run as one When reading her response, the only thing she is doing is pointing the finger at everyone else but herself She wants everyone to feel pity for a single mother it seems I NEVER asked for pity due to my son; I asked for a time slot that works best and not busy Infact, many professional individuals we deal with appreciate us telling them we may need extra time (which we did not in this case, we were done in minutes and that is with getting coats on) We went with HER allowed time slots and we made it work for us and to receive this action from her is wrong Also, the last email was very nasty from Sharleen And when I was told if I wanted 4xshe would just go and print them off and charge us for the extra prints and the tone of the email was harsh It was at this point, I decided to file I canceled the session because of the tone in her email and had spoke with another photography professional who had told me the suggestions of coloring the white sneakers to boots If Sharleen would have suggested it and shown us, it might have worked It probably would have looked much better, but not seeing it, it is hard to say what it would look like The email after I told her I was going to file was even worse and made it seem that I was terrible to ask for a change because she has so much pressure being a single mom doing everything herself and making sure she gives her daughter what she needs without her dad This is wrong You provide for your family as I need to provide for mine She is a single mom, husband past away and doing it on her ownOK that is the same as I am raising my family with a special needs child and a seizure disorder where one parent must be with him all the time or a nurse You have your family needs and I have mine but the difference again, I am not the one pointing it out as a reason for why the product order is different I would feel return of the pictures for the monies is fair Using single parent as a reason for pity is poor, saying the customer had the teacher fired which is and not saying the entire story is wrong; you as your excuse that we are looking for something and not paying We pay for what we orderWe never asked for freebies If you remember, you suggested last year we could come earlier when the set was up for Christmas pictures We went with your suggestions This is terrible you make us sound the way you did; it is deformation of our character Tell it like it is; and be honest This is what is wrong with society today Everyone points at others and not take responsibility for own errors I did not order wrong, I did not change pose numbers, I asked for specific sizes And if you say it should have been in a book, well that book it states is 4xpictures and that is not what you delivered If we go word for word and check the sizes of each picture you failed to deliver what was ordered I ordered 4xnot smaller Only one that can be wrong here is the Sharleen and not ordering what was asked for her NO stress issues, no pity on formation of family it goes on business what was ordered and what was delivered I'll mail back the pictures only the pictures that should have been 4xfor monies for the book I won't recommend this studio going forward, since it is obviously changed and maybe her family situation is too much for her to run the studio as she use to Maybe she forgets that when someone orders a 4xand tells someone I will get back to them, is too much to follow It is a shame, but life is not fair and everyone can not just accept you make an error but it is OK since it is a single mom running the business Businesses should not run this way Also when you stated to me and then again with *** we received a discount and lied is not a good way to run a business either Last year you stated when the holiday background was up for the days it was holiday prices I am only asking to take the pictures back and return the monies and we go our separate ways We will not return nor recommend your services for the way you present yourself today and it is so different from years past.
Regards,
*** ***

My son is a freshman and Virginia Tech and we live in *** **In order to get him home for Winter Break, we needed to get him a ride to *** *** *** for him to get on a charter bus which would get him to central location in *** closer to our homeWe needed a round-trip ride - one for him going home on December 15th, and one for him returning back to school on January 15th from the charter bus drop-off at James MadisonI paid $on December 10th on my *** which included the roundtrip fare plus 20% tipThe first leg of the trip went fine but, for the January 15th return, we had to cancel the pidue to a personal reason which caused us to have to drive him back to schoolI was told by Blacksburg Taxi that they would refund half the amount ($225) but after a month I didn't see the credit on my billAfter several calls, I finally got the owner to call me back and he gave me his personal cell numberHe said that he uses a 3rd party for his billing

It seems the best way to approach this is to address each item individually. I photographed the family on 10/21/and used my Christmas set that I usually only have set up after ThanksgivingThey had requested this set and as I had another family that had requested the same set...I
offered that date as an option to both familiesI offered an earlier time to have the portrait done, but was told they needed a later timeMy option was to give them a timing that worked for them, but made it a bit tight for me as I needed to be home to get my daughter off the busIt was not an "event" with my daughterBeing a widowed, single mother, there are many obligations that I need to attend to myself besides running my own businessNormally, this family comes into my studio on a "Santa" day at the studioThis is a day that Ihave numerous families schedule appointments back-to-back and take shortened sessions and they immediately view their images and make a decision then and thereWe also do not charge a session fee & have less expensive "bulk" type packages availableSince they opted for a regular session day, they were charged my regular session fee and I produced a website for them to view at their leisure in their home to make their decisionThe website was ready for viewing on 10/23/which they received a link forI received an email on 11/with the questionsI had left that day for vacation, but responded right away to advise them I was out of town, but would look at the files in regard to cropping when I returnedShe had asked if I could crop her son's sneakers outWhen I returned from my vacation...I checked the files, found that I could indeed and cropped the images according to her request and placed the order with my labI then sent her an email letting her know that I had indeed been able to crop and had ordered the photographsShe just asked if I was able to crop and how it lookedThe cropping worked for what she wanted so I let her knowThe images that she wanted cropped were part of a "folio" which is a matted; book-style framing that is considered a specialty itemBecause they were being matted in this folio, I had ordered them as 4x5s not 4x6s to allow for the cropping of the shoes at the bottom and not cropping in too closely to her children on the sidesThe proportions on a 4xand a 4x6s crop are differentAt his point, she asked if she could save money by the images not being in the bookletNormally, they are only offered in a folio on my pricing and she would only be saving a few dollars, but she asked me to not put them in a folio out of courtesy to her and so she could save a little bit of moneyI agreed because they were past clientsI did realize at that point that I had order them in 4xinstead and that is not a standard frame size so I let her knowI told her that because I had already ordered them, the options were to either mat them to fit into a 4xframe, cut them a little for a xframe or if I needed to order them at a 4x6, she would have to pay for the reprinting and the cropping that she had requested couldn't be done without cropping into her children (as stated above)I even sent her a sample of both images with their croppingNeedless to say, she was not happy with these options and was upset that I would charge for reprintsI explained to her that I had already ordered them and would have to pay for them again if I reordered themI didn't even think of talking to her about retouching the shoes to another color as this would have been another cost to her and she did not want to pay for the reprinting, let alone a Photoshop solutionShe told me to let her know when they were inI had an appointment set up with the family to come to the studio during our "Santa' day and she emailed me a couple days before to cancel the appointmentI told her that I had the portraits ready for pick up and asked if she still wanted to pop by that day to pick upI was informed that it HAD to be that Friday to pick upI wasn't in the studio that day, but offered her two times that I could be at the studio for the pickupHer husband came in and picked them upHe also asked about the "special" at this pointThe "special" that I ran was for 50% off session fees after ThanksgivingThe special was not running during October when they came to the studioThis was the first time they had mentioned this to meA little while later I received an email asking why the smaller images didn't have the logo on themI explained to her that I don't put the logo on them when they are going into a folio as my folio has the logo on itThis again was not the answer she wanted to hear as she said she "paid" for that logoThe loose photographs she received again were done as a courtesy to her and were meant to be included in another product that had the logo on itIn the end, I told her I would reorder the portraits in 4xsize with no cropping on the shoes; the logo included and let her know when they were inShe declined the offer, told me it was too late as she had gone elsewhere [this was at 9pm at night, so I don't know how she could have unless she copied my work which is illegal) and had already filed a complaint with Revdex.comIn general, I have been working with this family since the parents got marriedIf I'm not mistaken it was in the 1990sI have been told on numerous occasions that my work is wonderful and they only go to my studio as I am wonderful with handling their children...especially their special needs sonWhen they come to the studio, I do my best to accommodate themThe environment is calm and they leave their son in the car until the last possible moment to make it less stressfulHe is a large boy (over 6' tall I believe) and once we have him positioned, I don't even think of handling him too much to make things go less smoothlyI would have never thought about him removing his shoesThey are used to coming in on a different day and with different product offerings and they obviously weren't happy with paying more than usualUnfortunately, I cannot offer them the same things they receive on "bulk" days as on my business daysWhen it comes down to it, I think they want everything done the way they want and to not pay accordinglyI did the best that I could do, but it still was not enoughShe told me that "this was the first disappointment from your studio" and yet, she chose to file a claim against me immediatelyI realize now that these are the type of people that need to file complaints against people when things don't go their wayI have had many discussions through the years with her in regard to the treatment of her children in the school systems and the lengths she has gone toShe even had her daughter "brag" to me at this photo session how she had her teacher fired this yearThrough this whole thing, I thought to myself that something must be going on in her life for her to react this way ...the fact that she mentioned the radiation treatment of the father must be the issueThis is the first I have heard about it, but I'm sure it has put stress on herAs I stated above, I am a widowed, single mother, so understand the stressors of lifeI try to do the best by my clients while maintaining a business to sustain my year old and myselfI don't wish them any ill-will and am sorry that it went to this levelSincerely, Sharleen Scholz Owner Accent Photography

I have read and re-read the letters that were submitted. There are many inaccurate items mentioned within the letters, but instead of writing letters to clarify my position and what really happened, I am ending my participation in this back-and- forth. Since the complaint is with the 4-4x5 images that were supplied. I will offer to give a refund for the amount of those images ($60) once I receive the original copies returned to me. Sincerely, Sharleen Scholz