Kamice's Photographic Establishment

Being a small family run business we were very distressed to hear that a family was unhappy with our service. I had already been notified of this incident by my employees prior to receiving the letter from you, The Better...

Business Bureau. As follows is our side of the events of the day: Our employees were happy to assist the group of ten children. While we were working with them, to costume and place this high energy group, the lady in charge of the family mentioned that there was also a small baby which would make it a group of eleven and asked if that would be okay. We of course were happy to include the baby and said that it would be fine. There was no discussion of price at this point. No one asked if it would be the same cost and none of our employees said that it would not change their price bracket. Our price structure takes into account each individual and the escalation of needs that a larger group brings. We have had tens of thousands of customers who have easily understood our very clearly marked prices. When one of our employees went to ring up the order the lady seemed confused that the inclusion of the baby changed their price bracket. The studio can be a fast paced environment and the employee that had begun their order had to step away and called another employee to ring them up. Other than a little delay while they decided on a new order in their price bracket there did not seem to be a problem. The photographs were edited and printed with the same care that we give all of our work. When they returned for their photographs a different adult, a gentleman, came in to physically pick them up. He was shown his photos and commented on how special they were. He then looked up from his photos and accused us of a 'bait and switch'. We had charged them a different amount than when they first came in the door with their group of ten. He claimed that they were "over a barrel" and had to pay the additional amount of the changed price bracket, which was not what they were told. One of our employees stated that there must have been a misunderstanding, a mistake in communication. At this point he was becoming loud and agitated and was backing out the front door commenting that he would let everyone know that we were doing “this”. Our employees apologized but he just yelled that thirty dollars was not a mistake and walked away. He was very confrontational in the manner that he presented his complaint leaving one of our employees in tears, feeling as if she had been assaulted. He never asked for a refund, for a supervisor or made an effort to contact the business owner to resolve this issue. We will happily refund his thirty dollars since he feels as if he has been robbed. We would have refunded his thirty dollars that day if he had been less aggressive and given us a chance to process his complaint. Honestly, we feel as if this gentleman was trying to rob us, using the chaos of ten children to circumvent our clearly marked price structure. Yet we are still willing to accommodate him, as our customers are our first priority. We want our customers to come into the studio and have a fun experience. We want them to go home with a fond memory of their time with us and feeling as if they received an excellent value for their money. We work hard to make our customers happy. This gentleman accuses us in his letter to you, The Revdex.com, of illegal practices and of cheating our customers. Our business has never and will never break the law in any way. This studio is our livelihood, we would never risk damaging it in this manner. Our customers are our main priority, some we see year after year. We watch their children grow up and help them create wonderful family memories. If our customers were not happy we would rapidly go out of business. We hope that we can resolve this issue and continue to make the many thousands of customers that come to our town happy.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my concern, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
 
They can mail a check to my address on file.

Review: this business is preying on tourists using a classic bait-n-switch tactic. When we went into the business to have our children's picture taken they quoted a price of $60 for a group of 10. We then told them we wanted to include a 4 month old baby making it 11 total. The gentleman working with us told us 11 would be the SAME PRICE AS 10. After the picture was taken and we were paying, the lady processing the transaction told us it would be $90 for 11 people. Since the picture was taken and done, she had us over a barrel and switched honoring the gentlemen price promise. When I confronted them both on this they admited they made a mistake and would not refund the $30. This business is cheating customers and practicing illegal acts.Desired Settlement: I want my $30 refunded!

Business

Response:

Being a small family run business we were very distressed to hear that a family was unhappy with our service. I had already been notified of this incident by my employees prior to receiving the letter from you, The Revdex.com. As follows is our side of the events of the day: Our employees were happy to assist the group of ten children. While we were working with them, to costume and place this high energy group, the lady in charge of the family mentioned that there was also a small baby which would make it a group of eleven and asked if that would be okay. We of course were happy to include the baby and said that it would be fine. There was no discussion of price at this point. No one asked if it would be the same cost and none of our employees said that it would not change their price bracket. Our price structure takes into account each individual and the escalation of needs that a larger group brings. We have had tens of thousands of customers who have easily understood our very clearly marked prices. When one of our employees went to ring up the order the lady seemed confused that the inclusion of the baby changed their price bracket. The studio can be a fast paced environment and the employee that had begun their order had to step away and called another employee to ring them up. Other than a little delay while they decided on a new order in their price bracket there did not seem to be a problem. The photographs were edited and printed with the same care that we give all of our work. When they returned for their photographs a different adult, a gentleman, came in to physically pick them up. He was shown his photos and commented on how special they were. He then looked up from his photos and accused us of a 'bait and switch'. We had charged them a different amount than when they first came in the door with their group of ten. He claimed that they were "over a barrel" and had to pay the additional amount of the changed price bracket, which was not what they were told. One of our employees stated that there must have been a misunderstanding, a mistake in communication. At this point he was becoming loud and agitated and was backing out the front door commenting that he would let everyone know that we were doing “this”. Our employees apologized but he just yelled that thirty dollars was not a mistake and walked away. He was very confrontational in the manner that he presented his complaint leaving one of our employees in tears, feeling as if she had been assaulted. He never asked for a refund, for a supervisor or made an effort to contact the business owner to resolve this issue. We will happily refund his thirty dollars since he feels as if he has been robbed. We would have refunded his thirty dollars that day if he had been less aggressive and given us a chance to process his complaint. Honestly, we feel as if this gentleman was trying to rob us, using the chaos of ten children to circumvent our clearly marked price structure. Yet we are still willing to accommodate him, as our customers are our first priority. We want our customers to come into the studio and have a fun experience. We want them to go home with a fond memory of their time with us and feeling as if they received an excellent value for their money. We work hard to make our customers happy. This gentleman accuses us in his letter to you, The Revdex.com, of illegal practices and of cheating our customers. Our business has never and will never break the law in any way. This studio is our livelihood, we would never risk damaging it in this manner. Our customers are our main priority, some we see year after year. We watch their children grow up and help them create wonderful family memories. If our customers were not happy we would rapidly go out of business. We hope that we can resolve this issue and continue to make the many thousands of customers that come to our town happy.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my concern, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.