The Big Picture Fine Art & Photography

Kellie G*** (owner) was paid the full amount for a wedding photography package in exchange for a free engagement sitting, and she was paid by check so that we would receive a free print giftThis arrangement took place in September of It took us contact attempts and days post-payment to pin her down to get an appointment for the free engagement shoot, which happened on day post paymentAt the end of the shoot, we were promised our engagement photos in "2-weeks" so that we could send out our save-the-date postcards before the holidaysWe did not receive the promised "sneak peaks" until days after the shoot, and after contacting her on separate occasions about themThe photos we were told to download via the web appeared to be low resolution as they were grainy and pixilatedThey also had color and lighting issues and composition problemsHowever, because they were unedited, we gave her the benefit of the doubt that she could do something to fix themShe told us to pick of our favorites so my fiancé and I sat down and viewed/reviewed/re-reviewed them and chose the ones we thought were workable
We assumed the photos we picked would be the ones she would editIt took days after the shoot (not 2-weeks as promised) to receive only 2, semi-edited proofs; over times as long as promised, when we were told we would receive finished photosIt is worth noting that these proofs were e-mailed to us after we had to make the decision to ask for a refund, which is explained belowAlso, she stated she did these proofs "off the clock" as I sent her a very detailed e-mail explaining how upsetting her lack of customer service wasWhen we asked for the refund we offered to allow her to keep $for her time as she advertises a $engagement shoot on her website (which includes photos, not 2), in hopes that she would settle so we could all just move onShe would have months yet to rebook the date; we would have the chance to find a photographer better suited to our needs
This refund was requested in January of because we never received the products that were promised to us (finished photos and prints from the engagement sitting), nor did we ever receive our contractKellie argued that she mailed the contract in September when we paid her but it was never receivedIf what she says is true and she did mail it when we hired her, it was lost by the ***She then accused us of refusing to sign itIf we didn't want to sign it, we wouldn't have asked for it on separate occasions (all documented)
When I confronted Kellie about all of communications from us that she had not responded to, she claimed she had been e-mailing us through her editing software with mass e-mails that go out to all of her customers to inform everyone of her taking some "time off", and stated that we were her only clients not receiving the e-mailsI contacted customer service of the editing software company she uses and mass e-mails to clients is not a service they even provideShe can't send e-mails to all of her clients through them as she claimed, because according to them, it isn't possibleMy fiancé, a software engineer, went so far as to purchase a 1-month subscription to the web service she used in order to do his own investigation and he came to the same conclusionMy contact with the company was to simply get everything in writing directly from them
We were given other excuses for her lack of communication and product delivery (all documented via e-mail) such as: I get 20-e-mails, phone calls, and other communications a day and don't remember who I've talked to, I don't have a secretary, This isn't McDonalds, Your concerns aren't emergencies, Patience is a virtue, My grandparent is sick, It's hard to hire good help-they want to be paid too much, I guess I just won't sleep, etc
We attempted to work with Kellie for weeks before requesting the refund, and my fiancé even offered to help her review her work flow process in case her editing software was part of the problemBesides the contract issue, we presented evidence of e-mails that were ignored, voicemails, text, and at least e-mails that were evidently lostWe even have an e-mail where she admitted that she "didn't know why" the engagement photos didn't turn outShe claimed she was going to "test her lens" after we complained as perhaps it needed to be "retired" and would get back to us, and she never did
We requested a refund from her times (which she refused), before taking her to small claims court days post-payment (June 2017), in which even our hearing officer commented on how poor the photos wereWe won our case and Kellie was ordered to give us a full refund(We have not yet received it as of August 2017)Kellie then filed a counterclaim stating we owed her $per download for the unfinished engagement proofsShe claimed my fiancé and I were trying to steal her photosWe had already paid for the entire wedding package up front and would not have done so if our intention was to "steal" from herShe stated in the courtroom that there were downloads between my fiancé and IMy fiancé and I did view the proofs multiple times on two different computers over the course of a few days when she instructed us to pick of our favorites, but we did not keep count as we had no reason tox $equals well over $when tax is taken into considerationThat is $900+ for unfinished proofs that she admitted didn't even turn out, and the hearing officer stated were poorThe same proofs that we were told by her to download via her proofing website when she said our "sneak peaks" were ready
This supposed download fee was nowhere to be found on her website or her business's Facebook page, nor was it ever conveyed to us via phone calls, texts, or face-to-face communicationWe can only assume it was her attempt at trying to extort money from us because we won our case against her
What should be a very joyous time in our lives this past months has been tarnished by this awful experience, and it has been really stressfulThe last place I wanted to spend my time was in a court roomAs former business owner, I can't even fathom treating a client this way out of my own conscious
We will never do business with Kellie G*** of The Big Picture Fine Art and Photography again