My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: California.
We hired a wedding Photographer on 7/5/18 and hired him for our wedding on 7/6/18 at San Francisco’s city hall. I paid him as agreed upon fee via Bank of America Zelle transfer funds app. He confirmed he received it and sent me a receipt for paid in full.
Initially we were impressed by his website’s online gallery and he was available for the shoot the following morning!
Upon meeting him at city hall, our first impressions was that he was friendly and professional.
We discussed taking certain photos in specific areas that we requested and we agreed to have pictures at the grand staircase, group picture with our friends and going to the Palace of Fine arts and Fort Point to take the remainder of the outdoor pictures. He agreed and assured us that he was free all day and we can come back to areas to take photos if we needed to.
We also discussed with him that we would like the pictures to be ready before our celebration in miami on 8-18-18 so we can share the moments with the rest of our friends and family that could not make it to our ceremony on 7/6/18. He reassured us that we should be getting preliminary highlights within a 48 hours and the rest of the photos will be available before our second event.
The photographer seemed very knowledgeable of city hall and knew which areas he wanted pictures of us in.
He took us to different areas of city hall and we took several photos under his direction. Our friends arrived and joined us for the ring exchange ceremony.
We thought everything was going smoothly and could not be happier that we had a Professional photographer take our pictures so we can share this day with our friends and family that could not be there to witness the ceremony.
We took a few photos at the bottom railing of the grand staircase but we requested for pictures in the center of the staircase. Photographer said it was too busy at the time and said we can come back later to take the photos.we didn’t argue with him and followed his direction.
Our friends that were there had also suggested to The photographer that they can assist with blocking out the staircase for our requested photo. Photographer reassured us again that “we can come back if we needed to”.
Then he suggested to go outside and take some pictures with our friends on the lawn area across the street from city hall.
Now that we were outside of city hall , Photographer wanted to head to the outdoor locations and continue to shoot. (We thought we were coming back to city hall to take the grand staircase picture later as mentioned by him ) .We followed his direction again and jumped into his van.
We drove towards the Palace of Fine arts and he doesn’t stop, instead he takes us to the other outdoor location at Fort Point. We were confused why he did that.
We arrived at Fort point and it was very bright and sunny! The whole time we were there we were both squinting our eyes because it was so bright. Photographer assured us that he had a Flash that would allow him to take pictures in bright settings.
As he was setting up his flash on the tripod, he noticed the flash was not functioning right and told us “ the battery is dying”. I was concerned about where he wanted us to stand for he picture because I was standing next to a “TOW AWAY “ sign and parking lane markings on the floor. I voiced my concerns about the background and the brightness affecting the pictures because we were literally squinting our eyes the entire time!
His response was “ I can edit that out”. He also decided to take our ring pictures with a mirror and told us how great the effect will be once was done with the picture. We continued to trust him and went along with his suggestions.
Photographer drove us back to city hall to only drop us off by the parking garage and we never got to take a picture centered at the grand staircase.
The following day, he sent me a text on my phone with two small pictures of the highlight pictures of our ceremony ( before and after some editing to remove the tow away signs ).
I told him “ they look great”. It was difficult to see the detail of the pictures because they were small. We were trying to be nice and hoping for better pictures when he releases the remainder of the photos. We also didn’t want to affect the outcome of the remainder of our photos in case we upset him.
Despite our first impressions of the first highlight photos he sent us, we patiently waited for the rest of the photos to be sent before reaching a final impression of his work.
Photographer did not deliver the pictures on time as we discussed. He knew we had plans for the pictures on 8-18-18 and he assured us that we will have the pictures ready before our second event on 8-18-18.
I received an email of the remainder photos on 8-25-18. And Photographer proceeds to contact me on 8/26/18 at 10 pm and sends me text messages on 8/27/18 asking if I had received his email with the remainder of the wedding photos and to inquire about the payment I initially sent him. He stated that his bank and Bank of America are looking into it .
I told him I will call my Bank of America and inquire about the status of the transferred funds of $600 on 7/6/18.
My bank tells me that the $600 transfer had expired due to the receiver not verifying the funds and accepting the funds. I was very surprised that I was not notified by The photographer about the financial situation. I was not notified by my bank that he did not accept the transfer of funds. I was unaware that the fee was returned to my account after 14 days from my initial payment.
I opened the email and briefly looked at the pictures from my phones web browser. The pictures were small and i decided to attempt to download them so I can see hem clearly.
To our surprise the pictures were WORSE THAN THE HIGHLIGHT PHOTOS!!! . The pictures had been over-edited ,our skin color were shades of orange, some had low resolution, some pictures of our faces were very blurry, the overall composition of the photos were not what we expected from a professional wedding photographer. Especially with the advertised photos he has on his websites.
We did not get the grand staircase picture, the group picture had either glare spots or he had debris on the lens which caused the pictures to have large discolored patches on our suits.
These photos by far were poor quality.
His final gallery of pictures for us included pictures with us squinting our eyes, not smiling when we should of been smiling, looking confused because we couldn’t hear his directions at times, our blazers were riding up on us, some had low resolution with our faces blurry faces and clothing blurry with the background clear and in detail. The group pictures had big glare spots or debris from his lens that affected the pictures. And it almost seemed like he changed the pictures to black and white and sepia tones so they can count as additional photos. This would have been ok had the picture been taken appropriately but they still had the debris and glare in the photos. most of the photos are not useable or worth printing .
Photographer did not acknowledge any responsibility for the quality of the photos and even admitted on a text conversation with me that he may of forgot about the discussed deadline. As for the grand staircase , we didn’t receive any with the grand staircase other than a few low resolution rail shots with our faces being blurry!
He continues to state that “ he thought he got the shot in the can” and at the same time says maybe he was “ bumped” while taking the photo. He confirmed that he only had 2 total pictures of us at the grandstair case. He sent me via text a picture of one of the only grand staircase shots and states he tried to crop someone out and it affected resolution. But he sends the picture to me via tex anyway . I reviewed that staircase picture and our faces were blurry, and there was garbage on the first step of the staircase. His response was yeah, I would have erased the garbage if I was going to give you that photo. This was very offensive to us as we thought the whole time he was with us for the photo shoot, that he was paying attention to details. It was a big surprise to see how he didn’t pay attention to details with the original pictures and seemed to rely on having to photoshop or edit the photos after.
We thought he had an eye for attention to details. WE WERE WRONG TO ASSUME THAT. HE EVEN GOT ONE OF OUR NAMES WRONG! He kept referring to my partner as “Andrew” and even NAMED OUR FILES “20180706eric&andrewsSFCH”.
My partners name is NOT Andrew, it’s Adrian. He could not even get that right!
We tried to communicate with The photographer about our dissappointment regarding the photos and he continued to standby his work and not offer any remediation for the disappointment. He stated “ i can’t make everyone happy!”
He requested for the $600 fee . I never said i was not going to pay him , and was hoping he would offer a resolution on the situation.
Instead he stated we can not work this out amicably and he will be filing a lawsuit against me.
I responded by telling him he is unprofessional . I also texted him that we will be posting a review of our experience with him. He followed with a text stating” You should google the precedence regarding unfounded negative reviews. One photographer last year was awarded in excess of $1million. California also sides with unfounded disparagements.“ along with a link to the Washington post article.
I asked him if he is threatening me? And he responded , “ no it’s legal precedence”.
He has also sent me a text stating he has filed lawsuit against me suing for $1600 and filed claim for $1,600 in SF SCC. He texted me that his attorneys will be following up with civil injunction and will be preparing for compensatory damages.
I contacted another independent wedding photographer to review the pictures that were produced by the initial wedding photographer.
After reviewing the photos, the independent wedding photographer concluded that the pictures were very bad quality. We have secured that independent photographer to come to court with us to provide their expert opinion of the photos taken. We also have witnesses from our wedding party that saw and heard us request to take the grandstair case pictures of us and he disregarded our requests head him tell us “ we can come back for those shots later”.
I would like to counter sue him for breach of contract and emotional distress. In the end he did not provide a decent picture of us at the grand staircase, or even a useable group photo as they all had discolored spots as mentioned, and he did not deliver the photos in time!
We are heartbroken about this experience. Any advice would help.
We hired a wedding Photographer on 7/5/18 and hired him for our wedding on 7/6/18 at San Francisco’s city hall. I paid him as agreed upon fee via Bank of America Zelle transfer funds app. He confirmed he received it and sent me a receipt for paid in full.
Initially we were impressed by his website’s online gallery and he was available for the shoot the following morning!
Upon meeting him at city hall, our first impressions was that he was friendly and professional.
We discussed taking certain photos in specific areas that we requested and we agreed to have pictures at the grand staircase, group picture with our friends and going to the Palace of Fine arts and Fort Point to take the remainder of the outdoor pictures. He agreed and assured us that he was free all day and we can come back to areas to take photos if we needed to.
We also discussed with him that we would like the pictures to be ready before our celebration in miami on 8-18-18 so we can share the moments with the rest of our friends and family that could not make it to our ceremony on 7/6/18. He reassured us that we should be getting preliminary highlights within a 48 hours and the rest of the photos will be available before our second event.
The photographer seemed very knowledgeable of city hall and knew which areas he wanted pictures of us in.
He took us to different areas of city hall and we took several photos under his direction. Our friends arrived and joined us for the ring exchange ceremony.
We thought everything was going smoothly and could not be happier that we had a Professional photographer take our pictures so we can share this day with our friends and family that could not be there to witness the ceremony.
We took a few photos at the bottom railing of the grand staircase but we requested for pictures in the center of the staircase. Photographer said it was too busy at the time and said we can come back later to take the photos.we didn’t argue with him and followed his direction.
Our friends that were there had also suggested to The photographer that they can assist with blocking out the staircase for our requested photo. Photographer reassured us again that “we can come back if we needed to”.
Then he suggested to go outside and take some pictures with our friends on the lawn area across the street from city hall.
Now that we were outside of city hall , Photographer wanted to head to the outdoor locations and continue to shoot. (We thought we were coming back to city hall to take the grand staircase picture later as mentioned by him ) .We followed his direction again and jumped into his van.
We drove towards the Palace of Fine arts and he doesn’t stop, instead he takes us to the other outdoor location at Fort Point. We were confused why he did that.
We arrived at Fort point and it was very bright and sunny! The whole time we were there we were both squinting our eyes because it was so bright. Photographer assured us that he had a Flash that would allow him to take pictures in bright settings.
As he was setting up his flash on the tripod, he noticed the flash was not functioning right and told us “ the battery is dying”. I was concerned about where he wanted us to stand for he picture because I was standing next to a “TOW AWAY “ sign and parking lane markings on the floor. I voiced my concerns about the background and the brightness affecting the pictures because we were literally squinting our eyes the entire time!
His response was “ I can edit that out”. He also decided to take our ring pictures with a mirror and told us how great the effect will be once was done with the picture. We continued to trust him and went along with his suggestions.
Photographer drove us back to city hall to only drop us off by the parking garage and we never got to take a picture centered at the grand staircase.
The following day, he sent me a text on my phone with two small pictures of the highlight pictures of our ceremony ( before and after some editing to remove the tow away signs ).
I told him “ they look great”. It was difficult to see the detail of the pictures because they were small. We were trying to be nice and hoping for better pictures when he releases the remainder of the photos. We also didn’t want to affect the outcome of the remainder of our photos in case we upset him.
Despite our first impressions of the first highlight photos he sent us, we patiently waited for the rest of the photos to be sent before reaching a final impression of his work.
Photographer did not deliver the pictures on time as we discussed. He knew we had plans for the pictures on 8-18-18 and he assured us that we will have the pictures ready before our second event on 8-18-18.
I received an email of the remainder photos on 8-25-18. And Photographer proceeds to contact me on 8/26/18 at 10 pm and sends me text messages on 8/27/18 asking if I had received his email with the remainder of the wedding photos and to inquire about the payment I initially sent him. He stated that his bank and Bank of America are looking into it .
I told him I will call my Bank of America and inquire about the status of the transferred funds of $600 on 7/6/18.
My bank tells me that the $600 transfer had expired due to the receiver not verifying the funds and accepting the funds. I was very surprised that I was not notified by The photographer about the financial situation. I was not notified by my bank that he did not accept the transfer of funds. I was unaware that the fee was returned to my account after 14 days from my initial payment.
I opened the email and briefly looked at the pictures from my phones web browser. The pictures were small and i decided to attempt to download them so I can see hem clearly.
To our surprise the pictures were WORSE THAN THE HIGHLIGHT PHOTOS!!! . The pictures had been over-edited ,our skin color were shades of orange, some had low resolution, some pictures of our faces were very blurry, the overall composition of the photos were not what we expected from a professional wedding photographer. Especially with the advertised photos he has on his websites.
We did not get the grand staircase picture, the group picture had either glare spots or he had debris on the lens which caused the pictures to have large discolored patches on our suits.
These photos by far were poor quality.
His final gallery of pictures for us included pictures with us squinting our eyes, not smiling when we should of been smiling, looking confused because we couldn’t hear his directions at times, our blazers were riding up on us, some had low resolution with our faces blurry faces and clothing blurry with the background clear and in detail. The group pictures had big glare spots or debris from his lens that affected the pictures. And it almost seemed like he changed the pictures to black and white and sepia tones so they can count as additional photos. This would have been ok had the picture been taken appropriately but they still had the debris and glare in the photos. most of the photos are not useable or worth printing .
Photographer did not acknowledge any responsibility for the quality of the photos and even admitted on a text conversation with me that he may of forgot about the discussed deadline. As for the grand staircase , we didn’t receive any with the grand staircase other than a few low resolution rail shots with our faces being blurry!
He continues to state that “ he thought he got the shot in the can” and at the same time says maybe he was “ bumped” while taking the photo. He confirmed that he only had 2 total pictures of us at the grandstair case. He sent me via text a picture of one of the only grand staircase shots and states he tried to crop someone out and it affected resolution. But he sends the picture to me via tex anyway . I reviewed that staircase picture and our faces were blurry, and there was garbage on the first step of the staircase. His response was yeah, I would have erased the garbage if I was going to give you that photo. This was very offensive to us as we thought the whole time he was with us for the photo shoot, that he was paying attention to details. It was a big surprise to see how he didn’t pay attention to details with the original pictures and seemed to rely on having to photoshop or edit the photos after.
We thought he had an eye for attention to details. WE WERE WRONG TO ASSUME THAT. HE EVEN GOT ONE OF OUR NAMES WRONG! He kept referring to my partner as “Andrew” and even NAMED OUR FILES “20180706eric&andrewsSFCH”.
My partners name is NOT Andrew, it’s Adrian. He could not even get that right!
We tried to communicate with The photographer about our dissappointment regarding the photos and he continued to standby his work and not offer any remediation for the disappointment. He stated “ i can’t make everyone happy!”
He requested for the $600 fee . I never said i was not going to pay him , and was hoping he would offer a resolution on the situation.
Instead he stated we can not work this out amicably and he will be filing a lawsuit against me.
I responded by telling him he is unprofessional . I also texted him that we will be posting a review of our experience with him. He followed with a text stating” You should google the precedence regarding unfounded negative reviews. One photographer last year was awarded in excess of $1million. California also sides with unfounded disparagements.“ along with a link to the Washington post article.
I asked him if he is threatening me? And he responded , “ no it’s legal precedence”.
He has also sent me a text stating he has filed lawsuit against me suing for $1600 and filed claim for $1,600 in SF SCC. He texted me that his attorneys will be following up with civil injunction and will be preparing for compensatory damages.
I contacted another independent wedding photographer to review the pictures that were produced by the initial wedding photographer.
After reviewing the photos, the independent wedding photographer concluded that the pictures were very bad quality. We have secured that independent photographer to come to court with us to provide their expert opinion of the photos taken. We also have witnesses from our wedding party that saw and heard us request to take the grandstair case pictures of us and he disregarded our requests head him tell us “ we can come back for those shots later”.
I would like to counter sue him for breach of contract and emotional distress. In the end he did not provide a decent picture of us at the grand staircase, or even a useable group photo as they all had discolored spots as mentioned, and he did not deliver the photos in time!
We are heartbroken about this experience. Any advice would help.
Consumer Law Issues: Wedding Photographer Suing Me and Threatening to File Civil Injunction Against Me
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire