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While shopping at the local Meijers store in Sterling Hts., MI (shopping for a client - I am a healthcare provider), I was stopped by a salesman from United Studios of America. After much convincing, and against my better judgment, I paid a $10.00 deposit for photos scheduled to be taken at that location the following month. Due to employment conflicts, I re-scheduled, then canceled the appointment. I simply could not guarantee that I would be available for photos in the near future. I followed up with a phone call requesting a refund of the deposit for the aforementioned reasons. Boy did I get the runaround! I was told they "do not give refunds, " and that I was issued a statement from their company (although no contract was signed by myself). I was also told repeatedly that a supervisor was looking into the matter and would contact me regarding a date (initially told they refund deposits at the end of the month) to expect the money. To date (3.5 weeks later and well after the end of the month, I am still awaiting a response and the refund! What a rip off! They must be desperate for money!
Hey I live in Sterling Heights as well. I was also approached by a guy at meijer as well who conned me.Was the guy that got you tall, round face, and short cut black hair?
Please let me know. We can take these guys down and get our money back and shut down this scam.
United Studios uses you $10 to pay the person who signed you up. They are trained to say anything to get your money because you have their money in your pocket! All the sales staff inside any grocery store is getting your money to pay themselves, that's why the company doesn't give 'refunds.' What they don't tell you is that you can take your pictures anywhere, anytime with your coupon in the future. Contact the number on you coupon and keep asking when and where they are shooting. You can add your name to the list over the phone. Get your pictures which are usually OK and get your money's worth!
A former employee
I have currently worked for this company for over 5 years, and to the person who had fraudulant charges on their account I would advise you to check public records, as United Studios does employ thousands of people accross the nation and THEY DO PRESS CHARGES against employees that steal from the company and the customers. As others have mentioned, for $10 you are receiving a great price for 18 pictures. The company only makes money if you order additional pictures. This has been one of the best companies I have ever worked for. Like any company, they have had some occasional problems with the lab, thus delaying pictures being shipped at the promised time. Keep in mind the time frame you are given is an estimate, and especially with the holidays this year, we received an unexpectedly high volume of orders for plaques and canvas portraits. As far as the managers in Arizona, I will personally see to it that the VP of Operations and our owner is made aware of your of your concerns. We have been in business for over 20 years and although it is hard to get back to everyone in a timely manner when we get thousands of calls a day from people wanting to place additional orders, ect. if you have a complaint or need immediate attention I suggest visiting our website and contacting us via email through our website. We are a company that stands behind our word and we guarantee satisfaction to ALL of our customers. Although we do not generally issue refunds (which is stated on your certificates at the time of purchase) we do offer to re-shoot any and all portraits that customers are unhappy with. We set up appointments for you when you pay the $10.00 and although we do expect our photographers to call all the appointments, that doesnt always happen, which is why we write the date and time of your appointment on your certificate. If you do not use your certificate for the appointment scheduled, you are not out your money, we will still honor your certificate (no matter how long ago you bought it). Also if you were to go to JCPenneys Sears, Lifetouch, Picture People, ect they charge you a sitting fee per person, and we do not, so you are saving a significant amount of money on sitting fees alone. Also our additional pictures are not always high priced, there are times that we run specials of $5.00 per sheet. Also our sales reps are trained to tell EVERY customer to call or email us if they can not make their original appointment and we will honor their certificate at another location. As far as the back drop used for our pictures, we use a green screen, so it doesnt matter what it looks like to the naked eye, we digitally enhance the portraits with the background selected by the customer. You are not gonna find a company that cares more about customers than we do. Please email us with your concerns and someone will get back with you in a timely manner!
United Studios 2010, we was charged the $10 dollars for the portrait, which was a really good price and happy to pay to get a couple of sheets of pictures, but there was a sitting fee also and it stated it on the certificate. At the time of sighing up to get out pictures token, there was no sign no where stating what the other portraits would cost, or what was going to be offered at time of portrait pick up, nor when our portrait was taken. Well, I just came back from picking up the $10 dollar packet. I must say the picture quality was excellent, couldn't be more happier how it turned out, BUT, the sales representative was VERY VERY RUDE from the beginning I sat down to go over what was being offered. $500 for everything, all the pictures, the frames. Well, I told him that I couldn't pay that much for pictures right now, but if they had a website that I could go to, to maybe look and purchase the rest, he was very rude and said, that there was no website that I could go to, and that is why they are there now. It wasn't what he said, it was how he said it. Then I said I'm sorry then I can not do that much, he said then lets slash the price, pay half now and half later, I said that I could not make that decision with out my husband because it was a lot of money. Hes demeanor was still very rude, like I was making him mad because I could not get that also. He then said lets slash that, you pay $199 today and make payments on the rest, I still said I could not make that decision without my husband because even that was still a little much and my husband and I always financially consul each other before we make any decision for that kind of price. He then said, you knew about coming to pick up your pictures for three weeks and you couldn't come up with the money then? I said this was a surprise my husband did to have our first family portrait token and he done payed all that with out me. We knew nothing about the prices nor what was going to be offered, because nothing was advertised as far as that. Just the $10 portrait was all that was advertised, during all this. I said well I need to wait til my husband gets off work then we'll go back up there before y'all are done for the day to see what we can do. He then basically tossed the clip board at me and said sign this, he then began putting the pictures that we did pay for in a bag all hostile like and said, well you make sure you come back up here and get the rest of these pictures before we leave, in a very hostile, rude voice. Not even a thank you for buying the one that we did buy, or not even a good bye. He turned his head and back on me. People like that is why you are loosing the customers. I won't ever go back to y'all, nor will I purchase the others. The $10 portrait excellent price but very poor service. Not even worth it.
Its a pity we only look for reviews after we had a bad experience. United Studios service reeks. I had to wait over an hour to receive my picture, and the one offered for the $10.00 was certainly not the one of the best ones they had. They are so out of touch with the economy that their prices were out of reach of their coustomers. Their representative was however persuasive, for people signed up to pay for their pictures on a plan. Who buys pictures for $500.00 with one background? I prefer to use Walmart studios. The service is much better, and the quality is the same.
I'm not sure if this is the same company since the company that took my family portrait went by the name of Portrait USA Studio they keep changing their name. They took my family pictures at the Kroger in Arlington, TX and I must say this company seemed to be shady I was approached by an older gentleman and when I declined he was upset. The lady next to him tried and I relented and paid a $15.00 deposit to get pictures taken. Family pictures were taken and we gave the photographer $30.00 for pictures that we never received. I called the number on the badly printed receipt/invoice and guess what no answer or call back. I called the Kroger store where the pictures were taken and was told they had nothing to do with this company and that I wasn't the only one having problems getting my pictures. After that conversation, I knew I was never going to get pictures or a refund. I don't know why or how this company is able to stay in business I would think the government or the grocery stores they do business in would have reported them to the police or shut them down with all these complaints. I haven't given up I will be reporting this group to Attorney General hopefully this will shut them down.