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Re: Wal-Mart Hurst Store Manager, Picture Me Studio Corporate Manager & Picture Me Experience Customer Service:
Due to the my recent experience, I am highly upset and agitated in regards to the treatment I received from your representative at the Picture Me Studio located in the Wal-Mart Super center store number #5080. The behavior of the Picture Me representative, Mary, was shocking, ludicrous, incomprehensible and absolutely unacceptable. On this occasion an acceptable standard has clearly not be met. I have detailed the chain of events of this terrible experience below and expect nothing short of:
- A full and formal apology from Mary and Picture Me Portrait Studio
- A full refund of all monies paid to Picture Me Studio for the photo’s of my children
-A formal apology form Wal-mart
- An explanation of how an employee such as Mary could be allowed to interface with customers in this manner
I attempted to resolve this dilemma by contacting the corporate customer service; however I am still offended by the actions of your employee. I will be reporting this experience to the Better Business Bureau, Wal-Mart’s Regional & Corporate Offices and will seek to pursue legal action as necessary. At 11:20am on October 2, 2007, I arrived at Wal-Mart on Precinct Line Road in Hurst, Texas to pick up my photo package. I patiently waited for a couple of minutes because Mary was conducting a photo session with another patron.
Once their photo shoot was finished she completed the transaction with that patron. At that time, another man and I were still in the studio. I handed my receipt to Mary. She located my pictures and pulled up the order on the computer. She did not tell me that there was a difference in the totals on her screen verses my receipt before; I gave her my credit card. The representative just swipes my card and proceeded to speak to the male patron in the studio. When the representative handed me the credit card receipt to sign, I told her this is not my ticket because the total was different. The representative said that is my total according to her screen and that my receipt is wrong. I stated that is not the case. At that point in time, I asked for a refund. Mary stated she does not give refunds in her studio and I would have to call the customer service number on my receipt for the refund. She stated what is on her computer is my total and I would have to pay for the product received.
Mary left the counter to assist the same male patron that was standing at the counter. At that time, I called the customer service number on the receipt. I was explaining the scenario to the first customer service representative on the phone. Mary is assisting the male patron. She then, starts making rude comments about the conversation I am having on my cell phone to the customer service lady. I told her I am on the phone and that she needs to stop talking to me. She starts yelling and acting belligerent. The customer service representative asked to speak to her. I advised her I was on my cell and that she had to contact her on the business phone. The representative puts me on hold twice and attempts to call the store. When she comes back on the line, she informs me that the line is busy and asked what is the representative doing? I said she is just standing there. Then, Mary starts yelling that she is working and that I am being rude in front of other patrons. I told her to talk to the other patrons because I am on the phone and I am not speaking to her. At that time Mary completes the transaction with the male patron in the studio and he leaves. Then she directs all of her negative energy toward me. I am still on my cell speaking with the first customer service representative. The customer service representative puts me on hold again to attempt a phone call to the studio and I am disconnected from the line.
When the line was disconnected, I called the customer service line right back and was connected to Fran. I explained my situation to Fran. Fran was asking me a series of questions and whenever I commented, Mary would comment in the background as well. I tried to continue to focus on my conversation with Fran however Mary kept interjecting rude comments in the background. I am astonished because this situation is escalating over a .77 cents refund.
Fran asked to speak to Mary and I informed her that she would have to call her on the store phone. Fran puts me on hold and calls the store. While Fran is speaking with Mary, they are going over something on her computer screen. When Fran comes back on my line, she says the representative will give me a refund of $1.37. Mary states she is not going to give me a refund that Fran would have to complete that transaction. Fran puts me on hold and calls Mary back. When Fran comes back on my line, I noticed that I did not receive all of the portraits in my package. Fran asked if I could fax my receipt to her and she proceeds to give me the number. As I am writing down the fax number, Mary starts writing the number to Amy’s store on my receipt that is sitting on top of my portraits. I asked her why is she writing on my receipt. Mary starts yelling that she is trying to be nice to me. I told Mary again I was on the phone and not to speak to me. Mary becomes theatrical and starts yelling for me to get out of her studio. I asked Fran is she hears all of this because this girl is going crazy. I continued to converse with Fran on the phone to resolve this matter. Mary threatens to get security if I do not leave her studio. I am still in the studio on the phone with Fran and Mary leaves to go get security. There was no reason for Mary to get security involved in this matter since, the corporate office was attending to the issue.
When the security personnel arrived, I was still standing at the counter on the phone with Fran. Mary came back in the studio, snatched my portraits, and stated I could not take the portraits because I have not paid for them. I reminded her that she had already swiped my card. I asked Fran if she could hear all of the commotion going on because Mary was acting psychotic. Mary then started running around the studio and yelling that I had not paid for the portraits. I advised Mary that she had five seconds to hand my portraits back to me. At this point, Fran said she would send me the two pictures I was missing, a $5.00 refund check. I starting looking in the portrait package for the receipts. I put a big X on the receipt and walked out.
I can not believe a simple task; such as, picking up my portrait package escalated to this extreme ordeal. This simple task which should have only taken a couple of minutes, instead it lasted almost an hour. Mary’s dramatic actions could have landed her an Oscar if she worked in Hollywood; however, she is employed at Wal-Mart Picture Me Studio. No one should have to tolerate Mary’s irate behavior. This is not the way you are suppose to treat your customers. What happened to good old- fashioned “CUSTOMER SERVICE”? I believe Picture Me Studio owes me a formal apology for this incident. Actually after all I had encountered in the studio, I should receive a full refund for my entire purchase!
I have been a patron of Wal-Mart picture studio for the past 11 year to take portraits of my children. I have previously used this particular studio twice in the pass. After the nightmare I experienced, I will never take pictures at this location or any Wal-Mart studios again. This was a very demeaning and embarrassing experience. Never in my life have I been treated in such a manner. I will become an advocate by encouraging others not to use your studios.
Regretfully a very dissatisfied customer.
Everyone must understand, places like Picture Me and Olan Mills are fast food photography. Do you really think that a photo store in Walmart or Kmart is going to be top tier? The employees are paid $7.00 to $9.00 an hour. They do not hire professional photographers, they hire whoever walks in and can read. The lighting is rarely if ever changed, regardless of skin color or other variables. So many darker skin tones are overly lit. Many of the studios are too small to even take a full lenth picture of an adult and you can forget large family pictures at most Walmart studios.
I worked for one of these companies for about a year. The photographers are trained on the job. You will never know if that person was hired last week or last year. They have little external support from their own company. The are also encouraged to make the sessions as short as possible.
The company is driven by sales and not quality. Face it, if you are going to Walmart for your precious heirlooms you really need to accept what you get or move on to a real photographer.
Customer service skills are rarely taught. How long do you think an untrained person is going to last in this profession without having a breakdown? They are working in Walmart! People are always trying to get something for free, the photographers are doing sales, photography, cleaning, opening and closing the store and everything else. Rarely will you have two photographers in one studio unless one is doing sales only during the holidays. In reality most of the studios are too small to fit two people comfortably.
You are expecting a fast food employee to provide a gourmet meal.
An average day of a Walmart based photographer; a line of people that did not make appointments but expect not to wait in line.
Mothers directing the photography session. Kids will not smile and you have not been taught any techniques to get the to, or they even throw up on the props. Which the photographer has to clean. They don't get assistants. You get threatened on a monthly basis. People get packages but can't pay. The come in every week to look at the package and then leave, then come back the next week. If someone doesn't like the way the picture looks you sometimes get physically threatened. If the spouse comes in to pick up the pics then later the other spouse comes in and yells because since the photos were taken they had broken up and why did you give the photos to the other spouse?
What do you think you would do if someone whipped out their cell phone and started complaining about your service in front of you? How rude. If you had a problem you should have followed up with customer service at home. Do you think that was constuctive? The employee has not manager available and has no backup. The customer service line is simply a call center and has little to do with real time solutions like you were demanding.
Oh and really, you are going to sue and you shop for photography at Walmart? Right. After 15 years of working in customer service I can pretty much tell that you had a large part of escalating the situation.
Did you think you were the first person to be rude to that employee that day?
You get what you pay for and if you don't treat people as humans you get poor customer service.
Put your extra energy into actually finding a real photographer. But then that probably won't work for you as you obviously need an audience to witness your drama.
For the price you pay for a full package you can get professional photography from a local person and have a pleasant session and a beautiful result. Buy your toilet paper from Walmart and your precious photos from a professional.
I just got my 4 year old daughter's pictures done at Picture Me in Sioux City, Iowa and the experience was wonderful. Our photographer, Sarah, was the best one I have ever encountered. My daughter is a wild child and Sarah dealt with it. She got my daughter to sit still and even smile a natural smile. She has never done that. My daughter always has a fake smile in pictures. She had my daugther do different poses and they turned out great. And Sarah asked me if each pose was okay or if we wanted to redo them. I usually have my pictures done at Sears but it is alot cheaper here. As long as I have someone like Sarah, I will continute to go to Picture Me.
I think all of you people who get on here and bad mouth other people for doing their job have way to much free time on your hand! If you think a 5 year old could do it you wouldn't have gone to walmart to get them done in the first place! And .77 cents is nothing to complain about there is bigger problems in the world... and the whole reorder thing, you people do know the studio has nothing to do with how long it takes that is all on the developing lab... and by the way u PEOPLE are all the same always wanting something for nothing!... Stop being fools and open your eyes!
I to had the worst experience ever with this company... My daughter was working for them until I made her walk out after repeated name calling and threats from the so called DM named Colleen in the Nevada part. After repeated times this woman told her to go promote the company in the wal-mart store itself she would come and clock her out well not her but she would have someone else do it and then would call and harrass her afterwards. This Colleen and the other So called employee even called all her appts on a daily basis to change them to the other employee as I find this out from my friends and family and friends of others decided to set them up and do all these appts and guess who called to claim they had to be resheduled. It got so bad but when they started cheating her out of pay thats when i got involved.. I dout any of us will even get the photos we paid dearly for...
In fairness to Walmart, I would have NEVER made such a fuss over $0.77... that's just rediculous. There are times in life when it's worth it to take a stand but over the kids pictures? I don't know... seems petty to me.
My experience with Walmart at my son's 6 month pictures was phenominal. To this day, people inquire where I got them done as they are absolutely gorgeous. She had incredible creativity to put the backgrounds, outfits and props together as she did and they came out wonderful.
BUT...
My second time there (son is now 15 months), I was close to walking out. I showed up 20 minutes early which turned out good since it took way longer than I ever anticipated. In fairness to walmart, my son was crying upon arrival as he didn't dig the shopping cart ride in (my mistake for forgetting his stroller).
She brings us back and although I had a cute nautical spring outfit on him...the backgrounds she used were just...um...nothing I had expected out of Spring Pictures. Our main picture has the American Flag behind it...if that tells you how it went. Anyway...
Being we're working with a cranky one year old, I was getting SOOOO frustrated that the MOMENT he was calm and ready to crack a smile, she'd hang up her camera and go assist customers at the front desk. He's start crying again...and it was a repeat process. Finally, after an hour, she suggests we look at the pictures we had and see what we thought. I was just done at that point anyway. I think once you start a photo shoot you should not have to stop to assist other customers...just rediculous.
With a few enhancements, I ended up buying a big package and just settling for what she had but let me tell ya, I'm very disappointed. He looks MAD in most of them and understandably so. The only smiling one we have has the flag in the background.. lovely for 4th of July but I told her I was looking for Spring pictures. Oh well... there's always the photoshoot with the Easter Bunny.
I'm sorry, but the old adage, you get what you pay for, applies here with portraits at "fast food" places such as Walmart, Picture People etc. They are not trained portrait professionals. Portrait photography is an art. It is not a herd your clients through for $7/unit pictures. Find a suitable portrait photographer in your area, of course you have to be willing to pay for it, and personally, for me at least, those memories are worth the price of a professional, not someone who only knows how to push a button on a preset setting. Then again the bicker was over $.77 so maybe professional photography isn't exactly high on your list of priorities.
I agree their service is appalling.
I just came from that studio today in the Piscataway NJ Walmart. It was my first time. My mother was with me, and I asked to have my passport photo taken.
I sit down on the stool, and my mom notices that the stool is quite low and asks if the stool can be raised higher. Before the sentence is fully out of her mouth, the associate (a female, not sure of her name- if its on the receipt, then her name is Kelly A.) whips around, shoots my mother a cold glare, and interupts "I'M the photographer here."
My mother was unceremoniously silenced, and backed out into the sitting area.
After the shots were printed, we found that they were extremely bad- the camera was held too high up and I was basically staring up (way up) at the camera.
So we asked for a retake, which she seemed to agree to after snapping that we had to pay for it separately again.
My mother calmly said, yes, we will. Just this time, as you can tell from the photo, she is sitting too low
Here the associate butts in and starts yelling how the pictures were acceptable, we bought them, there is nothing wrong with them and if there is, its because of our opinions.
We get a little flustered, and my mom points out how the photographer snapped at her before. The woman glares back at us and shares a sarcastic look with two other patrons that have entered the store (rolling her eyes). She points at me (I'm a teenager, by the way, but I hate conflict of any sort) and says "Tell me, am I not right? SHE (my mother) said "oh its fine, i'll take the picture" and starts rambling about how my mother is outrageous, and repeats her question, trying to get me to agree with her and thus HUMILIATE my own mother in public.
Which in itself, I find, is extremely shocking. I was literally shocked into silence, and numbly followed her back into the studio area. She refused to change anything, even with my mom's polite imput, and I had to adjust the seating myself (which is not in it of itself that big of a deal, but sheesh, at one point polite consumer imput was sought, and she expressly ignored anything we said.)
When the job was done, I asked my mom to look at the picture. She looked at my mom peevishly and said "you SURE you want it this time?" in a deeply sarcastic manner.
My mom was quite offended (as you can well imagine by this time) and said "I don't see how I deserve this attitude- I am the customer, and I didn't insult you at all."
This set the associate off (Kelly? I'm not sure of her name) and she ended up (literally) yelling "Just pay for the photo, take it, and leave- get on with it!"
We asked who the manager was, and she screamed back "I AM THE MANAGER." We later checked with the WalMart Customer Service desk- she was not the manager. I will never, ever try their service again, and I advise you to do likewise.
Get over yourself! I could understand if the refund you were seeking was a significant amount, but 77 cents? Come on. Don't waste our valuable time complaining over 77 cents! There is no excuse for the associate's rudeness, but I can assure you she was justified in being upset too. I was reading your comment because I will be using the same studio soon, and I was just as apalled as you while reading it, UNTIL I got to the part about how much the refund was. I didn't read any further. I can't take you seriously. Where do you work? Maybe someone should come and make a big deal about nothing and ruin your day sometime...
I am a PictureME!Portrait Studio employee. I will personally apologize for Mary's behavior. This is not something should have ever been experienced over 77 cents. This is something that could have easily been fixed at the studio level.
I will also say that, at least the other employees that I work with, do our best to accomodate all of our customers to the best of our abilities. Sometimes there is a wait, especially during busy times such as holidays. We work as quickly as we can to get the best photos possible. We are very aware that small children do not have a long attention span and that is why we try to go fairly fast, because once a child has decided that they no longer are interested, it's over. The children are truly the "bosses" of the photo shoot.
At the same time, remember that we do work on "baby time" and sometimes it does take a little longer for the shoot, especially when there is more than one small child.
As a response to the gal from Alaska, if you were on time for your appointment you should have been first. However, our walk-in policy, for future reference, is that if you are not there by your appointment time, we must take the walk-in that is there and ready. We typically ask you to arrive 5-10 minutes early for paperwork and last minute stuff. If it is a busy day and your appointment is at 1 pm and you arrive at 1:01, you are technically late, since we asked you to arrive early, so we must take the walk-in. Do not fear, we will get you as soon as possible.
Please remember that we are only human and if there is only one person there, they are moving as fast as they can.
Again I apologize to any customer that has had a bad experience with us, but for the most part our employees are trying their best and it can be hard. At the studio level, we are only responsible for what happens in the studio. We take the pictures and order them. We do not print them and unfortunately if they don't print the order right all we can do is call and order it again. THere are times that we face problems with out own customer service and lab. If you allow us to try and help you, most will. Although there are bad apples out there and we do our best to remedy this.
I know this may seem like a lot of blah blah blah from an associate, but I was a loyal customer for 5 years before I started to work here. I had a few problems, but they were always taken care of and I have never had a photo taken anywhere else.
Our company is in the middle of a nation wide change over to digital, which will provide us with many more options for everyone. Hopefully this will also helpful with any other equipment malfunctions that tend to cause problems. It won't help with customer service issues, but it is a start. If you have problems ask for a district manager within our company. We are not Wal-Mart and they really can't help too much.
Again, sorry about any bad luck. Try us again and hopefully you will have a better luck!
This is to the one who identifies himself as the professional photographer... Pardon me but I have worked at Picture ME! for two years and yes mistakes are made. I personally try to fix all of the ones that I can. But I am not trailer trash. I am not a remote control pusher. I have a degree in photography and photojournalism. I have been taking photos for 13 years. I think that more than qualifies me as an artistic photographer. I train all new employees that I can to have imagination and do as many different things as is capable. I have over 50 clients of my own that have been coming only to me since the day they found me. They have told me that no one will take their pictures. They enjoy the ease of coming to my studio and are completely and utterly satisfied with my abilities.
So are you telling me that because I choose to be a professional photographer at a PictureMe! studio that I am trash and I am not qualified? How utterly disgusting that you would say something like that. You say you are a professional? Well, a professional, let alone a mature adult, would not say things such as that. You make me ill.
By the way, I am opening my own studio very shortly. When I open that will I still be trailer trash or will I be better than that?
I've been going to them for years, but it took a few different studios, and several photographers before I found one that I love! (Amherst NH, can't remember her name... but she's the manager)
They're practice of hiring bodies, vs. paying that little bit extra for someone with experience is frustrating for not only us as customers, but for the other employees who are forced to fix "The bodies" mistakes. This just boggles the mind.
I personally wouldn't of bothered with all that drama over .77cents, but that's just me. The order being wrong, yeah, I would want that fixed. Both combined = frustration, but in a good studio, it wouldn't be an issue. It would get fixed, and you would be compensated.
i have also worked with picture me studios with the same young lady colleen in Avon, MA. She was very kind to me and while my two year old and my newbord were very restless, colleen was very apathetic and patient to that. she got the kids to smile and she was very pleasant. i highly believe that the lady who accused her of the things said above about the song and dance she gave i think you are by far exaggerating. she was wonderful and even when my pictures were a few days late, they came out great and she apologized many times for the delay in getting them. so i hope that if colleen reads this she will know that she is very professional and that she shouldnt let that rude woman get to her. thank you colleen for doing beautiful portraits on my children
Although I don't work for Picture Me I would like to add:
To Parents who would like to have their children photographed without hassle:
Keep in mind: Appointment delays usually result from other peoples lack of preparation. You will find that your photographic appointment will go smoothly if you:
1. Prepare your child before arriving (dress them, feed them, diaper them) BEFORE the appointment time.
2. Honor the studio as you would visiting a friends house (control your own children and do not encourage them to get into photographer's props, etc.)
3. If you have difficult child/children or a group, call the studio and find out what the least busy time is. Keep in mind that weekends are busy and will allow the photographer less time with your child than a weekday morning.
4. Plan your visit around your child's schedule, not yours. (avoid nap times, feeding times, etc.)
5. Plan and pack a quiet activity for your child in case a wait happens (book, puzzle, etc) In most cases, if the wait looks extensive you can usually walk the store and have the studio page you when they are ready.
6. Book an appointment if at all possible. A lot of studios even have online scheduling available.
7. Know what you intend to purchase including sizes and posing ideas. (Make a list of your needs)
8. Tell the photographer when you arrive what you are looking for (traditional/casual/something fun, etc)
9. If there is an error or mistake, realize that photographers are human too. In most instances the mistakes are in the printing department, however are fully fixable. Have you ever made a mistake in your job?
10. Respect the photographer and the studio personnel. In most cases, they are working long hours, unstable shifts with a lot of lack of respect.
11. Most simply, treat others as you would like to be treated...ya never know...that "remote pushing, trailer trash picture lady" might just surprise you. (I know, I'm one of them...gee, glad I got that $89, 000 Bachelors Degree, too!)
(p.s. I gave up a Fortune 500 Company Marketing position to do what I do...not for the money, but for the passion of WHAT I do.)
Whereas I have never been a customer at a Picture Me studio, I can only imagine any customer's nightmare who has to deal with any studios owned by this particluar company. First of all, the company is owned by CPI, who also owns Sears Portrait Studio, where I worked for 3 years.
If you had a bad experience, its probably because the corporation aims to make it that way. When I worked for the studio at Sears, all employees were given direct orders to not allow any customer to take longer than 15 minutes. We were given "pose guides" which we were required to follow with every customer as opposed to being allowed to use a little creativity. If we didn't follow these rules, we were written up regardless of the customer's opinion on the situation.
The worst thing that I ever encountered while there was their requirement for 6 complete poses out of each session. I had customers whose kids were crying so hard they couldn't breathe, the company policy was that they needed to either finish the session or delete all the pictures that were already taken...how terrible is that?!
And if anyone feels that the customer service associates are really crappy, its probably because they are paid minimum wage and work their butts off day in and day out, it gets a little old after a while!
I have to agree with the negativity of these studio. My family and I had an appointment to get our Easter pictures made at 7:30pm. We got there at 7:25pm and there was 2 other groups in front of us. We of course waited. Well it was about 8:30 before the girl got to us. I believe the studio closes at 8:00pm, so I could see where she could have been upset but that was not our fault. Well, first of all she hurried us through our sitting. She wanting me to accept pictures that were not posed right or even centered and kind of got upset when I ask her to take it again. After all the pictures were taken, she rushed me through the selecting of photos. I was not happy at all with my pictures or my studio time. I am not sure if I would go as far to say that I will never use Picture Me again but just not that studio or even that certain employee. I agree that the women above deserves an apology because this girl is in the service industry and it doesn't matter how the customer may act you are still to be nice and pleasant. Its her job!
I have just recently been on an interview for a manager position for the Picture Me Studio (location not disclosed). I am very glad that I was able to find this site and see the types of complaints or concerns many customers may be experiencing.
I am very much looking forward to working with this company, and I can honestly say that these comments have opened my eyes to areas that are in need of improvement. I believe 100% that customer service and satisfaction is the life line of any business when serving the public.
I truely do hope that I will become an asset (not an ###) to the company and be able to provide excellent service and quality to all families who walk through my studio. In light of reading these comments I can see which areas will demand the most of my attention. I am also noticing a trend where photos are not being submitted on time for a prompt return to the customer. This will be the first item I make sure to check on after each order. I would advise other managers to begin verifying that all orders were received by the lab so there are no more "gliches" to be explained.
In regards to the refund of $.77 cents, I would have gladly refunded my customer the money because in not doing so, that studio lost a customer and their associates for life. Instead of greedily trying to add more money into your profit, try making sure that your customer is 100% satisfied and treated with total respect so that you can gain the business of their friends, family, and associates. This is the only way to make your business grow and become a profitable business.
Many large chain businesses out there seem to forget that the most important and influential advertising in the world is by mouth. I don't care how many print display ads or coupons you hand out, if you upset one customer then you can expect to lose at least 20% business from their negative advertising.
Customer service is your number one goal. If you provide a friendly, honest, and respectable service, you will always have smiling faces walking through your door.
Sincerely,
A New Employee
This is for the New Employee.
First of all I want to commend you on your wonderful ideals. I agree with you on everything you said. I'm sad for you because this company is going to eat you up and spit you out and not give it a second thought. I have seen manager after manager leave there job chewed up and spit out after putting many years in. they to having the same thoughts and ideas you have. They put their whole heart into it and not to mention their own money because the company says "its your business to grow". You cannot please the company and the customer it has to be one or the other. The company will ask to much from you and your customers.
I wish you all the best and I hope your your sake that you will know when it is time to get out, and not keep thinking it will get better soon, because it never gets better.
All I can say is Good Luck!
Lmaoooooooooo I am sorry but a refund request of $.77 ...Lmaooooooooooooooooo
Sorry but that fact alone that you wanted a refund of $.77 tells me without a doubt you definately provoked this I am sure anyone that gets bent out of shape over $.77 cents has major issues and without a doubt is not completely innocent...Funny, thanks for the laugh...Stupidity lmaooooo I am sure Walmart almost cares if you never patron their stores again lmaoooooooo...HellOOOOO you spent that the first few minutes on the phone making the complaint lmfaooooooooo duhhh! Lmaoooooo I can't stop laughing this is stupidity at its best lol and you wouldnt even let the represenative speak to her on her cell phone...Common your out there ! Not going to comment on the store employee because your neurotic letter and threats of a Law suit tell me your in need of therapy! Save your money and go for counselling!
I just wanted to respond to Heather's posting (posted 165-ish days ago) in Anchorage. I just wanted to let her know about Picture Me's appointment/walk-in policy. I am the former studio manager (for a brief time I was also the Market Manager for my market) at one of the Michigan stores, so I know this for a fact. When we are trained we are told that it doesn't matter if your 1:30 appointment show up 1 second before your 1:00pm appointment (just for example), you take the 1:30 back because they were there first. The same goes for walk-ins as well. The company's reasoning for this is that you'd be willing to wait because you want your portraits taken. I'm not saying this is right at all! In fact, I completely disagree with it, but I have seen employess be disciplined for not complying. I am so sorry you had to wait so long to have them taken that day, one child is difficult enough to entertain, two is obviously twice as hard. As far as mailing your portraits, company policy is not to mail them, but considering you guys bought the stamps, I don't think it was asking too much to have them mailed. I had done it numerous times for families because they paid for the postage. I even paid for postage out of my own pocket once for a family whose teenage daughter had passed away. It's all about the customer service and I am so sorry for what you had to go through.
I two had pictures made at a studio here in south carolina. After my shots were taken the computer went down right after they placed my order. I asked if we would need to redo them they said no. i waited around for 2 hours hopig the system would come up so i could pay for them but it never did. well three weeks had gone by and each time i called they told me they werent in yet, then finally the said my order never went through and the pictures were lost. I called customer service but since i didtn have a reciept they couldnt trace the order, not to count one rep hung up on me due to me trying to explain what happened, she just kept saying with out a receipt theres nothing she could do. I finally spoke with a lady who was very nice she gave me 15% off but i had to have them remade, and this time my littlest woudlnt even smile. so the shots were no where as good. They just dont have thier studios together, there should be comment cards to mail in ectt...
As far a the .77 cent you were a bit petty. You must have said something to make her that mad a jeperdize her job and call security, people dont wanna envolve security or the police when they are in the wrong, if it was like you said you would want to call security.
Walmart potrait studio takes appointments but they pay no attention to them its non official understood that it is first come first serve cause they would hate to miss a dolar waiting honoring an appointmentn when there is a walk in. They managers will tell the employees when you go to the doctor you dont expect to get in there write away you expect to wait a half hour. the best thing you can do if you have twins or alot of children is make 2 appointments back to back.
Walmart portrait studio pick anyone off the street that does not have a child indangerment record and pays then 8.00 and hour to be a photographier do you know that the stock boy in walmart makes more than that You cannot get and/or keep a good employee off 8.00 and hour. There is absolutly NO traing you get maybe 2 days worth of traing then they tell you that they are understaffed and have no help. They leave you after two days of training by yourself compleatly. Walmart will not help you at all, only if someone is injured. Please note that the two days of training you recieve from someone that if best worked there for 6 months, Cause they go through people like underware, who could stick around making 8.00. The only thing the corperate and district and regional managers care about is sales. How can you make these people buy more that the 6.88 special. They could care less about your memories and if you do only buy the 6.88 special they could care less about you cause a 6.88 special only brings down the studio avarage. If you come in and only buy 6.88 they wish you never came in at all.
The reason why you see hands and thing in your prints and not on the computer when you first ordered is because they have a bad camera and computer system that the camera and film is showing more of the scene than the computer. That is not the photographier fault that is them. Their is no waythe photographier to tell until the pictures come out and buy then it is time for you to pick it up. Thay have this old camera that film is not easy to change when you don have proper training, it not dan ordinaray 35mm then you have to do it in complete darkness. But they are finally going digital now so I guess thiss will fix some of the problems.
But trust me they treat their staff just as bad if not worse than their customers.
The best advise I could give you is to go somewhere else to work and to have pictures done. You get what you pay for.
I KNOW ITS ONLY .77 BUT THE POINT WAS THAT SHE WAS WRONGI TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. YOU ARE RIGHT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ALWAYS #1.
All this over $0.77? I'll admit that Mary sounds very unprofessional but with the lead in to your story I had assumed we were talking a price difference of $50+.
Don't you think you MAY have overreacted just a tiny bit? I would imagine you used more then $0.77 in minutes on your cell phone w/ all the phone calls.
It's a budget photo studio, you have to make some allowances for error.
Honestly, you're complaining about 77 cents... But not only that, you're complaining about how "Mary" was interjecting into your conversation with customer service. OBVIOUSLY you have no class and just wanted to draw attention to yourself considering you made this big fuss INSIDE the studio when you could have just walked out and dealt with customer service in a private matter. if Mary was bothering you, all you had to do was walk away instead of posting a 45 minute long complaint about the minute by minute plays and comments. I bet you're the type to show up and take the 5.99 1 portrait package then complain about the quality and try and pass off your 20% coupon then when you come back to pick up your photos, you expect the samplers for free... Get over yourself. We get paid minimum for our work which is challenging to say the least, and some of us bend over backwards to please our customers taking the best shots of their bratty indred kids only to get s### on by mouthy bi#### like you for a measly SEVENTY SEVEN CENTS. You want better quality? Better service? Ask for us to get paid more, or go take your miscreants to sears.
I too had a bad experience with the Picture Me Studio in Grand Blanc, Michigan store #3726. I had a 4pm appointment for my 3week old to have a newborn picture taken. My husband and I arrived on time for the appt. The photographer was finishing up with another customer, so we sat and waited for her to finish. As she is finalizing the ladies order the customer asks why the amount was so high, because she was under the impression that the current special was $7.99 for the introductory package. As was I. The sales girl informs the customer that you now have to print up coupons online to get the special price. The customer stated that she was not aware of that. So the sales girl tells her that she's not supposed to do this but will give her the special just this once. Now when the customer left the sales girl turned to us and asked were we ready. I had the baby ready and decided i had better ask her about the price again. She told me that i would have to go home and print out the coupon for the special price and reschedule our appt. I told her no one had informed me of the new format when i made my appt. She said they had just changed it on Saturday, today was Thursday. She then informed that the cheapest package they had was $80.00. I asked her why when the other (caucasion) customer was unaware of the change she gave her the special price. She said she wasn't supposed to do that. So i said "but you did right in front of us". And she said that she would not do it twice in one day. I work for that same Wal-Mart, but im on maternity leave. One of the Assistant Managers went up to the portrait studio and asked the sales girl why she wouldn't give me the special. And why she was rude to me which another associate witnessed. She told the Manager she would give me the special but only if I came back at 6pm that evening. Needless to say I wont be taking my baby girl back there. I felt completly discriminated against. I have always taken my pictures at Wal-Mart. And they always have good deals. Had someone informed about the new policy I would have gladly printed up the coupon. But what she did was wrong. To tell me if she did it for me she would have to do i for everyone else. Why didn't she tell the other customer that?
I have been in this field of work for many many years. I will be finishing a degree soon and will be so glad to be out of it. It's not because of not enjoying what I do, it' s mostly because of people like the ones writing these comments. If you have never worked retail, sit back and read this and put yourself in these positions.
**A company that offers your "lifetime memories" for $4.99 or $9.99 for 35 portraits, have hired people that can perform a great job and earn a resonable pay so you can be offered these deals for your cheap ###.
**Second, some people that work at these places have children and families and are doing what they can to take care of them, maybe they don't make as much as you do (which if your so much better why in the hell are you going to a bargain portrait studio)?
**These companies can pay these people more or have more staff standing around just waiting for you to decide to come in but guess what YOU WILL PAY MORE FOR YOUR PORTRAITS!
**Now, think about this..these employees go to work everyday and get on thier hands and knees and crawl around on the floor with your child and every other person that comes in day in and day out. They make a fool of themselves to get your child that you just brought in after getting thier shots that day or you didn't feed or you didn't get a nap because it WORKED FOR YOUR SCHEDULE TO SMILE!
Now...you want this perfect stranger to your child to pull a wand out of thier a** and make your child smile. You tell them when you walk up, "he/she is tired or having a bad day" but you still get pissed off because the photographer can't get the child to smile or stop crying.
Now there are 2 other appointments waiting out front because you have been in the studio for 30 mins and you think it is the fault of the photographer because your child won't smile.
Wow, you give the photographer the guilt trip because YOU WANT THESE pictures, so they take what they can get because they don't want to tick you off and tell you that, MA'M your child is having a bad day and I think if we reschedule we may able to get better pictures because you REFUSE to listen to the little hints they have already been giving you.
>>>Ok, now after being in there with you for 45 mins, taking the pictures that the photographer wasn't satisfied with but you were persistant, the photographer takes 10 mins to upload them, and come sit down with you to show them to you. You are stressed, tired and irrataited because your child was bad. The kids of the other families that have been waiting an hour now are tired and crying. The photographer sits down and you say "I don't like any of them because you didn't get any smiles"! How do you think that makes the photographer feel?
Now not only are you buying anything, you've wasted their time instead of realizing "this isn't a good day for your child" and everyone else is mad at the photographer because they waited.
Now this photographer has to go in and try to make a child that has been waiting an hour, they are tired, the parents are mad and stressed from the wait. DO YOU PEOPLE NOT REALIZE WHAT KIND OF STRESS THIS IS TO THE EMPLOYEE?
REMEMBER, IF YOUR CHILD IS HAVING A BAD DAY AND YOU CAN'T GET A PICTURE WITHIN 5 MINS OR SO YOU NEED TO RESCHEDULE! THE EMPLOYEE TRIES TO GIVE EVERY CUSTOMER A GREAT EXPERIENCE, THEY ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS, RETAIL EMPLOYEES NOT MIRACLE WORKERS.
IF YOU WANT SOMEONE TO SPEND A HOUR MAKING YOUR CHILD HAPPY, GO TO A PRIVATE PHOTOGRAPHER AND SEE WHAT IT COST YOU! MOST WON'T DO CHILDREN BECAUSE OF CUSTOMERS LIKE THIS!
NOW YOU THAT SHOW UP AT 7 OR 8 PM AT NIGHT? omg, Do you not realize these children are SPENT by this time, they have been going all day long, they don't want pictures taken. So yes the employees get upset because some of them have been there 8 or 9 hours, they haven't got to eat all day or go to the bathroom or they have had experiences like I mentioned above. So have some consideration because even though people work ing the "CUSTOMER SERVICE" business doesn't mean they should be treated like cr*p!
Always remember, put yourself in someone's shoes before you start critizing what they do.
Yes, you BOTH no doubt got out of hand. Mary is probably paid 9 dollars an hour and has to deal with issues all the time. She probably could have handled it differently, ( customer service is #1) BUT why you had to antaganize her by staying in the studio and calling corporate to complain is beyond me. If its a bad situation, get the corporate # and call when you get home! After an hour I probably would have called security myself.
Our family too has been treated horribly by Picture Me Studios. We had taken many pics in the past until the company hired new people. We went in to get our pics taken and the pose book was basically thrown at us and we were told to "PICK". The employees were poorly dressed and chomping on food. We were going to get one pose for our daughter and one for our son because it was their birthday pic. We do this every year and we pay for one and "papa" pays for another. This was ok'd over the phone when making the appt. so there would be no problem when we got there (WRONG ANSWER). She asked why I was filling out 3 forms, I said I was filling out 2- one for each kid. She then became rude and asked the other employee why I was filling out 3 forms. I then said "I AM FILLING OUT ONE FORM FOR EACH CHILD" not three. She then told me "I CAN F****** COUNT". At that point my husband asks to speak to the manager and she said "I AM", he then said we're going to find the manager of Wal-Mart because she is a dip ###. She shook her a** and said "NO, YOU'RE THE DIP ###". We called and complained to corporate who really don't seem to care so no wonder a person gets treated like that in person. We ended up with a few free sheets but after that who wants to use them again. After reading all the bad reviews I don't know if I ever will try any of their locations or not. I'm thinking not...This location was Aberdeen SD. Don't put yourself through the agitation---stay far away.
I am an ex employee of PCA LLC (Now Picture Me Studios). This was the worst company I have ever worked for. I was there for under 3 years and I had around 7 different district managers and even acted as DM multipule times. They pressured us daily to make numbers and shoot so many sessions and make goal. We had to call numbers in twice a day, and were extremely micro managed. When I was pregnant I was threatened to be written up for calling in sick, but they called me on my days off numerous times to cover for unattended stores. After my maternity leave I had been demoted because we had changed DM's for the 100th time.
I understand both sides of this scenario. I have been a customer and had bad customer service. But I have also found that when you attack someone verbally they almost always attack back. I feel that there has to be another side to this story for Mary to have acted so out of control. I was treated horribly by customers many times while working there. Most of the time I de-escalated the issues. There were a couple times when things seemed to get out of control over insignificant issues. I finally had to leave because I was verbally attacked and physically threatened by the husband of a woman who felt she had been treated rudely. And instead of calling customer service or calling me herself, she sent her husband in to intimidate me.
I have found that almost every employee at this company has a bad attitude because it is a horrible place to work. I found myself becoming jaded and mean while working there, and that is not my normal demeanor. I would suggest going to another company for portraits, and letting Picture Me Studios die.
Nicki
I find it extremely difficult to believe that an employee would flip out like that. Get the stick out of your @$$ and get over the $.77. Mary should have just given you the stupid change out of her pocket just to shut you up. It's not like 77 cents would have broken either of your pocket books.
wal mart (henceforth referred as EVIL MART, only rents space to Picture me portrait studios.
I do know there is incompetent people working retail, but as I've found in the past 48 years is there are FAR MORE Impossible IDIOTS that are customers.
...customer service is a low pay high turnover junk job...I bet the turnover is 100% per month...I had a lousy labor market reject at Walmart PICTURE ME...too. These are people that are labor market rejects...do not expect much of them...they are rejects, remember.
You have to grin and bear it...these are not Harvard Medical grads...plus, these low pay people hate customers, but the cost is so low that you have to hack it...or pay $199 at a normal photographer...this is the way life is...constant degeneration...and the labor market rejects end up at outfits like Walmart.
Picture me studios in walmart is a huge rip off. I went there for convience. When my son was first born I had his pictures taken every month at Walmart before they was Picture Me. All I wanted was some pictures to give to everyone in my family. I went in to spend 7.99. I made that clear to the photographer. Taking the pictures took 15 min. To do all the fancy stuff I didnt want took another hour of my time. When ordering the photographer lied and told me that if I dont order everything now i wont be able to get them later. So I didnt want to lose a couple shots so I ordered 8 wallets that cost me 20 freaking dollars. Then I got the smile card but she didnt even give me my 10% off. When I called customer service they said that I made that decision to order and If i wanted to cancel it would cost 10 dollars. I called before the pics was even printed. I shouldnt be charged anything I was manipulated. If you read the comments and do your homework do not go to walmart to have your pictures done. WASTE OF MONEY. I know I work hard for my money and Im sure you all do too so dnt waste your time or money on these people. Digital cameras are cheap now or there is Target. Theirs is better quality and cheaper.
I have had some very difficult dealings with Wal-mart customer Service, but the portrait studio in St. Charles MO is always wonderful. I won't take my family anywhere else. I have no doubt your situation was horrible. I have no tolerance for poor customer service, as I have worked in the industry all my life, and it was inexcusable. It really shows a lack of proper training, and management, within the organization.
my grandson is 3 years old...and i live in altus, oklahoma and EVERY time that i have had his pictues taken it's been messed up some way! the first time the lady who was the store manager was horribly she rushed us in and out of there like we were cattle...the next time something else happened and the time after that one of the back grounds were messed up in our pic's ...this last time july 08 i talked to the studio manager in june...about getting new pic's taken for birthday in aug...i was told all new everything july 8, she advised me that i should prob wait for a few days afterwards to so they could get everything straightened out|! ok so i waited i think till the next weekend i made appt for 10 am so baby wouldn't be cranky got there and guess what they were "running late" so we walked around walmart for bout 20 minutes till they "got ready" then we went in there and did our pictures...they were great! except that it was so hot in there i almost passed out...walmart won't open their vent and they corporate people took the fan and we live in sw oklahoma and the average temp is 101...in july! i left there in tears and totally distraut...the corporate office promised me one thing and another and it always didn't come thur i finally got my pics and then the corporate office sent me a couple more sheets and guess what ...they were bent...i reported that to them and nothing... oh well
never again...
First of all as far as the origianlly complaint, I find it very hard to believe that you were that calm. If you want to talk to customer service and not hear "the rude" comments you could have walked away, but you didn't so that shows you were trying to push her buttons. Second people make mistakes, companies make mistakes and if you have an hour to spend on .77 cents find a hobby.
As far as portrait studios go most of there labs are out of state and they are dealing with orders from 50 different states so its very possible that an order can be shorted. And theres many reasons it could have happened. Now I see there were some complaints about waiting long peirods of time. When your dealing with childeren you never know what your going to get, would you like to be asked to leave or even rushed to the point where your picture suck because your child isn't cooporating? And sometimes its the parents who pro long the sessions, by trying there own tricks to get the kids attention and then when they do smile they are looking to the side. These people are trained to do a job and if you think you can do it faster or better apply for a job. And there isn't a studio out there that doesn't book 15 to 20 min apart and constantly runs on time.
I have been going to the Wal Mart Picture Me studios for a few years now, for family photos, with my 2 sisters. We have never come into contact with anyone this bad. Yes I aggree, they aren't "proffesional photographers", but come on, what do you expect for $5.99 or what ever they cost for a ton of pictures. It is an amazing deal for the amount of photos you get. The employees I have worked with, were all very happy and creative people. I recently went to the Maple Grove, MN location and worked with Chris, he was awsome. He Put us in poses we would have NEVER thought of, and we loved them all. He even changed some to black and white for us.He knew exactly how to work with our personalities to. I feel bad that you had such a terrible employee, but you can't blame ALL of Picture Me studios, or Wal Mart for that matter. You take your chances at any studio honestly.
When I used to work in retail, i had a customer just like you. A customer made an unnecessary complaint over 46 cents. The difference was because she returned an item from a Walmart in another county. I tried to explain to her that counties have different tax rates and we do not compensate for the difference. After I realized she didn't understand economics, I just gave her the 50 cents out of my pocket. She had the nerve to complain to the manager and said I was being "nasty" to her. You people make me sick about meaningless complaints. I'm wondering how much you spent on making that call. Just so you know, customer complaints like that only make the salesperson's actions justifiable. Call when you have a real complaint.
And for you idiots that think people should quit their job if they don't like it think about this. If you're getting paid $6 per hour to entertain ###s like this one how much professionalism and training do you think is involved. How do you think a portrait studio can afford to offer $6 portrait package deals. Just like shopping at walmart. How much customer service do you expect from someone who is working 25 hours a week for $7.25 an hour? You people are stupid if you want Glamour Shots for $6 a package. Now who's stupid.
Your asonished that this situation has escalated over .77 cents yet you were the one to to make a big deal over 3/4 of a buck? get real drama queen