Three years ago when my daughter Juliana was 8 weeks old I took her to a Picture People Portrait Studio. The shot they got of my sweet girl was classic. She looked like a beautiful Porcelain doll. I soon decided I would get my daughter’s pictures done every month so I could watch her change. Picture People was my number 1 studio choice. We quickly developed relationships with the girls that worked there and every time we walked in the door they greeted us by our first names and hugs. We would compare past pictures of Juliana with the new ones and when I walked out the door there was NO DOUBT that I would be back again.
In September 2005 Picture Peoples parent company Hallmark sold the Portrait Studio to Plainfield Asset Management. The great customer service lasted through the following year and Picture People also started free sitting fees which was a huge plus. They added a portrait club membership, which cost $40, but offered more than $100 in saving every year. The portraits continued to be beautiful and better quality than most other portrait chains.
Soon they switched their Internet site from the Smile Store to Zazzle. Smile Store had excellent quality products and was easy to work with. I tried the zazzle site once and was unimpressed with the quality of the portrait gifts and the difficulty of the site. I have not been back to the website since.
Throughout 2006, some of the regular associates at Picture People started leaving and I remember one day going in and the new associates were swearing and talking about alcohol and smoking. I was upset by this because Picture People is aimed at photography of young children. This was not the type of discussion I wanted my child to hear. I complained to the manager and she said she would talk to the associates.
During the rest of this year I continued going to Picture People, but also started checking out different studios. I always went back to Picture People because the pictures were so irresistible. I did however notice that associates were never the same and most of them really lacked the skills to work with children and sometimes even the camera. I had to work much harder to get my child posed and get the good expressions.
I don’t remember when, but soon after Picture went to digital cameras and the process became much quicker. With the need speed though came some loss of quality in the portraits. Around this same time my second daughter was born and I was excited to take her to Picture People because they did such excellent infant portraits. Sadly, bringing my second daughter to Picture People was never the great experience that it had been with my first daughter.
I STILL continued to go because normally they got at least that one precious shot that I never got anywhere else and I just HAD to have that. Every time I went though something upset me. My issues ranged from the cleanliness of the studio, to the quality of the backdrops and props, to the lack of experience of the photographers, and most importantly to the quality of the customer service.
Yesterday, I went to get my second daughter’s 11 month portraits done and I have NEVER been so bitterly disappointed. We arrived early for our appointment, but were told we could not be seen until our appointment time. I was fine with this as we had shown up early. Well, we sat there as our appointment time came and went. Not one associate talked to us and the studio was SO full that there were not enough seats for even half the people. There were four associates and probably at least 50 customers.
We finally were acknowledged by an associate 25 minutes AFTER our scheduled portrait time. She was rude when she talked to us, but we pushed it off. As she took the portraits of my daughter, my husband and I worked our hides off trying to get our daughter to pose and smile. After about 10 minutes I said we were done, because I was exhausted at trying to work with her, chase our 3 year old, and tell the photographer to, “shoot now!” She told us to return in 20 minutes and we could view and purchase our portraits.
We went to get a drink quickly because the studio temperature was probably about 85 to 90 degrees. We then went back to wait at a station to view our portraits. We waited OVER an hour. We were acknowledged THREE times by associates who said someone would be with us in a few minutes, but no one ever returned. Finally, an associate set up the slide show of images for us and then walked away. About 15 minutes later someone finally came back to see what we wanted to purchase. We chose one portrait and it was the quickest they moved all day. We had our portrait about 10 minutes later and were out the door.
The entire experience was a nightmare and our children were sleepy, hungry, and very unhappy when we left. I watched a woman leave with her very small infant apologizing to her husband because she never thought they would have to sit there for THREE hours. The saddest part to me is that my daughter’s 1st birthday is in four weeks and I wanted the best portraits I could get…I don’t know where to go anymore though, certainly the best can’t be Picture People.
