Portrait Innovations Don't Use Them

A few of my friends have been talking about this new photography place in Leesburg and one of them made an appointment for today. Read on:

Hi Everyone,

I was excited to try Portrait Innovations, the new portrait studio
located by Best Buy in Leesburg. I called last week and scheduled an
appointment this morning for my three month old for 9:30 a.m. I
arrived today, only to find they were closed. Myself and several
other parents all sat in the cold, in our cars, waiting for it to
open. We kept calling, and there was no answer. Finally after 45
minutes of waiting, I had to come home and feed my infant.

I found their corporate phone number on their website, and furiously
called and got up to the V.P. of their company. He told me that new
locations are never open on Tuesday (well then, why did they schedule
me and these other parents an appointment, and why does their Post ad
as well as the lettering on their door say Tuesday - Sunday hours).
He made it seem like it was my fault this happened. One of the other
parents told me this is the second time they have done this to her
there, as she drove off disgusted.

I am a huge proponent of not supporting businesses who treat customers
this way. His best offer was to tell me sorry and offer me $25 gift
card. I'm sorry, but after what I went thru this morning to get my
three year old to school and my three month old fed, dressed and
'portrait ready', I told this gentleman where he could put his $25
gift card.

I will not be using their business and I wanted to share my experience
with as many parents as possible. Please spread the word on your
community message boards and share with other parenting groups you are
involved in. So many of us will be getting our kids photos taken for
the holidays and I just think our money could be better spent than at
this place.

M. Lopresti
Ashburn Farms

 

Thanks for sharing this info. I just ripped their 1 page ad out of one of the local Loudoun papers too...it's going back into the recycle bin!

 

This sounds just like my last experience with the Picture People at the mall. Not only were the store employees apathetic, but so was customer service, even though I escalated all the way to the corporate level.

 

One thing I would do is go back and take a picture of the hours that are posted on the door and email it to their corporate folks, espically if they show they are open on Tuesdays. I would flood them with as much info that shows they misled consumers to the fact that that location is open on Tuesday.

 

The VP was clueless. Even the website lists hours as Tues - Sun 9am - 6pm
(http://www.portraitinnovations.com/find_a_location/?state_abbr=VA)

Did you write down the names of the employees as you worked up to the VP? You should write a letter and ask for an apology letter from the VP and whatever you think is a reasonable $ amount for a gift certificate.

Best thing you can do with any customer service compliant is to write a letter specifically asking for what you want to rectify the situation.

 

We've had great luck with the Target studio at the Leesburg Target.
Probably more "basic" than Portrait Innovations but so far we've had great results there.

 

We've had great experience with the photo studio at JC PEnney at DTC.

 

We just had a horrible expreience with JC Penny. We had an appointment with our 9 mo old at 10:30, and didn't get out of there until 2PM.

The staff had no clue on what they were doing, they were '30 mins' behind when we showed up at 10:30. It just spiraled from there. So if you go and they are behind, beware.

 

I am sorry you had such trouble with Portrait Innovations. I am very familiar with the company. The started out in the South and we just moved here this year and have been a loyal customers to a Portrait Innovations study in Georgia. Before seeing your post we had an appointment last Sunday (I called that day to set up the appointment, since I had one at Picture People and my husband refused to go after numerous outrageous experiences there). Our sitting lasted over an hour with my 3 and 5 year olds and they had a great time. The 2 ladies that we were working with us did everything they could to get exactly what we wanted. The ended up taking 93 photos and we bought 9 poses. It was very had narrowing down to 9 since we loved so many. I hope that they do something that would let you try them in the future. Much better prices than Picture People.

 

FYI - Portrait Innovations has an ad in yesterday's Loudoun section of the Washington Post - "Studio Hours: Open Everyday 9a.m.-7p.m." Nothing at all about no Tuesday hours. Sounds like that VP needs to get his act together.