This is going to be quite a long rant, so please bear with me!
We booked in at the local Olan Mills studio for 5pm Thursday evening. They are advertising a Family Pack on their website where for £40 you get 3 photo sessions over the year, and a 10x8 print from each, and obviously the option to buy more prints each time. I called their c/s line as this is normally bought as a gift box, and I wanted to know if I had to buy the gift for myself and then call to book, or if I could do it direct. I was told that I could book the session with them, and then pay £40 for the pack when I got there. So, off we went.
We got there, and Charlie pooed straight away.
So I asked them where I could change him. They dont have changing facilities! 
So I was directed through to a carpeted area at the back and told I could change him on the floor. Okay, you may say, but there was a woman in there in her underwear getting zipped into a wedding dress!!!! Their photos had gone wrong on the big day so their photographers had paid for the suit hire and hair and makeup artist, and were also paying for the photos, so they could have new photos. Charlies poo smells like rotten eggs!! I kept apologising to the poor woman, and felt sooo embarrassed. 
Anyway, so then we were called in and the photographer asked what we wanted. I said we had never done this before so had no idea, but loved the modern, natural looking photos on the white background. He said we would start with some traditional poses to start with, so I said to him that they were the one thing I didnt want as I hated traditional family portrait poses. He then said that he wanted to do a couple like that as we may actually like them. So we went along with it. He said then we would do lots of funky poses. Well, he was putting us in different poses and I kept thinking that none of them seemed particularly funky, but he must know what hes doing. He wanted one of me and Stu together, and that was the worse out the lot! Im 4 inches taller than him, but thats how we are and it doesnt bother either of us. But the photographer insisted that Stu stood on a box!!!
So it looked sooo un-natural. At the end, he did one pose with us all on the floor, and then one of Kayleigh on her own. Then we finished.
We waited outside for 20 minutes, then were called in for viewing. They were horrible. We looked like a Victorian very stiff family!!! They were all posed, and not natural. Some of them even had the mottled grey background!!!!! The only 2 half-decent were the last 2 ones.
So I told her that I wanted the one of all of us as the freeby one, and asked how much the one of Kayleigh would be. She had no idea what I meant by the Family Pack! I explained what it was, but she just said that they didnt sell that in-store, and the photos would be £110 for the two!! So I got up to walk out, and she said she would go and talk to the manager. She came back and said that on this occasion they would do it as a special offer to us for £25 for the Family Pack, and another £25 for the extra portrait. So I agreed and paid them £50, knowing full well that next time we went I would be better prepared and do some research into the types of poses we wanted.
Well, the MIL has called me this morning to show me this:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/northernireland ... _page.html
So after all that, Im not getting my photos, and its cost us £50 for 2 wasted hours!!!!!!
Ive rang the phone number, but its Olan Mills c/s line and is shut. I now feel soooo sorry for the people we were talking to who worked there. They have just been sacked 10 days before Xmas. 
Also there was the poor couple with the wedding photos. I actually feel kinda lucky that the photos were so crap that we only gave them £50.
I am just so mad that companies can get away with things like this. If you go to olanmills.co.uk they have a message saying that they appointed administrators in the High Court on the 14th December. I paid them £50 at 6pm on the 14th when they were already in liquidation, but have no chance of getting that money back!! Grrr!!!!
Rant over, thanks for reading!!
We booked in at the local Olan Mills studio for 5pm Thursday evening. They are advertising a Family Pack on their website where for £40 you get 3 photo sessions over the year, and a 10x8 print from each, and obviously the option to buy more prints each time. I called their c/s line as this is normally bought as a gift box, and I wanted to know if I had to buy the gift for myself and then call to book, or if I could do it direct. I was told that I could book the session with them, and then pay £40 for the pack when I got there. So, off we went.
We got there, and Charlie pooed straight away.
So I asked them where I could change him. They dont have changing facilities! So I was directed through to a carpeted area at the back and told I could change him on the floor. Okay, you may say, but there was a woman in there in her underwear getting zipped into a wedding dress!!!! Their photos had gone wrong on the big day so their photographers had paid for the suit hire and hair and makeup artist, and were also paying for the photos, so they could have new photos. Charlies poo smells like rotten eggs!! I kept apologising to the poor woman, and felt sooo embarrassed. Anyway, so then we were called in and the photographer asked what we wanted. I said we had never done this before so had no idea, but loved the modern, natural looking photos on the white background. He said we would start with some traditional poses to start with, so I said to him that they were the one thing I didnt want as I hated traditional family portrait poses. He then said that he wanted to do a couple like that as we may actually like them. So we went along with it. He said then we would do lots of funky poses. Well, he was putting us in different poses and I kept thinking that none of them seemed particularly funky, but he must know what hes doing. He wanted one of me and Stu together, and that was the worse out the lot! Im 4 inches taller than him, but thats how we are and it doesnt bother either of us. But the photographer insisted that Stu stood on a box!!!
So it looked sooo un-natural. At the end, he did one pose with us all on the floor, and then one of Kayleigh on her own. Then we finished. We waited outside for 20 minutes, then were called in for viewing. They were horrible. We looked like a Victorian very stiff family!!!
They were all posed, and not natural. Some of them even had the mottled grey background!!!!! The only 2 half-decent were the last 2 ones. So I told her that I wanted the one of all of us as the freeby one, and asked how much the one of Kayleigh would be. She had no idea what I meant by the Family Pack! I explained what it was, but she just said that they didnt sell that in-store, and the photos would be £110 for the two!!
So I got up to walk out, and she said she would go and talk to the manager. She came back and said that on this occasion they would do it as a special offer to us for £25 for the Family Pack, and another £25 for the extra portrait. So I agreed and paid them £50, knowing full well that next time we went I would be better prepared and do some research into the types of poses we wanted. Well, the MIL has called me this morning to show me this:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/northernireland ... _page.html
So after all that, Im not getting my photos, and its cost us £50 for 2 wasted hours!!!!!!
Ive rang the phone number, but its Olan Mills c/s line and is shut. I now feel soooo sorry for the people we were talking to who worked there. They have just been sacked 10 days before Xmas. Also there was the poor couple with the wedding photos. I actually feel kinda lucky that the photos were so crap that we only gave them £50. I am just so mad that companies can get away with things like this. If you go to olanmills.co.uk they have a message saying that they appointed administrators in the High Court on the 14th December. I paid them £50 at 6pm on the 14th when they were already in liquidation, but have no chance of getting that money back!! Grrr!!!!
Rant over, thanks for reading!!
