Moan about Gotcha

[maddysmummy]

Has anybody dealth with Gotcha?
I had DD's pics done in June, and I am paying weekly for them.
Near enough every day I rang to talk to someone to pay the lump sum of so I can just get the pics. No one was ever in. Now I need to also change my address, been ringing for 2 weeks and still no one in. The person who deals with it is on annual leave, and I've left phone number with the temp, but yet no one rings me back.
I'm starting to become frustrated. I want to know how much is left to pay and change my address.
It's becoming stressful!!! :(
I'm going to keep ringing of corse, because I need to change my address.
Has anyone else had problems with them? Or is it just me?

[Elmofan]

:wave:

I have used them once back in 06 I paid them off weekly but actually got given the photos up front the only problem with them I found that they were very pushy when it came to picking the photo packages

[Mum2Bug]

They have a pretty bad customer service reputation. Its why i wont use them, its only this week that i saw them being pushy to parents choosing their pics and i felt like saying something. Had to bite my tongue as i walked past.

I hope you get hold of someone soon.

[maddysmummy]

Hmmm ... Maybe I should have looked into them before hand :detective:, it was such a spare of the moment thing. They pulled me over in Whitfords , and I haven't had them done for ages , Loads of people seemed to be getting them done tho ....
I can say , gladly, I was never rushed to pick my pics, I took my time on that one lol I didn't want all of the pics, because 2 of them showed DD sitting with her knickers on show :rolleyes: They wud look good on my wall..... I was disapointed in alot of their pics they took, but some were absolutly fantastic.
Well I cant give up trying, because I need to change my address!
Nothing goes right eh... ! Tut tut!!

[maddysmummy]

Ok :banghead: :hair: :banghead:

I have been ringing them all morning, and they have now got a ****ing voicemail thingy instead!

My god how hard is it to do this?!?! Never again :no:

All I wana do is change address / get remaindin balance left :banghead:

Sooooooooo frustratin!!!!

[rainbowmummy22]

Haha, you should confront them in a shopping centre! Imagine yourself exploding into this full on rant while the prospective customers walk away!!! haha that would teach them. hope you get onto them soon!

[maddysmummy]

Haha! Dont go giving me ideas :p I prob wud do something like that.... Someone charged me $10 for 10 bananas the other day, ended up walking out of Coles with 4 free bananas lol

[maddysmummy]

I wont EVER use gotcha again ... oooh no!
No matter how many times I ring, there is never any answer.
I go back to UK for a year next week, and I still cant get hold of them, and by my calculations I have paid all the money so they should have been sent out :detective:
But no, they most probably havent :D

[Coffee]

I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with Gotcha.

I did my DS 1's pics back in 06 and i was more than happy with them.

They where professional, friendly and not pushy at all.

They also gave us enough time to decide, which pictures we wanted and which not.

Nothing compared to Pixie Photos, they were cr@p.

You should probably talk to them at the Shops, seems to be the only way to get hold of them.

Good luck.

[Alanasmummy]

Hi, I was wondering how maddysmummy got on. So here is my big rant.

Im also having a bad experience with them. I had my childrens pictures done with them a month ago. During the sitting the baby started crying so they told me to settle him. I took him and settled him and they did another girls photos. When she was finished they finished my sitting. They said it was just one sitting and wrote the info on the bottom of the paper. They gave me an appointment and told me to come back in a week for the viewing.

The next week I went back and only the first half of the photos were available for viewing. Because the photographers hadnt completed a second sitting form, the shots taken after the baby was settled were not printed and not available for viewing.

Than they said that I had to select the ones I wanted even though I had only seen half of the photos. Things got a bit heated and I didnt take them with me but arranged to have the proofs sent out so I could look at all the pictures and select my favourites. I did pay for the package up front in full. BIG MISTAKE!!

A week went past and still no proofs. I phoned them and they said that they hadnt been sent yet and they would send them that day. After a few daysthe proofs still hadent arrived so I started phoning them every day. After phone calls every day for 10 days the proofs have finally arrived today. Some of the photos are great and others are very ordinary. I phoned them to place my order and I cant even have the photos I want unless I pay them more money!

I have paid for 9 photos. 8 (8 x 10's) and 1 (10 x 13.). So what they have done is print the 2 best photos as 10 x 13 so this means that if I want the 2 best photos I have to pay them another $85 on top of the hundreds that I have already paid them. I am so very frustrated and have learned from this experience and will never have photos taken with them again.

Im going to end up with some very nice photos, and some very ordinary photos, but what is most frustrating is that I can only have one of the 2 best if I pay them another $85. They wont even substitute 2 ordinary 8 x 10s for the good 10 x 13. Not Happy. Thanks for reading my post. I feel a bit better now.

Hope you are having a better day than me.

[calden]

sorry your having a bad time nothings worse than trying to contact ppl that your giving your money to.

Gotcha has been the only company i was happy with and was planning on using them again and now i'm worried i never knew they had a bad rep.....

Good luck getting a hold of them

[mixi_mama]

I personally have had nothing but drama from them. I was making weekly payments and all of a sudden I got a letter saying they were about ready to take me to court for lack of payment. I went through the roof as I had weeks worth of receipt details stating I had been making payments. I kept ringing and could never get through to anyone until one day I went ape***t after seeing them hassling people at another shopping centre. Turns out because the payments were coming out of my daughters fathers account and we had differant last names they didnt realise it was for her photographs. After all that I got the photos finally and they werent the ones Id ordered and quality wasnt that crash hot either. Never would go back through them or even recommend

[ickpick]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the board but had been perusing over people's comments re: Gotcha Photography before deciding whether or not to go ahead and purchase a package from them myself.

I can say in all honesty today, dealing with them was an absolute nightmare, and the quality of the pictures leaves much to the imagination!

First I had paid for a keyring - I had asked on the day that it be the "colour picture of Tyler wearing the Christmas hat, with a big smile" that the photographer had showed us. My partner (who has sadly had to move back to the UK) had picked this photo out especially as it's Tyler's first Christmas. When I got there, the keyring photo was Tyler looking sad/grumpy, not smiling, and looked dreadful. It was also in BLACK AND WHITE not colour as we'd asked. Peeve number 1.

Secondly, some of the photos they picked to print were ridiculously crap. My son takes a lovely photograph, and there were some good ones, but lots were what I would call "dumb" shots - baby staring out into space, not smiling, grimacing, looking like he was about to wail... Hardly the kind of photos I want to pay for. So most of them were a waste and therefore not worth choosing for a package. Peeve number 2.

Thirdly, they did NOT tell me on the day that they charge a whopping "$50 bank fee" to "set up" the direct debit. Which is a load of rubbish as the banks don't charge them a thing to process a direct debit authorisation, AND it's something I believe should be disclosed beforehand. They also told me at the shoot I could pay them off over 4 months or "even more if I needed it" - which today I was told it was strictly 12 weeks and therefore any package went outwith my budget. Peeve number 3.

Peeve number 4 - the sales lady I dealt with today was SO rude. The "complimentary collage picture" was nothing like the one on the stand at the sitting (one at sitting was bigger, more photos, this was a postcard sized one branded with their logo) and the picture was HORRIBLE! He had his eyes half closed, looked like he was sucking in air, absolutely atrocious. So my complimentary picture was crap & I wasn't afraid in saying so. In the end they let me choose a small picture from one of the multi-sheets but even then the choice was limited as they simply were not good photos. Suprising actually, as the photographer showed me brilliant ones on the day, yet lots he showed me did not even turn up at the viewing!

I was half way through debating whether to get a package or not and she started getting pushy, trying to hurry me up, started filling in the direct debit form when I hadn't even agreed to a package yet, then told ME to hurry things along. WELL I flipped. I told her I needed 10 minutes away from her to go calm down, give it some thought, and come back capable of being able to deal with her further.

I came back after stepping away from it all and speaking to a friend, who told me that "600 for 16 photos is ridiculous" and that local "real" photographers would give me better photos, and more of them, for that price if not less... After lots of consideration I returned to discuss with her and review my photos once more. That's when she started being really rude and I was nearly through the roof.

You see I'd picked my "complimentary" little photo out of the ones left not in my package. Now I'd decided I did not want a package, BUT (seeing as the little photo I picked was the best out of the 2 remaining pictures I before was not purchasing in my package) I said I wanted to swap it for one of the photos that would have been in the package had I been buying it. She got really b**chy, snapped at me that I couldn't, and when I told her this was not fair - as it wasn't my fault the printers chose a rubbish photo for my complimentary - she basically said it was the one I picked before or nothing. I was ropable by this point and spoke to the senior staff member there instead, explaining my sistuation, nearly in tears by how pushy and rude the first sales lady had been and how mean she was being not letting me choose my complimentary photo.

I got so agitated by the first sales lady (who even after I had said I didn't want to deal with her anymore continued to butt in as I tried to work something out with the senior member) that I told her to go away from me, to leave me & my friend alone, and not to speak to me - even still she kept on putting in her snide comments and remarks despite being told I did not want to have dealings with her.

Overall today - if the customer service may have been kinder, I may have considered buying more photographs, however my selection to choose from in order to get a package would have meant going home with pretty crap ones in my package as well, something I was not prepared to do... In the end, I left with one small complimentary (OF my choice once the senior staff member had a chance to listen to me without nosy nora butting in edgeways), and I purchased one individual photograph.

They try and reel you in - the fact they are pictures of your beautiful baby makes it really hard to walk away from them. But remember - you're not walking away from your actual baby... Your baby won't love you any less if you don't buy the pictures. I'm actually proud I saved us $685 today as I'd rather see it go to better use, despite that some of the pictures were indeed lovely...

They put a sense of urgency on everything as they know your emotions / adrenalin / impulse levels are all soaring high, making you more likely to buy them... I'd reccomend anyone honestly consider using a REAL photographer before considering buying from a mall-snapshot stand like Gotcha...

Thankyou for letting me get that off my chest! and Merry Chrimbo everyone! :reindeer:

Emma - mummy to Tyler - 10/9/09

[maybe1more]

I had them done about 12 months ago at the Warrick shopping center, and i was attracted to the $10.00 sitting fee that includes a free 10 x 13 photo, which sounded like a bargain to me.
I also got some keyrings. I did find them very pushy when i came to viewing the photos 2 weeks later. Then told me if i didnt get the photos they would be distroyed and get burn and send to "photo heaven" :( i didnt like the thought i my sons photo`s being distroyed so i brought the package (all but 2 photos`). The photos were ok, but they were all in black and white which i was a little disappointed about and the so called "free" 10 x 13 photo was only "free" if i brought the whole package( an extra $85 each) otherwise i was a postcard size. The keyrings has a photo of my son on one size and adverting Gotcha on the other size when i paid to have two diffrent pic either side. The lady who i when thru said i would have to ring the main branch in QLD to get it change but i never did as i honestly could be bothered.
So im another one that would never have these ph otos done again :no:

[lovingmotheract]

now can you see why they called there business gotcha.

[Gruffalo]

Bummer that many of you have had bad experiences. I have only had an awesome one. Went to the viewing, most of the photos were great. I did find that some of the ladies were not that friendly though (not the photographers). I didnt buy anything but I didnt need to cos my daughter came first in their comp so I got everything for free, plus a voucher so I guess my opinion is probably quite biased.

[3boys1girl]

now can you see why they called there business gotcha.

I agree!
Why dont people stop using these companies and go for custom photographers that are actually trained to take photographs, not like these bunch that are pulled off the street and thrown a camera in hand!

They charge WAY to much! I know cause I do photography but charge no where near as much as they do! Their cameras may as well be a point and shoot that you buy from Kmart as they are probably only worth about $500!

Ladies...go for a custom photographer in your area and support a local business. They are not as expensive as you think and they will not suck you in with you have to buy this and that. Most of them have decent cameras and the customer service will be a whole lot better!!!:)

[lovingmotheract]

I agree!
Why dont people stop using these companies and go for custom photographers that are actually trained to take photographs, not like these bunch that are pulled off the street and thrown a camera in hand!

They charge WAY to much! I know cause I do photography but charge no where near as much as they do! Their cameras may as well be a point and shoot that you buy from Kmart as they are probably only worth about $500!

Ladies...go for a custom photographer in your area and support a local business. They are not as expensive as you think and they will not suck you in with you have to buy this and that. Most of them have decent cameras and the customer service will be a whole lot better!!!:)

So true I'm a photograper as well and the price they charge is just crazy i know of one photograher that does change (jinkyart) but she can as she is just wonderful in what she does.

[jlksofi]

I have only had an awesome one. Went to the viewing, most of the photos were great.

[Crazyfamily]

i have used these guys to and did not buy any of the pics because they were terrible. when i said i wanted none they were really rude. i also recently used picture perfect and they outright lied to me so i am now in a dispute with them.

[slzein]

Hi I had a look at my daughters photos today and the A4 one was absolutely beautiful. However they wanted to charge nearly $100 for that one photo! The lady said the photos would be destroyed if i didn't buy them. I did not purchase it but was wondering why they would destroy these photos when they have already had the cost of printing them etc instead of offering them at a discounted price? They would at least make some money for their costs. I was thinking of contacting them and offering them say $40 for it. Has anyone done this? If so how did you go?

[~Tristans Mum~]

Unfortunately these places play on your emotions so they would expect you not to want your child's photos to be destroyed (regardless of them already paying for print).

I doubt very much they would take your offer of $40 as I'm sure they will have plenty of clients that will pay the amount stated.

These sort of places do the hard sell and that's what they care about not the photographs they are taking.

Same with Pixi and any sort of in the mall type photographers.

Honestly you are better off going to a custom photographer who spends time with your family (in excess of two hours rather then a rushed 15 min job) and getting to know you and and has as much passion about the photographs they are capturing as if it were their own child.

Just something to think about :)

Cheers

Philly