Rip off Shootstudios.com groupon deal. My review : Not happy with Shoot Studios

simytrader

The deal: A 1 hour photoshoot after which "Models will walk away with 12 6”x4” prints along with digital copies of the snaps and a DVD slide show to flaunt at soirees." all for £26, wow I thought!

Unfortunately it didn't turn out so good and I was amazed when I tried to contact Trading Standards only to find that they no longer accept calls from consumers. I did get put through to the "Citizens Advice consumer helpline" but to be honest it left me feeling like "Why did I bother". I am not sure anything will be done.

Personally, I feel this is a serious case of misleading advertising! The groupon offer can be found here. Basically, Shoot Studios of 901 Christchurch Road, Pokesdown, Bournemouth BH7 6AX claim to be offering a 1 hour photoshoot which they claim to be worth £334 at a discount of 92% which means you only have to pay £26. As I it included digital copies of the snaps I thought wow!

I had a look at their websites shootstudios.com & shootstudios.co.uk and was convinced this was a great deal! (I am usually quite sceptical, if it looks too good to be true then it usually is and all that...)

Shoot Studios website lists a 1 hour family shoot at £150 which includes a £37.50 vouchers to spend on prints. This reinforced my belief that their groupon package valued at £334 was fantastic as it included a digital copies of all the shootstudio photos. To me that's what the extra £184 was for!

Unfortunately it transpires the images on the CD are low resolution and not print quality. The CD is in fact in my opinion purely a sales aid to sell the high resolution print quality images for £20 each (and you have to buy a minimum of 5).

This is a total con and rip off to me. Would I really expect to pay £334 for a 1 hour photoshoot and then still have to pay £20 for each high resolution digital photo taken. No way!!!

I did ask Shoot Studios how much a 1 hour photoshoot would cost if I wanted all the photos in high resolution and he said £350. (Isn't that pretty much what groupon are claiming the deal is worth!)

My personal recommendation is to avoid Shootstudios.com

simytrader

Looks like I am being a little hard on Trading Standards as I've just found out here & here.

Looks like groupon has got 3 months to clean up its act and then hopefully we will not see any more rip offs like Shoot Studios

Jeff_Bridges_hair

To be a little bit of devils advocate here it doesnt say that you digital copies will be high resolution copies - just you will recieve digital copies - which is true.

simytrader

The deal is supposed to be worth £184 more than their basic 1 hour shoot which includes a £37.50 voucher towards prints. Would you expect to pay £184 for a low resolution cd?

Groupon and Shootstudios are not silly, the ad is very cleaverly worded but still in breach of advertizing standards in my view.

simytrader

Sorry don't mean to harp on but just been looking at the Office of Fair Trading & Advertising Standard Authority findings here.

It states that they will change their practices to ensure that in the future:

1. Reference prices (prices against which a sale price is compared) including savings, are accurate, honest and transparent.

Seems like a lot of hot air to me! Looking at this offer I can't see how they have changed their ways???

LOLGuest

We are very happy with the Groupon Deal at Shoot Studios, we got exactly what was in the advert, a happy 1 hour shoot with my children, 12 prints 6x4, beautiful slideshow that plays on my TV and 12 digital files, which I have had printed to 6x4 and can have as many prints as I like, I am going to have my Christmas cards this year printed from one of the files. I thought the deal was great and would recommend it to all my friends.

transient

LOLGuest wrote: »

We are very happy with the Groupon Deal at Shoot Studios, we got exactly what was in the advert, a happy 1 hour shoot with my children, 12 prints 6x4, beautiful slideshow that plays on my TV and 12 digital files, which I have had printed to 6x4 and can have as many prints as I like, I am going to have my Christmas cards this year printed from one of the files. I thought the deal was great and would recommend it to all my friends.

just out of interest why would a customer that is as satisfied as you and expectations far exceeded search for the company concerned surely you should be enjoying your 800 photos provided, you daily welfare check calls from the company blah blah blah