Coverlook Studios

~*Plushroom*~

hmsmith1990 wrote: »

Hey
I was contacted by a Covergirl studios today who said i'd won a competiton (which i did enter on saturday) and would receive a £500 makeover and photoshoot and asked for a £35 deposit for both me and my guest so i (stupidly) handed over my debit card details. I have since looked the company up and found this thread about Coverlook studios so am now very worried.

What should i do?

Thanks

2 choices really.

1 - cancel (should be a cooling off period surely)
2 - go along and be firm that you only want your free photo and you want your deposit refunded.

hmsmith1990

Am trying to cancel...have managed to speak to the woman who i booked it with and she said she would speak to her manager. Intend to ring back at 4pm if she hasn't rung me back

SadieStar

I am AMAZINGLY worried now, I am going to have to try and get a statement from the bank now to see how much they have taken. I was told that it is £35 pp. I am not bothered about waiting, it's just having them fail to live up to the expectations they have set themselves. I will have to have my money back, I only paid it because I was assured I would get it back, so I thought I will have nothing to lose.

And the whole point of me to go to this shoot was to get some awesome photos, not one. I really want to go, because I may have a great day, and I may be able to get a load of photos for less if I haggle enough. I am just so concerned.

Have people received their deposits back yet?

thatsfabulous

SadieStar wrote: »

I am AMAZINGLY worried now, I am going to have to try and get a statement from the bank now to see how much they have taken. I was told that it is £35 pp. I am not bothered about waiting, it's just having them fail to live up to the expectations they have set themselves. I will have to have my money back, I only paid it because I was assured I would get it back, so I thought I will have nothing to lose.

And the whole point of me to go to this shoot was to get some awesome photos, not one. I really want to go, because I may have a great day, and I may be able to get a load of photos for less if I haggle enough. I am just so concerned.

Have people received their deposits back yet?

I would just mither lots to get your refund!!!

These people are obviously professional scamers so no matter how much you try to haggle wont get lots of photos.
Theres places you can to go get photos done which are not scams, however you only get one for free. Although its not a scam as such for more than one picture you looking at hundreds of pounds.

Try looking into a private photographer in your area.

nlcmch

hi! after reading everyone's email it just confirms my experience there wasn't a one off!

arriving at my appointment which on my letter said 1230 but the phone call i got to confirm said 1, so i arrived at 1235. I was told i was late and would have to wait! make up artist 2 hours later asked what style i wanted and gave me the complete opposite, but also used mascara with the same brush that had been used by everyone else which was old and gave me conjuctivitus. Had a good time doing the shoot though. had the viewing of photos which at the time your kinda buzzing from the experience (and very cheap free wine) and i agreed to come in the next day and pay £200 for my photos as long as i had been paid enough.

next day the money had been taken out of my account before i had even got time to arrive there and confirm i wanted them. Went in very unhappy and was informed i couldn't get a refund, when i told them about the conjuctivitus they just said u cant prove it without having a doctors note so do that and then we'll see. working full time its hard to get an appointment for a doc and seeing as i have 3 years experience in optics and deal with this kind of treatment everyday i knew i had it!

very very miffed off sent an email on 28.05 and am still waiting a reply!! NEVER EVER go with this company they will rip you off at the least, damage your eyes, infect you with dirty make up and just irrate you beyond believe!!!

hannahbiagioni

Hi,

I received a phone call to tell me I won a free hair and makeover and then a photo shoot. I didn’t enter into any competition but thought it might be a fun afternoon. I booked me and a friend to have it done which cost me £70 which I was told got refunded at the end. We went down there after work, our appointment was for 3.30pm but was told to get there early if we could.
When we turned up it all seemed ok, except we sat from 3pm – 5pm waiting to start, at 5pm they did our hair and makeup which we really didn’t get much choice about but was fine. Then we was told to go take and sit down, 5.15pm we were back sitting down waiting. We was told at 6.30pm to go down stairs and get into what we brought for the photo shoot. A woman turned up and we asked if most the pictures could be taken of us together. She said she will start on a couple of individuals first. Well at the end we had to reminder her we wanted ones together and so she took 3 quick pictures.

We finished about half 7 and then had to wait till 8pm to look at our photos. We wasn’t really that bothered about buying any. They take you into a small room were you sit and look though them. I liked a couple but they was done very fast and not the most flattering light. I didn’t want to spend £75 on one pictures that I didn’t particularly love. So we got our free one and got our deposit back. The woman selling the pictures was quite pushy telling us we looked amazing in all the pictures and we should buy most of them, but we told her we was students and didn’t have much money. We left the studios at 9pm feeling very tired! Also they just give you the picture on a CD which to me isn’t worth £75!!

It’s not a con except they get you in there and expect you to buy pictures after. We started talking to people that was waiting around and everyone had won a competition.

x

Ramroom

hi everyone, i was called about three weeks ago, as you all said the lady was very nice and everything so i paid £70 for me and a friend as we were coming from outside 'central london'. i was told that i will receive a receipt via email and also a confirmation letter through the post within the next few days. guess what three weeks later i still havent got anything. my appointment is today, i have tried calling them but apparently i can only call if i have the appontment that day. so im going to try again today.. wish me luck. i will update you tonite if everything goes well. if not i will definatly be seeking legal advice.

BugGeek

I won the competition just like everyine else and had my makeover today, it was nice, not worth the £500 it was supposed to be but nice all the same. I took my sister along and my mum came as the 'parent figure' because we were both under 21.
We got there and the girl at reception took our details and asked us to fill in some forms about what colours and styles of makeup we liked and asked us what we wanted to drink. So far so good. Between the three of us we must have drank about a carton and a half of apple juice and probably half a bottle of (cheap) wine.
I waited maybe half an hour before they did my hair and I was really pleased with it, I wanted it all curled and big which is impossible to get my hair to do but somehow they did it and it's still curly nearly 12 hours later.
So they did my sisters hair too and it looked amazing, and they did our makeup. There was quite a few layers of makeup because apparently the camera bleaches out 40-50% of the makeup...anyway neither of us looked like drag queens despite the thickness of it!
We did have quite a long wait in the reception before getting our photos done but they were constantly offering us juice, coffee, wine etc.
We had our photos done, 3 outfits each, loads of different sets and poses, most individual but some together. The changing cubicles were small and the curtain didn't quite meet but the photographer (who was male) always moved well away and behind a backdrop thing when we changed which made me feel a lot more comfortable.
Anyway...we didn't have that long a wait before we saw our photos, there were maybe 100 altogether of both of us which was way more than I expected.
The photoshop guy was really nice and told us he could remove things like my sisters bra straps and a horrible double chin I had in one, then he'd send us the disk of completely retouched photos and also give us two disks of untouched ones.
We ended up paying £230 for 21 photos which is a really good price considering we'd each had an hour of hair and makeup and were being photographed for over an hour.
Before you ask, no I don't work for them, I'll be putting the un-photoshopped photos on my facebook in the next week or so and then the photo-shopped ones when I get them. You can find my facebook and look at them, I'm Hannah Mainstone.
All in all, a really fun day for the three of us but maybe not worth the £500 pounds.

Tugtig

i'm an idiot and fell for this today.

have rung my bank, cancelled my card and reversed the payments, but the card company have said that this company can still take payment from my card if they wish to do so.

I have spoken to the company for a refund and the guy (his name was Randy) said he would spek to his boss and call me back before the end of day. I am going to call him if i don't hear anything back.

The company i got called from was Covergirlimage.co.uk and their phone number was 02075803901 if any of you would like to call.

I'm still waiting to hear back, but i think i may have lost my money :-(
good luck!

bank_of_slate

baffy34 wrote: »

Good for you for not wanting to buy the photos, only thing is when you see them you will want to, it is quite an enjoyable day however, have fun and remember the drink they provide is free so have as many as you like:beer:

Only because they want you freshly drunk enough to agree to buy the photos!
...Linda xx