Coverlook Studios

Tugtig

did you ever get a call back or a refund?
i've been told the same thing.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Not that I'm condoning this, but someone I knew who had a problem with payments being taken from a card just reported the card as lost. The replacement comes through with the last four digits different. So nobody can debit the old card.

mac4560

I too am one of the thousands who are sucked in by Coverlook.
It was only after I'd paid the £35.00 deposit that alarm bells started ringing (more because I'd handed my credit card details over to a company I knew nothing about).
I therefore 'Googled' Coverlook Studios and to my horror, found all of these threads.
As only 5 days had passed since I made the booking, I wrote to them both by post and by e-mail to cancel the session purely because it does n't appear to be the glamorous day that they make it out to be and the fact that you spend most of your time waiting around. Needless to say, I have received absolutely no response. (4 more days have now passed).
I contacted Trading Standards to let them know that I was trying to exercise my right to change my mind within the 7 day cooling-down period but they confirmed that because a specific date has been booked then this area of the law does not apply (a bit like booking a hotel room). I did point out that Coverlook had made it clear that the date could be changed up to three times but apparently this makes no difference.
My deposit is therefore lost but I will not be attending the session.

sillybee_

I got suckered into this aswell.

I had a call from COVERGIRL saying that i had won a competition and at first I thought "great" cos I have actually heard of covergirl so I went through and gave my credit card details for the deposit and all was fine. But then when I looked on by bank statement it said that COVERLOOK had taken £105!!! So obviously I paniced (sp?) cos a different company had taken the money so first I tried finding them on google and saw this thread (alarm bells right there!) and saw that you could have a 7 day cooling-down period so rang back the number that a "Monique Newman" had given me and there was no answer, I tried right up to a week but there was still no answer so I rang up my bank explained to them what happened and they cancelled my cards and I was able to get the amount disputed. but then I got a letter from my bank saying that they could take it back anyway.

My appointment is supposed to be tomorrow and now I am really worried cos £105 is alot of money to loose

shirahime_syo

I haven't been to this makeover studio and am in no way condoning their actions in any cases where people fell they have been wrongly treated. I personally had an awful experience at a makeover studio in Manchester called New Id where people were rude and I was very dissapointed, especially as my boyfriend paid £250 for the experience in the first place as a treat then it cost me another £200 for the photos. At least these experiences essentially only cost your booking fee and travel, though it's irritating if it doesn't get refunded.

These studios charge booking fees to dissuade from a no-show, simple as, because if there is a chance of making money from photos, that's allright for them, but if you don't show then they haven't even got a chance at earning anything. It isn't right for them to not refund it if you don't get the photos, insist on it as much as possible using the channels everyone else has posted.You must also check the smallprint as spome studios will not 'refund' it unless it's against a photo as they don't make any money at all if you don't buy one.

The competition thing is a load of rubbish, they just want to drum up business, you can't blame them as it does work. To be honest I am using it to get the photoshoot for free and will most likely use the deposit against a photo.

There is only one reason I am willing to try one of these studios again, that is because of copyright law, places like Venture and Neo photography charge ridiculous prices for their pictures and DO NOT give you copyright. You get six months to purchase them, then they are just deleted, you cannot re-print them yourself, you have to ask them to do it and no photo place will copy them for you. Covergirl and places like this sell the copyright, so you can use them on facebook etc rather than a £300 glorified slide show that Neo tried to sell me.

In the end it's all swings and roundabouts, there are both bad and good things about each photo studio, but either way NO studio is ever willing to hand back a deposit, the consumer has to insist on it, as annoying as that may be. Neo gave me my deposit back in cash, but they were rude about my mother, so hence no ridiculously expensive photos were purchased from them. In the end you either give it a chance or you don't, but if you find you cannot go in with an open mind after reading all of the stuff on here then don't as it will spoil your day anyway.

Finally at the end of my super long post, if you want a photo, haggle, they will bring the price down, don't feel belittled, don't let them confuse you, and don't fall for the hard sell tactics which are against the law, you have your money and you can walk away with it.

SJ_Jones

Hi - trying to get the issues with NewID studios known about in the big wide world. Have started a group on Facebook called "Experiences @ NewID Studios", please add your experiences!

AceBlonde71

It's not a scam, the day is entierly FREE. They require a deposit and it is a deposit. Yes, you get a day out with your hair and make-up done, lovely photos taken but thats where the nice bit stops. Myself and my friend went for a photo shoot in April 2009. The pictures were really nice and we agreed a package costing £850. I won't go into complete details but i will say we have had a complete list of disasters with our pictures which include a £1500 payment being taken out of my friends account, non retouched photos being sent out 12 weeks late, being offered a re-shoot (which we accepted) plus a few extras to make up for it. Today, i recieved our new prints only to find they have been printed through an online web site called PHOTOBOX, very cheap and heads cut off the prints. We have been fobbed off for a year and a half and we are no better off. Been promised this that and everything else but not seen anything worth the price we paid.
If you are thinking of going with Covergirl Studio in London, my advice would be DON'T.
The people i have dealt with at the company are Mohan and John Quinn (who apparently owns the company but wouldn't give me a straight answer)
We are now looking into taking them to court for breach of our consumer contract.
DON'T GO WITH THIS COMPANY.................. Do research and choose a reputable studio for your pictures.

P.s... The free drinks are juice or nasty cheap bubbly.