Coverlook Studios

nutter426

We went to Coverlook a week ago.
My fiancée won and they didn't tell her it was going to be £30 each, just £30.
Its definitely a money making machine for them, no real personal touch.
We couldn't afford the pictures on the day, so they were gonna take the money the following day and post the pictures out.
A week after the pictures should have been sent, I gave them a ring, and they supposedly lost my address which is why I didn't have the pictures yet.
To give them credit, I didnt even have to say who I was once I spoke to the guy who went through our photos with us, he knew.
If you want a nice makeover, go somewhere else.
The pictures were nice though.

sophiepowell

hi i went to coverlook studios after the same phone call telling me that i'd won a competition but from myoffers.com. i was stoked when i got the call and was told how i would get unlimited refreshments, a full pampering session, get my makeup done by professional makeup artists and my hair done by top hair stylists aswell as cocktails, a free photo and a spot on a london nightclub guestlist.

I was excited but when they told me that i had to pay £30 for me and £30 extra if i wanted a guest i was put out and straight away thought that it might be a scam but i liv ein the london area so it wouldn't cost me any transport so i thought i may aswell.

Like many of you i then recieved the badly typed and mispelled and shoddy map through the post which got the alarm bells ringing but by this time my account had already been charged £60 so em and my friend decided to go and infact got there half an hour early so that we wouldn't loose the deposit. Infact our appointment was at 9.30 and even though you're meant to be there 15 minutes early or you could loose your deposit nobody turned up to open up the building until 10 and it was me, my guest and 2 other 'competition winners' sitting outside thinking the worst that we'd been totally scammed.

When we got inside the day was actually ok and although 'unlimited refreshments and cocktails' meant one glass of wine and 2 glasses of orange juice and the hair styling was literally just straightening it, the makeup was good and even though there was ALOT of waiting around doing nothing the photographer was fantastic and the photos turned out beautifully. Me, being a poor student haha, i just took my free photo even after the woman trying to persuade me for a good half hour to buy others and unlike some she straight away gave me my £60 refund.

In all although it definatly wasn't all that they made it out to be, and it's definatly not as professional as they'd like to make out, it was a good day and the photos were really beautiful, but i'm not sure if they're worth £75 a photo!

clairecross

yes they did refund the £30 straight away

tashablythe

hi.i recieved a phone call from coverlook studios saying i had won a comp and i was really excited as i never win anything so i payed the £60 deposit for me and my boyfriend and am due to go on sunday 16th sep. i have been reading everyones comments on here and am now very nervous in going. i will let you all now how i get on.

tashablythe

hi all went to coverlook studios yesterday and 2 b honest it wasnt that bad,had 2 wait a long time 4 anything to be done but my hair and makeup looked amazing and the photo looked amazig aswell. they did try 2 sell us more photos, i think out of the lot we picked out 30 that we liked and they said it was £1000 but would give it to us for £500 but e said no so they said that photos are normally £75 each and that coz i paid £60 deposit that they would give me 2 photos for my £60 deposit but we just had the free photo and left.they gave my deposit back there but will have to ait to see if it has gone through.

tashablythe

just 2 let u know that i checked my bank 2day and ive had my £60 deposit back.:T

Packers

I was called by Coverlook on Tuesday evening at around 9pm. I have to say, I fell for the scam hook, line and sinker (I've never won anything before so probably got overexcited). The instant I hung up the phone I regretted my decision. I looked on this forum and read all the negative feedback- and sent Coverlook a somewhat strongly worded email- perhaps too strong, as I received a call the following day from the woman I had spoken to originally, sounded quite affronted that I'd dared to call her beloved company a scam, and I was personally invited to visit their studios and see the wonderful work that they do. She said that she was disappointed by my decision, and would not be taking money from my account as she was a woman of integrity. In retrospect, I suppose I was a bit harsh on her (she's just doing a job and she was very pleasant on the phone)- but I don't really care, I'm not going to lose my £60 after all!! Perhaps it will encourage her to go out and do something a bit more ethical for a living?

Just to let people know that if they kick up enough of a stink, then they can get results!

Needless to say, I won't be making the same mistake again...

Claire :T

Deffbysterero

I got a call from a guy named Shaun. Telling me i won second prize on a competition i entered. Speaking on the phone for a while, he also asked me if i was chubby. Telling me i will get the guestlist in a club in london and i get brillant makeover with wine. Told me need to put a £30 deposit for each person. 2 family members or 1 friend. I of course thought "great get some photos done" so i took my boyfriend and paid for the deposit. Went there and i found it really unprofessional. Receptionist just ignores the people down the front and i didnt like the fact you had to share your photo atmosphere with others, didnt think they liked it either. Of course looking at the photos and that and we decide to get the finance on it. 31 photos for £760 with an initial £200 deposit. We didnt have it that day so we planned for it to come out a week after. Made sure the money was in there and it was. Boyfriend contacted them the day after to find out why the payment hasnt come out, and said the paperwork hadnt been done. Monday get a call by and UNKNOWN number at 10.30 saying that if we dont pay the money we are going to be charged another £200 for this and appently the money bounced when they took it out. Been getting all these calls late at night past week. I believe it to be two employees. Last night got one asking for babyshakes and i asked they from coverlook and they went yes and i said they can stuff them photos. Another call after that saying to my friend "Tell (name) she is a !!!!!!! c**t and better pay the £200" and then another after and another friend answered with this most intrigued me "she better pay we have your details!" and yeah now going to see what happens. Dont ever fall for this. I did :mad:

frivolous_fay

Crikey deff, that's pretty threatening, I'd mention it to the police.

What I hate about this kind of operation is that they act like you've won something.

I won a competition? Really? Which one? Oh, actually that's a complete lie, isn't it?

Reminds me of the holiday phone calls I used to get a few years back.. 'You've won an award'... I used to say 'I need to be over 30, right? And married? (For some reason that was in their stupid small print) Yeah that's right, you haven't got the faintest idea who you're talking to, have you?'

I hate it when companies try to dress up what they're doing... which is COLD CALLING.

Deffbysterero

Just to give everyone an update; recently we've received more phone calls, we've been told that they still have our details and even quoted me our address line for line, telling me that if we did not pay they would come down and break our legs, scince this i have reported the phone calls to the police, consumer advice and trading standards.

Yesterday i got a phone call from a lady at 10.45 am asking for us to pay the money we owe, a different person from the ones who have been making the abusive phone calls.

I informed them of what has happened to us, i was told that we would get a call back from the manager.

To my suprise, i got a call roughly an hour later! from none other than John Quinn the supposed owner of coverlook studios, i was told that he cant seem to belive that this would be happening to us, that he's had the company for 14 years and that things are always running quite smooth with satisfied customers, now to be honest i can't seem to understand how he can have this impression of his company, anyone that google's his companys name finds the first 3 results to be negative raves about this! and surely any decent owner of a company would be very interested and constantly informed of their company's reputation.

The police have informed me that they will be able to track the phone calls to find out where they have been comming from and find out if it is someone working for the company, which in my mind there is of course no doubt that it is.

I would strongly urge everyone to tell anyone from this company that they are not interested in anything that they have to offer, be it discounts, free photo's, just anything at all! i suppose the one good thing about this whole situation i can take away is the fact that anyone that reads this should know, if they have any sense, that this company can most certainly not be trusted, and after all isn't that the first and most important thing you expect for your money from any company?