Dispute with sole trader

djmsemcgrath

The images on the CD (I've only looked at them briefly over my lunch hour today) seem to fairly decent, of a pretty big resolution and no watermarks. At first glance, it looks OK. I need to go through them in more detail later. One randomly selected picture was around 7MB and the resolution was 2604x3914, dpi 300.

His letter says "pick 30-40 and email me back the IDs, and I will place the order with the wedding album company, and they have a normal turnaround time of 4 weeks". There's no postal address on the letter, just an email address. I emailed him and asked for a postal address and his response was:

Thank you for your email and confirmation of receipt of the CD.

Email is by far the quickest and most efficient and secure way of corresponding and ensures that copies are placed on file and does not get lost in the post. Please email me the IDs as soon as possible. Thanks.

naedanger

damianjmcgrath wrote: »

The images on the CD (I've only looked at them briefly over my lunch hour today) seem to fairly decent, of a pretty big resolution and no watermarks. At first glance, it looks OK. I need to go through them in more detail later. One randomly selected picture was around 7MB and the resolution was 2604x3914, dpi 300.

His letter says "pick 30-40 and email me back the IDs, and I will place the order with the wedding album company, and they have a normal turnaround time of 4 weeks". There's no postal address on the letter, just an email address. I emailed him and asked for a postal address and his response was:

Thank you for your email and confirmation of receipt of the CD.

Email is by far the quickest and most efficient and secure way of corresponding and ensures that copies are placed on file and does not get lost in the post. Please email me the IDs as soon as possible. Thanks.

The main thing by far was to get the photos, so you should view the outcome as a success. Clearly your threat of court action has worked.

Does the photographer's letter give any explanation for the delay?

Also, am I correct in assuming you had not reached the stage of having to pay any court fees?

As an aside, I am curious to know what motivated the photographer to behave in such a strange and (and obviously very unprofessional) way. When he had the photos all this time it seems he has been risking serious reputational damage to his business for no good reason (as well as obviously having no consideration for his customer).

djmsemcgrath

Yeah, I do consider it a success, I'm just a little annoyed by the hassle, and need to chase, and dare I say, an upset wife wondering why I hadn't sorted it yet!

His letter was blunt, and just said "find attached CD, please let me know what images you want for the album". Literally nothing much else. No apologies, no explanations, no nothing. It's like he was writing under protest. And he is being very careful to not give me his actual address. My recorded delivery letters were sent to 3 places as I didn't know which studios/homes were still actively his. I still don't. One of them got through though.

I hadn't yet done a small claims application, so no fees to pay. My last letter said I will be going to court if you don't reply to this, so perhaps that was enough to prompt him to act.

naedanger

damianjmcgrath wrote: »

Yeah, I do consider it a success, I'm just a little annoyed by the hassle, and need to chase, and dare I say, an upset wife wondering why I hadn't sorted it yet!

His letter was blunt, and just said "find attached CD, please let me know what images you want for the album". Literally nothing much else. No apologies, no explanations, no nothing. It's like he was writing under protest. And he is being very careful to not give me his actual address. My recorded delivery letters were sent to 3 places as I didn't know which studios/homes were still actively his. I still don't. One of them got through though.

I hadn't yet done a small claims application, so no fees to pay. My last letter said I will be going to court if you don't reply to this, so perhaps that was enough to prompt him to act.

Once you have the album, you should consider leaving reviews on any websites (if they exist) that potential customers of his might use. The review should stick to being a purely factual summary (that you can back up with evidence) of your experience of his service. By doing so you could save others from the problems you have experienced.

djmsemcgrath

The good thing is (for other people) is that he has since stopped doing wedding photography, and is doing more model or fashion shoots, by the looks of his newly redesigned website. My review about the wedding might still be valid, so I'll look to see if there are any review sites, but it looks like he's changed what he's doing recently.

macman

Since you have apparently already paid in full, I would send him your selection and let his supplier get on with it-though why that needs 4 weeks I cannot imagine. Nothing to lose.
But make it clear that if the album is not received in 4 weeks then court action will commence without further dialogue. No point in tiptoeing around with this guy, since he's clearly thick-skinned and.