Wedding Photography £8K+ later...

Aylesbury_Duck

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Ahhh for puck sake did you REALLY need to quote the ENTIRE message????

Need? No. But there have been lots of occasions where people start amending their original post or even deleting it when they don't get the advice they want. Or sometimes when the matter is resolved. If someone quotes the post, it's preserved.

DoaM

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Need? No. But there have been lots of occasions where people start amending their original post or even deleting it when they don't get the advice they want. Or sometimes when the matter is resolved. If someone quotes the post, it's preserved.

True ... but you had already quoted it so there wasn't any real need for anyone else to do so.

SteveVx

Apologies maybe I wasn't clear I know people who have used *OTHER* companies who have been waiting 5 years + , hence why I asked him how long he would take to provide everything

SteveVx

Thanks for your advice everyone, I actually started filing a claim around 4 months ago I wrote the timeline and all the details and saved it on the gov.uk website thinking I could go back into it! I just checked and the claim has been deleted as it was saved as a draft!



I will be re-writing the timeline and refilling in all the forms and submitting this weekend.


I'll keep you up-to-date with the progress

waamo

SteveVx wrote: »

Thanks for your advice everyone, I actually started filing a claim around 4 months ago I wrote the timeline and all the details and saved it on the gov.uk website thinking I could go back into it! I just checked and the claim has been deleted as it was saved as a draft!



I will be re-writing the timeline and refilling in all the forms and submitting this weekend.


I'll keep you up-to-date with the progress

Have you sent him a Letter Before Claim? If not you need to. It's not optional.

SteveVx

Yes I have done this and exchanged several other letters trying to reach an agreement but we can't he still wants the remaining money and won't do any further editing until we give it.

waamo

SteveVx wrote: »

Yes I have done this and exchanged several other letters trying to reach an agreement but we can't he still wants the remaining money and won't do any further editing until we give it.

You need to follow through with whatever you said in it then.

Shaun_of_the_Dead

SteveVx wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Just after some advice, I'll try keep this brief as it is rather a long story.

Back in 2016 my wife and I hired a wedding Photographer / Videographer to cover our Asian Wedding.



We were quoted a total £8,000 which is similair to a lot of quotes we received and covered multiple events from the registry wedding in 2016 to the asian wedding in 2017.



We received an online invoice with some very basic T&C's mainly around payment...


"50% of wedding booking is £4,000 due immediately
30% 1 month before wedding £2,400
Remainder 20% Balance due prior to dispatch of first set of Discs or album print approval"

We went to the guy's house viewed his stuff and one of the biggest concerns I had was around the time to get the final photos and film. I know a lot of people who have been waiting over 5 years for their final edits. I was assured verbally that I would get everything within 12 weeks so I went ahead and booked him.



Things started to go slightly wrong when we had our first photo shoot with him..the weather was really bad and we wanted to reschedule but he turned up by himself and didn't seem to interested in getting good shots, a lot of the photos we have looked at have issues such as my tie wasn't straight or my hair is looking really messy (Something I thought a photographer would notice and tell me to fix).


Anyway on the registry wedding things seemed to go a little better but we couldn't help notice his son who has no professional experience in videography and photography ( I know this as he is training to be a pharmacist and told this to one of my uncles) was shooting some parts of the film which was a little disappointing.

On the build up to the wedding certain important events that take place at home should have been included in the price (as he is asian himself so knows about these events) I was told I would have to pay a further £1,000! :mad::mad: which I reluctantly paid.

At this stage he had sent me some video's and photo's he had done of our wedding and I was livid! I told him I didn't want to use him anymore and wanted all my money back as he had basically screwed me over most of the photos were not even straight! He said that he would not be giving me a refund and that I should really stick with him and as he will be able to fix things and with less than 48hr's to go before the wedding day would I really be able to get someone else?


A few months later in 2017 and he had kidney stones apparently and couldn't attend any of our wedding so all our photography/videography was outsourced to freelancers who with credit were actually much better than him!



After around 7 months of constant chasing we finally received the first edit of the Asian Wedding photos and Asian Wedding Video, and it was full of mistakes! The camera was shaking at parts, their was terrible audio feedback, he had selected all the wrong audio tracks to overlay, even the date and text was incorrect. So I complained again and he said it's a first edit so you need to email me all the changes and I'll do them, so I sent them across, 2 weeks later he send me back V2 and still lots of mistakes.



I tried to explain to him it will be so much quicker and easier for us to meet up and go through this in person, he constantly refuses and says he doesn't meet up to do editing. He also sends me a demand for payment saying he won't be providing any more edits until I pay a further £850...as I am desperate to see the rest of the material I end up paying this...


He has sent me some more photos and video's and again the quality is very poor. I now have sent him a letter instructing him that I will be taking him to a small claims court. He has replied advising me to inform his solicitor he has also said if I pay him the remaining balance of £950 he will give me all the final material without watermarks and let me get it edited myself.


To this date I still not have received any final copies of anything...everything I have is in draft form.



I am definitely going to take this to a small claims court, I just wanted to know if anyone had any experience of a similair situation and could give me any tips on how I can improve my chances of winning?


1) Is there anyway I can search for past cases?

2) Should I hire a solicitor seeing as he is?

You don't need a solicitor for the small claims court.