Venture

chocolatechipcookies

Venture had an offer going on, for £25 you got a one hour photo session and a free 7x5 frame. DH and I thought it would be fun, so we went for it. We were told buy the girl selling them, that Venture keeps your photos for one year, so there's no pressure to buy right away. We go to the photo shoot which was very fun... Then we went to the viewing about a week later. The slideshow was nice, but then came the sell. You have to remember a three 13x13 square photos with frame is £1,028. We cannot afford to put that much money to anything at the moment, due to our wedding in two years. I have never been in such a high pressured sales environment. She started out asking which ones we liked, which is fair enough but when she started calculating monthly payments it got very stressful. She was hell bent on us spending at least £700 that day. I asked her how long they kept the photos on file, if they kept them for a year and she lied through her teeth. She said they don't keep photos, only if you order one of them and they can't guarantee that. She kept asking if the problem was not being able to afford the monthly payments, but the way she said it was in such a way you felt you had to say yes. I know she's there to sell, but we both felt like we were pushed up against the wall to buy, almost forced. It became very uncomfortable very quickly. She would make a very good used car salesman, because I felt like she would have locked us in that room until we caved in a got the overpriced picture on a loan. Luckily my DH felt sick, so we got out of there. But if you don't like to feel pressured to buy now, skip this one. Also, you can make you're own Venture styled photos at home with any camera and photoshop, then you can send the photo to a printer and pay at least 60% less. Most of the photos were ones we could do at home. The only thing they do to the photos is mess with the contrast and exposure.....

PeteMc

There's another thread on here somewhere which I posted my positive opinion on Venture. Each shop is a franchise so experiences will vary, particularly the sales pitch. Your shop sounds terrible and I think you did the right thing in walking out.

The quality would be difficult to replicate with home equipment and what Venture do I think they do well, though you pay for it. I do think that they shouldn't entice people with these offers unless the pricing is made clear beforehand.

sooz

That sounds awful. Complain to her superior about her sales technique.

Venure are expensive, but last time I went, the man was happy for us to just buy the 'free' one.

In the end we bought another one, but in the cheapest frame, as none matched our other (last venture session) frames. This was his suggestion, as a frame in the right colour would be £200 more, so he suggested we could get them both reframed to match elsewhere cheaper. No pressure at all. He also said all our photos were kept for 5 years.

setmefree2

OMG £1038 on photos are you kidding:eek:

missjennipenni

setmefree2 wrote: »

OMG £1038 on photos are you kidding:eek:

It can cost you more than £3k if you buy the whole lot

deanos

Blody hell thats such a rip off, we got a brilliant package at Olan Mills recently , 33x18 inch framed montage, photos on CD so we own the copyright, 2 10x8inch photos all for £135 !

setmefree2

£3k - Flippin heck I had no idea:o Don't get me wrong I think photos are precious but £3k.....