Review of ReBecca's Photography in Syracuse, NY Metro area
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By Weddings | Feedback
August 21, 2010 |
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| YourCNY Member submits a review of ReBecca's Photography located in Baldwinsville, NY after looking for a great Wedding Photographer in the Syracuse, NY area. Their bad experience is a warning to others to make sure you pay attention to the "warning" signs when you're hiring a local wedding photographer in Syracuse, CNY and the Finger Lakes Region. |
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This is a local review of REBECCA'S PHOTOGRAPHY:
ReBeccas Photography
7604 Rania Road
Baldwinsville, NY 13027
Syracuse, NY Metro Area
Phone: (315) 234-6055
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BACKGROUND
My fiance' and I did not know any local wedding photographers in the Syracuse, NY and Central New York (CNY) area so we tried to do our homework. We found ReBecca's Photography after asking many of our friends and family members and visiting several local websites.
One of our friends mentioned that Rebecca McManus (Rebecca's Photography) had been the photographer for one of their friends in the Syracuse area and the quality of her work was worth considering. Our friend also warned us that she had heard (from her friend) that Rebecca was not the best at following up and returning calls in a timely manner and that this had caused unnecessary stress for her friend during her wedding planning.
- The fact that Rebecca at Rebecca's Photography took a very casual approach to returning telephone calls was something that we were warned about and should have taken more seriously.
- Our friend wasn't specifically recommending Rebecca, she was simply letting us know that Rebecca's Photography was a photographer that she heard of locally and that her photos came out looking pretty good.
WHY WE DECIDED TO CONTACT REBECCA AT REBECCA'S PHOTOGRAPHY IN SYRACUSE
We decided to research this further - even though we were warned about her customer follow up - and we emailed the person (a.k.a. the bride-to-be / now married) who had hired ReBecca's Photography. We asked for her feedback and wanted an honest assessment regarding her experience with Rebecca and ReBecca's Photography. She was kind enough to reply to let us know that Rebecca has a pleasant personality and confirmed what our friend had told us about Rebecca not returning calls promptly (to say the least).
She explained how she felt fortunate that she didn't have many questions or special requests and there hadn't been the need for a lot of interaction with Rebecca leading up to the wedding. She explained how when she did try to reach her it was almost always a project. She cautioned that "once you put down your deposit you're pretty much stuck with your wedding photographer, so be careful."
She also told us that she ended up liking the photos so that helped her rationalize the negatives in working with Rebecca's Photography. We asked if we could see some of the photos and she emailed a few to us. We liked the photos and decided to contact ReBecca to ask if she even had our wedding date available on her calendar. This began the process of finding our wedding photographer for our Syracuse wedding.
STEPS TAKEN TO CONTACT REBECCA'S PHOTOGRAPHY
- First, we filled out the "Contact" form on ReBecca's website (on a Friday) and never received a reply.
- After not hearing back from anyone at ReBecca's Photography for five (5) days we ended up sending a direct email to her since we hadn't heard from her.
- She finally replied a few days after that (I think it was three days later) and apologized saying, "Good that you emailed me because the website form is not working."
- Looking back, I now wonder if that was just a story to cover up for her lack of follow up skills.
We're kicking ourselves now. Why? Because we should have seen the signs and simply walked away. Instead we tried to make it work and ended up wasting two (2) months of our time.
Whenever we called ReBecca's Photography to follow up with ReBecca directly it was extremely difficult to get in touch with her. I quickly got the sense that she does this stuff all of the time because she never apologized for taking a week - or more! - to return calls (not every time, but the majority of the time for sure).
Basically, we would get a call back or a reply to our email after every 2 or 3 times we left a message or sent email. And unless we answered the phone when she called (sometimes Rebecca would call us during weekday work hours instead of in the evening when most people are available to discuss this sort of thing) it didn't seem to be a priority to her. I don't believe that she ever bothered to call back more than once to connect with us. We had to call her again to keep things moving.
- We were in the middle of remodeling a newly purchase home so at the time it didn't seem as long as it really had been for her to call us back.
- Only after looking back through our notes and email, and piecing together the time-line, did we realize how long it took her to follow up with us every time.
- My finance' had suggested that maybe we should keep looking for another wedding photographer but, frankly, we were both so busy that we still hadn't made any other calls to photographers. We just kept looking the other way and wanted to get through our wedding planning as easily as possible.
IN-PERSON MEETING
So Rebecca finally called us and we agreed to meet with her at her home office on a Thursday night. She was pleasant and we liked the photographs that she showed us. We ended up discussing wedding packages and options for our upcoming wedding the Syracuse area. My fiance asked about a specific package and asked if we could add a disk of the wedding photos to that package for an incremental fee. Rebecca seemed open to idea and explained how she had been considering adding that type of package (with the disk of photos) at the level we were considering buying in at. Rebecca made it sound as if she would do it and we figured that we would put it in writing in the contract. (Rebecca's fairly expensive as far as local wedding photographers go but we were prepared to spend the money necessary to get a great wedding photographer.)
We left her home office and told her that if we had any questions we'd get back to her in the next 2-3 days (max) because we wanted to know who our photographer was going to be and check it off of our list of things to do for our wedding planning.
- My fiance' emailed her with a question about adding that package that we had discussed and told Rebeccas that, "I would like to get the contract back to you with a deposit this week."
- Rebecca took 13 days (yes, count 'em, 13 days!) to get back to us. Unreal.
- We wondered if she was in the hospital or maybe had a death in the family or something
- My fiance' again said that maybe we need to call another photographer because this is getting ridiculous. But I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and give her more time in case it was a death in the family (or something like that).
GET THIS!
Rebecca finally replied in an email 13 days later. She never bothered to answer our question about the package. What she did want to know was, "Do you still want to hire me as your wedding photographer? I wouldn't blame you if you've found somebody else. Let me know."
What?! Rebecca didn't apologize. She didn't explain why it took her 13 days to get back to us. She didn't answer our question. All she wanted to know was whether or not we still wanted to hire her!
I didn't want her to think that if we hired her that this type of non-communication was going to be "fine". So I left her a voicemail asking her to reply to our email to answer the question about the package.
- I told her that, "We were hoping to have this nailed down by now and we have a deposit check waiting to be mailed."
- I also said, "I have to mention this and please take it the right way... but as a professional courtesy I'd like to ask that you follow up with us and reply to our questions in a more manner." I said that, "Three to five days is fine - we're all busy, I get it - but 13 days is another thing."
She called me back the next day (she still hadn't answered our question and replied to our email). I actually thought that she was going to apologize for not following up and/or offer some explanation on what happened. Maybe even say, "It won't happen again." She did none of that. She proceeded to answer our question about the package. Rebecca told me that she wasn't going to be able to give us that package that we had discussed at her home office. She offered a slightly modified version of an existing package (not much difference, but a very minor one.). I said, "That's fine. Follow up in an email so we have something from you in writing and we'll send out our deposit." She explained that she wouldn't be available until Monday (this was Thursday evening). I said, "OK".
Rebecca then called my fiance' the next day to say that we should just go ahead and find another photographer. She explained that she felt like I had "questioned her about her business judgement". I suppose I did when I mentioned that I thought 13 days to follow up on a question about our contract was a bit too long (to be professional).
My fiance' was very upset because we thought everything was in a good place and we had already invested TWO MONTHS trying to secure Rebecca's Photography as our wedding photographer! Frankly, all of this should've taken two (2) weeks, not two months but with Rebecca's lack of follow up skills it dragged on much too long.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So now we're starting over and we've lost two months in the wedding planning process thanks to Rebecca and Rebecca's Photography in Syracuse (Baldwinsville/Liverpool). I have to laugh... I remember Rebecca explaining how important her reputation is to her. Really? Wow. Good luck with that.
My advice to anyone who's considering hiring Rebecca and ReBecca's Photography: Keep looking!
There are great photographers out there. Many with better pricing for similar packages. Fortunately, we've learned a few lessons and have discovered several great local photographers. We are now in the process of selecting our wedding photographer based on our (horrible) experience with Rebecca's Photography.
NOTE: I will update this blog with a review of our new Wedding Photographer in Syracuse / CNY)
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FYI: ReBecca's website states:
Wedding and Portrait Photographer ReBecca McManus of ReBecca's Photography, specializing in an artistic and documentary style, located in Syracuse, NY.
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