I wanted to provide an update so there is no confusion to consumers. I take all of my Yelp reviews…read morevery seriously, whether they are positive or negative.
Dates are very important when reading this review. The photos were taken on March 15th and were not delivered until March 29th. The following are 3 extracts copied from Ms. Becker's contract and explanations as to how Ms. Becker violated each of them.
The contract with Sam Shot the Bride states in the Copyright Law & Model Release paragraph, "The Photographer grants the Client's permission to make copies of the images under the following conditions. The images taken by the Photographer are for personal use by the Client and their friends and relatives." This statement is very clear. It refers to the images TAKEN. We were never allowed to even view any of the other photos beyond the 27 Ms. Becker selected. My wife and I emailed with Ms. Becker repeatedly in an attempt to get her to honor her contract, but she refused. On April 4th, my wife attempted to schedule a call with Ms. Becker at her convenience, but she refused. Today is only June 4th, still not even 3 months after the session, as she claims, and barely over 2 months after the photos were delivered.
The contract states in the Re-shoots/Refunds paragraph, "The $250.00 session fee is not refundable a week from when the images have been delivered." We expressed concerns with the photos on April 3rd (and many days thereafter), which is only 5 days later and actually only 3 business days later. We did not reach out almost 2 weeks later, as she claims.
The contract states in the Archive of Session Images paragraph, "After six (6) months, all images will be purged from the Photographer's hard-drive, except as needed for promotional purposes, to be determined by photographer at photographer's sole discretion." Ms. Becker's response above clearly indicates she has already deleted all of our photos, well before the contractual obligation of six (6) months.
The only person that needs to reread her contract is Ms. Becker herself.
As Ms. Becker stated, she did attempt to seek support from the local police after my original Yelp post. She tried to claim harassment, slander and defamation. The police department have a complete copy of our email dialogue as well as this post and have informed Ms. Becker there is nothing slanderous, hostile, threatening, or harassing in anything I have stated. This is a completely honest post about my experience with her service. The police delivered her Trespass Notice to me and shared with me that anyone can issue a Trespass Notice to anyone, without any reasoning. I reciprocated simply because Ms. Becker has not demonstrated clear understanding of the law and anyone who does not understand the law may have lawless tendencies. Despite this education from the local police, and without any sound professional response, Ms. Becker continues to make public statements both here and in other forums that my family and I have harassed her, threatened her, and made slanderous comments about her. I have not made one false statement about my experience and have never made any comments about Ms. Becker personally. Regardless, she continues to attempt to distract readers from the real issues by attempting to tarnish my personal reputation. I have stated the facts, and only the facts.
In summary, there are far too many professional photographers in the world to choose from. I am sure most of them provide a very high quality service, but this is clearly not the case with Sam Shot the Bride. If you're anything like me, family is of the utmost importance making family photos something you cherish. Do your research and hopefully you will not have to experience what my family and I have endured.
