Pros:
- prompt response through email
- had my digital photos stored from 2009
- professional photography skills
Cons:
- hard to reach over the phone
- suggested the problem was my fault
- not personable
- poor customer service
- unprofessional looking web design
- lots of typos on their site
- poor programming on site
In 2009, I had family portraits done with Pro Image Studios when it was located in the San Jose, CA area. The family was finally united with my brother just returned from having been deployed to Iraq, and I was about to leave the state for school. Overall, we were pleased with our experience initially with our photographer, the shooting experience and the photos. The 2 stars are for the service I experienced in the present time.
Fast forward to 2017, our house has been destroyed in a fire and everything was lost. Naturally, we wanted to get our photos back, and I discover that Pro Image Studios migrated elsewhere. On their web site, I find that they've changed their name to "Creative Imaging." For several weeks, calling the establishment was of little or no avail. I decide to email them which was encouraged on their site. It is acknowledged and appreciated that my correspondent typically replied by the next morning to my emails if not shortly thereafter. My family was strongly interested in buying digital copies of our photos as well as prints since these mattered so much to us.
I made a rather large purchase to get a direct download of my digital photos. Their site seemed very disjointed, and sometimes it didn't feel very intuitive to navigate. Every page they sent me looked different from the initial layout. When I purchased a package to directly download, the confirmation page gave no instructions on how to receive my product. I felt I had to bother my correspondent to clarify this, and she said they would be available within a week.
Then came several days of confusion and frustration reaching out to this person that the photos were inaccessible. She insisted that there was nothing wrong. I got the impression she was blaming me for the trouble rather than troubleshooting the problem properly. After entertaining her by trying and re-trying, then re-trying again on 2 computers and 5 different browsers for several days, she finally decided to burn the photos onto a CD to be mailed.
I believe their photography skills are professional. But their inability to admit fault, to apologize for the inconvenience of not being able to receive my product in a timely manner, or to troubleshoot adequately the problem without placing blame on the customer's end is the reason why I gave two stars. Further, this was the first time sharing with a professional establishment that no one expressed sympathy for having lost our belongings to a house fire. Not that that particularly means anything, but it's just an observation of indifference in stark contrast to other businesses where we've had to re-order something to replace whatever was lost to a fire.
My encounter with Pro Image Studios/Creative Imaging was overall a negative experience. We were not impressed with the way it was handled over email, and we chose not to get prints from them. I also found it unprofessional that their site was visually unappealing with numerous typos. At end of these encounters, I did get my photos. I am grateful that my business with them is done. read more