I purchased a Groupon deal for the portrait studio in Redding, CA on 3/26/25 which expires on 7/25/25. I tried to make an appointment and found I couldn't, so I called the store number and found that all JCPenney Portrait Studios anywhere near where I live are permanently closed. Groupon doesn't want to refund my money because I waited more than three days. I obviously didn't know they were closed since my Groupon stated "Redding CA" in the search bar. Now, after dealing with customer service through Groupon, they are going to get back to my in 4-6 days. Don't buy any coupon services for JCPenney's. read more

Went in to get baby portraits of my 7 month old. Pictures were OK, not super-awesome but decent. One of the shots I otherwise liked had a motion blur. But, DO NOT buy the "high res" digital pics! They are NOT high res! They decrease the resolution to 2400x3000 pixels, which is barely printable at 8x10 size and that means you can't crop or enlarge much of anything. We were not informed of this when we bought the (very expensive) digital package, even though we specifically asked about the resolution of the images we were getting- the lady working there was "not really good at all that technical stuff" (per her own words). When we called to try to resolve the issue, not only were they unable to get us any higher resolution, they also only refunded half in spite of us being given incorrect info for the purchase. The lady who took our pictures was nice enough, but did not have any idea how the software worked or proper knowledge about the products she was selling us. She claimed the motion blur was the way the monitor displayed (it was subtle), and that the pic should be sharp when we got the final version. It was not. Find someone else- these guys are not the kind of business that should get your money. read more

It was a complete disaster from the moment we arrived. We (two adults) had an appointment for 1:30 on a weekday. When we got there, one of 3 women behind the counter informed us very bluntly that they were "running slow today" and we would have to wait about 20 minutes. Annoying, but Ok fine. As we began to take a seat, the same lady walked up and said, "since you have to wait, why don't you leave, walk around or something and we will call you back when we're ready." Annoying, and now verging on rude. So we left, first walked around the store, then the whole mall, then took a seat outside waiting for the call. 35 minutes later, still nothing so we figured they forgot to call or something. We went back to the photo studio and as we walked in, the family before us was still waiting, as well set the appointment behind us. Before getting 5 feet in, the only employee visible said "We aren't taking any walk ins right now. We're having technology issues." I told her we weren't a walk in, that we had an appointment at 1:30 (its past 2 now). She then tells us that we are too late for our appointment. I told her no, that her coworker told us to wait 20 minutes because they were behind, and that they would call, but didn't. She walks away into the photo room ( the ONLY photo room. Every other JCP photo studio I've ever been to has had at least 2.) and the photographer come out and explains to us all that their camera is not focusing to take pictures and that it is their ONLY camera...at a PHOTO STUDIO. And she was trying to get ahold of her manager or the other photographers because they were all on break. So they were running behind with a line of families piling up, and sent most of the employees on break instead of having them help with the catch-up? Ridiculous. By 2:30 we are getting ready to give up and leave, when the photographer comes out and finally takes the family ahead of us. They get their pictures done, and at 3, we were finally taken back. The photographer, although friendly, took very few pictures compared to normal, mostly repeats because most would be out of focus. Half way through our session, the manager, other employee, and other photographer show back up, and watch our shoot, which was awkward. When the photographer mentioned the camera issue, the manager did nothing but stare at us and suggest what we already did. After all of this, we were presented with only 10 of the at least 40 pictures we took, and only 3 were decent. We told the photographer right away that we were only getting the digital album (we travelled to get there specifically and would not be making the drive again to pick up prints). Because of this, she did not even try to comp us for our almost 2 hour wait, despite compensating the families before and after us with free prints and sitting fees. I was appalled, and honestly regret even buying the digital album at all because I basically paid $99 plus the sitting fees for 3 pictures. We will never ever return and always warn people not to take pictures here. read more