Marvelous, friendly office staff and photographer. With the lone exception of the Sales Manager, I might well have rated Mark Lawrence four stars or perhaps five stars.
I was quite forthrightly disclosed the sitting charge by the firm's helpful counter person. The young lady explained to me that the additional sitting charge I paid was for a "Professional Sitting," which would include a selection of the poses on a digital CD.
When I made my sitting appointment, the photographer was equally friendly, helpful, skilled and patient with me. I was quite pleased with the initial results.
When I came back to review the proofs for my selection, I was never informed of the 'packages' offered. And I was informed by the Sales Manager that each tiny 72 dpi thumbnail for the included CD would be $30 more--each. When I made my selection of the poses for finished portraits, I was rather surprised to receive an invoice for another $464 in total, which, including the 'professional/business' sitting fee, brought my entire total to $574. I picked up their pricing schedule on the way out, only to find out that I could have paid closer to $300 for the sitting and a package of three times more various portrait sizes than the four I ended up with. As it was, I had to challenge the Sales Manager on the resulting costs, she accused me of lying about what the counter person had quoted me; then when I asked for the counter person to come out and explain to the Sales Manger what she'd quoted me, the Sales Manager refused the simple corroboration of what I was initially quoted.
I then asked for a schedule of the 'professional/business' prices. She informed me that such a schedule didn't exist. Needless to say, we were at an impasse. I eventually persuaded her to adjust the invoice to remove the misquoted digital charges, and return the sitting charge to the quote for a normal sitting--a resulting credit of $205.00.
A pity, really. One argumentative, deceptive 'bad apple' spoiling what might have been an overall four to five-star experience with Mark Lawrence--as I will reiterate that the remaining Mark Lawrence staff was helpful, gracious, forthright and friendly.
A word of caution with Mark Lawrence: ask for all charges, add-ons and available package deals from Mark Lawrence, before paying them, signing anything or agreeing to anything. read more
