I just have to vent about this customer.

jmphotocraft

Check out this complaint I got today from a little league parent complaining that their kid missed picture day because it was on Saturday May 28, of Memorial Day weekend...

did you only show up at the one game for photos? as a mother I would say not to have it on a holiday weekend again this kids are only 7 or 8 and if they miss one game or so not a big deal I am disappointed my son does not have photos from you your photos are nice but trust me there was allot more boys then you took in years pass I have bought them but not sure if i will again last year I did spend enough for cards and didn't get them not sure if it was my fault or not but not a big deal now. I will just have to make my own photos up for family. as for next year I would really not have it again on a Holiday week-ed thank you Mrs X

That is copied verbatim, except she typed her real last name.

I responded:

Hello Mrs. X,

On April 25th I emailed you and the entire league with the 2011 picture day schedule. It showed the Mariners picture day on Saturday May 28. I did not hear back from any Mariners parents about rescheduling. I am the only official photographer and there is nobody helping me. I have to cover all 35 teams over the course of the 6 week schedule, and allow for rain-outs and other rescheduling. I simply have to schedule games on Memorial day weekend in order to make it all work. I did hear back from a couple other teams that were scheduled for May 28 saying they would like to be rescheduled and I accommodated them.

As for the trading cards last year, you emailed me on July 27, 2010 at 5:49am asking how to go about ordering them. I responded 45 minutes later and asked for your player's stats and what 2 pictures you wanted on the cards. I never heard back from you. If you would still like cards from last year I can do that.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you. If you would like some posed portraits of your player in uniform, I could meet you somewhere to do that. Or you could come to the fields tomorrow, Tuesday June 14, as I will be there shooting pictures of a couple teams whose picture days were rained out multiple times.

Thanks,
Jack

Sigh. Thanks for reading!

divamum

Given her poor writing skills, I'd like to believe she's not actually as disgruntled as she initially sounds - in person, it might have been a pretty non-complain-y conversation? (another case for writing and communicating clearly! Just "translating" that email took me 5 minutes!)

I think your response is a model of professional and very accommodating

jmphotocraft

Thanks. Perhaps you are right, but still, some of these people are about as smart as a bag of hammers. I thought maybe the horrible writing skills were partially attributable to using a cell-phone for email, but the length of the letter makes me think that is not the case. And who signs an email "Mrs. so-and-so"??

In general customers are incapable of reading or following directions. I can count on one hand how many people have cropped their selected photos to their print size, (I'll crop for all the mouth-breathers who don't do it) and an alarming number of people do not seem to care about the coupons I am offering. For example I offer a coupon for 30% off an order of $25 or more if you order within 2 days of my email announcement, and 20% off an order of $25 or more for a week. Then I'll get orders for $21, $24, etc. Hello? Order $25 worth of stuff within a week and it will cost you $20 and you'll get more stuff!!

mercphoto

Hey Jack, math is hard.

jmphotocraft

mercphoto wrote: »

Hey Jack, math is hard.

Apparently I am a rocket scientist!!

mercphoto

I always tell people I'm a rocket surgeon, just to see if they are listening.

Glort

mercphoto wrote: »

I always tell people I'm a rocket surgeon, just to see if they are listening.

I may have read you saying that here somewhere Bill and i have adopted it as one of my slogans.
I said it to a high flying corporate client the other week and he cracked up laughing.
I'm sure I'm thought of a lot more favourably by him now just for that one liner.

JM,

No matter what you do, there is always one whineing nutter that you cannot please and generally its by their fault not yours.

My best so far is having a parent complain to the NATIONAL association president by way of a letter saying that I had destroyed any possible future Netball careers her twin 10 yo Daughters had because I had done a terrible job on the photos because her daughters didn't look as pretty as they were in real life.

The club pres rang and told me and I thought it was some sort of joke. It had come to her from the association HQ and they too were scratching their heads over it wondering if it were a joke or what.
While I was a bit gobsmacked, the club officials were not the least bit perturbed or surprised. Apparently this woman gave them no end of grief about everything imaginable so this was just par for the course.

I had a complaint from an Irate client recently that i had short changed her daughters T&I package. She told me she ordered items i have NEVER offered. I scanned her signed order form and emailed it back to her and my contact with the club. He said she had already complained about it to everyone and they had all told her that I never offered those Items so she couldn't have ordered them but she was adamant.
I never heard from her again but apparently at the clubs monthly meeting she was saying that she didn't want the same photographer hired next year. Luckily the rest of the sane people in the group were more than happy and do want me back but are hoping this woman finds somewhere else to join.

It takes all types but you seem to get a lot of them in the Photo game!