Complaint Review: Majestic Images

My husband and I hired Eli Allen of Majestic Images to photograph our wedding. This was a terrible mistake that has caused us heartache and anxiety.

Before the wedding, our first issue arose when Eli refused to acquiesce to take table portraits. After we insisted and argued for these pictures, Eli agreed to do them, but he did not take all the tables. On the day of our wedding, Eli showed up at the beauty salon--disregarding our stipulation that we did not want "getting ready photos." He was in the way, caustic, and annoying. Once at the wedding venue, Eli poorly organized the family portraits. Portrait requests from the groom's mother and bride were ignored. As such, we were unable to get portraits of the groom's family and bride's parents together with their children. During this family portrait fiasco, Eli's comments were found offensive he was quick to become frustrated with some of the elders in the wedding party, i.e., the bride's and groom's grandparents. Since the wedding, guests have commented to me how unprofessional and "crude" the photographer was. This is extremely embarrassing for my husband and I!

It took longer than usual to receive the proofs. They came in three large books, with about 8 tiny tiny tiny photos per page. Thankfully, Eli was kind enough (the only kindness we received from him) to put them on a disk for us. However, the quality of the photos are mediocre. Many are blurry, too far away, and taken from odd angles. Also, it seemed that Eli missed the bride being given away! So we picked our albums without these pictures. Eventually, after asking for them, (the father-gives-daughter-away pictures) Eli found them--but I can't fathom how he could have "missed" putting them in the proof book. This shows unprofessional, disorganized, amateur work.

Picking the photos actually ended up taking much longer than planned because Eli "ooops" came up with the missing proofs. Thus, we went through pictures that we had never seen. Eli became frustrated and made me feel quite uncomfortable. As we were leaving, he attacked us asking for money. My mother in law paid for her album that night before receiving any sort of product. He would not allow us to leave until checks were filled out. I would like to clarify that I in no way would we ever not pay for services, it was only that we were not told that a portion of the bill would have to be paid on that night.

And the nightmare continues...

We picked our albums in March. Since then, we call to ask about the status, and Eli does not return our calls. He finally called us to pick out the leather for the albums. He gave us no choice--he rudely invited himself to my parents home to pick out the leather colors. Since then--again, we've called to check the status of the albums and he does not return our calls. When we do finally get him on the phone, he tells us silly excuses, i.e, "had to send the books back." "holidays," "busy time of year," "album people don't work in the summer." It has been months, and I truly think I have a lost cause.

Learn from our mistakes, please do not use Majestic Images.

Bride with no wedding photos
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.