Mannix Studio Stopped communicating, delivered terrible product 5 months late Troy New York
In February of 2008 I hired Mr. Mannix to serve as the videographer for my wedding to be held on May 31, 2008. Prior to signing the contract Mr. Mannix, who we met at a wedding show at The Albany Marriott in Albany, NY, showed us Hollywood-quality examples of his video work, as well as positive client testimonials from his partner's website (storyboardweddings.com). Mr. Mannix made it clear that he was a qualified and friendly professional who would work with me and my fianc leading up to, during, and after our wedding to produce a top quality wedding video in a timely fashion. In the time leading up to and during our wedding Mr. Mannix was easily accessible, friendly, and returned all phone calls and e-mails promptly. He also verbally assured me that his company had very few other projects surrounding my wedding, and told me our video would be completed very shortly after our wedding day.
On August 11, 2008, 72 days after our wedding, I contacted Mr. Mannix via e-mail because he had not returned my phone calls asking for the status of our video. That day Mr. Mannix responded to me, informing me that our video was in its final stages, and that I should have my final product in another couple weeks. This would be the last time that Mr. Mannix would respond to any of my e-mails or phone calls until December 17, 2008. On September 17, 2008 I contacted Mr. Mannix via e-mail, after he failed to respond to more phone calls and another e-mail inquiry. I expressed my concern for his lack of communication, and still he did not respond.
Later that day I turned things over to my father and attorney (same person), who contacted Mr. Mannix via e-mail as well. From that day on Mr. Mannix would sparsely communicate with my father, giving only vague updates on the status of my wedding video such as it wont be much longer on 9/17/08 and it will be with you soon on 10/1/08. On October 20, 2008 Mr. Mannix responded to a concerned e-mail from my father promising that the video will be completed at the latest by October 27, 2008. However Mr. Mannix failed to deliver the video on that date, or even bother to contact my father or myself. On November 4, 2008 my father informed Mr. Mannix that we would be forced to file a law suit for breach of contract, fraud, and conversion (please note that no suit has been filed at this time).
On November 11, 2008 Mr. Mannix informed my father that he will be sending the wedding video to his office, inviting him to look it over. The video was received on November 14, 2008 (167 days after the wedding, 95 days after Mr. Mannix told me the video would be completed in a couple weeks, 58 days after Mr. Mannix told my father it won't be much longer, 44 days after Mr. Mannix told him it will be you soon, and 18 days after October 27, the date by which Mr. Mannix told my father the video would arrive).
Upon examination of the video we found the product to be far inferior to the Hollywood-quality examples we were shown prior to hiring Mr. Mannix. In the video my wife's name of Jamie was incorrectly spelled Jammie, the audio from the entire wedding ceremony was distorted and inaudible, and significant portions of the reception were omitted and replaced with the text To Be Continued. It was very clear to me as a former television production professional that Mr. Mannix had rushed to finish my video, even though it had taken him over five months to complete it.
On December 4, 2008 I e-mailed Mr. Mannix to politely request these changes, as well as others I felt necessary to improve the quality of the video. In order to trick him into taking my call I called Mr. Mannix from a different phone and was finally able to reach him on that same date. During our conversation, which was polite and professional on both ends, I let him know that I sent him an e-mail with the requested changes, and asked him to call me to discuss them once he looked at it. Mr. Mannix agreed, but once again failed to contact me.
On December 17, 2008 I called Mr. Mannix again, leaving him voicemails at both of his known phone numbers. I then e-mailed him asking him to call or reply before 5 PM that day or else I would be forced to hand the case back over to my father and attorney. Later that day Mr. Mannix replied, telling me Please stop with the threats. Your project is not the only one being worked on. I will fill you in when the changes are made. I replied to him that night out of frustration, citing that he only responds to threats of legal action, and noting that his lack of communication and professionalism are unacceptable. I informed him that I expected either a full refund or the changes to be made to my satisfaction by December 29, 2008 or else I would file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the New York State Consumer Protection Board, as well as pursue further legal action against him through an attorney. As promised to Mr. Mannix I will be filing claims on that date because he has failed to refund the purchase price and taxes paid, nor has he produced our finished video, nor has he even bothered to contact me or my father.
If anyon is interested in joining me in a class action suit let me know. He's not going to get away with this anymore.
Don
Troy, New York
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Rusty
Troy,New York,
USA
Rob Mannix
#3
Wed, August 12, 2009
Don,
Do not expect Rob Mannix to be anything more than a second class businessman. And, as can be seen in your update, he will never accept responsibility for his incompetent business practices. He demonstrated in his response to you, and his profanity-laced tirade on Channel 6, that he thinks everyone else is in the wrong.
Any other couples dealing with this man (and there are many according to WRGB and Times Union reports), you would do well to accept that he will not return your money, he will not pay what he is ordered to from the courts, and he will not provide the work that he is contractually obligated to provide - despite his promises.
My wife and I first complained about him back in 2004, and we still have a Walmart purchased photo album with maybe 10-12 decent photos, and another 80-90 wretched attempts at photography. We were told he would fix the problem with missing or bad photos by pulling them from the video - a video in which we still only have the rough copy on VHS. I have no pictures of our wedding party, my mother, or my wife's father.
I believe we were one of the first couples to take action against Robs work back in 2004.
On that day, Rob decided to bring a different photographer to our wedding, Brena Bardwell, and we never saw the photographs she took. Because, as he explained, she basically had exposed the film and all of her reels were destroyed. What we did get were his photographs, of which at least 95% of them fell into the following categories: blurred, over/underexposed, red eye, poses where other people/objects are in the way.
Even some of the photos that we considered acceptable were shown to other wedding photographers who said they were still of very poor quality. They were able to point out reasons that the average viewer might not notice at first glance. And these were the ones that we thought were decent!
I believe to this day, he still has the one good photo of our wedding on his wall in the studio, which he did without permission, and is an insult to us in my eyes. He placed it on the wall after being informed that we would be heading to court.
We went to small claims court (the price we paid for Rob was discounted greatly because he was a friend of a friend), and were awarded $100 of our $600 back. The small amount was basically due to the judge being unwilling to say the photos were of poor quality himself, and all of the statements I had from other professional wedding photographers were not allowed as evidence. We won in essence, but it was a meager victory. It didnt matter how much we paid, or how much we were refunded, the fact is we would never get photographs of this moment in our lives back.
I find it to be poetic justice that Mr. Mannix is almost begging for additional work in the Times Union article, and the WRGB report. That man has no right claiming to be a wedding photographer, and he has no justification for claiming he will do whats right for those customers, as he is a man of very limited principles. Proof of this?
After our court appearance, Mannix and his wife shouted obscenities at us as we drove away. This was nothing compared to the fact that prior to that, as we walked past them in the parking lot, his wife (now ex apparently) crumbled up a five dollar bill and tossed it in our direction.
If that werent enough, my wife sent an email to him afterwards explaining why we were so upset, almost to the point of being apologetic for having the justified reaction that we did. Mannix responded with an email of his own saying something about my wifes clothing, calling her white trash, and saying he understands we need his money to afford our rent.
Needless to say, we read these articles with great pleasure. Its good to see Rob Mannix could use that $100 back, so he can afford to pay his own bills. Perhaps he can give that crumbled up $5 to his ex wife as an alimony payment. What goes around, comes around.
Donferlazzo
Troy,New York,
U.S.A.
Mannix update
#3Author of original report
Tue, June 09, 2009
Well, we just had our one year wedding anniversary about a week ago and I thought now would be a good time for an update.
When I didn't receive my wedding video from Rob Mannix by the given deadline of December 29th at 5 PM I filed claims with both the Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Protection Board. Then I decided to contact The Marriot in Albany (where I had first met Mr. Mannix at the wedding show). They put me in touch with Sandra Tizzone of The Wedding Group, who puts on the show. I told her my situation and she felt horrible and promised to resolve it. She then called Mr. Mannix and told him that he needed to correct my situation immediately or else she would bar him from participating in future shows, including the one coming up that Sunday.
Right away I got an e-mail from Mr. Mannix. Here's what it said: "Your video is complete. You want things completed on your time frame, your time frame wasn't even up and you called people and bashed me. Your video was shown to numerous professionals all agreeing that it was a beautiful project. Even in your words you liked it, just wanted a few changes. Your video is complete and is being delivered as per your request. Hopefully you will stop with the bashing, but I'm sure you won't. Let me know how many copies you'd like." Of course this ignored the facts that a) He let the 5 PM deadline pass without contacting me and b) I still didn't have my video!
I called Sandra and let her know that he promised to give me the video. Four days later, just days before Mr. Mannix's next bridal show, it arrived at my father's office and the next day I was able to view it.
The first thing I noticed is he neglected to make all the changes requested, and worse yet he purposely put in the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which I had specifically asked him not to include. I guess that was his way of trying to stick it to me for causing him so much trouble by expecting him to do what was stated in the contact in a timely fashion while maintaining a professional demeanor. Mr. Mannix had also promised to include some missing footage I had requested, but that was not included.
I was tired of fighting Mr. Mannix for everything, so I simply asked that he send me 15 copies of the video (he did promise me unlimited copies after all) as well as the promised footage that was missing. I told him once those were received I would drop my complaints with the BBB and the CPB. He said he wouldn't be able to provide these before the wedding show but assured me he would shortly thereafter. I informed Sandra, and she allowed Mr. Mannix to take part in the wedding show.
On January 21st, 18 days later, I received an angry e-mail from Mr. Mannix claiming that he had lived up to his end of the deal and provided me with the extra copies and additional footage, and wondered why he was still receiving calls from the BBB and the CPB. I informed him that we never received any more packages from him, and I would not drop my complaints until we did. Mr. Mannix claimed he had sent the package on Tuesday, January 6th. Obviously if we hadn't received the package by January 21st (15 days later) it had been "lost in the mail" so I asked Mr. Mannix to please send them "again." That was the last attempted communication between myself and Mr. Mannix. He never did send the additional copies and he never did send the missing footage.
Since then I have received updates from both the Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Protection Board letting me know that he has not responded to their calls and letters. They both decided to close their case against Mr. Mannix as unresolved and the BBB assured me he now has an "F" rating on their website. My only hope is others check that website before hiring Mr. Mannix, or anyone for that matter.
I also understand there are many more people out there that are in the process of filing claims against Mr. Mannix in small claims court. Hopefully he learns his lesson soon and changes the way he does business.