Complaint Review: Portrait Innnovations

I usually pay $200 for an hour of a private photographer to take photos of my baby.  A private photographer gives you a high-resolution CD that you then can take make as many prints/photos/email to family, etc as what you would like.  And best of all, you know what you are getting up front.  Since my daughter is now 8 months old, I decided to go to Portrait Innovations to get more formal/posed shots done in a studio and thought this was a reasonable place that offered a CD with a minimum $100 package.  Below was the reality:

1) While the photos turned out nice, when it came time to review the photos taken at the end, they do not ask you "what are you hoping for in a package today"...like any normal photo place would do.  Instead, they walk you through a VERY scripted, high-pressured sales practice that is meant to "rope you in" to picking your favorite pictures out of 100 photos taken.  All the while, you are questioning, what are the prices?  What are the package options and prices? 

2) Being in sales myself, I finally turned to the lady nicely and said, "look, I am hoping to spend XX amount today and this is the quantity and size pictues that I want".  I don't want 300 + pictures when I can have the CD. At this point, another sales asssocaiate came over and hovered and tried to add more sales pressure.  It was completely uncomfortable and rather shady. 

3)  When I still could not get a straight answer and clearly she was not going to deviate from her "sales process" to give me straight answers, I got frustrated and ended up picking pictures that I didn't really put thought into and didn't end up picking pictures that were the best. 

4) After I finally gave up and selected whatever I could to get out of there, they then told me the "free CD" is not capable of being used to re-create new photos larger than a 4X6 size at best due to the low resolution and that if I wanted nice prints done, I would have to go through them in the future!  Really?!?  And you had to wait to tell me that AFTER the process at the end?  Too funny...

5) Worse than that, all the while they were completely giving ME attitude and rolling their eyes and making comments under their breath.  Being in sales and customer service myself, is this really the way you are going to attrack repeat business? 

So overall, I walked out with great pictures but felt awful about the experience and how I was treated.  Way to go Portrait Innovations...you have officially found a way to turn away repeat business and make customerse feel lowsy about what should be a great experience getting photos for their loved ones.