Meg Karin
Los Angeles,#2Author of original report
Sat, September 10, 2005
Date Received:9/9/2005 4:14:18 PM Primary Complaint Classification: Service Issues Secondary Complaint Classification: Refund Practices Complaint: Meg purchased a three outfit photo shoot for $496 by Ric Shaw on Nov 7, 2002. There was no contract or a "no refund" policy signed or explained to us. Ric Shaw did the first outfit shoot for 10 min shortly before dusk outside in the parking lot on Dec 5, 2003, with a completely unusable result. He offered to do this shoot again. I declined immediately when we saw the prints on January 7, 2003 and asked to have the money refunded for the whole amount or at least for the remaining two outfit shoots as I had lost trust in his photographic skills. He agreed he's not the right person to shoot me and agreed to the refund of the whole amount. He said the new owner Wayne Sterago will take care of it, all we need to do is talk to him. When we met with Wayne, he told us, that Ric is the boss and only he can give the refund. We called and talked to Ric over and over, sent faxes; he kept promising the refund while being nice and friendly since January 7,2003. We had told him, that we were moving to California in 6 months (2003), and he basically waited until we had moved away, until he said he'll do a re-shoot any time we want. We told him many times on the phone from California and in writing, that this is no option for us and kept requesting the refund. My husband did not want to give Ric any trouble, as he was friendly and kept saying we only need to talk to the new owner (who's name changed every few months)to arrange the refund or a re-shoot. Obviously we should have contacted the BBB right away within the first few months and not give him 2 years to lie to us. Since then we have found that there are many people Ric mistreats with false promises, bad service and even worse refund practices, as you know as well.