Complaint Review: Cady Studios - St. Augustine Florida

My daughter had her senior pictures taken at Cady Studios.  This is supposed to be one of the most memorable times in the year for a senior student.  We did the Elite package so it was not cheap.  We had someone doing her hair and makeup and her own personal photographer.  After her pictures were taken, we came back in two weeks to place our order.  Our order came out to over $3,000.  We were told once the final payment on the picutres were made then the pictures would be placed into production and we would have them in about 30 to 45 days after that.  I made the final payment on the pictures on October 20th. 

On December 1st I called to see how much longer, expecting it to be only a few days.  I was told they were still in production and would be another week.  I called again the following week and was told the same thing.  I called the next week and was told the same thing.  By now, I am beyond frustrated.  I call back again and am told that the USB was in production and it would take a week.  I can transfer pictures to a USB in a matter of minutes and I don't do this for a living.  Then I started calling daily and was told the same thing.  I was assigned a "senior" representative who was to follow up with me and let me know the status.  I got one email and NOTHING else from this person.  Everytime I called they told me I would hear from "her".  We were planning to use the pictures as Christmas presents for some of our relatives which is why the price was so high.  Two days before Christmas during one of my "daily" calls to Cady, the decided to send me a link with all of the photos in it.  While I am grateful for that, what purpose does that really serve?  Now I would have to go have them printed (some of which were going to be on canvas) and then what do I do with the ones I paid so much money for that seemed to be lost?  I continued to call daily and got the same response, the USB was in production. 

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but on January 8th I told Cady that if I did not have the pictures ready for me to pick up by January 24th they could keep all of them and I would request a refund of all of the money from my credit card company.  I still never got a response telling me my photos were ready or anything.  I called back later that week and was told they were in shipping to go to our local studio and they would call. 

I called the local studio on the following Monday (you can't call them directly - you have to go through the horrendous and helpless customer service line).  I was told that from the customer service line that my pictures had been delivered a week ago and they were waiting on me to pick them up.  However you can only pick them up on Friday afternoons or Saturday mornings. 

The service at this company is unbelievable for the amount of money people spend to capture the memories for their children.  My daughter and I could care less about these pictures now. 

What a waste.  Please think twice before you let this company rip you off.