Liz
Springfield Gardens,#2Consumer Comment
Mon, September 24, 2007
I am the photographer mentioned in this letter. Please note that we have no connection with kids.com other than to send them photos of these children. We receive no money from them nor do we pay them for leads. We are only recommended as are several other studios in the area. None of the kids.com customers are required to use our studio or the others, they can select their own if they so choose or take their own photos as stated in their contract. The reason we are recommended is because they will get a professional portrait rather than just an amateur snapshot. These customers are charged a nominal sitting fee of $20 per child to cover the cost of our time for taking the photos and then prepping/sending them to the kids.com web site. Our standard sitting for one child is $75 with each additional child being $30. Everything is done on speculation in the hope that the parents might want to purchase beautiful photos of their children. Again, we deeply discount the cost of the packages. No one is ever pressured - its just there if they want it. We do not offer free photos since the sitting fee doesn't even cover our time and effort in capturing these portraits. We spend up to a hour working our hearts out to get the right expression and then choosing the photo for the web. We have had problems with some of the parents illegally copying our photos off the web site. This person is probably one of them since she never purchased anything from us yet she had a copy of one of our photos in her possession. Just like the parents of these children, kids.com has screwed us too by disappearing without prior notice of their intentions. We can only assume that they are out of business. We no longer accept appointments for kids.com, but do offer private sittings at the kids.com price to any former kids.com customer. We have tried unsuccessfully to contact Mike Bagwell who is one of the owners - his cell number is 973-903-9561.