Complaint Review: Our365 Newborn Photography - Saint Charles Missouri

I feel it is imperative that this company continue to be exposed for its "payroll" practices, as well as its shaky customer service! From my experience, the reports already filed are true. This report is a bit lengthy, but all of it is true.

I was told by the recruiter (person 1) that "most photographers earn between $9 and $11/hour", and by the interviewing area manager (person 2) that most of her staff "earn $15-$30/hour." We were told we would receive $7/hr PLUS a commission. But the trainer (person 3), under pressed questioning, admitted it to be a minimum of $7/hr OR commissions for the pay period, whichever was higher. (That is, they'd toss in some spare change to get you there if sales were slow). I accepted that, though it was a trick to get the truth out of them.

Later, it turned out that Full commission was earned for sales in the hospital OR through the mail OR on the website. LESS was paid for telephone orders. EVEN LESS was paid if the company called the moms (telemarketing) to see if they were ready to order. This seemed less than fair. I argued it, but was shot down. I offered to make the call myself, and the DM said "no, you can not call them yourself." Unable to get my way, I accepted it and simply encouraged moms to use the website or the mail. But keep reading, it gets even less fair...

The company offers to KEEP EACH FAMILY's PHOTOS FOR ONE YEAR. Part of the sales technique is to tell mom they can wait til things are settled down or they have more cash available and buy their pics later. There is no charge to have the pics taken and the "WebNursery" site up for all the world to see. That, too, seemed good practice. In theory.

HERE'S HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED TO ME:

The hospital I was hired for was a smaller one, and there were typically about 90 babies per month to photograph.

The equipment at the hospital is obsolete and unreliable (15-year old digital technology). My skilled co-photographer and I were unhappy with the camera, which had problems with blur, exposure, focus, shutter delay, 'auras,' glare, inconsistent flash, and dropped or lost pics. We received a "refurbished" unit of the same make and model which was no better than the one we sent back.

We asked if we could have the "brand new" equipment they were then sending out to the larger hospitals. The DM said there was no plan to do so, as it was "naturally" the higher volume hospitals that they would invest in before the less productive ones.

We (my coworker and I) disagreed with it, believing that each customer should be able to expect the same quality that others are receiving, and each photographer should have the same equipment to work with, no matter what hospital they're in. But we still got shot down. So we made do, and we still managed to do fairly well, even in this tough economy, with crap equipment.

ALERT TO THE CONSUMER: If you go to a smaller hospital in a less rich neighborhood, your pictures will probably be taken by an old, rebuilt camera. NOT a state-of-the-art professional one. And some hospitals don't even have anything but a "put-the-baby-in-this-bucket-here" shot with the camera attached to an overhead pole. If this service is important to you (many hospitals use it as a competitive "service" for using their birth centers), ASK which type of camera is used there. They will know, and they should tell you.

WARNING TO PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES: The company has no system for you to know how much your sales are if they were not placed with you the day of service. Each paycheck is a "surprise". No way to know which moms went online or mailed or called in their orders. It's the "paystub" that tells you which moms ordered, when, by what "channel", and if you are paid your commission or not. You can tell if all your customers are there, but you are simply at their mercy to tell you when orders were placed or "paid."

Now, in this age of high-tech information sharing, why is that? And WHY OH WHY does it take this company up to 2 weeks to "process" a bedside transaction using a valid D/C card, or cash to get the photographer paid PROMPTLY? Paycheck after paycheck I kept waiting for my good days to trickle in, but they don't. It SEEMS that the payroll people pick and choose which sales they are going to "process" and "payout commission" on, to keep the photographers hanging on. But I still hung in there, until my husband lost his job and I had to do better...

Then I resigned. Now, PAY ATTENTION! When I asked if I would receive my fair and honestly earned commission, for the pictures I TOOK and the service I DELIVERED to those moms, if they were to order during the next year, THEY SAID "NO." As long as I was a scheduled active staff member, I would receive commission on "any orders placed and processed while you are still an active employee". But any that come in next month or in September, or on the day the one-year availability expires, I WILL NEVER SEE.

I asked the DM about this and got a vague answer. I asked her assistant using clear "yes or no" questions, and the answer was "NO." Now, IF I were to work my whole two-weeks notice, they would "keep me on payroll for another two weeks", so that any orders paid had time to "process" into my check. Funny thing is, even if the mom hands me CASH or a valid card, which information I upload at the end of the day, it can STILL take them up to SIX WEEKS to show up on my check as "PAID" orders. Then if it's still not there, it goes to "research". Yep, they have a "research" department. Hmm.

IF THAT MOM GAVE ME CASH, OR A CARD, THAT ORDER WAS PAID THE DAY I TOOK THE PICS, and I should get paid immediately. Not have to wait til accounting decides it's a real money order, or gets around to running a D/C card that I sent them electronically the day of photos!

I imagine them sitting there with their feet up looking at the daily report we upload and saying, "Wow, she got cash-on-hand and two card sales today! Well, let's see. Pay period ends tomorrow. Maybe next Tuesday I'll think about running that debit card. Or maybe I'll hold off until a week from next Monday, to see if the staffer has quit yet and we won't have to pay her at all. I mean, she still has to mail in the money order, and we still have to cash it, and we aren't for sure if this card number is even any good!" And then gives a big yawn and goes to get some coffee.

IF I TOOK THE PICS AND TOLD MOM SHE HAD A YEAR TO ORDER, that order should be paid to me whether I am still active as a photographer or not!!

But they got defensive and said that accounting was NOT dawdling. I told them to consider the job abandoned, and mailed in the money order that I bought on my own time for the CASH order the mom had given me that morning. Of course, I will never see the commission I earned when she gave her $40 to me right there in her room, because the company will say, "The order was "paid" the day WE got the Money Order in the mail, NOT the day she handed you, our rep, her cash. You get nothing. Because the day we got it in the mail, you had already quit. So screw you. Ha ha."

Anyway, hope you've been entertained or irritated by all this. It was too pitiful a job to get too worked up over, but I still think they should be called to task, on behalf of the exploited staff and the misled families they are messing with. Exceptionally poor performance for a continent-wide company.

SHAME ON YOU, OUR365!

Change agent

Kansas City, Kansas

U.S.A.