Complaint Review: PORTRAITS USA LLC - Canton Ohio

 Wow, thrown out of 2 local malls , never paid the rent, customers left hanging, you guys have created disastrous consequences at every single place you have ever been !!!! And you are a small mom and pop company !!! Why can't you simply pay your bills ,deliver what customers pay for ?? Like many of these posts say , the law will catch up to you soon all the fraud cases at multiple attorney general's office's don't just disappear and vanish !!

 bbb.org/central-northern-western-arizona/business-reviews/photographers-portrait/portraits-usa-in-phoenix-az-1000019679/

I said right at the top of my post that I am the owner of Portraits USA in Phx AZ!!!!!!  Im not in Georgia.  I am the Portraits USA local owner for the west side of Phx.   

I'M A rated with the BBB!!  Eat your heart out! You are wrong again.  I dont control what happens in Georgia.  Just like a mcdonalds owner in California has nothing to do with a mcdonalds company in New York.  You are a disgruntaled ex-employee that just couldnt take care of business because you didnt do what you were told.  

Actually your company has an F rating, the reasons can be viewed here:

http://www.bbb.org/atlanta/business-reviews/photographers-portrait/portraits-usa-in-canton-ga-27410945

While it is true that anybody can write negative remarks about a company, the fact that you have to lie to protect your company's reputation only makes your company seem less reputable.

 Looks like he's getting some back he's got two tax judgements against him...what a crook!

Portraits USA AKA Jeff GREAT COMPANY!!!!!! PHOENIX ARIZONA

 I am an Air force vet / business owner.  I have known Dean Nelson and his family for over 12 years now.  He has been a huge positive influence in my life in so many ways.  He has taught me the importance of dreaming big, perseverance, and just down right HARD WORK!  I have had him lift me up when my confidence was low and I have had him get in my face when I was making excuses for my laziness.   He is a true life’s coach.  I now own my own business with Portraits USA on the west side of Phoenix AZ and am proud to say that we hold an A rating with the BBB.  As any other business we have customers at times that can be just flat out unreasonable.  However, if we have failed to deliver on what we promised our customer our office will do everything it can to fix it (602-345-1872 or 602-348-0505).  We service many accounts and take care of over 40k customers per year.  We are very proud to say that we have taken care of every customer complaint that has come our way.  Dean Nelson has taught me everything that I know.  I have read the books that Dean Nelson told me to read and it has helped me in my business relationships, personal relationships, and especially in my marriage.  It’s so sad that there are people out there that have it in their heart to try to destroy a good family man, Military vet, wrestling coach and business owner.   Dean has taken average or below average individuals like myself and has improved their financial situation and personal life by leaps and bounds.  By working for Dean Nelson and Portraits USA I have been able to purchase my home, purchase 3 cars, 5th wheel trailer, pay off all my debt, help 2 churches get built, help teenagers go to church camps, paid for a 2 kids private schooling, and we've also been blessed so that we could help pay for funerals of 3 children.  Dean Nelson has taught me to think about more than just myself, and because of his encouragement my wife and I are part of a board of a new charity that gives financial support to families that have children in life threating situation or that have passed.   I am indebted to this man for the rest of my life.  My wife and I have been fortunate to work together for Portraits USA and almost my entire family has worked for the company.  Both of my brothers that are air force vets have worked with us.  My mom, my sister, sister in law, my cousin and many people from my church have worked for the company.  This includes Pastors / Ministers.  Portraits USA is not perfect.  Truthfully no company is.  A company is an idea and a group of people.  Ideas are not perfect and neither are people.   However, Portraits USA is a great organization to be a part of and we will do whatever we can to deliver on our promises to our customers.  Portraits USA is also a fabulous opportunity for any hard working person who is still thinking big and wants an old fashion chance to own their own business. 

He lives in Fredericksburg Ohio on Crawford street now. From what I've heard he still tries to bully every one.

 umm your stupid and i know the the people your talking about. dean is as nice as could be and the way you describe your story is fully retarded. and the only reson you write this is because you were let go for writing low number and not doing your job. and your then considered a virus to the company with negitive comments to other employes. also if your intimidated by averagely priced cars and a big home then u dont deserve to work with this company. u should have explained this as an opertunity to reach for a goal like that or at least try and climb the ladder but lazy annoyances like you just complain and bring yourself and others around you down. so people if you are willing to work and listen and not be stupid like this lady then u can live in luxurious lifestyle. but this is a job for people with only possitive outlooks thats a key to selling, you learn with this company. that is all

My ex husband and I were invited to work with this company back in 2007. We went to our local store with a regional rep and solicited people for photos believing it was legitimate and only for a small commission being promised a great income if we are good sales people. Shortly after we were invited to a weekend long corporate shindig at the huge mansion of Dean Nelson. He had many high priced cars, indoor pool, movie theatre and everything to show off and entertain his lavish rich lifestyle. He made outrageous claims that poor people deserve to be poor and women should serve their husbands. He and his followers were hard right conservatives who felt above others and they treated him like some king. They did more preaching at the meeting than talk business and acted like they had a superior family business and product.

I felt sick and seen my husbands disgust as we were not expecting this. They expected employees to give up their lives even education living on the road and dedicating to the sales to make any reasonable living on commission based business. They said you get what you put in and deserve. I seen nothing but the purest form of bigotry and arrogance from this company. At the headquarters the staff were s****..

Why must it be fraud? Why couldn't it be sheer incompetence. Why must everything be so sinister? Isn't it possible they just suck at customer service! Maybe they are a bunch of D-bags just trying to make a living who aren't too bright. Maybe they are understaffed and underpaid like a lot of employees these days. Personally, I can honestly say that they've done a great deal more good than harm. Please stop whining on line and call this number 877-660-6962 This is the corporate line for the whole country...they WILL straighten those fools out!

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I also got sucked into this scam at my local mall. I was approached by a smooth fast talking man, but decided to ge pictures done of my boys. This was in December. We got the pictures done. Tere was a bad sno storm the day I was suppose to pick up my photos, so I tried calling the 2 numbers on my receipt to reschedule, but never got an answer and they never retuned my call when I left SEVERAL messages.

I even called the mall several times to see if they were at the mall, I never caught them at the mall. Finally, after a month, the mall gave me the guy who rented the space cell phone #. I called him and he gave me the photographers #. She remembered me and my kids! She had our pictures. She gave our pics to the guy and he met me that night at bob evans so we could get our pics. My husband really liked teh pics, so he ordered the cd. We paid the same night. We were told we wuld get our cd in 2 weeks.

Its now the end of march and still no cd. I called last week and was told by the guy he would look into it. He said it was ordered. I just called him again, he had the photographer call me. She still remembers us! She said she's not sure why we didn't get it yet, but she's looking into it and will call me back today......guess we wil see......

It's not an anonymous complaint if we've left our name and number at the given phone numbers multiple times.  I don't know how we can be considered 'confused'.  We paid for a service; we did not receive it; we are now being ignored.  It is actually incredibly straightforward; if someone takes your money and promises a service, and doesn't deliver, it is fraud.  We have called the given numbers, and no one answers.  Our calls are never returned.  I'm not complaining anonymously; I will give my name and number to anyone who is willing to correct the mistakes they made.  

Look, it's easy to make anonymous claims when you can't be sued for slander, but that's the Internet for you! You may not like our business model, but we make money providing a much needed service to people. We service many thousands of families per month, so we're sure to have a few problems. If you just think about the number of "nut jobs" there are out there...we get our share, believe me! Dean Nelson may be a dirt bag, but I don't think he's a criminal. He hasn't ever been arrested for anything as far as I know and after all this time you would think the law would catch up with him if he were a crook! I think most of the complaints listed here are made by people who are confused, malicious, or both! By the way, anyone can file a report, it means nothing until it's proven...

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Portraits USA LLC does not care about your problems with them they do this everywhere they go. They take the money and never deliver. If you call the corporate office of the store you were defrauded at watch how fast you get a call from a Portraits USA representative. Portraits USA makes their defrauded customers go all the way to the attorney generals office to get taken care of. The same guy's that owned and managed United Studios of America now own Portraits USA. The corporate offices of the stores they do this fraud at will help you and by reporting your story to them may help many other unsuspecting customers out. Portraits USA is a joke !!!! And by the way they could care less about their BBB reports. Check out United Studios of America on the Ohio Attorney Generals website they are the same company.

I have two numbers on my receipt and one of them is this 877-660-6962 that you keep referring to.  I have been calling EVERYDAY for 4 weeks and I have left message after message.  I have also called the other number on my receipt everyday for the last 4 weeks and left messages 256-506-4940.  NO RESPONSE AT ALL!  I ordered a CD of my prints for $50 on 12/23/11 and never got it.  The woman whom I ordered from said 2 weeks.  Now I'm reading all of these complaints...NO WONDER.  This is my warning to everyone out there, don't trust this company it's a scam or they have horrible customer service.  I'll fight until then end on this one.  Next up...Better Business Bureau report.

Call the store Manager at the store you were supposed to get your pictures taken at, demand a refund from the store and point out this web page . The stores have no idea of how pathetic this company functions. Portraits USA is the only vendor of these stores in which the customer HAS to go too drastic lengths to even get a teeny tiny problem fixed. After you call the store manager watch how quickly you get a rep from Portraits USA to call you back. PATHETIC !! And Portraits USA does this constantly. Portraits USA claims they deal with 100,000 customers a year on their web site but the fact is they only photograph a small handful of customers weekly , they use MAGIC MATH to try to convince people that they are a BIG photography company and they are not. Check out United Studios of America at the Ohio Attorney generals web site. The same Guy that was the owner of that company is now the President and CEO of Portraits USA. That will explain why they stink at customer service. Sorry for your problem . Hope this helps you out .

This employee keeps claiming that they work for 100% satisfaction, all we need to do is call the number and they will address our concerns.  I have called this number many times, as well as two numbers provided on my certificate, and no one ever answers.  I have left my number asking for a return call, and have not received one.  If they do not answer their phone, there is no way for them to address our concerns.  But they can continue to claim that they will.  

My problem was simple; they were 'mistaken' about the location they would be taking pictures at.  The morning of my appointment they called and said they would not be at the location listed on the certificate, but at a Jewel-Osco about 25 miles away.  

If I wanted to get a refund I was told I could drive 25 miles to the studio and pick it up, or wait for them to come to a closer location.  Now they are not answering the phone or returning calls to tell me where they will be located.  I'm only out $10, but there is nothing I hate more than being lied to.

Sorry to here the problems, but these frauds are what they do best. All anyone needs to do is contact the corp office of the store you were defrauded at and ask to speak to the person who gave them access to conduct their so called photography business in their stores, explain your issues and watch how quickly Portraits USA responds then. When they were called United Studios of America the screwed hundreds of customers out of their money, so thats why they changed their name. Now they are still doing the same ole same ole scam ,take the money and not deliver, the Attorney Generals office in Ohio is building a case against the former owner of United Studios of America and the other Attorney Generals in a couple of other states are after him as well so soon enough jail will be his new home.

I have had a similar experience in October, went into local Bi-Lo, got stopped by this guy who talked a hot game. Said I would consider, finally gave into the guy so he would shut up, and figured my in-laws would like to get pictures taken with my children while they were visiting. I wish I had never gone through with it! I feel horrible. The photographer was horrible, made my son scared, the "family portrait" we got in the package has my poor son screaming (he was only 14 months att). I cannot even look at the picture. Then the lady who sold the pictures to us, also talked a good game. Convinced me to buy the cd from the company, I signed up for them to bill my bank account in 4 separate payments of 89.99. This was back in October and I STILL haven't received the CD I have paid for. Not only am I paying for horrible portraits, they didn't print out the one of my children with my sister-in-law and said they would send it with. Also, they promised to airbrush out a mark made by a shadow on my arm and never did. I am out money, have guilt that I fell for this scam. Have to live with a picture of my poor baby boy screaming and possibly being scarred from the experience (I tried to get portraits of my kids at a GOOD studio that I have used before) a couple weeks later and we were completely unsuccessful in getting a picture of him for his daddy who is in Afghanistan! Utterly horrible experience. I have filed a complaint with the BBB, but now I dont know what company name to file it under!

Hmmm... This all sounds so familar My family and I had recently had our pictures done at a local Kroger of course a $10 charge plus a $6 sitting charge applyed needless to say this all ended in major disappointment the pictures we rec ieved were completly horrible those were the ones we had paid the ten dollars for of course were the worst ones they gave us and of course all the other ones were great Just another way a company has came up with to scam us hard working people out of our money what kind of photographer does this to his customers wow what a way to make money and of course we had to spend way more money to get ones that looked decent what a ripp off. NEVER would recommend to anyone .

I like the way Portraits USA LLC tries to disassociat themselves from the truth, Portraits USA LLC's president and ceo is a guy named Dean Nelson who just so happens to be the President and ceo of the now defunct United Studios of America . United Studios of America employed Eric Scholer for over 10 years as their Marketing VP, now Eric Scholer is the registered owner of Portraits USA LLC . As for the address Portraits USA LLC officed out of 4450 Beldon Villiage July, August, September 2010 . United Studios of America closed down because of their failed bankruptcy July 2010 and guess what Portraits USA LLC was incorperated that same time . So what misinformation are you going to try to spin now ! Same people same company same issues . Get over it The Attorney Generals office see's it this way not your way and they only go by facts  . Why keep the money for all those poor unsuspecting customers who out of good faith prepaid to United Studios of America their hard earned money for plagues and canvases and other merchandise why not refund the close to 90 defrauded customers. Your company is a classic example of scam artists.

Who ever is posting all the fictitious complaints and slandering a brand new company should come clean and call the corporate 800# listed on all of Portraits USA's receipts along with the local licensee's customer service #.  We would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have or help you locate the office closes to you.  Portraits USA LLC is a licensing company based out of Las Vegas, Nevada.  Hmmm... When you look up the address for United Studios and Portraits USA they are completely different... United Studios address is 4450 Belden Village St., Canton OH 44718.  Portraits USA's address is 7465 W. Lake Mead Blvd. Suite 270, Las Vegas, NV 89128.  Their is only 1 Ohio Attorney General Complaint and that complaint has been resolved and Portraits USA has an A rating at the BBB.  150 BBB complaints & 36 Ohio Attorney General Complaints is absolutely ridiculous and the person posting false information should be ashamed.  Portraits USA needs to take legal action against the anonymous posts of false accusations.  Obviously Portraits USA cannot control what people post on the internet, with that being said if any of our consumers have any questions or problems please do not hesitate to contact our local licensee offices or call the corporate office at 877-660-6962, Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm est. 

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Samantha, Portraits USA LLC is all a scam they WERE called United Studios of America until the got thier bankruptcy thrown out by a judge so with all the Attorney General fraud cases against them and thier faild bankruptcy and all the rip off reports and all the BBB fraud reports they had to find another way to cheat the system so the changed thier name. They dont care who they rip off so long as they are able to take the money and run. sorry to here about your problem but if it involved a grocery store chain you can call that grocery chains corperate office and ask to speak to the very person who allowes them to conduct thier fraud within thier stores and that person will at least stop them from doing it to thier innocent shoppers, hope this helps you out. Check thier fraud cases at www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov , click search company tab and type in United Studios of America then do the same thing but type in Portraits USA LLC. OVER 80 FRAUD CASES, its shocking that the owner is not arrested YET !!!!!!!!!!!

Portraits USA LLC is definitely ripping people off.  I, in fact, have just recently been ripped off by Portraits USA so I will be going to further lengths to correct this problem.  And being offered a chance to train and become part of that team, I was flattered until I became the victim of the biggest scam in my area. All of my neighbors and my friends fell for this cheap package deal that included a CD of all the portraits taken.  Absolutely none of us have received this so-called CD.

Portraits USA is not the same company as United Studios of America and Portraits USA's address is NOT 4450 Belden Village St. NW, Canton OH 44718.  Portraits USA's National headquarters is located at 7465 West Lake Mead Blvd, Ste 270 Las Vegas, NV 89128.  Portraits USA is a licensing company and the largest mobile photography studio in the U.S.A.  Photographing over 100,000 families/year.  Portraits USA prides itself in offering business opportunities to local residents of each territory. Their are several business opportunities offered under each Independent Licensing Agreement. In order to ensure customer satisfaction, every customer receipt has a local number to contact the local independent license, and if the customer is not 100% satisfied, they can also call the toll-free # listed at the bottom of their receipt and speak to a customer service representative at the National headquarters office, where that representative will assist and follow through with ensuring each and every customer is 100% satisfied.