UNORGANIZED: Booked him in Aug for a July wedding (almost a year out) & didn’t hear from him until 2 weeks before. I had to reach out to him to get the planning going. Phil asked us to create a photo list of our “must-capture” photos & poses. H...e ignored our list.
CONFRONTATIONAL: Wedding day Phil SCREAMED at everyone. Phil not only screamed at my bridal party, but also my mother in-law, florist & a wedding guest. My mother-in-law asked for a pic of her pinning a boutonniere on the groom & he screamed at her saying there wasn’t time. He took the photo after his outburst. At my reception, my florist & one of my guests went to dim the lights & he angrily screamed at both of them yelling “DON’T FREAKING DIM THE LIGHTS, I JUST SET MY METERS”.
LACKS CUSTOMER SERVICE: 8 weeks after our wedding, we asked when to expect our completed album. No delivery date was listed in our contract. He told us albums take 3 months & expect it by end of Oct. Album was not ready until Thanksgiving. Phil NEVER asked if we received our album or if we liked it.
FAILS TO PHOTOGRAPH REQUESTED INDIVIDUALS & MOMENTS: Phil failed to take any single shots of the bride, NO mother of the bride & bride picture (which was a MUST), didn’t capture all reception bridal party entrances, invitation suite & detail shots are not staged, photographed unflattering angles & gave us images with people’s eyes closed. He ignored our photo list & didn’t edit the pictures to align with his portfolio.
RAW IMAGES: He tried to tell us that it’s not in the contract to give the customer the raw images so we highlighted the paragraph where PHIL wrote that the customer has rights. Phil told us if we drove to his home we could have our raw images.
UNACCOMMODATING: We emailed Phil explaining that we were unhappy with the photos he captured & asked for a refund. We asked for a response within the week. No response. My husband called him & Phil rudely told him that he upheld everything in the contract & he wasn’t refunding us. Then hung up on my husband. He never tried to remediate the situation or problem solve with us. JUST TOOK OUR MONEY & RAN.
INAPPROPRIATELY BUILDS CLIENTELE: 32 days later Phil emailed us pleading that he believes he upheld his contract. Shortly after our wedding, we learned that Phil had been fraternizing with our guests instead of doing what we paid him to do. He went as far as to seek a female guest out for development of his professional portfolio. Night of my wedding, he friended her on Facebook & said that he enjoyed talking to her & asked if she would model in a session for him. We explained our frustration to him & said that it was apparent he focused on building relationships for his own professional portfolio during our contracted time rather than capturing our photos we paid & asked him to take.
His emailed response to us: “Yes, Phillip Gregory Photography is always looking for new business and potential clientele.”
My advice - protect yourself in your contract with identifying the following items: Expected delivery date of your album, Expected number of edited photos, Explanation how the photos will be edited, Rights to the raw, unedited images from your session/wedding day, Customer photo list indicating the “must-capture” photos/poses
Avoid a cash tip until your completed album is received. I should also note a few unprofessional text responses I did receive from him came at 1:30am & 4:30am. Also his 2nd photographer (we paid for) was hardly working.
