Disguisted with Pixi Foto

hickory99 wrote: »

lol daire I seperated it just for you Thanks for reply, ye I'm glad of the free one but like I said I wish it was the one of everyone smiling, I think my partner is right and that they don't pick the best one on purpose you know

You could buy yourself a decent little camera for half that money and take thousands of photos yourself

I thought this was going to be a rant against pix.ie - some of these names can be confusing

Sounds bad alright, had a look at their site and they do offer the one free photo. Will pass this info on to anybody asking about them.

Aside from the way the whole thing was handled by Pixifoto what would you expect to pay for your photos bearing in mind that you had a session with different set ups and a gallery of images to choose from?

OP, I understand your pain. Can I enquire as to where the 'competition' was conducted?

I've heard of a company known as Venture which if I recall correctly was the Joe Duff Show thing, who were entering you in a competition in the shopping centres around Dublin, and then surprise surprise, you received a phone call that you'd won and just pop in and have your photos taken and your free image would be waiting for you when you come back to view the results. When people came back then a similar story enfolded. So, your experience is not unique and not unique within the industry.

A few years back we had some family photographs taken. We paid what I think was €90 for the sitting fee (while the photographs were being taken) and had the options thereafter of buying in a number of packages which were available. I think in the end it probably cost a few hundred euro (certainly not thousands), but such a business-customer relationship is one which we knew we were walking into.

The following is very true;

BostonB wrote: »

If you have the money and want them ok. If you don't have the money and poor will power then stay away from these places. For me the free photo isn't worth all the hassle and hard sell you have to sit through.

or, you are entirely likely to be disappointed / disgusted with whomever you are going to in order to have your photographs taken.

There are many organisations which are now using those tactics. It is not limited to just photography. Have you of recent times had a free appointment offered with some well known high street flash location opticians? Yup, you'll get the eye test and as a bonus, the prescription written (which they won't give to you but they'll keep it on your file and if you enquire early enough you might even figure what's on it), and then without you requesting, you'll be invited to join their ever so pleasant assistant who'll assist you in checking out the frames. The frames that you haven't as yet indicated that you are looking for.... Oh what a surprise :rolleyes: when you get it across to them that you aren't interested at the moment in acquiring new frames, and they realise their practice of giving a 'free' eye test hasn't worked. But we did get a free eye test out of them and that was all we were committed to.

To be fair to the company pixi foto, it appears they had an image ready for you. Thereafter, it doesn't appear that they had any other commitment to you, and if their prices were off the wall for you, you just have to chalk it up and walk away. I agree with you, they should have had prices and packages when you arrived or available somewhere beforehand - this particularly as you requested it.

Just because things are tight at present (which is not unique to you or your circumstances), shouldn't give corporates the right to badger people out of money which they don't have to spend.

But, their loss. It appears from what you say, that if they had been more reasonable - perhaps allowed you select your free photo, and allowed you select or build a package, put a deposit down, hold them for a reasonable amount of time, that they'd have gotten something financial out of their efforts, but they have got nothing and bad on them for that. It is greed on their part. Again, BostonB's post refers. It is a pity that many other people wouldn't have done like you did and just walked away.

Whether opticians, or a kiosk operator selling beauty product in the mall isles (i've witnessed some good ones there I can tell you), or photographers,.... it's marketing at the end of the day and "all marketeers are...... " (see google for ending)

I am interested to ascertain what was the competition,

Cheers.

That's so unfortunate. What a scummy practice. Good on you for not getting sucked in and giving them the cash for the nicer images which they clearly hoped you would. Technically they fulfilled their end of the bargain but the way they conducted themselves was not decent at all. A prize should be just a prize and that's it but obviously not. Perhaps make a complaint to the organisers of the competition.

i had photos taken by pixi fotos of my daughter last year, like that i got "special offer" of €10 for one print but they took loads of pics on the day. My husband and mother went to collect them and ended up paying €100+ for what they came home with... the quality was sh*t, my daughters hand was out of frame for two pics... the only thing they have going for them is the props... but if you were to go to second hand shops or €2 shops you'd get just as nice probs and take the pics yourself!!! If anyone asks me about pixi fotos since this i tell them stay well clear of them! I don't even think their photographers are properly qualified!

well there are courses/college programmes etc

I mean their "Join Our Team" section on their website says it all really

If you feel you possess good communication and interpersonal skills, especially with children, together with a sense of humour and self-motivation, then we have opportunities within our retail areas that may suit you.

Should you wish to apply for employment please fax or email your CV to the Support Office.

nothing about requiring any sort of photography skills let alone an interest in photography there!

They also quote on their website
PixiFoto is dedicated to providing our customers with quality professional photography at affordable prices.
both wrong in my experience!

kassie wrote: »

well there are courses/college programmes etc

I mean their "Join Our Team" section on their website says it all really

A college education isn't as important with photography, it can help a lot but I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of professional photographers have no formal education.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, just came across it on Google with similar situation to OP. Thought it good to update so people are aware of their tactics being still the same.

Got a voucher for free photo and free photo shoot. Didn't read their fine print online (the voucher doesn't give much info).
Ended up exhausting ourselves with outfit changes etc.. at the photo shoot. I actually asked if that was enough but the photographer just kept saying, "oh, we'll just do one with this prop, ... Or this...". I guess they want as many photos as possible to bait you with.
Then we were only offered one of two of the worst photos as the free one. Hubby even took it off our photo share cos he didn't want anyone seeing the"bad" photo of our baby. We did end up getting a couple as we wanted to use it for thank you cards.
The nicer photos then were on "offer" at 365 for some half price package. We thought it was crazy price all the same. We got one of their cheaper packages just so we'd have a couple of the shoot pics that were cute of her.
I looked afterwards online and local photographers were doing better offers and packages for baby shoots.

Ah well... Lesson learned. Needless to say I binned the rest of the "free vouchers".

I passed one of their outlets recently and Pixifoto appear to have gone out of business (there were signs saying that and most the equipment and branding was gone).