David Rowen Photo Arts, Sacramento, CA

David Rowen Photo Arts-Photography

From: Crystal Hopson [ Email User Consumer ]

Wedding Photographer.

I posted the ending to my December complaint yesterday and I just wanted to add to it that ..

David Rowen is a nice guy and is friendly. I personally never had any problems with any kind of attitude or meanness. I was just upset over his lack of contact and clear communication. The end product is beautiful. I am happy with the photographs and the photo albums 100%. Everything looks perfect. I just wanted to let people know what I was happy with -vs- what I wasn't. thanks

Complaints.com received the following consumer follow-up message on March 10, 2004:

From: Crystal Hopson Email User Consumer

RE: David Rowen Photo Arts / Wedding Photographer

Wedding Photographer: David Rowen Photo Arts I previously posted a complaint on this site on December 10th (consumer message #23) about David Rowen Photo Arts. The complaint ended with: The issue with the photo albums has not come up yet.

Our wedding was in September and it is now March. We just received the rest of our package. The 2 parent albums and our flush mount wedding album.

My main complaints about David's customer service were: lack of promptness with phone calls, unorganization, and the lack of clear and confident communication. When I posted my previous complaint I expressed my disappointment in David Rowen's ability to return calls or his promptness. Well he continued to not call us back until January. We even had a hard time getting a hold of him between the months of May-July before the wedding. We needed to have our engagement session done and even that was hard to arrange for some reason. We would call him and email him and we wouldn't receive a phone call for weeks. Not just a week, but like three weeks or more. I felt that it was very unprofessional of him to not return our phone calls right away. He didn't even apologize for it. He also lost our new phone number and called my in-laws to get the new number (more than once). He explained that he had personal issues in in the end December, but he still should have been accountable for his lack of contact with us. He said that one of the reasons he couldn't call us in December was

because he was sick with the flu and then ended up in the hospital for two weeks. When I posted my previous complaint in the beginning of December and was unaware of this. But again, the phone call issue was

going on before December. Another complaint I made was that David Rowen promised us a certain style proof book with 4X6 pictures. I went to the Fall wedding fair to track David down because we wanted our engagement picture for the

wedding. He had a new style wedding album on display and I was interested in it. I asked his partner (wife) and him if the album was the new style and if I was going to get it. His wife explained that the new flush mount wedding album was what they were changing their wedding packages to and that I could get it instead of the older style for the same price. I was excited to hear this and couldn't wait to see it after it was done. Well....David and his wife failed to tell me that the new flush mount album comes with the smaller flush mount proof book like the one I

received. So when I received the flush mount proof book I was confused because I was expecting a proof book full of 4X6 images. I didn't find out that the flush mount wedding album and proof book were a package

deal together until after I received the wedding albums this week. That was my last complaint. David Rowen didn't always explain things to us as a whole. He was unclear on some things and forgot things he told us. For example: He told me (this week) when I received my flush mount wedding album, that the album normally costs $700 more that the older style and that he gave it to us at no charge. I didn't hear that when I was told I could get the newer style album. Well. hmmm, Let's think

about this for a minute. 1- A photographer and a client sign a contract. 2- In the middle of the contract the photographer changes the style of the wedding packages. 3- Does the photographer continue to

offer the older style packages even though he switched out to a new one? 4- The photographer changes the package because it's nicer and offers the client more options, but for more money.I believe that David gave me the higher priced album because that was what he was offering when I got married and because he no longer was doing the older style wedding albums. If David was still offering the older style albums to clients with older contracts, and he gave me the newer style at no charge I didn't know it at the time. I thought that he was changing to the new style and that I just lucked out and got it. If that's the case, then I am very thankful for the very nice flush mount album. I never complained about the price and quality of my pictures because I believe that they were comparable to each other. I couldn't afford $4000.00 on my photographer, but I wanted good quality. David offered the quality that matched his price range and I am thankful that my pictures turned out nice. The photo albums and pictures turned out very nice in the end. If I had to rate him on quality and price. On a scale from 1—10, 10 being the very best quality, David Rowen would get an 8 out of 10 (when compared to his prices).

My rating for David on customer service a PR skills would be a 5 out of 10. My complaint changed slightly after I found out some information from David. I believe that we are all entitled to express or opinions and complaints by any means. I also believe that word of mouth travels faster than website complaints. It's too bad I had a bad experience with David. I'm sure that there are plenty of other people that didn't have any problems and were very happy all together. It's also too bad that there aren't many websites

out there that express Good Complements about people and companies.

thanks-cdh

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on December 9, 2003:

From: Crystal Hopson Email User Consumer RE: David Rowen Photo Arts, Sacramento, CA - poor wedding photo experience - didn't receive 4x6 photo proof books as promised

Here's our story:

We meet David Rowen at a wedding fair in the Sunrise Mall, Citrus Heights (Sacramento County), California. He seemed nice and professional. My husband and I picked his most expensive package, ($2000.00) and were expecting a the best service.

He told my husband and I that we would receive a proof book that resembles a photo album, full of about 300, 4X6 proofs for us to keep. The package included three other photo albums. One for us, and one for our parents. Also the negatives to keep. Well first off, he was unprofessional at the wedding. He argued with me and my family when we asked him to take pictures of certain groups of people.

I gave him a list to follow and he did not follow it. I am a photographer myself, so I knew the guidelines that he should have followed.

I even put a timeline on the list so that he knew when to take the photographs.

We had to take most of the photographs before the wedding because the sun went down right after the wedding. He took too long, even with a helper, and we ended up taking most of the group photographs after the sun set and they don't look good. After all that, we were excited to see the proof book.

We received a book, after about 30 phone calls from us to him, which was not like the one he showed to us. It was an 8.5X11 book with a cheap plastic binding. Each page had 12 small 2X3 or even 1X2 images on it, not 4X6 at all. The pages were digitally made, with a flush mount not individual 4X6 pictures.

My In-laws and parents can't even see the pictures to pick from because they are too small. 40 phone calls later and 3 weeks later, (I complained to him about the size) he calls me back.

I expressed that I was expecting 4X6, viewable prints and didn't get them. He sent me a new proof book, again flush mount, with about 6-3X4, pictures per page. Not individual 4X6 prints like he promised. We have given up on receiving the proof book we were promised. The issue with the photo albums has not come up yet. We are still trying to pick out photos for the books. If he doesn't give us what's expected with the photo albums and the negatives we are going to take him to small claims court.

It's just too much. Thanks...

sincerely,

CDH

Very frustrated from Sacramento,Ca