What would you do if this happened to you?

So recently I went to a sears portrait studio. I had a bad experience and eventually ended up having to send an e-mail to the company.

"To Whom it may concern,

Recently I visisted one of your Sears portrait studios in Douglasville Georgia at Arbor Place Mall (studio number 41095). I usually have a great experience while in a CPI studio. I love the PictureMe studios and have worked for your company for almost a year when I had to leave because of medical issues due to pregnancy. I fully intended on returning to your company as an employee once my daughter is born. I am not so sure that I will be returning after this recent visit.

On Saturday, November 26th 2011 I visited the portrait studio in Sears at Arbor place mall. I walked in with my son, My son's godmother, and her son. An employee asked me if she could help me and I replied "I would like to have pictures taken." She informed me that they closed at 8p.m. and that they had booked appointments for the rest of the evening. I asked her if she could work me in as a walk in. She told me that I could make an appointment to come back later. I informed her that I lived over two hours away and would not be able to travel past this particular weekend and that there was no way that I could come back. She again informed me that they were booked solid and that there was absolutely no way they were going to take my pictures that night.

Upon hearing this I was very upset. I did not go into the portrait studio looking for an argument. I simply went in there to get pictures of my son with his godbrother. I asked the associate to wait a minute while I made a phone call. As a former CPI employee I was taught that if a customer was to come into the studio that they were not to be turned away no matter what time it was. We were taught that we could lose our jobs by turning customers away. Also there have been many nights that I myself as a photographer at PictureMe had to stay later than closing time to take customers portraits. There were many nights that I did not get home til 10 or 11P.M. because of staying after to make sure that customers had been taken care of. If this is no longer the policy with CPI then please let me know.

I walked up to the counter once again. The same associate asked me if I wanted to "schedule that appointment now?". I respectfully told her no and proceeded to ask to speak with a manager. Instead of the manager coming out and speaking with me she sent another associate out to ask "can I help you?". I asked this associate if she was the manager. She told me no. I told her that I wanted to speak with the manager about the other employee and wanted to know why I was refused in getting my portraits taken. This associate informed me that I could get my pictures taken but I would have to wait. I told her that "I did not have a problem with waiting". She asked me to fill out a form and that they would get to me when they had taken their appointments. I filled the paper out in my friends name because she is the one that will be picking up the portraits. However I did put my e-mail address down on the page because my friend did not want hers to be given out. I then sat down and watched my son play in the waiting area of the studio.

The manager came up to the counter and I asked her what her specials were for the day. Seeing that none of the employees in the studio had on name badges I did not know that she was the manager. She told me what her specials were and I asked her if the packages had changed. She informed me that they had. I continued to speak with her on the package and sheet prices until it was time for us to be taken to the camera room for our session.

It was only when the lady began to take our pictures that I asked "are you the manager here?" She politely told me yes. I am not upset with the manager in the way she dealt with me as a customer after they had initially refused to take the pictures. She was forceful in the aspect of taking the portraits of my son and was rude to me and my family while in the camera room. I was however more upset at the fact that I had asked to speak with a manager and the manager sent another associate out to talk with me instead of coming out there herself when I could see her in a back room standing there talking with the associate that had come out to ask if she could help me. My experience in the studio started going better towards the end of checkout and I was actually satisfied with a few of the portraits that were taken. As my friend and I sat there looking at the pictures I observed as the manager of the studio had gathered her belongings, clocked out, and left for the night.

We finished up picking out the portraits that we wanted and proceeded to the SAS register to pay. I finished paying for the portraits and asked the associate if I could get the district managers phone number because I would like to give her a call. The associate told me that she was not allowed to give me the district managers number. I then asked her if I could get a number to reach her manager. She gave me the studio phone number. I called the studio today (Tuesday November 29th 2011) and asked to speak with the manager. Ashley, the manager, was the employee who answered the phone. I politely asked her for the district managers phone number. She gave me the phone number and I thanked her and hung up the phone.

I called the district manager (Sarah Stuart) and left a message on her vonage line. She called me back from a restricted phone number. Before I could fully explain my side of the story to her she began to accuse me of being extremely unsettling to her employees. She informed me that I was rude and that I was screaming and that I was causing so much commotion in her studio that her associates had to call Loss prevention to calm me down. Not once did I speak with anyone from loss prevention. Not once did I ever raise my voice, get in anyone's face, or threaten anyone. She claims that me threatening her employees came from me "threatening" to send Mr. Jim Mattox (the C.O.O.) of the company an e-mail with the behavior of her employees listed in detail. If this is threatening then yes, I did tell them that I would be sending an e-mail to corporate and would be calling them to let them know that this is how the customers at the studio were being treated. The district manager was very rude with me and accused me of demanding to take my own portraits within the studio. Which I never asked to take my own portraits. In fact when my son's Godmother took her camera phone out I informed her that she was not allowed to have her own camera out in the studio. I am 8 months pregnant. I came to them to take my portraits so that I would not have to.

As far as me being in an uproar, that is completely untrue. Like previously stated, I am 8 months pregnant. Part of the reason I resigned from CPI is due to pregnancy. I am high risk and have a high chance of miscarriage. I would not have upset myself in showing my behind and risked going into preterm labor. I am appalled that the associates at this studio would even consider my behavior as threatening. I am even more appalled at the fact that instead of the associates admitting that they were so obviously wrong in this situation that they chose to lie. I was truly shocked when the district manager asked me "what are you wanting me to do about it?" I told her that "I think an apology for the behavior of your employees would be nice." She apologized very sarcastically to me. "Sorry you feel you were mistreated." I finally just told her that I could see that our conversation was not going to get us anywhere and I asked for her regional managers name and phone number. She told me that I could not have her regional managers name and phone number but instead she gave me a number to customer service that didn't even work. I finally went online to CPI and found this e-mail.

I am extremely upset at the fact that blatant lies were told on me and that I was shown such disrepect from a company that I so much love. I feel like this company has betrayed my trust. There are countless amounts of money that I Have spent with this company getting pictures taken of my family and friends. Never once have I ever been shown such disrespect from any of the PictureMe studios that I have worked in and never once would I ever dream of treating my customers the way that I was treated this past weekend. These employees should be ashamed of themselves. Had their behavior not been what it was there is no telling how much money I would have spent on a package but instead I will take my business elsewhere because they obviously do not know how to treat the people who are paying their paychecks.

So as a former employee of your company I am not asking for anything for free. I am not even asking for my money back on these pictures. I am asking that you look into the customer care that your employees are giving out because truthfully I will never again visit another sears studio and I will inform my family and friends to never again visit a sears studio.


SINCERELY
(me)
Former employee of PictureMe
Portrait Studio "

What would you have done if this had happened to you? Would you have written this e-mail as well?

NiobiumTragedy in reply to your post. . . Yes I worked with this company for almost a year. Their policy is that they are not to turn ANY customer away for ANY reason. Also their policy is that you do not need to call in for an appointment because "walk-ins are always welcome".
They were not as booked solid as this one associate was making it out to be. They had 2 appointments ahead of me, 2 camera rooms open, and 3 associates working. I walked into their studio at 6:30p.m. By the time they had my son's portraits taken and we were out the door it was barely 8pm. and like I stated. . . It's in their job description that they would be required to work over the actual closing time of the studio. IT'S THE CHRISTMAS SEASON! IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE HECTIC. yes I understand that. But I worked with this same company last Christmas and never once did I treat my customers this way even on the nights that I was supposed to get off at 8pm and ended up working til 1 in the morning. These people are working with Kids and their parents all day long. The job requires patience. . . My problem is that if they can't have patience with the customer and the person that is spending money on their product then why are they working in that studio anyways?
Also the fact that my son told her that he was finished taking pictures and she picked him up and forcefully, sat him down on a background, and told him that he needed to sit down and made him cry had me FIRED up! HE IS 2 YEARS OLD! when he says he is DONE that means he is DONE! She is lucky I didn't sue her. . . And I am still not sure I am not going to take this to the local news station. Who knows how many other customers out there that there are she has treated this way. . .

NOT to mention that if I was causing as much of a scene as she says I was and loss prevention had to be called on me. . . Then why after my portraits were taken did the manager of the studio gather her belongings and leave me and my friend in the studio with her two associates? Wouldn't you think that it was the manager of the Studio's job to stay and make sure that nothing happened?

It's a bit ridiculous.

And on top of that the funny thing is that I was actually on the phone with another manager from the company the entire visit. THE PHONE CALL I MADE AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE ENCOUNTER. . . was to another manager from the same company who happens to be a friend of mine. I asked her what I should do and left her on speaker phone the entire time I was in the studio. She heard the whole thing. . . and how rude those associates were to me and my family. SO YES I WAS APPALLED but then again SO WAS SHE.

NOBODY deserves to be treated the way I was. . . and I am frankly upset that as a CHRISTIAN "NiobiumTragedy" that you would even say "I completely understand the DM's response and I'm glad to see that some managers out there have a spine to stand up to this kind of treatment to their employees."

You think that it's okay for the District Manager to deliberately LIE on a customer just because she doesn't want to get in trouble with her company? THATS ABSURD!

LOSS PREVENTION was NEVER called! I even called sears to check. Thing with it is my sister works in loss prevention. Funnier thing is that I know that if loss prevention is called that they are required to get a name and as I stated in my e-mail I NEVER TALKED TO LOSS PREVENTION AT ALL! so it was no big surprise to me to find out when I called them to get a copy of the report that was supposedly made on me because they were called that of course LOSS PREVENTION WAS NEVER CALLED! They LIED!

so if you call blatant disrespect for their customers. . . Courageous on the district managers part then It is my opinion that you should evaluate your standards and morals because this is not right. NO CUSTOMER SHOULD EVER HAVE TO PUT UP WITH EMPLOYEES NOT WANTING TO DO THEIR JOBS! IT'S THEIR JOBBBBBBBBB!

I know they weren't busier than that because she had the appointment list pulled up on the computer. Working for this company I know what those computer screens mean. I know for a fact that there were only two people ahead of me. Had I not known this. . . I wouldn't have made such a big fuss. . . And my reasons for not calling ahead were because they wouldn't answer their phones. I DID TRY CALLING! but as a former employee I knew that since they didn't answer their phones and since they only had 2 appointments ahead of me that it was not practical for them to turn me away.

My sense of "entitlement" came from the fact that they have policies that they are required to follow just like with any other job. They knew these policies as well as I do and they refused to follow them. This made me mad seeing that it's their JOB! If they didn't want to adhere to the rules and policies laid out by the company then why did they apply for the JOB?!

It's not that I react badly to different opinions than my own. . . Put yourself in my shoes. You have a 2 year old son. . . you are 8 months pregnant. . . you drug a 6 year old and a 2 year old out to a portrait studio to get pictures taken and you know the policies of the studio because you worked with this same company. . . Then all of a sudden when you ask to get portraits taken. . . that associate very rudely (with an attitude) tells you that you can't get your pictures taken because lets put it frankly "she doesn't want to do her job". . . what would you think?

Funny thing is that I didn't even say anything to her in the studio about it. I simply asked for the manager. I never once raised my voice. I never once got in anyone's faces or threatened anyone. I am more upset over the false allegations and defamation of character that were made against me and my friend and the fact that the manager got irritated with me and instead of saying something to me she decided to take her anger out on my 2 year old son. This is my main worry. This is what I am not wanting to happen to another customer. Yes their customers are entitled to being treated with respect and no one should have to go through this. . . Not even you if you were to go into the studio.

it's not that I am trying to be rude or insensitive. It's that they flat out lied. (BTW I knew the policies hadn't changed. That's the first question I asked my friend when I called her.)

And like I said had they really been as busy as she made out to be then I would have had no problem saying that's ok. . . I will just have to not get this done. . . But instead I caught her in a lie and when I asked for a manager she knew that she had been caught. That's the one thing that I can't stand is being lied to or lied on. Nothing burns me up more.

wasn't trying to point out anyone's faith as a measure of attack against them. . . was just pointing out that we shouldn't bear false witness against others. . . Which is what she was agreeing with.

I guess when it comes to Nio my main point was not that I was trying to jump on him/her for their opinion but rather I didn't understand how as a Christian that anyone could agree with another person falsely accusing another person just to make it seem like they weren't wrong. There was no disrespect intended and I have no problem saying "sorry" and apologizing if I did disrespect you NIO.

"Yeah it affects my judgement. I tend to be more realistic and understand when things don't go my way."

I feel sorry for anyone who thinks that it's rude to stand up for yourself when you are clearly being treated unfairly.

also. . . if you would have read my previous statements then you would have seen that I posted earlier "I guess when it comes to Nio my main point was not that I was trying to jump on him/her for their opinion but rather I didn't understand how as a Christian that anyone could agree with another person falsely accusing another person just to make it seem like they weren't wrong. There was no disrespect intended and I have no problem saying "sorry" and apologizing if I did disrespect you NIO."

And obviously you must not be a parent. Because I am a real mother bear when it comes to my son. Not saying that he gets his way in everything but I absolutely will not tolerate anyone treating him with disrespect in my presence. ESPECIALLY if he didn't deserve it. So as for you mocking me and making fun of me about saying "She is lucky I didn't sue her" completely shows me your character when it comes to any child. I just feel sorry for the kids in your life.

"It's called not being a douchenozzle to workers just because we expect them to be robots and unfeeling."

I am not even going to complain at the fact that you just called me names. . . rather I am going to say that I didn't expect them to be robots and unfeeling. I merely expected them to do their jobs and adhere to the job description in which they agreed to upon taking the job.

Ya know. .. a mere apology for their behavior from the DM would have made it so much more tolerable. Instead It was her reaction to me that ended with me sending in the e-mail to the corporate office. It's funny. . . Maybe in some areas I overreacted but as far as demanding good not poor customer service. . . I don't think I did. But I definitely did not overreact to the allegations from the DM. She was and is wrong in the false allegations she made against me and that is something that I really wanted this company to address.