Portrait Innovations

Huntersville location - I know that despite reading so many negative reviews, you want to take a chance with Portrait Innovations because of the low pricing and the instant gratification of getting your photos back the same day. Well, I am going to advise as to what I should have done. Choose another portrait studio. Portrait Innovations will try to sell you pictures as if they are selling you a lemon for a used car. You have no choice but to sit through the entire sales presentation. We were taking pictures for my daughter's Sweet 16 and ended up buying almost $300 in pictures. There were several of us purchasing the poses so the cost was split. We asked about the cd of photos that we were given. Supposedly because we ordered sooo many pictures we were gifted with 2 discs. We asked about the printing integrity of the pictures on the disc. We were told that we could print pictures up to 5x7 on our own but anything larger would need to be done at Portait Innovations to get the best resolution. Of course, you can predict that that information was misleading to say the least! I tried to print at Walmart and was told that they get many people coming from Portrait Innovations trying to print. They said the pictures were copyright blocked. When I called and spoke to the manager, she said that our sales rep/photographer insists that she told us that. Um, no, she didn't. The manager said that the sales rep told us that we could only print at home. I told her that I was not told that because I don't have a printer at home and would have surely noted that. The sales rep was just telling us anything so that she could make the sales numbers off of our order. In addition, I wrote to customer service and they sent a so called apology and reiterated the copyright policy. The email from customer service actually said that you can only VIEW the pictures at home. Now why would the sales rep say SUPPOSEDLY say that you could print at home, which according to customer service is also against their policy. The viewing process at the studio was very rushed as she tried to cram her sales pitch in to each of the 160 shots that we were reviewing. You'll spend the same amount of money at a more honest business with more transparent policies. Good luck to those of you who plan on going to PI just to take advantage of the $9.95 special. You'll still have to endure the pressure of the sales pitch. The photos were nice but we brought our own props. There was an entire series of pictures that she took that showed up horribly with the backdrop. Nothing stellar about the quality and could have taken these at Sears with the same quality. more

The company does not care about you or it's employees at all. It's all about the money. They want to get the most people in and out as possible, as fast as they can - thinking that will make them more money. Over Christmas we worked our butts off going 12 hours days with only a 15 minute break . Its not really the manager's fault though, the regional manager was forcing him to double book appointments. By lunchtime my eyes would be bloodshot and I would get migranes every weekend. One girl went to the doctor and had several stomach problems from the stress. It might not have been so stressful if we didn't have to keep unattainably high sales averages. Because of the $9.95 special, we all got letters for Christmas stating if we could not get our averages up withn a month, they were ""letting us go."" And they did. Look at the economy... people do not have money to spend on a ton of pictures right now. And to be honest... the $9.95 gives most people enough as it is. Speaking of honesty, they want us to rush the customers through the selling process so you don't know whats going on and trick you into spending more money than you want. Several managers from other stores tried to ""train"" me to do this, but I didn't think it was right. There was one that would even add extra sheets into the customers cart if they weren't paying attention. All that said, the photos are good, and if the photos aren't the greatest... you might have had someone that is new - they go through employees like crazy! They fired one guy because he updated his resume online and they took it as he was seeking other employment, or someone was getting married and told to keep quiet about moving after the wedding because they would immediatly get rid of her too. There is so much more I could say, but with this information you all can make your own decisions as to wether or not you want to do business with a company like that. Feel free to pass this on, I am from studio #76 in Indiana. more

I have never seen anyone get better smiles from my children! The pictures were hard to pick out because they captured so many great expressions! I walked out spending a little more then expected, but I will never go anyplace else again. I got a ""full photo shoot"" for a great price and a CD that has it all captured forever. Wonderful job! more