I don’t know where to begin. When my wife and decided to go with TW we knew we were paying a lot of money for their services(over $4,000.00). We figured if we pay a little extra we should be getting the better service and product. We were dead wrong. The product was excellent and our photography was fabulous, but the service was God awful.
After our wedding we had to meet with TW numerous times and at those meetings we had a different “Consultant”, and every time we went in these “Consultants” said that they were our “Consultants”. Every consultant we had never knew what we wanted. We had to explain ourselves and everything we wanted and what we were suppose to get to each consultant. They always seemed confused. No one took notes. No one seemed to know what was going on. Here’s a small list of things they did wrong: Lost our personal check, got a picture wrong in our promotional 5×7 set and did not offer to mail it to us once it was completed (they wanted us to drive out there to get-25 miles-for a 5×7), put a wrong picture into our album that suspiciously is whited-out on our proof sheet and the number that is written over it doesn’t match my wife’s hand writing, misspelled my wife’s name after numerous attempts telling them not to spell it wrong, and finally, telling us they are going to deliver our wedding album and not; three times.
It was an overall hassle and would not recommend using them.
Every time we went there I found myself saying, “What can go wrong next?”. It also seemed the more we complained about the service the more things went wrong. I was tired of hearing apologies and truly believe that they really don’t give a damn. I’ve asked to have to speak with the owner of the company and I was spun off with, “He comes in and out. You can E-mail him.”. I guess the owner doesn’t care. In conclusion, they are too expensive and the service is the worst.
I would never recommend anyone to use TW. As far as I’m concerned we never did business with them.
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First Id like to express my sympathy for your ordeal. Second Id like to clearify a few things about wedding photography. $4000.00 is really a bargin for wedding photography specially if you are getting a good product. Now why is photography so expensive? Well why is surgery so expensive?
Let me give you this example. The photos you yourself take at home of your kids and your family may be ok but are they stellar like a professionals work? Would you do surgery on your kids at home as a hobby or to save money? Even if you beleive you can rip the tonsils out your probably not going to do it! the closest thing to home surger you may get is removeing a splinter or helping your child pull a loose baby tooth. So why would you expect results any better that from home photography?
The tools used by professionals are professional equipment desinged to function in different than home environments desinged to give professional results. The lens you have for you SLR camera at home may cost $200. The one the professional shows up with may cost over $2000.00 and in many case $5000 or $6000. The on camera built in flash you use is desinged to light a small subject in a small home where as the one the professional shows up which is desinged to light large churches and cost far more than the one you got a service mechandise or even wolf camera.
Iv heard of people calling their photographer and suggesting they get the prints made for them becuase they can get the prints from thier professional lab cheaper than they can get them the corner one hour photo. Typically wrong!! professinals pay more for professional printing. Thats why they get so much better images and such a variety of high quality professional papers.
The amount of work a photographer typically does for a wedding goes far beyond the doors of the church and reception hall. most photographers will spend at least 40 to 80 ;hours on your wedding project not including onsite time. Take out the expenses and your photographer is not really making a whole lot of money!
Now with the 40 - 80 hour time investment and considering the peek wedding season most photogrpahers shoot at least one wedding a weekend for at least 4 months of the year and has a portrait business they must maintain as well, it is easy to see why it takes so long for the photographers to get your finished products to you.
This however is no ecuse for how you were treated. Even if you were a horrible customer with both a bridzilla and a groomzilla and all the inlawzillas to go along. Why wouldn’t they want to get you taken care of even sooner and get you out of their business and lives. So I say no excuses for TW.
mark on February 20th, 2008 at 10:17 am | Link
I could not agree more with this complaint! Timothy Whaley was the worst experience of my wedding. I was married over 11 months ago and am still trying to get my album from them. Their service is HORRIBLE. Both me and my friend used them for weddings last year and have come to completely regret it. In the meantime, I have had numerous friends spend much less and get 1000 times better service. Everytime, you deal with a different person making minimum wage who is probably going to work there for less than 3 weeks - then it starts all over again with someone else. They definitely seem to think that people are going to come out to Lisle to pick up photos all the time - someone might want to tell them it is ridiculously far. Please whatever you do - don’t use them for your wedding. It isn’t worth all the free promotions they promise you because in the end it is such a hassle to even get them - if you do. Stay away from Timothy Whaley!!!!
sara on June 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm | Link
I also had the worst experience with Timothy Whaley!!!!!!! With many of the same complaints wrong pictures, never the same consultant, over a year since my wedding and I still don’t have my wedding album except that I didn’t like my pictures that much either. I didn’t mind the time frame or the money when I thought they were editing my pictures and I was going to get a good product but my brothers $300 vegas pictures turned out nicer than my “bargain” $6000 photos.
monique on June 24th, 2008 at 2:19 pm | Link
we are getting nickled and dimed as I speak! our consultant quotes 1 price and the billing department is billing us a couple of more dollars. cause she messed up. now they are relentless about their money that is less than 15 dollars.
jon on July 1st, 2008 at 8:05 am | Link
You all need to stop your complaining. I had a wonderful experience with Timothy Whaley. Not only was their photography wonderful, but the customer service was great too. Who cares that you have a different consultant every time? I think that is the silliest complaint. You’re being offered their service; wouldn’t it be more annoying if you had to reschedule an appointment because your consultant wasn’t in the office that day? I think this company goes above and beyond to make sure their clients are happy. Everyone I have spoken with at the company was very polite. As far as the time frame, I think it is very reasonable. You people realize that it not only your wedding they’re working on, right? Stop being bridezillas
lindsey on July 25th, 2008 at 10:00 pm | Link
I could not agree more with all of these complaints…when all was said and done we spent close to $10,000 on our photography with Timothy Whaley and Associates. Their work is “sloppy” and the customer service is absolutely horrible! I have driven there over 5 times now to try and correct problems with our photos and our album still is not complete. We too have ended up with a different “consultant” each time…none of whom seemed to have any knowledge of photography. The problem with working with different consultants is that when you’re dealing with correcting problems (which believe me, there will be plenty of….everything from red eyes in photos to the wrong photos being printed….) you’ll explain everything to one person…then when you come back and things are supposed to be fixed, but they aren’t, the person you are meeting with has no clue what you are talking about….and so you have to explain the problem again….they say they’ll fix it….then you come back a couple of months later to approve the “fixed” pictures, and they still have problems. I seriously wonder whether we will ever get our album!!! And these problems are on top of problems with the photographers themselves. Our main photographer was nowhere to be seen following our ceremony, there were no full body shots taken of the bride walking down the aisle, and many of the shots we specifically asked to have taken were never shot. It was just an overall horrible experience….I would highly recommend considering other photographers.
Dara on September 4th, 2008 at 10:51 pm | Link