Dear Baseball Mom #11,
I am sorry our services and ordering process did not meet your expectations. Our number one focus and priority always has been and always will be devoted to taking the highest quality pictures for our clients.
Our photo package prices are made publicly available, and if you compare them to other photographers in the area, you will find that we are comparable. Are we the cheapest? Absolutely not- you get what you pay for. But we also don't come out to a session with a cheap on-camera flash and shoot a 5 second snapshot of your kids.
We provide a high quality of photography that you WILL NOT FIND with other companies in the OKC metro area. We simply can't be the cheapest. In order to make our products and services as cost effective as possible, we have to have an efficient system (Zenfolio) to take and process our orders. Otherwise, you won't get your pictures as fast, and our costs (and your bottom line price) will go up.
As far as "milking you" on the shipping, we don't make a dime off that- that is our actual cost. Further, because the coupon codes can't be applied towards shipping, we told you up front on your order form that there would be a $3-7 shipping charge. We don't collect shipping from you when you place your order during the session simply because you will have to pay for it when you redeem your photos.
If you know of any other systems or methods that...
(1) fulfill orders within one business day
(2) allow customers to choose their favorite poses (not be stuck with our choices),
(3) allow customers to mix and match team photos and individual photos,
(4) allow customers to substitute print sizes and specialty products within their package order (and not be stuck with an 8x10, 5x7, and 4 wallets if they don't want it
(5) do so in a cost effective manner for us so that it doesn't drive up your costs
..then I am all ears. We are constantly striving to come up with ways to offer our customers more value at a lower cost. At the same time, one thing we will NOT do is sacrifice quality. Sure, there are other photographers with little or no education, little experience, and little investment in equipment that can do the job slightly cheaper. But the quality difference in their work shows. The bottom line is that our photographers are trained and educated, and they don't come for $8 an hour.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or comments. Again, I am sorry that you were not satisfied with our current ordering system. All of our proofing galleries are run by paid third party services (i.e., we don't control these proofing and ordering systems, we are the mercy of what services are available to us) and we are constantly evaluating which services provide us with the most options to best benefit our customers. Believe me, if we come across a better option, we will switch in a heartbeat- but for now this is the system that best accomplishes the five objectives above.
