Sears Portrait Studio Reviews

3.44 of 5 view all 80 reviews

Rating Summary | 65% of reviewers recommend (51 out of 80)

subscribe to feed

mistyrobert2 dayton, OH

“Sears photographers inexperienced and uncaring.”

: married, a pet owner, I believe in honesty, a bargain hunter, not rich, a busy person, Mother of 1, a first-time parent
Cons: price is now a bit high for what you get, inexperience, uncaring, Coupons are misleading at best, helpfulness is lacking, Managers are not helpful

Sears Portrait Studio —

Let me give a little background for my latest experience. My husband and I have always had our pictures taken at Sears, then we moved to Ohio. My son was born last year and we went to the Sears portrait studio in the Fairfield Commons Mall in Beavercreek, OH when he was 2 weeks old. We had family and individual pictures taken. We were extremely unsatisfied with the quality of the pictures, but we bought some anyway because they were his first pictures. The photographer didn't fix posture, didn't have any ideas for what to do, and wouldn't take diaper shots of our son. We complained about her and was told that she was fired a little while after that happened and they offered us a free 8 x 10 on our next visit. So when he was 2 months old we made another appointment and we were much happier with the outcome of the shoot and the pictures. Last weekend my husband, son, and I went back to have family pictures and birthday pictures done. We got in the room and the girl had the background set up and just told us to go sit on the floor. She didn't interact with our son, she didn't take shots when she could have. Our son just turned 1, so he did not want to sit for pictures, he wanted to be walking around. This is normal, so they should know how to handle this. I had to ask if they had certain props to try and keep him in one place long enough to take a picture, and then once he was still, she wouldn't snap the pictures. There was also another girl in the room that was trying to get his attention for the camera, but every time she would say his name, it sounded stern, like he was getting in trouble. She was also EXTREMELY loud, and my son does not respond well to loud. Then since he wouldn't stay sitting or standing for the pictures, they tried to lay him on his back. If he isn't going to sit, he's definitely not going to lay down! So we said that was enough and waited for the computer. We got to the computer and was looking at the pictures and my husband and I were both complaining about the pictures being horrible and the girl not doing a good job. The girl going through the pictures with us never once asked us about anything or seemed concerned at all. She just took our picture order and was done. I was so unhappy with the pictures that we were just going to tell them to cancel the order, but since we had already taken the pictures, I was going to go ahead and get them. We were using some coupons, and once they called us up to the register to pay, she tells us that we could only use one coupon and gave us our new total. That made us mad, so then we asked for our military discount. We were then told that we could not receive the military discount because they can only do one discount per purchase. At that point my husband told them to cancel the order and walked off. I stayed because I wanted another explanation about the military discount. Any other time we have gone to Sears for pictures, they give the military discount no matter what other discounts we have, including the last times we went to this Sears. I told her that a military discount is a courtesy discount and shouldn't matter if another coupon or discount was used and that they gave it to us the last 2 times we were there. She just told me the same thing again and told me that she would give it to us this time and gave me my new total. I told her no, that my husband already said he didn't want the pictures, plus he had my purse in the stroller. They also used the excuse for not taking longer to work with my son because they were so swamped and they were trying to stay on schedule. OK, yes it's aggravating to wait if you have an appointment, but if it means that I'm going to get better quality pictures because of it, then I am totally willing to wait. We will NEVER return to Sears for pictures ever again.

Last edited on Dec 04, 2010