Darr Photography Seminar

I need some advice as I am ready to boil over. I signed up for a seminar called "Shooting Higher, Marketing to

the high end bride" I signed up for this over a month ago in for the seminar that is being help in LA on Oct 13

which is in three days and have not received any information on the seminar. Not where it is, no any times,

Nothing. I wrote to actual site and the email bounced back, so I went to their personal wedding sight and sent

an email at the beginning of this week, I got an email back saying they would send out emails in the middle of

the week with all the information, well here it is Friday and still no email. I have left 4 messages at their

actual answering service and still have not received a call back. I now just want to get my money back.

 

Have any of you attended this seminar? Had trouble with getting information? Have I been scammed?? I don't know

what to do at this point. Any advice would be appreciated.

Sorry but it sounds like you got taken.

 

Be careful there are a lot of scammers out there.

If you paid by credit card, Call the credit card company immediately. You might be able to get your money back. I would make several calls: the better business bureau (google Landon Darr), also the Attorney General's office. They do not seem to be legitimate. If you check the "contact us" you will discover they have no physical address. In the future, get advice from established professional organizations: WPPI and PPA.

Hi Jacqui,

 

Did you ever receive an answer from the Darr's? There is supposed to be a seminar on the 15th (tomorrow) here in

San Fran I have the same problem as you. I cannot get ahold of them and they have yet to release info on where to

go!! The website they were using for the seminar at the time when I signed up back in july 2008 was

www.reachingthehighendbride.com and it is now parked free at godaddy. Even though my payment confirmation

email came from info@reachingthehighendbridge.com the domain does not receive email. I guess their new site for

this "tour" is http://www.shootinghigher.com . Based on what I have seen on line they seem to be scammers which

sucks because they are listed in the WPPI and I bought my tickets in good faith.

(http://www.wppionline.com/newsletter/sep08/member-news.tml) I'd love to hear more about your experience if there

is any more to tell.

 

[ADMIN EDIT: Phone numbers removed]

 

I also found a listing on model mayhem

http://www.modelmayhem.com/darrphotography

 

 

Other stuff:

 

http://web.me.com/landondarr/Site/REGISTER.html

So they actually did give me the location Three days before, and gave me some song and dance about their whole office was shooting a wedding in Fuji. (Seems a bit strange that the office manger would go along, but what ever.) the funny thing is that after leaving 5 messages at the acutal business of Kristi and Landon, no one ever called me back. I wrote to a nameless, faceless person telling them I no longer wish to attend the seminar and that I wanted my money back. They have sent me two emails now saying they would refund my money, but that will remain to be seen.

 

My true thoughts is that this is a legit seminar and seems like a very informative one, but they have really bad tour planners to the point of spoiling the excitement of going. I was very upset that even though the confirmation said they would tell me a week out they did not actually release that information till three days before. I do not believe that they book the hotel that close to the date so I am not sure why the delay.

 

Anyway with that said, I am sad I missed the seminar but I felt too jaded to attend. I hope others will not have the same problem.

<b>Admin note: This post may not be from a real person. See post further down.</b>

<p>I attended the seminar in LA and the seminar was by far the best I have attended. The Darr's were very nice so I cannot imagine that you

had so much trouble. I hope you get the problem sorted out but I can say I attended and the seminar is not a scam. You missed a great

seminar :(

I have since talked directly to Landon Darr and he was very nice and apologetic. He explained to me that the company that was handling the tour completely dropped the ball, and how truly sorry he was for the inconvenience. He also told me that he fired the tour company and was making sure that nothing like this would happen again. I do feel he was very sincere and I do plan on trying to attend another seminar in the future.

 

Hope this helps with anyone who is planning on attending this seminar.

These guys are scammers for sure - Info update for anyone who doesn't want to be duped.

 

My seminar tickets were bought by my wife, who uses a different email address than me entirely. They ignored

continued emails from her email address; the one that registered and paid for for the seminar on Oct 15th, in San

Francisco. Even though they had ignored her repeated emails (and phone calls) requesting the info necessary to

attend, prior to and even on the day of the seminar... - they had no problem emailing me. Obviously they got my

email address from this forum. Here is what they had to say:

 

 

"Kevin,

 

The group is currently in the San Fran seminar today. I am sorry I have gotten this a little late. We had a problem

with another person from LA as well.

 

I checked the register and the reason you did not receive the location is you are not signed up.

 

If you did in fact sign up - your information did not register. Can you please forward the receipt if you have one.

 

If this is the case, I will be happy to refund your money - or if you do not get this too late you can shoot over to the

seminar.

 

Let me know"

 

I promptly notified them that my wife had purchased the tickets and I would indeed like a refund as well as

information regarding the location of the seminar so I can verify with whomever hosted it that it did indeed happen and

is not a scam. They sent an email to both my wife's email address and my own stating that they would give a full

refund. No refund has been received. To this day they refuse to answer as to the location of the seminar.

 

I make this post to warn people. It's as simple as this: if these people were legitimate they would be able to verify

seminar locations, past and present. We would be able to call their venues and verify that seminars are really

happening. Obviously they are not. www.shootinghigher.com lists no locations for their seminars, past or present.

Don't be taken by this scam! Anyone legitimate will have reserved their venue far in advance and should have no

problem giving you information on the past, present and current locations. I'll also point out that the day the seminar

was supposed to happen and they contacted me offering a refund, is the same say "Marco Medrid" signed up for

photo.net forums to make the claim that he/she attended the LA seminar (Hey Marco, where was the venue? I'd like

to call and verify it's reserve and use on the date in question!) . Most likely a random name created by the Darr

scammers to run online damage control for their reputation.

 

Sincerely trying to prevent further scam victims,

 

Kevin

 

www.spiltmilkimaging.com

<b>Admin note: This post may not be from a real person. See post further down.</b>

<p>

Kevin - You are crazy. You have nothing better to do than to slam something you have no idea about? I did attend the LA seminar. The

Shooting Higher Seminar was held at Sheraton Universal in Universal City CA. SO THERE BUDDY!!!

i registered for their 2008.10.29 seminar in Chicago way back in July when i received their flyer. since then, i tried requesting the location information several times (via their seminar website, their commercial website, their 800#, even landon darr's purported cell phone number) all without avail for the month or so. until yesterday... i tried calling their studio's 800# again (which is actually an answering service that forwards their calls) and finally got transferred to "Mark" who gave me the location info. he said that i should've gotten the info and did not know why i never received it. he also didn't comment when i queried about why i never received responses to my numerous email and phone requests for information.

 

at any rate, i've got the venue info now. i even called the hotel where they're having it to confirm that they actually have something slated to go on. the event is tomorrow and i'll update this post after i get back from it to let you all know how it went.

i got back from the seminar a couple of hours ago and my thoughts:

<br>

1) yes, they're real. the seminar's real too, real good!

<br>

2) the Darr's are a super nice couple; straight shooters, very genuine, and truly gifted business couple.

<br>

3) their seminar made a lot of sense.

<br>

4) trevor reisz is a helluva sales guy and has some f'ing killer boots.

<br>

5) they're a super busy couple that had an unfortunate experience with the company that was managing the tour

mismanagement. lesson learned; they're doing damage control. crap does happen; sucks when it does but they're

trying hard to remedy the situation.

<p>

need more proof? i did take a couple of pictures during the day and they're up on my <a

href="http://danielgin.blogspot.com/2008/10/darrs.html">blog<a>.

Landon & Krisit Darr photographed my wedding back in June of 2007. Needless to say, it is now a year and a half later & still no photos. We have called continously the cell phone & 800 numbers as well as sent uncountable emails with no response. the mail address we have is [EDITED] Ave Winston Salem NC 27104. Although we were told by Landon they are in the process of moving to LA. We are now contacting the Attorney General since they will not even answer our attorneys phone calls. Breach of Contract has been filed too. They are scammers and we need to let others know

<p>

<b>[Admin Edit] - Address edited. We don't need that sort of thing on the site. You can tell people to contact you for their address if it is needed for legal proceedings.</b>

FWIW,

 

"Marco Medrid" has been banned from the site and his comments should be noted as very suspect. It seems that "Marco" (who claims to have attended the LA workshop) is posting on photo,net from an IP address that is located in Winston Salem, NC. Which coincidentally happens to be where the Darr's are located as well. Now, I suppose it is possible that this person lives in Winston-Salem and just decided to fly to LA on a lark. But at the very least there is more to this story that isn't being told and it's very likely that "Marco" is not a real person at all but rather one of the Darrs or someone working for them.

 

I find this sort of thing very annoying and childish.

Is anyone registered in the Seattle Seminar on November 17? If so do you have the information on where it is taking

place? I am flying in from Canada.

Thanks!

Darr photography collected money from me to build my photography web site in Sept 2008. The site was going to be based on a Bludomain template that they were going to customize to some degree. It has been 2 months since I paid them. I have not spoken to Kristi Darr or Landon Darr since they collected the money. They haved emailed me to tell me they would call. They have not returned any of my calls.

 

Darr photography was doing webinars through Marathon publishing. I found out that Marathon has since terminated their association for undisclosed reasons. Beware of this couple. Every professional photographer I have spoken to on the East and West coast speaks words of caution about them.

We could have resolved this with a simple phone call.

They have a workshop in LasVegas on Nov 19. I think I'll be there

I am supposed to go to the Seattle seminar also, I am to drive 300 miles one way to get to this seminar. It seems like it would be great seminar, but its rolling dice. I am just going on hope, what the h, this is very frustrating I am sorry to Michelle who has bought an airline ticket I have left numerous emails at both the shooting higher email, and to kristi's mac email, I have phone messages left with the answering service and with Landon's cell 336-862-6010 . What a joke, this just doesn't seem legate, not sure if I should travel all that way, for a wild goose chase.

Thanks Julie Boehm

Let us know how the Seattle seminar went...or if it existed.

Did anyone who signed up for this "seminar" actually look at their website and work? This was a hastily put

together template site with really sub-par images and numerous spelling and grammatical errors. I mean, compare

the work they presented to other photographers who do high-end/celebrity weddings (Denis Reggie, Joe Buissink,

Parker J, and on and on). . .this was obviously a scam. Anyone can put together a website and claim that they

start at 10K and photograph weddings all over the world but if the work is not there to back up the claim then

something smells. Research carefully before you spend your hard earned money!

b + g,

asheville, nc

I started this Thread, and I actually tried to take back what I said about the Darrs as I talked to him on the phone and he was extremely nice, promising me a free seminar, my money back and great appologies. They asked me to remove this post as they were getting bad publicity and that they wanted to clear their name.Well I am glad that they did not take down this thread as I still have not received my money back, which was promised over a month ago. I keep getting the run around now, after Landon himself told me he was putting the check in the mail out of him own money. That has not happened. Whether he is not refunding me my money due to this thread or just because there are completely incompetent, this has become ridiculous to me. I would warn anyone against taking this seminar. I am back to believing this is a scam.

I signed up for the San Francisco Seminar. I called 5 times and emailed trying to get the location an no one would get back to me by the time of the seminar. I have since tried to call and email to get my money back. I have received one email about 3 weeks ago saying they would refund my money, but they didn't and I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone since. Maybe not a scam, but really bad customer service. More than wanting my money back, I really wanted to attend the seminar.

I was signed up for the SF seminar... Three days before the seminar I tried to contact them through the seminar site

for the address of the semiar and it errored out. THen I found their photography website (they also have a MySpace

page) I sent an email through that site and it worked... This is the reply i got :

~~~~

Hi Rhonda,

 

I am sorry you are having trouble. If you feel we are "Unprofessional" I would be more than happy to just give you a

refund.

We are managing this tour - Landon is Paid by a sponsor to do this. I would rather just issue a refund to you. Will

this be ok.

 

Mark Westmoreland

CC: 2332

CC: 2400

CC: 2390

~~~~~

 

I don't know who Mark Westmoreland is but we went back and forth - he is somewhat of a punk. He offered a refund

twice. I accepted. No refund to date. He also mentioned that they have 259 registered for the SF seminar. I feel

sorry for them! I have contacted my credit card and they are working on it. Thanks for everyones postings on this

site.

Wow, I found this forum by actually Googling 'Darr Photography scam' while sitting here filing a dispute with my credit card company at

this very moment. I wondered if I was the only one who's had a problem with their unprofessionalness. If it's not a scam, it's the worst

run business on the speaking circuit. Not only did they charge my credit card for $175 twice instead of once (I only registered for one

person), they cancelled their Detroit date in September about a week before promising refunds that never came. Their phone calls are

handled by an answering service, and their contact page on the shooting higher site does not work. Same game as everyone else,

numerous phone calls and emails with no response. Only when I mentioned credit card dispute on the main photography contact link did

someone email me back, only to be told this is the first time they've received contact from me, and they have no record of my

payments. Come on now, are you kidding? They wanted to see my credit card statement, and told me they'd send me a check back in

the mail as soon as I sent it. I've provided proof, gone around and around with them for 3 weeks now, and they're back to not responding

and big surprise, no check in the mail for me. Even if they did have poor tour management, they have not handled this situation as

honest professionals would have, by calling all affected parties and refunding all monies, or assigning someone in the office to do this.

Where is everybody's money since we've all paid and hardly anybody here has received what they paid for? Don't be fooled, even if a

few people did see them and they were great, its not worth the hassle. They might be a very nice couple but they deserve the bad

publicity for the way they have chosen to handle this with so many of us. If you are someone waiting for a refund, better contact your

credit card company now...

Oh, one more thing I just noticed, possibly an eye opener here. Both Dan Gin and Rhonda Nelson above mentioned

speaking to Mark from Darr Photography. Interesting that the banned person who commented they were the best was

named "Marco". Before finding this site I found a link on Google to the official Calumet blog site where it was raving about

their upcoming seminar (they were sponsors) and a person commented that this was a scam, same as other comments on

here. Guess who was the very next comment back? A guy named 'Mark' commented it was 'not a scam and the best he's

ever been to'. I mentioned jokingly underneath that he must work for them, and that was before I found this site. It probably

is the same guy doing damage control!

<p>I am so upset with this whole process, I have talked to Landon Darr personally and I have talked to his "So Called" assistant. I have begged him to not make me take him to court for this as I can not afford to go to North Carolina to file a small claims suit. I have sent numerous emails to Landon Darr after he promised that he personally would send me a check. Of Course No Check has come. When I started emailing him again he told me "I was going to refund your money, but I found out some things about you" I wrote back and said what exactly could that be, I have been nothing but strait forward with him. He even tried to get me to take down this thread of post about him and his company, which I asked photo.net to do but because this is all true and factual events, and not slander they would not take it down, which I am so happy about.<br>

Due to Landon Darr's last comments to me saying he does not feel that I am entitled to a refund, I have vowed to make sure that I let any and all people that sponsor and support their company that they have scammed many people with their shooting higher seminars. As starting photographers, we have fallen victim to wanting to learn better techniques, marketing, and other things from experienced photographers. I not even sure they have been photographers for that long, when I did some research he was a DJ a few years back. HMMMM weird.<br>

I will be trying to get information out to any and all so that these people will not scam any one else. They need to be shut down for good.</p>

<p>Jacqui Valdivia,</p>

<p>Did you pay for this seminar with a credit card? I would be happy to help you get your money back from these scammers. If you call your credit card company's 800 number and tell the operator that you would like to dispute a charge they have a whole legal department just for this situation. They'll ask you about the details, so just be armed with the information and let them know that you have tried several times to resolve the issue on your own and that the Darrs have not cooperated. They will begin the process for you and give your account an immediate conditional credit for the amount you were billed while they "investigate" it. They will then contact the Darrs and ask them for proof that the charge is legit, which the Darrs will not be able to provide. Then after a while you will get notice that you have won and that the conditional credit is now permanent. The Darrs never gave me the promised refund, but I disputed the charge with my credit card company and just received an email from the company:</p>

<p>" Dear KEVIN:<br>

We have great news! The billing dispute on your [card name removed for privacy purposes] account for the transaction on 07/31/2008 in the<br /> amount of $350.00 at DARR PROJECTS, INCORPO WINSTON SALEM<br /> NC has been resolved.<br>

The conditional credit previously posted to your account is<br /> now permanent.<br>

You'll receive a statement message or letter confirming<br /> the action taken on your billing dispute. If you have<br /> other outstanding billing disputes, you will be updated<br /> via email, statement messaging or other correspondence as<br /> their status changes.<br>

We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you."</p>

<p>Jacqui, or anyone else who needs it, please email me at <a href="mailto:kevin@spiltmilkimaging.com">kevin@spiltmilkimaging.com</a> for further assistance and information about your rights and how to get your money back. </p>

 

Cheers,

-Kevin