Darr Photography Seminar

<p>Yes, Kevin is correct. A credit just came through for me as well. I did finally get a call back from Mark myself after I last posted here. And he explained that although they'd be happy to refund me out of their pocket, that the proper thing to do would be to dispute this. He explained that Marathon Press who was sponsoring them were the ones to collect all of the money, and that is why they have not yet refunded money. They never received the money that is due back to some of us, Marathon Press still has it. So I believe Marathon Press has settled with the credit card company, not actually the Darrs. But I did receive my refund of $350. Try that.</p>

<p>I've been following this thread as I am also in NC and, while at another seminar, found out one of the attendees had also signed up for the Darr seminar.<br>

The reason I'm posting is the Darr's were at the Bridal show in Raleigh, NC this past weekend. I had no desire to meet or speak with them but I find it very curious that while they are apparently scamming photographers for these seminars, they are also actively pursuing the wedding business.<br>

Does anyone have any further information about this?</p>

<p>Sorry for the extremely long response, but I've got up close and personal experience with Landon and Christie, his wife:<br>

I was employed by Landon and Christie Darr for a while. It was right when their business was taking off--Late 2007. They were getting more and more weddings booked, and they needed an extra photographer. I talked to them, signed some contracts, they promised to take me to a few weddings to learn their style, then nothing. They booked me for a wedding in June 08 and I had to hassle, fineigle and coerce information out of them, and then find out I'd be shooting solo. This was when they were still Modern Photography. In about May of 08, when I was stressing about shooting solo for a >$1000 wedding package, I drove to their house, (very close to the Harris Teeter at the corner of Peacehaven and Country Club in Winston-Salem) and asked them about it. They said I was now Modern Photography, and they were pursuing Landon and Christie Darr Photography. I smelled a fish then, but I hadn't actually done any work for them, and it seemed I wouldn't have to, since they were so uncommunicative with the one wedding they had arranged for me to shoot. In any case, I moved halfway across the country and I haven't heard from them since.<br>

I had much of the same communication issues that the rest of the people here have had-specifically when it came to emails. At one point, I had Landon's cell phone number, but I've since deleted that from my phone. He was generally pretty good about returning the second or third call. For people with no formal photographic training, their photos are stunning, but their communication could use a lot of improvement. <br>

The only employees in the company are Landon and his wife. They both shoot at each wedding, Christie does the retouching, and Landon books the weddings. I know someone who posted above was surprised that Landon was out shooting.<br>

The gist of this, I guess, is don't go to their seminars. If you're interested in getting them to shoot your wedding, as far as I know (and my info is only relevant to June 08), use them if you've got deep enough pockets. But they have no photographic training. They are self taught.<br>

Here's how they shoot-glean from this whatever you'd like. I imagine their seminar would contain this info, were it legit:<br>

Use selective focus. They like big apertures when they're shooting weddings. Go for details. Don't just shoot the bride. Shoot one wine glass, or a single rose, or footprints leading up to the bride and groom on the beach, or the bride's tramp stamp tattoo as she's putting on her dress. Let the bride wreck her dress in the sand and shoot that. I've seen some where the bride and groom went into the town to shop and drink in full bridal regalia, and they shot that. So paparazzi the bride and groom. These are all for location weddings. For stuff that's not in the Caribbean, use the selective focus and details, but shoot the family too. Watch the flower girl and ring bearer. Then, in Photoshop Elements (seriously), change some photos to b/w or sepia. Selectively make parts of the photo b/w-i.e., the entire photo is black and white save for the bouquet.<br>

They're good at presentation, but a lot of their techniques would get you laughed out of your Photography 101 class.</p>

 

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<p >Hello to everyone! This post has been a long time coming. We were advised for quite a while NOT to comment on any blogs. Against PR's judgement we have decided to make a public posting.<br /><br />To Answer some questions:<br /><br />1.) No - Our seminar is not a complete scam<br /><br />We were approached to speak across 14 cities nationwide. We accepted the offer. Because we own and operate 2 photography companies and a few other businesses in no way shape or form could we handle the logistics. Logistics including, Locating hotels, signing contracts for room space, A/V equipment, Air Travel. Ground Travel, Catering, Issues in our own office, management of our duties while gone, registration, charging the registrants etc. <br />As you can see that is almost a full time job! We had a sponsor UN NAMED approach us and we agreed only on the basis the logistics would be outsourced and all we had to do was show up and speak. At then conclusion of each city we would get a check based on what we sold for the sponsors and the attendees. <br /><br />The company that was hired to do the logistical piece of it was great at first. Towards the middle of the seminars people were getting charged twice, getting notified about the seminars at the last minute and some had no communication at all.<br /><br />All of this pointed to us when in reality all we were to so is get on a plane - speak and thats it!<br /><br />I understand a lot of points made. If I did not attend due to a logistical issue or not getting the information I would want my money back as well.<br /><br />We are in the middle of a suit with the company who handled this and have learned from this mistake.<br /><br />First off, I would like to extend a huge apology to anyone this affected. For the few people who have not received your money back yet, here's how.<br /><br />1. We did not charge you this. Our touring company charged this amount - which went to their bank account. <br /><br />Call your credit card company and complete a charge back.<br /><br />If that does not work and as a final resort, I will take financial responsibility and issue a refund to you. <br /><br />If you would like us to refund your money please do this.<br /><br />1. First, try to get a charge back from the original purchase.<br /><br />2. If that does not work, Prove to us you were never refunded by showing a copy of your statement.<br /><br />3. I will them personally issue you a refund check right away.<br /><br />As to answer #5, I have no idea who this person is and did not engage in business on that issue. My guess someone heating the fire.<br /><br />#6 & #7<br />Agin, I have no clue of these postings.<br /><br />#8 & #9<br />I have no clue who or what this is. We would never do something like that. My guess someone fueling the fire again.<br /><br />Again Guys, I am very sorry for what has happen but we sure have learned from this experience. As for our future tours are concerned we will handle them 100% and not outsource them. We will just have to hire an additional office person <img src="http://www.photographyblog.com/images/smileys/smile.gif" alt="smile" width="19" height="19" /></p>

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<p>First of all.......THIS IS A SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br /> <br /> I went to the Seminar in New York Sept. 17, 2009. Landon is a good talker. He states all this bull that he knows this one and that one and he's done all this great stuff. Like I said he is good because he got me all pumped up and we spoke about us (together doing a networking gala in New York) pumped I was and I was willing to go out and secure a place to do this. Just a few things.....He got me very pumped, like I said he is good. he started to push his Vegas Seminar which I even got more pumped about. We spoke at the convention and I told him that I had to check with my schedule to see If I was available for those dates. he mentioned that he couldn't hold a spot because he was only allowing 40 people. I told him that I guess I have to wait and take a chance. Well, he then stated you know what and these are his exact words "just fill out these two pieces of paper and if you call me in a couple of days.....I give you my word and I won't charge your credit card and maybe you can come to another future seminar/workshop". So "Stupid Me" I signed the form but he also wanted a copy of both sides of my credit card and driver's license, which I didn't do and told him I would fax a copy of them both when I absolutely sure I can go. he stated that was fine. It happens to be that I will be away in Florida for business and vacation that week and I called him 2 days later and left a message with his answering service 2 times. he got back to me 4 days later when he was in Dallas. I now explain to him the situation and he states that he was in<br /> Dallas and he is sorry that I couldn't go to Vegas and when he got back home he would call me. Well..........3 weeks went by and I didn't hear from him. I was in Los Cabos and they day I was leaving, Oct. 16 a month after the seminar and after I called and spoke to him, I got a call on my cellphone that there was a large sum of money charge on my credit card. I found out it was Darr Photography. I called the credit card company was going to stop the transaction and they stated I should try to contact the person. Which I TRIED SEVERAL TIMES!!!!!!. I called and left 5 messages for him on his answering service, which I know he got the messages, within 2 days and also faxed him numberous times and it so happened to be his fax machine was "busy" for 6 days.....He never got back to me.....I then proceeded with the credit card company to file a complaint to get my money back. They credited my card back the $949.00 back to me..... SUPERISINGLY, who do you think called back three days later......The Lost Landon who doesn't call back until the ball is not on his side..... He threatened me to call the credit card company back to cancel the dispute or he was going to contact his lawyers and sue me. He doesn't recall anything he mentioned to me at the seminar and kept on saying you signed the paper and there is no refund. AND THE BEST IS.....HE NEVER GOT ANY MESSAGES FROM ME OR SPOKE TO ME WHICH IS HE IS A LIAR......I CALLED SO MANY TIMES THAT THE ANSWERING SERVICE KNEW WHO I WAS AT THAT POINT AND ONE GIRL PUT ME ON HOLD AND SAID I SEE YOU HAVE CALLED 5 TIMES I AM GOING TO EMAIL HIM NOW AND CALL MYSELF AND SEE IF HE IS IN THE OFFICE..........HE IS JUST NOT A MAN OF HIS WORD............ Anyway, he demanded that I release the dispute at once and he gave me to the end of the day. I called my lawyer and she stated that I get copies of all the papers I signed after emailing back and forth Landon also stated that I faxed him my copy of credit card and license which was not true. He only produced the the 2 pieces of paper that I signed. I also have two copies of blank forms that I took as a copy from him the day of the seminar because he had no copy machine to make copies. he also emailed me, which I will show the emails at the end of this so you can see for yourself what kind of man he really is....... One email stated that I could replace my spot with another person or if anyone calls and wants to go he will let them take my spot and he would give me a refund and he did mention that the workshop registration was closed. Now, keep in mind this is 4-5 weeks after the september workshop and he has more 1 day seminars to promote. If this workshop was such great one and it filled up so fast within weeks, not months you would think that there are some people on a waiting list to go. IF this workshop sold out so fast......there has to be people on a list. HE IS JUST A LIAR!!!!! AND A GREAT SCAM ARTIST!!!!!!!!!<br /> Few hours later, he sends me an email stating that he is going to hand everything over to his lawyer and take it from there. The email also had a "terms and condition" with clauses that I never saw until now.<br /> <br /> The Credit card company actually settled with Landon Darr in his favor and he got his deposit back. I called the credit card company to see why they sided with him and they stated that in the terms and conditons it clearly states no refunds and some other lawyer terms. I mentioned to them that the only thing I signed were 2 pieces of paper which had no clauses attached to them it was just my credit card info, my address, phone number etc........ The credit card company stated they were looking at a contract that I signed..........I said WHAT!!!!!!!!!<br /> <br /> As of the new year I received all the info that Landon sent to the credit card company and there was a contract that was typed up and my name and info written in, WHICH IS NOT MY HAND WRITING AT ALL, AND THE LAST PAGE ONLY HAS MY SIGNATURE ON IT WITH HIS.<br /> <br /> HERE ARE SOME EMAILS.....<br /> <br /> <br /> 1. <br /> Joseph<br /> <br /> I hope you are doing well. I am traveling and not in the office - I was just brought abreast to this situation. <br /> - Joseph here is the situation. We are 100 sold out for the event. Per our agreement there is no cancelation and the money is not refundable. It also states that several times on the registration form and the credit card authorization that you signed - that cancelations are not allowed and monies will not be refunded. <br /> <br /> If you can find someone to go in your spot, I will credit you back the deposit. Second option - If I am able to fill your spot I will let you know and credit you as well. We are no longer marketing this event so it would have to be someone calling in that heard of the event. Either way if it is possible - I will help you out.<br /> <br /> <br /> Landon Darr<br /> Voice 800-951-4021<br /> Fax 336-793-2015<br /> PHOTOGRAPHY www.darrphotography.com<br /> NATIONAL TOUR www.shootinghigher.com<br /> WORKSHOPS www.shootinghigherworkshop.com<br /> <br /> 2.<br /> Joseph -<br /> <br /> Not quite sure what you are saying. You did fax me a copy of your license and credit card? I will help you if I un into someone who wants your position - I am not our to keep your money - just the agreement was the agreement that you signed - due to the small size of the workshop the depositis NON refundable.<br /> <br /> 3.<br /> Joseph.<br /> <br /> I have an obligation to inform you of fees, that are to my knowledge before proceeding with legal.<br /> <br /> 1. Original Amount $949.00<br /> 2. Charge Back Fee $423.00<br /> 3. Investigator Fee $145.00 ( To Investigate Dispute & Draft Documents) <br /> 4. Attorney Fee to Review Case $345.00<br /> 5. Attorney Fee To Mail, UPS, Or Fed-EX (At cost)<br /> 6. Attorney Fee For Pre Discovery - Time with case $ 345.00 per hour billed by the hour<br /> 7. Court Filings - At Cost<br /> <br /> 4.<br /> I do not have the time to mess with this all day. Call the card company and reverse the charges. When we fill your space I will refund you. Read the authorization and registration. Point blank - I am turning this to legal at 4:05PM<br /> <br /> The only further communication you need to send is you have called the card company and reversed the charges are - you are not going to do that.<br /> <br /> I am teaching a class today and I am not pulling any further docs - you have what you need.<br /> <br /> <br /> There are a lot more emails....if anyone is interested please contact me and I will be more then happy to provide. The last email states he was teaching a class........that's funny because these emails went back and forth all day which started at 11:00 am and he stated in other emails that he had to go a pull my paper work to email it.<br /> <br /> <br /> STAY TUNED PEOPLE.............THIS IS NOT THE END.......YOU WILL HEAR MORE................<br /> <br /> <br /> I did a lot of research after the seminar and over the holidays. I contacted a few of my contacts that are considered high end wedding planners, photographers, florists that do a lot of destination weddings and others that are in the industry and no one has heard of Landon and Kristi Darr. They state that they just started Darr photography 3-4 years ago and they only do 2-3 weddings per month.........then they state that they are booked every month for 2 1/2 years..........YET....nobody has heard of them.........kind of funny....don't you think!!!!!!!!!<br /> <br /> Like I said Landon is good at what he does.....and that's to sucker you in.............He got me!</p>

<p>Hi all,<br>

Wanted to give you guys some feedback on this matter after having similiar issues with Landon Darr. Last August I had signed up for the Shooting Higher Seminar in Miami, Fl and did not get the email that the location had been changed, so of course I was a bit on the upset side (to say the least). However, I was able to contact one of Landon's assistants that day and he apologized for the oversight and vowed to make it up to me. Different offers to correct the situation were made by his assistant including a full refund ($175). I gave it thought and after a few days I decided to just take the refund. This is when I had some trouble getting a hold of Landon's assistant and then Landon. However, I know photographers can be busy so I gave it some more time and eventually he responded. After he responded by calling me, I pretty much gave him a MAJOR earful! I was surprised to see he remained on the phone after my complaints, but he actually expressed his interest in correcting the situation and apologized many times. He then promised to send me a money order for $175 via FedEx and I actually got it a few days later! Landon explained that he had made a mistake in setting up the payment for the seminar through the sponsor, and told me he would never do that again cause of all the headaches and mistakes that occured. I think he knows he took a hit in terms of his reputation, but he also mentioned he will take just about any measure to correct the mistakes made. </p>

<p>Sincerely,<br>

Rick Fernandez<br>

Fernandez Photography<br>

305.491.4100 </p>

 

I have been hesitant on posting this but I think it's only right. I would never consider using the Darr's again.

My wife and I finally received our pictures (2-25-09) from our June 2008 wedding in the Bahamas. After being promised the photographs in just 4 weeks by Kristi Darr. The 4 weeks seemed unreasonable but I didn't question it. The truth is we had to wait 8 months. During the 8 months were dozens of emails/messages and some voicemails, many of which were unreturned. There were several false promises made as to when the pictures would be delivered. A few other times we were told it had already been mailed a sometime ago and we should have received it already, although Landon Darr was unable to provide me with tracking numbers. Our address was on the contract and sent to him many more times via email. We spoke to an attorney which we were about to hire but decided to first file a complaint with the Better Business Bereau of North Carolina. To my amazement, once we filed the complaint, we received the pictures shortly thereafter. I should note that over a span of 3-4 days I repeatedly called Kristi Darr's cell phone dozens of times to get an answer as to where the pictures are. They were doing a seminar in Las Vegas at this time (week of Feb 9). Needless to say Kristi ignored my calls although she did text me to say she would call in a few hours but never did. Here's what our $3,500 (up-front payment) contract was for:<br /><br />1.Traveling to the Bahamas and shooting the wedding <br />with unlimted photos. <br /><br />2. Hosting images online for viewing/purchasing<br /><br />3. Editing & Photo Retouch<br /><br />4. Hi-resolution files with shared copyright release<br /><br />5. Photo Montage DVD and Web Show<br /><br />Here are the results:<br /><br />1. They did both fly to the Bahamas and shoot our wedding.<br /><br />2. Several weeks before Christmas and after many emails/calls they finally hosted the images on Pictage.That is nearly 6 months after our wedding. Although it was great to see the pictures of our wedding, there was not much else we could do with them. Our only option was to purchase them from Pictage and outrageous prices..$9.99 for a 4x6 and higher from there. According to our agreement, we were to receive the picture files, therefor we were not going to purchase them from Pictage.<br /><br />3. Photos look edited. Turned out nice.<br /><br />4. It took 8 months, speaking with an attorney and a complaint to the Better Business Bereau of North Carolina to get out pictures. Not to mention the frustration and anxiety.<br /><br />5. Still have not received Photo Montage and DVD webshow.<br /><br />During the 8 months I did extensive research on the Darr's and discovered several blogs full of negative comments...mainly from the seminars they host. Most of the blogs have since been removed. <br /><br />When we hired them, they were under the name MODERN EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY. We were told they wanted to start catering to higher end brides and with the new name DARR PHOTOGRAPHY were going to charge minimum of $10,000.<br /><br />I have kept copies of ALL communication with Landon and Kristi Darr and can prove my statements.

 

<p>Landon and Kristi Darr are completely SCAMMING anyone who will take the bait! DO NOT book them for your wedding...or anything else, for that matter!</p>

<p>Early of 2008, my fiance and I made the HUGE mistake of signing a wedding photography contract with Landon Darr, then working as Modern Exposure Photography. The wedding was set for St. Lucia in January of 2009. (Nathan, he told me that you'd be shooting my wedding as an "associate photographer," and then when the contract came over, it had someone else's name on it. I was surprised, but didn't think much of it.) We gave him a $700 deposit, with the balance to be paid about 11 months later on our credit card. Just over three months later though, my fiance got his credit card bill, and Modern Exposure had charged his credit card an additional $1000 without any notice or communication from them, completely unauthorized by me or my fiance. When we tried to get answers as to why this happened, we got the run-around every time. </p>

<p>Just to name a few off the top of my head:</p>

<p>The first explanation was, "Gosh, I'm SO sorry, I'll get that refunded to you right away."</p>

<p>Then it went something like, "Oh, I don't have access to my contracts. I need to see what your contract says. I'll get back to you." (I knew what my contract said, and it said NOTHING about charging ANYTHING, MONTHS in advance without even a phone message or email!!)</p>

<p>After a while, he said that they had to book flights to St. Lucia and had to charge us upfront for the flights. He said it was on our contract. Funny though, it wasn't on MY COPY that I SIGNED!!</p>

<p>Going on, Landon would say they were "VERY BUSY" caribbean wedding photographers, and didn't have access to internet/email a lot of the time since they were on remote islands, and that's why they were so ridiculously bad at getting us answers....So then tell me how both he and Kristi are logging into their MYSPACE accounts EVERY day!?!?</p>

<p>When my fiance would call in and talk to Landon, he was nice the first time or two, saying he couldn't get back to him right away. Then we'd try back, get Landon on the phone, and he'd claim to be someone else, making up stories about how they have over 80 employees and "this guy" who we'd reached was in an office in California! This fake person would take a message and say that we'd get a call back. Of course after this DIDN'T happen, we tried calling back, and Landon had the nerve to say my fiance wasn't even his client and refused to talk to him because I was the one who signed the contract....So does this really make sense when he charged HIS credit card and not mine?!?</p>

<p>Landon promised on multiple email messages to refund all money including the original deposit to just get out of the contract, which needless to say, never happened. We didn't want to work with a company like this once we found out how unprofessional they are.</p>

<p>We went on and on for weeks with nonsense from them, and then finally just resorted to disputing the credit card charges because we were getting to the limit of when we could dispute the UNAUTHORIZED charges. Of course, at this point we couldn't dispute the original deposit. They completely were in breach of contract though, and we lost the $700 deposit. </p>

<p>Joe, I'm happy to hear you finally got your pictures! What a fiasco. It's so irritating to have things like this when you're trying to plan the best day of your life. Luckily enough, we secured a DIFFERENT, GREAT photographer in time for our wedding and the photos turned out beautiful as well.</p>

<p>We would LOVE to take this to court, but don't know much about how to go about doing this. Anyone have any suggestions, or interest in a class action suit? Please contact me if you're interested.</p>

 

<p>BEWARE EVERYONE!!! Run fast and stay away!<br>

I am so glad that i found this blog, so that I too can warn everyone.<br>

Those of you that were able to attend the seminar and to the guy that got proof, well you were lucky and to all the couples that did finally receive pictures I am glad. But for all those that were taken by Landon Darr i want to share my tale of how he took me for $1000.00 and tried to steal an additonal $900.<br>

I am getting married this year, 2009, and found Landon's company on the internet, March of 2008. I will be getting married in the caribbean so i of course was psyched to find a photographer that was based here in the US, making it easier for me to be able to reach and call etc. I should have been a bit wary when my wedding coordinator hadn't really heard of him and Landon claims that he did/does weddings where i am getting married all the time, and the fact that on his now defunct website there wasn't any contact info or an address; you had to supply your info and that is how he reached out to you.<br>

After providing my contact info on the site, Landon contacted my immediately and gave me quotes for how much it would cost to take pictures of the wedding, he told me that he offered two packages: the first would cover the span of a weekend, he and his wife would take pictures in town of my fiance and me, pictures before the ceremony, during, after, and then the next day we would do a "trash the dress" session. Well, needless to say this was far more than i was looking for and after i told him that it was and that the cost was too high, he then told me about option two: "an associate" of his would take the pictures, this person was trained by him and worked for him he stated. i agreed to go with option number two, but told him that i wanted to get other quotes and would get back to him after I returned back from North Carolina. As with everyone else, he was so nice and helpful, he told me that if i needed help with navigating island that i am getting married on let him know and he even offered to meet up with me in North Carolina, since i was going to be in Raleigh and he lives in Winston-Salem, i thought great i get to see this guy and look at his work in person. <br>

Well of course we never met up, and when i finally heard from him he gave me this line that he got a last minute job and had to go out of town; like a fool i thought ok and accepted that answer. I moved forward with signing a contract, and he also asked me to provide copies of my credit card, which i never did. Shortly after singning the contract (a few days) my wedding coordinator contacted me because a local phographer informed her that he received a new booking for a wedding that was thru her company and he wanted to confirm. Well she knew that i had decided to go on my own as far as photographers went and smelled a rat.<br>

Now i ask all of you why would I want to pay more money for Landon, just to have him contract our wedding out to a local guy, that i could have just contracted with thru my wedding coordinator and paid less money for. So of course when i found this out i was lived!! And lo and behold he was so apologetic stating that this other photographer worked for him and was trained by him. I told him that he should have just said that in the beginning and not made me believe something else; he did offer to let me out of my contract, but said that if i chose to move forward that he would handle everything 100% and that he would give me his guarantee, Blah blah blah. So i was suckered in yet again and decided to move forward. <br>

In August of 2008 i noticed that my credit card that i used for the $1000 deposit to Landon, was higher than it should have been after looking at my statement i saw that Landon charged $900 to my credit card without my authorization!! I immediately contacted him to find his cell phone had been disconnected so i emailed and called him on the modern exposure line; i always received voice mail, and the email response was that they were out of town. I then i received an email from the "accoutant" that they were out of the country and didn't have access to a computer or cell phone...come on now we are living in what century? especially with all of the technology available. also what accountant is the office at 1:00am for such a small business? i was told by this person that they would be back in town and was assured that the matter would be dealt with and that it was obviously a mistake.<br>

After doing some research i found his wife's MySpace page, well she would log in every day giving updates in where they were and what they were doing and wouldn't you know they were in the states in Florida on vacation!! I immediately emailed and called him demanding that he call me and that i was going to go to my credit card company. In short, he emailed me once hearing this and offered to give me a full refund of $1900, the $900 that he stole, plus my $1000 deposit. Well folks the credit card company only refunded me $900; they said that his contract stated that no refunds were due after 30 days and just because he sais that he would give me back the $1000, they had to honor the contract!!</p>

<p>I hope that i do not read anymore storied like mine and i know in the long run this will all catch up to him and bite him on the ass.<br>

LG</p>

<p>FYI - Darr photography is also "Kristi Darr artist" www.kristidarr.com</p>

<p>Hi all,<br>

I realize this thread is from a couple years ago, but I'm hoping someone can help me out. Landon & Kristi Darr shot our wedding in St. Maarten in May, 2008 and we have yet to receive anything from them. We have tried countless times to contact them. They overcharged us by thousands of dollars and tragically, we have not one photo to show for it. Does anyone know how to contact them anymore? I am going to try the info I have. Any information you have would be extremely helpful. Thank you!</p>

<p>I wish I had found this review thread earlier! Thankfully I’m only out $50, and not the hundreds or thousands like the others. Folks should know that the Darrs are still operating, with Kristi operating <a href="http://smileclicklove.com/" target="_blank">smileclicklove.com</a>. My wife signed up for a photo session that she<br />found through her local mommies group. The session was on Saturday afternoon, 11-3-12. The premise was that Kristi had lost a family member, and these were fundraising photo sessions. She would take our pictures in downtown Hickory, NC and mail us a copy of the original files, in return for a $50 fee. We met her as arranged she took several shots of our family. We paid her by check, and we parted on good terms. Just as others found with her husband, she is a polite and personable lady to deal with in person, though very difficult to<br />get in touch with otherwise.<br /><br />As Christmas approached and it was time to make our annual photo Christmas cards, it occurred to us that we hadn’t heard anything from Kristi. So I went to her Smile Click Love website to send an email, but the email bounced with a “mailbox quota exceeded” error. I called the <a href="tel:866-702-8811">866-702-8811</a> phone number listed on her website, but that just<br />gets me to a voice mail service. I left a message, but didn’t get a call back (and still never have). We looked for her on Facebook, where we found an active page but were unable to send a message. I did find @kristidarrSCL on Twitter, where we had the following<br />exchange: <br />12-12: “Hey Kristi, your email address is bouncing due to mailbox<br />quota exceeded. We’re trying to get in touch.”<br>

Her prompt reply: “call me <a href="tel:866.702.8811">866.702.8811</a>”<br>

I called the number again and left a message again.<br /><br />12-13: “Thanks Kristi, that’s the one we called yesterday and also<br />today. Please let me know if you don’t get the messages!”<br /><br />Her prompt (final) reply: “I need your address to send your USB to :-)”<br /><br />So I called again and left our address on her voice mail.<br /><br />12-16 “Thanks Kristi, let me know if you aren’t getting<br />the phone messages.”<br /><br />12-21: “Hi Kristi, can you give us a call about the picture files when<br />you get a chance? [my phone number]”<br /><br />12-22: “Kristi, we are still trying to get in touch about the pictures<br />that we’ve paid for. Please call [my phone number]”<br /><br />12-24: “Kristi, I know the holidays are busy, but if you’re able to<br />get back to us it would reassure us that you haven’t just taken our<br />money.<br /><br />1-9: “I wish we’d found this before we paid you: [link to this thread]<br />still hoping for a refund, unless you still operate this way.”<br /><br />All the while we never heard back to her after that second tweet,<br />though she was still active on Twitter with tweets about other things.<br /><br />My wife posted a message to her mommy group to see if anyone else had problems, and it turns out that several people did. One got a few disappointing pictures, most got no pictures. My wife tried sending Facebook messages to Kristi’s friends and family to let them know that we were having trouble getting through and to make sure she wasn’t going through some sort of hardship that we didn’t know about. We’ve tried to communicate with Kristi through every venue that we can think of, short of driving over to her house and knocking on the door (though that would certainly have been on the table if we were owed as much as some of you are). Has she been out of the country on some exotic wedding shoot? Maybe, but that hasn’t stopped her from staying active on Facebook and Twitter with posts and tweets about other things.<br /><br />I feel disappointed that she didn’t deliver pictures in time for Christmas- and I feel angry that she didn’t deliver the pictures at all- but we could excuse those issues under most circumstances. Has she lost the memory card? Did she shoot the session with manual focus<br />or some other bad camera setting so that they didn’t turn out? Has she fallen ill and can’t find the strength to put the unprocessed files into a Dropbox or the mailbox? If there is a problem, why can’t we just talk about it and go from there? Everyone is unreachable at<br />times, but few people are unreachable for a month, especially when they are obviously connected and active on social media sites. Unfortunately, the major failure here is one of communication. Beyond those first few tweets, she has ignored us, and that is just<br />aggravating. Now that the holiday season has slowed, I spent some time to Google to see how many other people have had problems. That led me to this site, which has been very enlightening. <br /><br />If you have found this thread after you’ve paid money to one of the Darrs, let me offer my sympathy and hope it wasn’t very much. If you have found this thread because you are thinking about giving money to the Darrs, my recommendation is that you don’t. Is Kristi just a very poor communicator, or is she more deliberately evil? I don’t know and it doesn’t matter- both are very good reasons to not conduct business with her. The older stories in this thread show plenty of excuses- like the “third-party company” that booked their tour. I haven’t been able to find the excuse this time. I wish they would help me understand- why has it been this way? Will we ever get our money back? I’m not holding my breath, but if we do, I’ll certainly be back to let everyone know.</p>