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>
Darr Photography Seminar
in Education & Resource
Posted
<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>