Hello, I'm searching for some assistance on an issue I'm having, and before I take the legal route I figured I'd share my situation on here and see if anyone has any insight they could offer.
So in November of 2016 my fiance and I secured a photographer/videographer with a retainer fee of $1,500, and up front everything seemed great as we initially went over exactly what we would be getting out of this company. So we signed the contract, but he didn't (not sure if that matters), and we parted ways after meeting up to hand over the $1,500 check and to discuss our photography and videography options. Well in February my fiance told him we were going to be doing engagement photos so we could send them out in our wedding invites that we planned on sending out in June (this month), and he said he would actually do our engagement photos for us for free, which we assumed was just a friendly gesture since he is somewhat of an acquaintance of my fiance (they have mutual friends) and she has seen him out and about over the years. Well on two separate occasions since then, he would text and say "this weekend I'm free to do your photos", but those weekends came and went without one call or text, and our texts and calls went unanswered for weeks at a time following these instances. It was about this time in the end of February that we saw an ABC news segment about a wedding photographer who was failing to deliver on his end of the contract, and sure enough, it was the same one we went with! Well our wedding is in December, it's now almost July and we have been delaying on sending our invites since we were waiting on this guy to do our engagement photos, and even though he said he'd do those for free, I'm getting a bit perturbed and we now are planning on just sending the invites without photos. I'm thinking of just calling him to cancel and ask for our deposit back, but that leaves me faced with a few questions. He didn't sign the contract, does that make it any less valid of a contract since only we signed it and he didn't? We've asked him to sign it and send over a copy and he has yet to do so, even after texting back and saying that he would. We will send texts and voicemails and get no replies for weeks at a time, than other times we will randomly get an "I'll call you after work tonight, sorry been really busy" text message, which also ends up with no communication being made. I definitely am concerned with losing my $1,500 deposit, but I want to relay to him that if he is too busy that's fine, just please return our money and we will take our business elsewhere. Is there an easy way to go about this, as I've never had to secure someone for an event, and then let them go as their communication was just beyond horrid. There are multiple people on his WeddingWire page now leaving comments saying that it's been almost a year since their wedding and they still are unable to get a hold of him to obtain their photos, whereas before November of last year he had a perfect 5 star review. But the most mind blowing thing is that there are a few reviews within those negative reviews, that are very positive, so it makes me think he's picking and choosing and his priorities are just completely out of wack. I plan on calling and most likely leaving a voicemail this weekend, but just want to make sure I don't say anything that I shouldn't or that may discourage him from just being like "screw these people" and taking off with our money. In the news segment about him, it said that he refunded the money to the people so I hope it goes well, but just want to make sure I'm not completely overreacting as I've never been in this situation.
I didn't put any names on this post as I don't want to burn any potential bridges, but just trying to proactively fix this as I can see it going very bad already and our wedding isn't even here yet.
Thanks in advance!