After dozens of complaints, negative reviews, and lawsuits, a local wedding photographer is now under fire for taking money from brides and then not fulfilling those contracts.
The Better Business Bureau in Atlanta has been looking into more than a dozen formal complaints against Graceology Photography, a company based in Griffin, Georgia. Most of those complaints remain unresolved and the company currently has an "F" rating.
The company also has at least six lawsuits pending against them in Spalding County and numerous negative reviews on wedding planning websites like The Knot.
"He's ruining this for us"Kelsey Cox is one of the many customers who told CBS46 she never got the photos or services she paid for.
"It's supposed to be the best time of my life. I'm supposed to be enjoying every moment of this and he's ruining this for us," said Cox.
Cox is getting married in June. She and her fiancé gave Chris Yellina, owner of Graceology Photography, a deposit for $1500 for toward their engagement and wedding photos. Cox says she tried several times to schedule a sitting for those engagement photos, but kept getting the runaround and had to reschedule more than once with little or no notice.
"He was unresponsive. He never showed or he would come up with an excuse the day of. He would totally bail on us," Cox said.
Another bride, Nicole Nguyen, got married in August and she says she hired Yellina to take her wedding photos, but on the day of her wedding, he never showed up. Instead, he sent a replacement photographer. More than three months after her wedding, she says she's only received nine unedited photos and no refund.
Business owner refutes negative reviews; promises refunds to customersA quick search online found many negative reviews, but Yellina refutes them.
He told CBS46 over the phone that "anyone can go and post a review. So people were writing reviews that've never done business with us - like other photography companies competing with us."
When asked about the lawsuits and complaints also filed with the BBB, Yellina offered an explanation via text message: "We have had a horrible year medically in our family between myself and our two children."
He claims the unhappy customers will get a refund, but couldn't say when.
"I told them it would take a little while to get their refund because I'm sitting on over $29,000 in medical bills," Yellina said through text message.
Cox says she's tired of waiting for her refund and tired of getting excuses.
"It's been just one thing after another – 'I'm waiting for a check to clear from another client, I'm out of town, my kids are sick. I'm in and out of the hospital' - and all this time I'm catching him in lies. He can't seem to keep his story straight," said Cox.
Cox says she no longer believes or accepts Yellina's explanations and she wants other brides to know about her frustrations so they don't make similar mistakes.
Yellina assured CBS46's Melinda Roeder that he will refund Cox's money to her this week, but couldn't say when the other customers would be getting their money back.
Copyright 2015 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corp). All rights reserved.
Source: Unhappy brides take aim at wedding photographer
No comments:
Post a Comment