Panoramic Visions

Horrible. I generally try to be fair and objective when I give reviews, so I mulled over this one for quite a bit. I tried to think about things from the owner’s POV, but the more I did that, the more I recognized how unprofessional, ill-​equipped and rude the owner of Panoramic Visions is.
I ordered graduation invites from him toward the end of 2013, and not only did they take entirely too long to arrive (e.g., WEEKS) but the quality was abysmal. Can you imagine paying over $ 150 to receive graduation invites/​announcements that are printed on FijiFilm paper. Literally, this is no exaggeration. He (one person is the photographer, owner, manager, customer service rep the whole thing) literally gave me and my friends graduation invites printed on Fijifilm paper. The invites were all in one font, it looked like Comic Sans (nothing at all resembling the formal style you would expect for a graduation invite) not centered, and blurry. When my classmates and I complained, he became rude and disrespectful over the phone. I am a person who believes in the importance of calm and serenity in all circumstances, so I would never raise my voice to him on the phone or be disrespectful, but the way he responded to my inquiry about the quality of the invites was completely disproportionate.
If you take a look at the website, theres something on the graduation photo page that says «allow 5 – 6 to arrive» he doesn’t specify whether its 5 – 6 days or weeks, but apparently he means weeks. I’m not a mail expert, but I strongly believe that you can accept orders, process them, develop photos and mail them in 1 – 2 weeks max. Moreover, if you cannot meet that reasonable expectation, at the very least he should be honest and forthright about what people should expect.
Overall, I think you should never use his business for anything. He is disorganized, dishonest, and produces poor quality products. Additionally, I think now that its 2014, most photographers will give you digital copies of photos (at a price of course) but this photographer under no circumstances will sell you a digital copy. This is unreasonable, so not only does he make disgusting graduation invites, but he won’t even sell me the digital version so that I can make them myself, nor will he mail the photos in a reasonable time frame. Please avoid this man and save your time and energy.

I contacted the company to order pictures from a 2009 college graduation. At the end of 2012 I contacted the company and left a voice mail to order these pictures. No one called back. As in life, you get busy and things skip your mind. I remembered to call back this month.
The first time I called this month the man that answered asked me for the proof numbers. I gladly provided them. I was so excited to finally get someone on the telephone and begin to place this order. I was so excited about my relatives graduation that I wanted to buy a few packages. The man took down the proof numbers and promised a call back.
One week went buy and I never received a phone call back. So, I followed up. The same man answered. He promised to call back at the end of the week. The end of the end of week comes, no call.
This week I called their company again. The same man answered. He asked me for the proof numbers again. After I gave them to him he said he will call back. Within in 30 minutes he called back. I asked him could he put the proofs on the website (as he has removed them) so I can pick the proof numbers I want to order the packages. This is when his demeanor changed.
He began ranting that these pictures are from 2009. It will cost him $ 100 to put the images back on the website. (Yea, you read correctly. In 2013 it will cost him $ 100 to upload images to a website.) I told him it doesn’t cost that much to upload images to a website and how can I decide which ones I want to buy when I can’t see the proofs. His rant turned into a yell, «Don’t tell me how to run my business. I know how much it cost!»
Continuing to be aggressively rude, he stated that people call him years later looking for images and they say, «Oh, it is my mom. Oh, it is my dad, but why didn’t they buy these images before? Now I’m looking for them.» (Ahem, sign of an unorganized photographer.) He continues, «When I find them they don’t buy them.» (Yea, again, you read correctly, he thinks I don’t want to buy from him.)
I told him (which I shouldn’t have and most customers won’t) that every customer is different. Some customers will come and ask a lot of questions and never buy. However, there are some customers that will ask a lot of questions and buy. You should not treat me badly based on the actions of another customer. Also, my family has been from the Washington, DC area for generations and you never know who is behind the sale (behind me as a referral).
Cutting me off he asked for my email address to send me the proofs. I gave him my email address because again, he was the only person that had the images and I HAD to buy from him.
He emailed me the watermark proofs. The proofs he emailed were not all of the proof numbers I gave to him. There were no images of my relative receiving her degree. Yes, the image did exist.
I asked him was there a package where I could get at least 3 poses. He advised it was the most expensive package with an additional fee of $ 79. Despite the atrocious customer service and the price he was the only one with the images so I had to continue if I wanted them.
His answers in email were extremely vague. He had a lot of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. The sentences were incomplete. I couldn’t understand how to order the poses in one package. I went back and forth with him via email a few times getting my questions answered. That was frustrating. Again, despite it all I carried onward.
I decided to go with the most expensive package and three additional poses for the $ 79 extra. After talking to my family they inquired about that walking across the stage and degree in hand photo. They really wanted that. Yes, this would mean I would give him more money for an additional package. I emailed him and he (yea, I got the email to prove it.) very nastily said he didn’t have it and to contact him only when I was ready to order.
So if you have been following my story so far, remember I wanted to order packages (plural) right? Then I went down to one package with three poses. Next, two packages with four poses. Remember this ok?
Well, after talking with my family and telling them he didn’t have that image and how unprofessional and nasty he was to me based off of the experience with other customers they told me to completely cancel the order.
I didn’t listen to my family. I decided to whittle the order down to one pose. So his sale went from over $ 500 to $ 250 to $ 129. I emailed him the same day he told me to contact him only for the order and asked him to send me a PayPal invoice for the $ 129 plus $ 12 shipping.
Two days later he replies if that he sent a money request. If I don’t pay within 4 hours he will charge an additional $ 100.
I should have listened to my family. When a person or business shows you who they are, believe them. I don’t recommend doing any business with this company. There are so many photographers out there that will treat you professionally and respect you as a customer.