MIT Portrait

WORST experience of my life. PLEASE READ TO COMPLETION.
To start off, I am a Train Conductor on the Commuter Rail and my wife is a registered nurse and has been for over 5 years. We are not the ones to try and swindle a deal and we try our best to help and serve the public. We were not treated as such with Dy whatsoever. I will keep this as short as I can.
We hired Dy officially on 10/​31/​2014 with a very vague contract; with no time dead lines, arrival times or even expected times when and if the photos and videos will be done. Our wedding was on July 25 2015. On the contract, it states that our times for photos and video to start at 9am, which he was no where to be found at 10:30am that same morning. These would have been pictures of the bride and bridesmaids along with the groom (myself) and groomsmen getting ready and pre-​wedding interviews which was sold to us in the consultation and never done due to his tardiness. Photos were rushed; and so weren’t the bride and bridesmaids due to waiting on the photographer Dy to arrive until they just could not wait any longer. Once the morning fiasco concluded, we had our ceremony, and we took pictures at the church and a park near by. From there, we went to the reception hall where the reception (per invitation and Dy’s contract stated) started at 6pm. Once again, Dy was no where to be found and missed the guest greeting and the entire first Cambodian outfit change the girls went through with NO photos (and if you are familiar with Cambodian wedding reception, this is a very big part of the day). This is all old news from my wife’s earlier review. This review will focus on the after math of these events.
After July 2015, Dy went completely M.I.A., ignoring our calls, texts, Facebook messages and voicemails. We did not hear from Dy until close to October 2015 (these are from our efforts in calling him) to be told our photos are NOW almost done (mid October, 3 months later). We went to his office to pick them up, where he had us there waiting over an hour while he uploaded the pictures to a CD. Most of them were not even edited or cropped, and you can see clutter in the background. We still paid the full $ 1000 for these photos that were not worth it, on top of a down payment of $ 400 towards the video we agreed on back in October. Now onto the saga of the wedding video.
Mind you, it is now the end of February 2016, the video just got done. When we spoke to him after the photos were finished in Oct. he stated they would be done soon. After chasing him down again week after week, he finally told my wife that the video will be done BEFORE Thanksgiving. He lied, they weren’t, Then he said before Christmas, it wasn’t once again, he said wait until after the holidays. It wasn’t ready after the holidays either. Do you see the pattern here? So 2 months and a half after all this we call him, since he never bothere to contact us, to find out the video is done. After all the lies, deceit and unprofessionalism, we stated to him that there is no way we are paying the full $ 1,500 that we were being charged for just the video (we have already paid this man $ 1400). After fighting and fighting, he offers $ 300 off which still leaves a balance at $ 1,200 (because he still has our $ 400 deposit along with asking for another $ 800) and a free shoot. We refused telling him why would we take a free shoot from someone who treats their paying customers this way. Even with this horrible service and lack of courtesy and respect for the most important day of our lives thus far leaving our memories in his hands — I work for a living, So I even offered to pay half, $ 750 of my own money for services I know are not worth it. He declined saying that he has already paid someone to do (edit) this video. After more arguing, he says, and I quote because I still have the text screenshot:
«You (talking to my wife) already gave me a bad review (on his FB page), I shouldn’t even give you guys the $ 300 off and offer a free session. I’d been apologizing to you, but you guys don’t seem to understand. Its already passed I cant go back 6 or 7 months ago… I try to work it out… but you don’t want the video then I have no choice but to delete it»
He also stated that per our (vague) contract, it does not state how long it will take to finish editing photos or videos, so he has no deadline or time restraints. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is how your business is run, and this is how you treat your customers when even you admit you were wrong?
So now, we are forced to start a legal battle to simply get our deposit back for a video we do not even have, Dy stated he is going to put OUR ($ 400) deposit towards the time he spent on the video. Mind you, on his own contract it states we ONLY lose the deposit if the wedding date is either moved to a later time or changed the day completely which doesn’t even apply to this situation.
I hope this review helps another loving couple avoid tarnishing their very specia

If I could give 0 stars, I would. I am very disappointed with this service. All I wanted to do was give a fellow Cambodian some business but I made a huge mistake in hiring Dy. He sold me onto some great photos and showed me a lovely wedding video he did, complete with a montage and interviews of bride, groom, and friends and family prior to the wedding. It was beautiful.
I should’ve known I was screwed the minute I started asking around former clients of his and they told me about their bad experience, but I was hopeful and I thought since I had a planner, she would be able to stay on top of everything. I had a huge Cambodian wedding with 500 guests so I knew it’d be crazy and overwhelming for any photographer or videographer. I gave them my itinerary for the day and had my planner stay in touch with them so I figured everything would work out.
We started getting ready at 9am. I told my bridesmaids to be ready because the videographer would be coming by to do pre wedding interviews. An hour passes, I’m texting my planner because these guys are nowhere to be found at 10am. They were only able to interview one bridesmaid and we were rushed the whole entire time. We got through the ceremony and the park pictures. We started getting ready for the reception at 6pm. Again, these guys are NOWHERE to be found when we started greeting our guests. I know this is not my mistake because it was clearly stated in my timeline that the reception started at 6pm. By the time he showed up, we already had to change and get ready for our introductions. We had worn these beautiful Cambodian dresses for greeting our guests and he missed the whole thing.
At the reception he never took any pictures of our whole family together. This is the only time we’re ever going to be together all in one place. We don’t get a redo of our wedding day. That was my biggest disappointment looking at the pictures.
He also took forever to get back to me when I was trying to follow up on my wedding pictures. I got married July 25, did not get my pictures until mid October. I knew people who got married after me and they were getting their pictures the next month. I understand pictures take time, what threw me was the fact that he never ever returned my phone calls. My husband, planner, and I left him multiple messages and he never took the time or courtesy to call us back. I had to track him down at his studios after he told me the Photo DVD would be ready, where he made me wait an hour while he transferred the photos to the DVD– while I thought the DVD would already be ready.
The pictures were not great. Maybe he just gave them to me that way because he felt I would pressure him, but they weren’t all edited, and he didn’t bother to crop out some of the background clutter. These are my wedding pictures. The most important day of my life. I was embarrassed to show some of these pictures, they looked sloppy and unprofessional.
I asked him when would my wedding video be ready. He said soon. I asked him would it be ready by Thanksgiving, since that’s the next time my family will be gathering. A few days before Thanksgiving I still had not heard from him so I reached out. Again, my husband and I left him messages with no response. My husband and I decided to stop by his studio the day before Thanksgiving since he’s not returning our calls. On the way there we decided to try one more time to call, and he finally answers. He told my husband the videos been done for awhile but he’s waiting on the DVD decals. So I asked him if the videos been done, why haven’t we been notified at all. He went into some story about his partner has the video, and he can’t give us the video because he’s out of town. He tells me he’ll call his partner so he can deliver it to us, but it won’t be until tomorrow — on Thanksgiving. So my husband would have had to take time off to go pick up this video. My husband being the good natured person he is, agreed to that. He told us he’d call us, and of course never did. It was me who took the initiative and asked him what was going on. Finally, he texts me to apologize because he thought our video was done but SURPRISE, it’s really not because his partners computer crashed while he was editing the video, unbeknownst to him. So the story went from the video being done were just waiting on a decal to — no the video was never done its my partners fault.
I had not heard from him for months. My husband called and left a voicemail in January, with no response. I finally texted him in February, because again, he had neglected to reach out to us. For this type of service I told him we were not paying him full price. He said he would knock $ 300 off but that is nowhere near what we should be paying him for how he has treated us. He is now holding our video hostage and demanding an unfair price for mediocre service. Do yourself a favor and go to someone who is professional, credible, and talented.

Dy lacks communication, timing and organization when I took my daughter for her traditional Cambodian outfit pictures.
It took me 7 weeks to receive my prints and in between that he constantly gave me excuses of when my pictures was ready when initially he told me it only takes 1 – 2 weeks. It resulted in giving me wrong prints one week, following week I waited for a hour in Lowell for him to let me know when he will get back to the studio, but turned out he claimed he had contacted me and that he left my photos in his studio mailbox for me to pick up. Then only to find out I was missing prints that I paid for. At that point it was going on 6 weeks when he told me he is behind because his co-​worker is oversea. Had he mentioned this in the very beginning, I would have totally understand but he did not once mention that and not once contacted to ensure he was working on my pictures or any reason to let know what the status of my order was. I as the client had to continuously remind him, and make sure he was getting things right.
I knew of his credibility and good work through social media, and friends so that was one of my reason to go support small businesses and he was the only one I know that offered the outfits, and pictures in one place. But after all the trouble I been through, I find it hard for me to refer him or go back to him and makes me question how he will handle bigger projects. If he has trouble dealing with only 4 poses and delivering it in a timely manner.
Partially the good thing in the very beginning he and his wife are very nice and patience with the kids. His wife did their hair and arranged the outfits. Dy did the photographing which he was good at. But he like I said lacks organization. There were a few things I am not going to bother mentioning but unfortunate to say I will not return.

My fiancée and I went on a trip to Cambodia two years ago. At everyone’s houses were wedding portraits taken in traditional Cambodian wedding attire, laden with beautiful fabrics and gold. At the time, we were encouraged to spend a day in a studio for a photo shoot of our own. However, we were in Cambodia for such a short time, we wanted to spend as much time as possible seeing the sights, meeting the friendly people, and making memories. After the fact, we regretted that we didn’t have those photos to look back on.
Recently, my fiancée realized that we could take the short drive from Boston to Lowell, where there is a thriving Cambodian community, and a studio where they often do studio sessions for wedding photos. We excitedly made an appointment, and drove up last weekend.
Chea greeted us there to prep for my fiancée’s hair and makeup. I didn’t think Chea could make her look any more beautiful, but much to my surprise, she succeeded. We then donned traditional wedding attire, from their vast selection of colors and sizes. Vea, the owner, then coached and entertained us, while snapping a set of fun and creative photos.
A week later, our prints arrived. We were absolutely stunned at the outstanding quality. The two of us looked like royalty! We’ll treasure these photos forever. We’ll definitely return, and will recommend them to friends, family, and fellow Unilocalers.