Dealing with a bad situation

Today I wanted to blog about wonderful things and how blissful being a photographer is. I tried. Unfortunately it’s not all roses. Unfortunately sometimes you get slapped in the face with the reality that you messed up. BIG TIME. Making clients unhappy is not the name of my game. Rarely does it happen. However, it does happen.

To make a long, sordid, unbelievable story short I will give you the jist of it. A client doing Santa pictures did not get their email. When they got the print they were very upset. Santa is holding the dog too tight. Some might even say he looks like he is choking the dog. Their holiday picture was ruined. Phone calls were made. Phone calls were never received. Messages were left for people who were out of town. Misunderstandings through email were had. Suddenly I realized what an awful situation I had. It took this poor person a month to get ahold of me and there was no way to remedy the situation by then. Believe you me, I tried. I sent alternate images from the day. I offered free pictures for this years photo shoot. I offered a free photo session with the dogs. Understandably they want nothing to do with me.

It is so hard to swallow that this happened. It was shocking to read the email and read the words they used to describe my photography style and my behavior. I have these visions where I do everything in my power to connect with her and win her back. Sadly, I have to chalk this one up to the lost wall. Did I learn anything? Yes. Still, it remains one of those situations where even if I had received the first phone call I don’t know if I could have saved the situation. I still wish it never would have come to this.