Venture Photography: Anyone have any experience dealing with this co.? Hard Selling.

Re: Venture Photography

I think this is one of those businesses that is going to suffer badly from the Recession. During the boom, people thought nothing of spending €2K on this type of stuff but now?

Friend of mine does photography - said the quality of the images can be quite hit and miss - but then a lay person would not notice the technicalities. Was in Homebase last week and they were actually had a stand there.
 
Re: Venture Photography

We went to venture in swords last august. We spent around €4000 on photos and an album.....yes my husband went mad and looking at them now on the wall, they were not really worth it..we only last month finished paying for them
 
Re: Venture Photography

I'd advise to steer clear of them. They phoned saying that I had won some kind of offer or competition that I had no recollection of entering. It sounded nice so I said I'd be interested, but in a few weeks as I was very busy. They then continued to ring and ring, so eventually I googled them to find out a bit more about them. 99% of the posts indicated dissatisfaction ranging from feeling misled, prices being increased, the nature of deals being misrepresented, and overwhelmingly feelings of pressure to attend sessions and then purchase pictures beyond what could be afforded. The next time they rang I said I was no longer interested, and the girl at the other end made no secret of how she felt about my decision (time waster, stupid etc). Was glad I gave them the swerve. There are good and reputable photographers who will show you their work, sell you reasonably priced prints and even save others to disc so that you can print them at your leisure.... a better bet I'd say.
 
Re: Venture Photography

banbha said:
There are good and reputable photographers who will show you their work, sell you reasonably priced prints and even save others to disc so that you can print them at your leisure.... a better bet I'd say.
Click to expand...
In my experience, many are reluctant to give you copies on disc, as they make their real money from the printing. It is important to ask beforehand whether you will get soft copies.
 
Re: Venture Photography

There was a lot of talk 2 weeks ago about various "picture taking companies" - I'm sure you'll be able to hear it on the rte radio 1 web site.
 
Re: Venture Photography

I've had a really bad experience with these guys, most of which is covered in similar posts above.

Does anyone know where you can buy the really cool frames they have in Venture?
 
Re: Venture Photography

I had similar experience with the venture photography last week,
I received a "€225-" gift voucher from my sister, I thought that my family will have a pleasant photo shots in a studio just like the "pixie photos" in those days, i never thought it will cost me more than the value of the gift voucher, now i realise the gift voucher was just a bait. i am still in shock by the prices i saw after those shots were taken, though the photos were great, my kids were astonishingly beautiful on those pictures, it was very hard for me to decline the pictures, anyway i ended up paying €1045-for a single wide frame and free digipen to take rest of the pictures home (it says it can not be printed out, only for computer view).
My worries now is that i spent €1045 plus the 225 gift voucher my sister gave me on "a photo" that i will only received in 6weeks time -what a nonsense??//.
I would wait for the 6wks without any extra day, if i don't get my picture and the digipen, I'll call my credit card company for a "reverse transaction".
Even if i receive the photo, I NEVER take any expensive photogragh again in my life time -my 100x wedding pictures did not even cost that much.
If only i could rewind the time, i would never have accepted the gift voucher from my sister and drove 240km to Dublin to get mugged.
 
I'm glad I came across this post. I spoke to a girl from Venture Photography at the recent Pet Expo in Dublin. She was very nice and I was entered into a competition after completing a survey. I got a phone call from them yesterday to say that I had won a €200 voucher for the family and dogs and that €55 goes towards the cost of the photographer which leaves me with €145 towards a photo. They also said that most people were adding a bit to the voucher to upgrade to a nicer photo! I thought this was a great deal.

She is ringing me back today to book an appointment. We'll have to travel to Dublin from South Tipperary (2 hr drive) with our 9 year old and 2 dogs....who are not the best behaved dogs...and then travel back down again. I initially thought it was worth it as we would get a lovely picture but now I'm having second thoughts. The journey..the hassle with the dogs...the hard sell....the fact we can't afford it and I don't want to feel under pressure...I think I'll give it a miss. I'll only want to buy the expensive ones if they look really good!
 
Don't get bullied into going. Don't think twice. Just don't attend, you will get the hard sell and you will feel you have to but. It's not worth the hassle.

I had a similar experience of their selling technique in Swords with my wife and Son off the back of a voucher. I actually laughed when the told me the prices of some of the photos and when I asked them to justify the prices THEY got offended.
 
Re: Venture Photography

I had been thinking about getting a family photo for a while, but didn't want the usual 1890's style photos that most places offer, so when I saw these photo's at Bloom this year I bought the €40 voucher straight away since it was exactly the style of photo I had been lookng for. This voucher was for €220, which covers the cost of the shoot and also €145 towards a pic with frame. All for just €40 which sounded great.

So I had the photoshoot with Venture in Swords last weekend with my wife and daughter. I have to say it was great. The studio was very nice with lots of sample photo's on the walls to look at and it was very relaxed. The photographer was very nice and my daughter took to her right away. It was a great hour and we got loads of photo's taken with various positions, lighting effects and even changes of clothes. Then came the time to make the viewing appointment. That's when I saw the prices. OH MY GOD! It's true that they are really, REALLY expensive. We were hoping to buy a number of photo's and give some to our parents, but at those prices it's not possible.

The voucher gives us €145 to spend on a photo and we can add to that if we like. We also got another €50 voucher if we keep our appointment for the viewing, so we have now have €195 towards the photo's. Our viewing is this evening and I'm looking forward to seeing them, but at the same time I nearly wish we don't see them since it's going to be very hard to choose between them.

To give you an example of the price, a 7x5 pic in the Gift frame which is their cheapest frame is €145 on the viewing day. If we decide to wait and order say next week or so after the viewing date, the price goes up to €193!! For some of their larger frames for instance the Urban frame, the 40x30 frame has a viewing price of €1570. After the viewing date, the price is €2094!!!

They have a credit option available. You pay 20% there and then, and the rest is spread over 36 months. Who want's to take out a loan for a photo?? Also they charge 19.9% interest on that. It's cheaper on the credit card!!!
The frame we want comes in at around €700 and if we decide to hold off and wait, it will go up to just under €1000.
I've the viewing this evening and I've been beating myself up on how to justify buying some of these. It's going to be tough to leave them. I just know I'll want more than I can aford. Another option is to buy an album and get more pics for your money, but it's still way over priced. 15 photo's for €1750 on the viewing date and €2334 after that!!!!!!!! AARRRGGGGHHHHHHH
Also, they don't sell prints alone, you have to buy the frames.

.
 
lalorm decide your budget before you go in this evening and do not (no matter how nice the photos are) go beyond this budget. We were in a similar position before (not with Venture but with a similar firm in Dublin) and we got carried away and spent way more than we intended - and regretted it almost as soon as we picked up the picture (we got one large one). Now the picture is lovely but no way does it justify the cost. It is very easy to get caught up when you see the selection of photos and there is no doubt but that pressure is applied to get you to spend as much as possible so you really need to have your budget determined in advance and don't move beyond that - otherwise you could end up spending more than you can afford.
 
This is madness. Engage a good portrait for photographer on a time-and-materials basis. You might pay €500 for 2-3 hours. Ensure beforehand that you will get high-res versions of everything he shoots. You can then print your own (€2 for a 10x8 print) and frame them as required.
 

Couldnt agree more. I have seen the results over 2000 euro spent with Venture on a friends wall - 3 smallish prints. Couldnt believe they had forked out that kind of cash.

Not allowing you to buy prints only is ridiculous, their frame prices are astronomical.

They only get away with this rubbish because people pay them for it - personally I would never hand out that kind of money for their work. I would always source a private professional photographer and just buy prints only.
 
Venture

Had the viewing last night and it went well. They presented the pics on a projector to music and the pics were very impressive. They gave us a 3 for 2 offer and also gave us the usb stick with all pics on it for free. As a result we stayed within our budget and got more than we expected.

All in all, I Would recommend them as long as you go in knowing that a couple of hundred won't get you very much. I will go back but not for a few years (if they are still in business!!).

Only downside is that we have to wait up to 8 weeks to get the photo's and we had to pay the full amount up front!

Cheers
Michael
 
My partner bought the voucher for 20 euro, and after that the phone calls started. I am normally quite carefull with money so when they contacted me re. booking the session I asked them how much they charge for the photos. The girl on the phone said they start from 179 euro. I was gobsmacked at that stage (naive old me, little did I know the top range prices). I told them that I found this excessive and will not be coming. She insisted that I had nothing to loose and that I should come to do the session and get the free print. Here I smelled the hard sale. So I thought I would teach them a lesson.
On the handouts that they give you before the second session (where you should be choosing your photos) it states: arrange the childminder as this is a precious moment, you don’t need interruption (honestly!!!!). Plus you should bring your bills and the ID so if you cant afford to buy it there and then, you can pay over 2 years but they will charge you 14.5% APR. This makes me laugh (and sick at the same time).
So we went for the 2nd session. It started with pointless chat for 20 minutes of where we live and how nice it is there and etc. We were offered tea & coffee, which we declined and not having any more patience left I said: shall we just proceed please. The lights went down, the music started and the slide show came on the screen. After the slideshow finished she went on that purchasing these prints is an investment (Investment??????) Would my grandchildren have a picture of me on their wall??? I dont think so!!!
Anyways, I asked what was included in our voucher to which she briefly showed a small print and said: oh, thats just a sample, but we have this and that and the other. I said, no thank you. We will just go with the sample.
Can I ask you why? She said.
I expressed my opinion (honestly they are so well trained to make you feel awkward!!!) She told me that these aren't just photos, these are "Brown Thomas" of photos. I told her that Brown Thomas don’t sell 20 euro voucher to be redeemable against a product that is worth 3 grand. She started saying that they do, at this stage, I just said that I am tired and have made my mind up.

The bottom line is the more clever people go to this place the quicker they be put out the business. (It looks like many did what I did as vouchers have gone up) Can’t stand businesses that put pressure on people!
 
Lalorm, are you going to share with us how much you spent with them?
I am sure if people shopped around there are plenty of fantastic photographers that would do the same job for a lot less. Lots of budding students perhaps who will give you the prints and you can frame them yourselves at a much reduced price and better frame.
Sounds to me like the sales people are nearly brainwashed and that the customers are under some form of hypnosis.
Crazy prices.
 
Have to say I just dislike the hard sell of this.

I don't think if its more expensive then regular portrait photographers because afaik they are also really expensive too.

People who get suckered into this really only have themselves to blame.
 
I bought a voucher for €20 in a Shopping Centre in March from your sales representative (tall guy with English accent). He advised us the voucher entitled us to a photo session and a 5x7 framed photograph. If we wished to upgrade from this it would be an extra €40 to get a 10x8 framed photograph.
We went for the photo session in May 2010. When we went for our viewing, the pricing set up had suddenly changed. I was told in order to get a 10x8 it would be €90. My mother accompianed me to the viewing and I stated that I was sold a package of a photo session and a 5x7 framed picture for the voucher of €20 and if I wanted to upgrade to a 10x8 framed picture it would be 40€ extra. the staff member doing the veiwing then rang his manager who was on holidays and he then came back and informed us that the person who had sold me the voucher had ceased employment with the company due to numerous complaints about him misleading customers as to what they were getting. We said this was not our fault and that we were sold a particular deal and this was what we expected to get. He said there was no manager available as they were all on holidays and that I would have to contact them on the following week, when I contacted them I was told they were still on holidays and that someone would call me back. I spoke to a girl on this occasion. I had a voicemail from a girl on Sunday, I called her back and she returned my call.
She proceded to tell me that the guy who sold the voucher was their most experienced sales person and that he had been with the company over 3 years. This is not what I was told at our viewing, he had informed us that he no longer worked for Venture as he was miselling the product. Now to be honest it doesn’t matter to me whether the member of staff is or isn’t working for the company anymore, the fact is he was working for the company when he sold me the voucher and I expect to be given what I was sold and not fobbed off with 2 seperate stories, one he doesn’t work there anymore and now that he is so good at his job he never makes a mistake. the girl I spoke with was quiet unhelpful and wasn’t willing to accept a member of staff could have possibly mislead me while selling me the product, all she was willing to offer me was a choice of frame colour. It is not the frame I am interested in, it is the 10x8 photograph upgrade for €40 that I was sold when buying the voucher.
I asked if a manager of some description could contact me regarding this issue, as I disgusted at how I am being treated and made out to be a liar, when all I expect to receive is what I was sold. after emailing a manager i still had to contact them again after 6weeks with no reply, when i finally spoke with a manager i was still been pressured for the extra 90euros! he said the best he could do was give it to me at 65euros which i felt id no other choice but to accept as i had chosen a picture i really liked. when i called out to confirm the picture there was again no managers available and was forced to pay upfront for the picture without seeing my completed photo, the receptionist continued to say i was lucky to getting my piture at the price i was forced to take and again about the sales rep who was so amazing at his job again i was left feeling so ridiculous for dealing with this company in the first place. i am still waiting to recieve my picture and would recommend anyone to seriously think twice before getting a voucher wit venture photography the pressure applied to you to spend more then you'd expect and being so rude and arrogant.
 
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