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Quality of service
0.5 out of 5 rating
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Average response time
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Professionalism
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Value
0.5 out of 5 rating
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Flexibility
0.5 out of 5 rating
My wife and I were married on September 13th, 2012 and we chose Michael Hacker to photograph the wedding. The day of the wedding, hours before the ceremony every one was present but Michael was nowhere to be seen.I dialed the number my wife and I had always used to contact Michael, and it went to voicemail. 30 minutes went by, and we heard nothing. I tried calling several more times, always with the same result - voicemail.
After several hours, the woman officiating our wedding told us she could not delay any longer because she was booked to marry another couple later that afternoon and would need to leave shortly. The assistant wine maker at the venue agreed to take photos, as did the maid of honor and both mothers.
After the ceremony, the venue where we were married received a phone call from Michael, asking to speak to me. He fully admitted he had forgotten that our wedding was scheduled to take place on a Thursday. Instead he had blindly assumed, without even checking his own records (which he admitted correctly reflected the date), that we were marrying the next day.
Michael apologized briefly and offered us a full refund, which I accepted. He also offered to photograph the wedding dinner for free, but would you want the photographer who had forgotten the date and time of your wedding present at your dinner afterwards? We did not and declined his services.
More than a week passed and I had not heard anything from Michael nor seen a refund.Finally a letter arrived via normal postal service mail bearing the Michael Hacker Photography letterhead. Inside of it was a check written for a full refund wrapped in a blank piece of printer paper. That's it - no written apology, nothing. He hadn't even bothered to expedite our refund or ensure its safe arrival via First-Class mail.
My wife and I would strongly caution anyone considering Michael Hacker's services to weigh the fact that his absence had a profoundly negative impact on our wedding day.
My wife and I were married on September 13th, 2012 and we chose Michael Hacker to photograph the wedding. The day of the wedding, hours before the ceremony every one was present but Michael was nowhere to be seen.I dialed the number my wife and I had always used to contact Michael, and it went to voicemail. 30 minutes went by, and we heard nothing. I tried calling several more times, always with the same result - voicemail.
After several hours, the woman officiating our wedding told us she could not delay any longer because she was booked to marry another couple later that afternoon and would need to leave shortly. The assistant wine maker at the venue agreed to take photos, as did the maid of honor and both mothers.
After the ceremony, the venue where we were married received a phone call from Michael, asking to speak to me. He fully admitted he had forgotten that our wedding was scheduled to take place on a Thursday. Instead he had blindly assumed, without even checking his own records (which he admitted correctly reflected the date), that we were marrying the next day.
Michael apologized briefly and offered us a full refund, which I accepted. He also offered to photograph the wedding dinner for free, but would you want the photographer who had forgotten the date and time of your wedding present at your dinner afterwards? We did not and declined his services.
More than a week passed and I had not heard anything from Michael nor seen a refund.Finally a letter arrived via normal postal service mail bearing the Michael Hacker Photography letterhead. Inside of it was a check written for a full refund wrapped in a blank piece of printer paper. That's it - no written apology, nothing. He hadn't even bothered to expedite our refund or ensure its safe arrival via First-Class mail.
My wife and I would strongly caution anyone considering Michael Hacker's services to weigh the fact that his absence had a profoundly negative impact on our wedding day.
Michael Hacker Photography's reply:
Matthew is correct, I missed the wedding; what he failed to mention was that I gave him a full refund, and that this had never occured in twenty years of photographing weddings. Out of hundreds of weddings, this happened once, and will surley never happen again. Yes, it was a terrible mistake, and I have never felt so bad in my life. I don't however, believe that my career deserves to be totally demolished over one mistake in twenty years. I do understand his feelings about this, but now it seems like a vindictive and angry attempt to destroy me. I sincerely hope that other brides to be will still consider me and my services for their wedding. Having happened one time in twenty years does not constitute a pattern of behavior.
User905758 Sent on 08/20/2012He was so easy to work with! I loved his creative picture ideas
User2205320 Sent on 06/30/2015I wasn't going to give an online review for Michael Hacker Photography until I saw someone who had the exact same experience as me - I had to confirm that it happened to me as well. It took about 4 years for us to get our book of pictures after our wedding date, and once we did, although it looked nice, there were multiple pictures used more than once throughout the book. I don't know if this was just a glitch in the timeframe that we hit, maybe they were going through a tough time? But the photographer could have made this experience much better just by responding to e-mails and phone calls, apologizing & explaining the situation in a more timely manner. I was extremely gracious with him in my response and wished it would have been handled more professionally. I understand that things happen, but four years is ridiculous.
