Sears Portrait Studio ripoff Poor Pictures, lousy customer service, and the list could go on and on! Concord North Carolina

First I will take some responsibility, I knew better then to go to Sears. Haven't shopped there since 1996 I believe, ever since they put gutters on our new house and we got a pour spout that gave us a waterfall on our deck everytime it would rain. Sears came back out to fix, but they fixed our neighbor's gutters instead, and we were told by Sears that it was a independent contractor that no longer did work for them, and that we had to find them to fix the problem they only gauranteed the product(gutters)not the installation.

Dumb me went back to Sears to have pictures taken on 11/21/2004. They told me they took 6 poses I told them I wanted 2 of the family, 2 of my boys together, 2 of myself and husband (watch the girl write it down) - what I got was 2 of my family,1 of my boys, 1 of myself and hubby, 1 of one son and 1 of the other son. Went and sat down with a very rude employee that didn't want to be there, picked out the pictures, couldn't really tell what the pictures looked liked the moniter had a dark background and was so dirty the pictures didn't show well, paid $420.21 for them.

These were to be Christmas gifts for our family, had already bought the frames the idea was the picture of the family in the center, on one side the picture of my boys, on the other side the picture of myself and hubby.
Picked our pictures up on 12/10/2004, spent hours trimming them so they would be centered in the frames, went bought mats also trying to achieve this, spoke with a framer at an arts & craft store who gave me a quote on what he would charge to acheive this.

Thankfully I took his suggestions and did it myself. I should of took his suggestion of returning them, but Christmas was right around the corner, and with our schedule it would of been hard to go out and buy replacement gifts for everyone, and I couldn't have them retaken in time for Christmas. So I did my best to center them without cutting off an ear, or hair, or other body part.

Contacted Customer care @ Sears photo basically got the run around, then I got offered 20% - $84.00 refund without the pictures being returned. I can just see myself asking family you know your Christmas gifts I need them back to get a full refund, maybe we can get something to you by Easter. I am not asking for a full refund but I think I deserve more then $84.00.
This is what I get, when the only day I could get the whole family in one place at the same time was a Sunday, thats why we went there. Sunday is basically the only day of the week we are all together.

The good news is I have a membership into a legal package that I always thought was a waste of $$$$ (bought from a nephew that was in college)I called them got the attorney for my area spoke with them and it turns out because of the amount of the case and type of case I don't have to pay anything for them to get my $$$ back, and they are going for a full refund without return of pictures. I never was asking Sears for that, so hopefully Sears might listen to their customers complaints in the future. I know alot of consumers threaten legal action and never take it - this one thanks to a nephew has the ability too.

Dj
Midland, North Carolina
U.S.A.