Portrait America ripoff, false advertising, unproffessional quality Chattanooga Tennessee

The only contact I have had from Portrait America is through this Rip-off report.com. They have made NO attempt to contact me and resolve this issue. That is very frustrating to me. Portrait America needs to contact me personally, by phone preferably by mail, so I have something in writing, since their stories seem to change to suit their purpose and not just reply to this website. I am currently working part-time for an attorney, who handles collections, and I will fight any collection procedures taken against me until Portrait America has made some attempt to resolve this issue with me. Again I have offered to pay Portrait America some monies, but I will not pay full price for pictures that were printed without my authorization, and printed without the color I was told they would have. You (portrait america) want your pictures back, I will be more than happy to send what I have left, but I need to know what the charge will be for the pictures I keep. Wal-mart could have done a lot better job than what portrait america has done. And I have no doubt they would have worked with me to resolve any issue I might have had.

When I went to view the pictures, the lady told me that these are the proofs. I was never informed at any time that the any or some of the prints would be in "pure sepia tone" and others would be in "unsaturated color". I was shown an example of the type of pictures I would receive that had the color hints in it, when I signed up for the portraits to be done, that is what I expected to receive.

Again at NO TIME did anyone from Portrait America tell me, or advise me that not all my pictures would have the hint of color in it. To me that is false advertising. I should have been advised that not all my pictures would be the same in color.

Portrait America has not been concerned about my customer satisfaction. They called my home number one time, left a message while I was out of town and never called again. Nor have they made any other attempt to contact me by phone or by mail to resolve this issue or collect payment.

I did stop payment on my checks after calling Portrait AMerica and speaking with Sharon and Lisa and I was advised by both of them that there was nothing the company would do to resolve my issue. At that time 2-23-06 I spent $50.00 to stop payment on my checks and made a claim to the BBB.

It was just over a week when I realized the 3 1/2X5 were different than ALL the other pictures I ended up with. My first check was supposed to be deposited on 2-12-2006 and on 2-23-2006 it was still not posted. I would have let that check go through the bank, but it was a week in a half after the date on the check and it had still not been presented to my bank. That is not my fault, your company can not put the checks through in a timely manner.

I have not returned any pictures because I have not spoken with any one about the amount I would owe if I did return pictures. I was told there was nothing the company would do. There has been no response from Portrait America regarding my "desired resolution" listed with the BBB. I should have been sent a letter or something from Portrait America asking me to either return all or part of the proofs with a recommended resolution from Portrait America.

I will return prints, but I will not pay the full price for the prints I have. I was not advised I could order certain prints or anything. I was given the impression at the time of viewing that what I see before me is it.

I don't even know who Larry is. I was told the next person up would be Sharon. Portrait America has not been a respectable company, especially by listing my last name, they have made no other attempt to contact me or ressolve this. I am willing to make payments like originally agreed, but not for that amount. What I received was NOT what I was told the pictures would be like.

An attempt to resolve the issue should have been done when I made the original complaint to Portrait America, instead they said there was nothing they would do. As far as your collection agency working on my checks, they were not bad at the time I wrote them out, they became bad, when Portrait America refused to work with me or contact me back and resolve a problem I had with the company.

When I called and complained to Portrait America, they should have taken my phone number and had someone call me back within a resonable amount of time. But that was not done. I was told there was NO resolution.

I did not recieve a call from them until long after I stopped payment on my checks. I am currently getting records to get the exact date.

To date of this rebuttal Portrait America has yet to try and contact me by phone or by mail. Does this sound like a company that is "certainly concerned about customer service, and we work very hard to see that every customer is satisfied with our portraits". You have made no attempt to collect from me or even contact me, but yet you will turn it over to a collection agency? I have made several statements that I am willing to pay and send back pictures, but you have not offered me anything because you have not tried to contact me and resolve this issue.

S. Heckert

PortraitAmerica is certainly concerned about customer service, and we work very hard to see that every customer is satisfied with our portraits.

However, Sharmon Heckert did not see any "proofs" from our company. What she saw, and bought, was a package of pre-printed portraits, some of which are in pure sepia tone, and some of which are what is known as "unsaturated color" (just a little bit of color to keep the portraits looking still antique.

What our customer did not tell you was that she stopped payment on the checks which she gave us to pay for her portraits 2 weeks before she filed her original complaint with the BBB.

She will not return our phone calls, and she has not returned the portraits which she has not paid for. Our collection agency is still working on the bad checks.