Update on my Photographer Issues

You remember the issues I was having with my photographer, right? Well here's an update.

As I stated in the first post, I sent her a letter of demand as a certified letter. I addressed it to "Helen"/"Name of Photography Business". She was not home when the mailman tried to deliver it so they left a notice for her to pick it up at the post office. Standard procedure is that the post office gives the recipient 20 days (TWENTY!) to pick it up. If it is not picked up it is sent back to the sender. Guess who didn't pick up the certified letter? Yup.

So I waited the full twenty days only to have the stinking thing returned to me. I kept the original letter with all the post office markings for my records and printed out another copy. I then typed a second letter to Helen, summarizing her refusal to pick up the certified letter and stated that (since she did not pick up the original letter) I would kindly give her an additional 15 days to get the photo CD to me and that if I did not receive the CD I would take her to small claims court.

I then hired Western Maryland Investigations and Surveillance to serve both letters directly to her because, you know, Homey D. Clown don't mess around. Western MD Surveillance did a great job. She got the letters :) Just yesterday I received this email from her:

Cheryl,

I received your letter and wanted to inform you that your photographs will be mailed later this afternoon or tomorrow morning in a medium sized white box labeled WHCC. I will email you the tracking information tomorrow morning. Inside will be some hard prints in addition to all of the full sized digital files that I have. I was not able to recover the images lost of your maternity shoot. A few of the pictures were saved on a photo hosting site. I cannot retrieve the full sized digital files of these but am able to order prints from the company. A separate envelope should be arriving from a third party photo hosting site in about a week.

I am sincerely sorry this experience has been one disaster after another. You have been incredibly patient and understanding, much more than I deserved. Six months ago I closed my company so that I could care for my baby sister through her chemo and your pictures completely fell off my radar. I offer this not as an excuse but to simply explain that there was not malice in my mistake. I am so very sorry.

I am glad she apologized, and I am truly sorry for her sister. But I have an inside source who tells me she went to visit her sister (who lives in California) for only a week or two, and the trip was back in April. She's been home ever since and on Facebook playing some mafia game (?? I don't facebook so I don't know) almost daily. Yup, daily.

She has not yet emailed me my tracking numbers as she stated in the email. I will email her tomorrow morning asking for the numbers, if she doesn't come through tonight. Tracking number or not, knowing that she received my letters, yesterday was day 1 of her 15 days. So she better get moving.