sunsetscouldlastforever
New Member
I would like to share my negative feedback about Joseph Bartino (or Joseph Daniel Bartino) of superpandapresents / super panda presents (pre wedding, prewedding and also actual day wedding photographer).
Like his pictures? Yes so did we. We booked his time on 29 march for a shoot on 1 June. It was confirmed. A week before the shoot, I proactively sent him a text message to remind him on our shoot. I was so excited and have also coordinated with my makeup artiste Jennifer from the makeup room. As Jennifer is very busy, it was really not easy to coordinate and fix a date.
To my shock and horror, he said he was overseas and will only be back in Singapore on 3 June! He asked us to reschedule and told us that the airlines office is closed in the evening and we need to wait until the next day for the office to open before he can find out if he could reschedule his flight.
Worst, he even claimed I did not confirm the shoot with him! I had to send him a screenshot of our confirmation before he promptly apologise. By then I have lost half my faith in him as to how unprofessional he was. He gave me the impression that he was trying to wriggle his way out of the situation to make himself look good! He said his phone data was erased but it is not our fault especially when we have confirmed the shoot!
The next day, he told us he was unable to reschedule his flight so he offered us two options: he will buy a new ticket back OR we will do the shoot on a weekday and he will give us a significant discount.
If we went with option 1, Joseph Bartino would have to fork out extra money for his ticket and imagine how awkward it will be for us at the shoot! we want to be relaxed and enjoy our shoot and we were clearly not comfortable with this option. Anyways if he was sincere in making up for this, he would have bought the ticket without telling us instead of saying "... rather than buying a new ticket". My pre-wedding shoot would feel look a guilt trip!!!
If we went with option 2, it was out of the question as I have teaching commitments (my work hours are from 9am to 6pm) and my makeup artiste is not available as well!
In the end, we decided to let it slide and cancel it because we have no choice! We kept our unhappy experience to ourselves even when friends asked "hey how's ur shoot?". We just said "photographer cannot make it" and didn't even went around to bad mouth him, not even on our Facebook pages,
UNTIL ONE OF HIS PICTURES WAS POSTED ON THE WEDDING SCOOP'S INSTAGRAM PAGE!
I shared my experience and thought that was it but Joseph was completely unprofessional and even said we were misleading people! He said it was only a pre-wedding shoot and not wedding. Indeed! But just because it is a pre-wedding shoot doesn't mean it is not important to us!
He also said he offered to give us a discount, etc, but he was completely missing the point!
The screenshots are attached and I will let you be the judge. Think twice ladies: you want to be a happy and stress-free bride to-be. even if the pictures are nice, nothing is more valuable than having a peace of mind with a photographer you can trust.
He said he has never missed another shoot apart from ours, but it is what it is. I don't mind if he apologizes and end of story but what irks me most are people who are clearly at fault and try to pin the blame on another!
While I erased my Instagram handle here, my IG handle really isn't hard to find as it's public on The Wedding Scoop's Instagram but I am erasing it in the pictures so the pictures don't get circulated without people reading a true and actual account of my story
Like his pictures? Yes so did we. We booked his time on 29 march for a shoot on 1 June. It was confirmed. A week before the shoot, I proactively sent him a text message to remind him on our shoot. I was so excited and have also coordinated with my makeup artiste Jennifer from the makeup room. As Jennifer is very busy, it was really not easy to coordinate and fix a date.
To my shock and horror, he said he was overseas and will only be back in Singapore on 3 June! He asked us to reschedule and told us that the airlines office is closed in the evening and we need to wait until the next day for the office to open before he can find out if he could reschedule his flight.
Worst, he even claimed I did not confirm the shoot with him! I had to send him a screenshot of our confirmation before he promptly apologise. By then I have lost half my faith in him as to how unprofessional he was. He gave me the impression that he was trying to wriggle his way out of the situation to make himself look good! He said his phone data was erased but it is not our fault especially when we have confirmed the shoot!
The next day, he told us he was unable to reschedule his flight so he offered us two options: he will buy a new ticket back OR we will do the shoot on a weekday and he will give us a significant discount.
If we went with option 1, Joseph Bartino would have to fork out extra money for his ticket and imagine how awkward it will be for us at the shoot! we want to be relaxed and enjoy our shoot and we were clearly not comfortable with this option. Anyways if he was sincere in making up for this, he would have bought the ticket without telling us instead of saying "... rather than buying a new ticket". My pre-wedding shoot would feel look a guilt trip!!!
If we went with option 2, it was out of the question as I have teaching commitments (my work hours are from 9am to 6pm) and my makeup artiste is not available as well!
In the end, we decided to let it slide and cancel it because we have no choice! We kept our unhappy experience to ourselves even when friends asked "hey how's ur shoot?". We just said "photographer cannot make it" and didn't even went around to bad mouth him, not even on our Facebook pages,
UNTIL ONE OF HIS PICTURES WAS POSTED ON THE WEDDING SCOOP'S INSTAGRAM PAGE!
I shared my experience and thought that was it but Joseph was completely unprofessional and even said we were misleading people! He said it was only a pre-wedding shoot and not wedding. Indeed! But just because it is a pre-wedding shoot doesn't mean it is not important to us!
He also said he offered to give us a discount, etc, but he was completely missing the point!
The screenshots are attached and I will let you be the judge. Think twice ladies: you want to be a happy and stress-free bride to-be. even if the pictures are nice, nothing is more valuable than having a peace of mind with a photographer you can trust.
He said he has never missed another shoot apart from ours, but it is what it is. I don't mind if he apologizes and end of story but what irks me most are people who are clearly at fault and try to pin the blame on another!
While I erased my Instagram handle here, my IG handle really isn't hard to find as it's public on The Wedding Scoop's Instagram but I am erasing it in the pictures so the pictures don't get circulated without people reading a true and actual account of my story