Kevin Keong
New Member
Hi everyone, my name's Kevin. I created this account just to vent and highlight a vendor that I'll like everyone to avoid (like the plague, except that this in in SG and still active, according to CASE). Please do not make a stupid mistake like we did and vet through your wedding photographers properly.
After my then-girlfriend agreed to my proposal in 2018, we were busy planning our marriage. My fiancee and I wanted a nice little wedding complete with wedding photos and we were searching online for a wedding photography company.
Being young, our finances were limited but we were still searching for something that we'd both like - preferably something simple and with outdoor and indoor photos. Therefore we searched online for some budget friendly options.
After searching for weeks, lo and behold, we encountered this Facebook group with a unique name - Ztage, and a pretty substantial portfolio of pictures from Korea and beyond. We were immediately entranced and after contacting them and heading down to their office in Paya Lebar, we paid the deposit, over 2k to book their services for a photoshoot in both Singapore and Korea.
This was the start of the rollercoaster of frustration.
Ztage contacted us a month later to confirm the booking and asked us for payment of the remaining more than 2k as confirmation of their services. On hindsight, paying the 2k plus when no services had yet to be rendered was a stupid decision, but we were young and dumb, plus we wanted to arrange for the wedding photo. We started contacting them to arrange both the dates to when we wanted the photoshoots to be done but after a few weeks of contact, they went silent.
After a month or two, we started trying to contact them. At first, they replied after a while, but the replies became more and more sparse. We managed to settle on a photoshoot date on 17 March 2019 for our Singapore photoshoot and May for the overseas photoshoot, but when the date neared the company stated that there would be an expo and they wanted to push the date forward to the 28th of February. We contacted them to say that, no, we were not able to push it forward as we would have to apply for leave, and whether they could have it in April.
No reply.
Come January, we tried contacting them again. They only replied in February. We started having a bad feeling about this. But there are no brakes on this rollercoaster.
After a couple of months came and went and lots of ignored messages and sparse anemic replies later, we finally managed to contact the overseas branches and arranged to head to our May Korea photoshoot, to our relief. When we arrived however, there were problems with our lodging and we had to stay in a different arranged lodging to the one that was promised to us. Also, we had a translator accompanying us for the photoshoot but the cameraman promised to us, Ashton, was not around for the photoshoot.
The photoshoot went well and we were promised by the translator that she had contacted the company, and that we would be reviewing the photos in roughly 1 to 2 weeks later. Guess what?
It did not come.
May went by with us trying to contact the company and getting increasingly frustrated. Weeks could go by before a reply to our messages came, calls went unanswered and even calls to their overseas branches went ignored at times. A person we contacted said that the company that we went to in Paya Lebar no longer exists. We had no choice but to engage CASE in order to demand for a partial refund of the SG portion as our wedding date was nearing.
It is now August and they still are not replying. No whiff of any pictures was seen. We have initiated for CASE to get a full refund from them, pictures be damned.
So, all in all, this is a short story about vetting through your wedding photographers. It has happened to us, let it not happen to you.
TLDR: always check your photography company.
P.S. Ztage, CASE has informed me of your office in Chinatown Point. You sneaky little unmentionables, I shall find you soon.
After my then-girlfriend agreed to my proposal in 2018, we were busy planning our marriage. My fiancee and I wanted a nice little wedding complete with wedding photos and we were searching online for a wedding photography company.
Being young, our finances were limited but we were still searching for something that we'd both like - preferably something simple and with outdoor and indoor photos. Therefore we searched online for some budget friendly options.
After searching for weeks, lo and behold, we encountered this Facebook group with a unique name - Ztage, and a pretty substantial portfolio of pictures from Korea and beyond. We were immediately entranced and after contacting them and heading down to their office in Paya Lebar, we paid the deposit, over 2k to book their services for a photoshoot in both Singapore and Korea.
This was the start of the rollercoaster of frustration.
Ztage contacted us a month later to confirm the booking and asked us for payment of the remaining more than 2k as confirmation of their services. On hindsight, paying the 2k plus when no services had yet to be rendered was a stupid decision, but we were young and dumb, plus we wanted to arrange for the wedding photo. We started contacting them to arrange both the dates to when we wanted the photoshoots to be done but after a few weeks of contact, they went silent.
After a month or two, we started trying to contact them. At first, they replied after a while, but the replies became more and more sparse. We managed to settle on a photoshoot date on 17 March 2019 for our Singapore photoshoot and May for the overseas photoshoot, but when the date neared the company stated that there would be an expo and they wanted to push the date forward to the 28th of February. We contacted them to say that, no, we were not able to push it forward as we would have to apply for leave, and whether they could have it in April.
No reply.
Come January, we tried contacting them again. They only replied in February. We started having a bad feeling about this. But there are no brakes on this rollercoaster.
After a couple of months came and went and lots of ignored messages and sparse anemic replies later, we finally managed to contact the overseas branches and arranged to head to our May Korea photoshoot, to our relief. When we arrived however, there were problems with our lodging and we had to stay in a different arranged lodging to the one that was promised to us. Also, we had a translator accompanying us for the photoshoot but the cameraman promised to us, Ashton, was not around for the photoshoot.
The photoshoot went well and we were promised by the translator that she had contacted the company, and that we would be reviewing the photos in roughly 1 to 2 weeks later. Guess what?
It did not come.
May went by with us trying to contact the company and getting increasingly frustrated. Weeks could go by before a reply to our messages came, calls went unanswered and even calls to their overseas branches went ignored at times. A person we contacted said that the company that we went to in Paya Lebar no longer exists. We had no choice but to engage CASE in order to demand for a partial refund of the SG portion as our wedding date was nearing.
It is now August and they still are not replying. No whiff of any pictures was seen. We have initiated for CASE to get a full refund from them, pictures be damned.
So, all in all, this is a short story about vetting through your wedding photographers. It has happened to us, let it not happen to you.
TLDR: always check your photography company.
P.S. Ztage, CASE has informed me of your office in Chinatown Point. You sneaky little unmentionables, I shall find you soon.