Samuel from Pixioo

[JasmineKee]

Hello all BTBs

I'm here to share my incident with Pixioo(Samuel). I believe wedding is an important event and would not like to see other BTBs receive the same treatment as me, from Samuel.

My wedding was in June 2014.

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During the 1st meet up in late March, Samuel mentioned to us that he will be out of town and will be back a day before my wedding. We were okay with that.

After the meetup, I asked for an invoice and the deposit amount. No reply until the 2nd week and he informed me that he will not be able to make it for the morning session and his partner will be taking over. He told me that he will be back in time for the afternoon session (wedding lunch). We okay-ed it (thinking back, it was a huge mistake). Invoice was only sent to me 5 weeks after the meet up (I was left with 7 weeks to my wedding then).

Fast forward to a week before my wedding, we communicated via whatsapp regarding the actual day details.

On the actual day, in the morning, someone asked about his whereabouts and his partner mentioned his flight was delayed and he will be late. Samuel told his partner on the morning itself. He did not message me about the delay, or that he wasn't going to turn up at all. Things were already chaotic at that time and he was the last thing on my mind. True enough, he did not turn up for the afternoon session at all.

I waited 2-3 days for his apology. NOTHING. When I finally messaged him, he told me, in his actual words, "I forgot to inform you."

Still feeling weird about his whole story, I went to search for his "delayed" flight. Turned out it landed on time. With all the information I went to confront him.

To cut the story short, he gave excuses. I told him his plane was on schedule; he then told me he landed approx 10.41 (1st phonecall received); clear customs etc at 12-1 pm and then added "frankly speaking I am also abit tired and shaq due to the flight. And by the time I reached your hotel I am afraid the party is going to over.."

I have no words for his actions. He was irresponsible and unprofessional. He asked whether there is a way to compensate us. Is there any way to compensate anyone in such situation? I don't know.

The only good thing that came out from this whole incident is that at least his partner is professional enough, and at such a young age too.

Please note that his partner is a freelance photographer and has got nothing to do with Pixioo.

I've engaged Pixioo for the PG/VG package but ONLY SAMUEL did not deliver what he said. I am very pleased with the work attitude of the freelance photographer and the VG.

As of now, I've posted the above review on Pixioo's FB page but it got hidden/deleted. Subsequently, I've posted a comment on 1 of his photos and it just got hidden/deleted too.

 

[JTee]

Sounds bad.. Wanted to shortlist them but seeing this review I guess not

 

[Xygoh]

I nv had a good impression of Pixio. They used to post on FB that they conduct contests to win their photography packages and said that the pics from the contestants will be posted on FB. But I nv ever see any photos for the competition at all. They don't intend to give out the prizes at all.

 

[Jolynn88]

Gross.

 

[Gkiwi]

Pure idioic photographer.

I will put his name in my strike off list...

Thanks for sharing

 

[vanityprinceess]

I nv had a good impression of Pixio. They used to post on FB that they conduct contests to win their photography packages and said that the pics from the contestants will be posted on FB. But I nv ever see any photos for the competition at all. They don't intend to give out the prizes at all.

Have wo.. I won a contest back in 2013 and Samuel soon contacted me for the details.

 

[stitch00]

As everyone know, wedding is a very impt day for everyone.
We will only go thru this once.
So engaging a responsible photographer/Videographer is very impt especially when it come to freelance.
I hope to share this to everyone who consider to use pixioo and his team.

I contacted Samuel a year before my wedding and confirmed.
keep texting him for an invoice or a contract but he didn't send it to me.
It's so difficult to reach him, Keep MIA.

Around 4 mths before my wedding, he text me saying that he cannot make it for the whole day.
Two week after that, he text me again saying that his videographer team cannot make it on the whole day.

In the end, I have to change my whole team.
As everyone agree, his photo is really great but not worth to risk it for actual day wedding.

 

[jess_christmas]

i have previously recommended Pixioo Photography by Samuel Ng to the BTBs in this group and to almost everyone i know, but a recent incident made me lose all the faith in this photography company and friend. i have always admired the superb service offered by samuel during my photoshoot and on my AD, as well as the affordable prices of their packages. i have recommended them to many BTBs who also agreed on samuel's great service and wonderful photography skills. i have even introduced samuel to some of my pregnant friends in recent years as he wanted to include maternity shoots in his portfolio. when other BTBs complain about his extremely late and slow replies through email or phone messages, i even backed him up because i know him personally as a friend and i understand his constraints as a working parent with two jobs then and with many shoots over the weekends.

however, he has recently quit his full-time job as a primary school teacher in june and has since became a full-time photographer. when he found out that i was pregnant (on 30 jan), he told me he would do a free maternity shoot for me in june. i thought it was nice of him since i have recommended so many BTBs to him and we are friends. on 5 may, i asked him whether we can set a date for the shoot. he only confirmed the date (21 june morning) with me on 16 may and he apologised for the late reply. i accepted his apology cos i thought he was just busy with all the weekend shoots.

then on 1 june, 3 june, 7 june, 14 june and 15 june, i repeatedly sent him messages on whatsapp, sms, calls, facebook messages and facebook wall posts to ask him whether my maternity shoot is still on so that i can get prepared. he did not reply at all. i knew he was in perth from 8-13 june from his facebook page but since he could post pictures on his page, i assumed he had access to wifi somehow.

when he came back, he still didn't reply me through any means. i had to contact my wedding videographer mark on 16 june to ask whether samuel had changed his number as i couldn't contact him. on 20 june, i asked mark again because i guessed they would be working together on some wedding since it was a saturday. mark said he spoke to samuel and that samuel will reply me. of course, the maternity shoot did not happen the next day as promised. i could still see him posting pictures on facebook and updating facebook, and yet he has no time to answer my calls or reply my messages?! i could also see from whatsapp that he was online and has read my messages.

i was angry not because i was cheapskate and did not have the free maternity shoot as promised. i was angry because of his attitude and the fact that he could not even be bothered to reply even though we were friends! how could you promise someone something then ignore that person? until now, he still hasn't apologised or contacted me at all. so please be very careful if you hire him as your photographer because now that i have experienced this, i believe he can go MIA anytime. i believe there are no excuses for his poor attitude because this is now his full-time job.

the videographer he works with, mark from dumarks videography, is still awesome and replies my messages within a few minutes. so no worries on that

 

[stitch00]

Ya same. He didn't reply my whatsapp but yet he can post photos in IG and FB.
And he didn't apologies too. He just ignore my msg.

 

[fatjojohead]

hi everyone! so sad to hear all the unfortunate experiences I'm a Nov 2016 BTB considering Pixioo as I really like their photography style. However, with all these feedback, I'm rather wary of hiring them... Does anyone have any updated experience to share? Thanks much!

 

[wy86]

hi everyone! so sad to hear all the unfortunate experiences I'm a Nov 2016 BTB considering Pixioo as I really like their photography style. However, with all these feedback, I'm rather wary of hiring them... Does anyone have any updated experience to share? Thanks much!

Hi fatjojohead

I think you should think twice about hiring him. The same thing happened to my friend. He totally just ignored my friend's messages when they were chasing him for the photos to use to as "save the date". In the end, he din deliver.

Despite multiple chasers, he only provide them with pics to choose around one mth before their actual day.

 

[Astralis]

Wanted to share my negative experience with all bride to be(s) so you can save yourselves from some stress and anger.
At a glance Samuel from Pixioo seems like a nice talented chap, however, after working with him i realized that not only is he difficult to deal with when there is any disagreement, but the quality of work he delivers is sub-par.
Here's a summary of my story.

1. We decided not to go with an established overly photoshopped studio and looked for grown rental, makeup and photography separately on our own. Having found Pixioo as part of this process, selecting a 3 hour pre-wedding shoot, paid up 50% before the shoot and 50% right after the shoot before anything was delivered, big mistake for being trusting

2. On the day of the shoot, photographer and videographer were on time (no issues for MIA for us, YET), during the shoot, they spent most of their time talking to each other, giving vague directions like who to stand where and general actions to take, but hey, don't expect them to tell you if your hair is messy, your posture is weird while you're standing on high heels on uneven ground, your arms are not in the most flattering position (basically you look fat af). and we thought ok, try not to get into their face so much, these people are professionals, let's just try our best and leave them to find the right angles.

3. After the shoot, we leave the duo to the post-production work, dropping them reminders once in awhile to check in to see if progress is on track. This is usually met with silence as samuel finds it difficult to respond to our emails, SMSes and whatsapp messages until it gets to more than 5 communications? But again, i stayed calm and avoided launching into bridezilla, always keeping faith that things will work out

4. AT ABOUT 2 WEEKS BEFORE THE WEDDING, still no photos! we intensified reminders to samuel and he finally delivers a selection of photos for our review. only 10 out of the hundreds of photos are decent or usable - most of them are mood shots (just blurry background shots without clear face), groom's face is blurred, or the actual shots of us depicted us in unflattering expression or positions.
My expectation was to have a range of photos in mood, close up, some very natural, some slightly staged to make up a great pre-wedding shoot album for keepsake and for display at my actual wedding day, but no,

when asked Samuel was extremely defensive, he was obviously offended and immediately said "I WILL LET THE INDUSTRY BE THE JUDGE AND EVALUATE THE PHOTOS..." "I REALLY SURE THAT THE PHOTOS ARE OK FROM MY EYES AS A PHOTOGRAPHER AND IT'S REALLY FRUSTRATING FOR ME. PROBABLY IT'S VERY SUBJECTIVE"
He's missing the point.
I just want the damn photos to look good enough for my wedding day and have no time for a professional evaluation. Then again, it's clear that, the client's opinions don't matter! in his mind, maybe in his mind he is shooting for competitions to be judged only by professionals and can do this in his way or the highway (cos too bad, we already paid him in full).
i panicked and determined that my wedding is more important that arguing with him so i made my selection and picked 5 photos to print and show at the wedding, after which i chucked these 5 pathetic photos aside and pretended i never took them. money down the drain, no memories retained.

Conclusion:
So Samuel told me this after the shoot, he needs to earn more money and he is even looking to become an insurance agent to earn more. this thought alone give you insight into the way he works - it's all about the money. So don't expect him to spend a little more time to help you make your once in a lifetime big day work. he's going to deliver what he wants, based on his last minute timelines. DO NOT HIRE.

Unprofessional, thoughtless and irresponsible. everything goes to hell after you've paid up. you're better off going to a bigger studio. Thankfully, for my actual day i went with another agency, who were amazing and the difference in professionalism and quality shows (yes, i do have a benchmark)

 

[natta]

Pixioo again!!

 

[Sleeplessdays99]

Dear Brides to Be-

I had the same bad experience with Samuel. I had hired him for my wedding in October 2018. Initially I thought he was a pretty nice chap. We met him and he appeared humble with a super friendly demeanour. I was further taken in by his earnestness and the fact that it was a weekend and he was working in the office on a late Saturday afternoon.


After doing a quick google search on him, I saw the posts from the other brides that said that he was a flake and not responsive. My experience at that point was that he was very responsive. Seeing the 100 plus reviews on Facebook, I figured that it may be 3-4 people (only about 3-4%) that has issues with him. I figured that the odds of a terrible experience is low; hence, it may be worth taking the risk. However, as low as this frustrating experience may be, once it happens to you, it is an incredibly frustrating experience that is not worth it.


The issue came in when weeks leading up to our wedding, as part of our package, he was supposed to do an “informal” photo shoot for an hour. He did not contact us to remind us of this (yes, it’s actually probably our fault for not being proactive). When we met up to discuss how he would like to take pics on the actual day, he actually offered to say that he will do a photoshoot in our new house after the wedding instead of this pre-wedding day photoshoot. We agreed and was happy that he seemed so accommodating.


Timeline of events, correspondences (or lack thereof) as follows:


Oct 2018 - The day of the wedding went without a hitch.


Following correspondence on Whatsapp (not e-mail):

December 2018 - Two months later after the wedding, Samuel sent us a link with pics to the wedding. Instead of a thumb drive promised, he said he will give us a free photo frame instead.


January 2019 - we messaged him on our choice of the photoframe


March 2019 - I haven’t heard anything at this point, I messaged him again on the status of the photoframe and dates that he can potentially give us for the photoshoot. He messages back on the same day, apologizes. I message him on the same day again to understand whether there is an update on the photoframe and also his availability for the photoshoot. No response.


April 2019 – 2 weeks later in April, he messages and apologizes and states that the canvas will be ready in 1-1.5 weeks time. Says he is available on the 17th and 24th of May for the photoshoot. At this point, I was getting a bit tired of the lack of messages or responses, I message him April 4, 16, 30 on the confirmation of May 17th for the photoshoot. No response


May 2019 – I message him on May 9th to confirm the photoshoot for May 17th as it was getting close to the date. My husband and I both took leave so that we can make this time. I asked if Samuel cannot make it to please let us know so that we can cancel our leave plans.

Message him again on May 13, and May 16 on confirmation but haven’t heard anything.


Despite promising to show up for the photoshoot on May 17th, he doesn’t respond, call or let me know he cannot make it and ignores my messages.


At this point, I am pretty frustrated. For most whatsapp is a pretty immediate mode of communication, and it is not unreasonable to expect a response in one week. My husband and I also figured that given we have already paid him, there was very little recourse for us.


Of all the wedding vendors we have engaged (wedding planner, videographer, etc.), Samuel was definitely a) one who did not deliver on time; b) least communicative (to the point of ignoring you even if he’s committed to something); c) disrespectful (by outrightly ignoring you)


I really don’t even think it’s about the money. To take someone’s payment after promising selected services and not delivering is not ethical. I sympathize that he’s busy and I don’t expect immediate responses. But almost a year after our wedding to just “ghost” on me is unacceptable. He could just have told me, sorry, I can’t do the photoshoot, you guys didn’t contact me before your wedding, so it’s your fault/ loss, but he doesn’t even have the basic decency to do that.


I would say to all thinking of engaging his services to save yourself the heartache and frustration and go with someone who is responsive/ responsible.


Hope this helps.