Monday, July 3, 2017

My Ralph Alejandrino Photography "Experience"

Last March 18, 2017, I and my two siblings went to SMX for Wedding & Debut Expo to look for a Photo & Video supplier for my sister’s debut. We finally decided to book Ralph Alejandrino who offered a good package.  I’ve attached the Service Contract for your reference:


That day we closed the deal with Ms. Tesa Alejandrino and made a Php 10k down payment. We were really happy because finally we’re done looking for the major suppliers for my sister’s Debut.

Fast forward to, May 3, 2017, I emailed Ralph with questions & some clarifications on the package, however, I didn’t get a reply nor any acknowledgement of my message.

To give you an idea on the things I wanted to clarify with him, here are just some:
  • I checked with him if the service contract is the only contract that we are signing? This is just to know if there’s a more detailed version.
  • Since we decided to do the Pre-debut photo-shoot on our own, we would like to clarify if this can be exchange for additional photos in the gallery (6 frames, instead of 3)
  • tried to confirm how many photos does he need for the photo guestbook layout
  • To know how do we pay the 50% downpayment since we are not meeting him for the pre-debut shoot, which was as in contract

May 9, 2017, I texted & called him to follow up, he answered the call right away. I told him that I emailed him last week and we booked him for our event on June 3. He told me that he will call me back because he will look for our service contract so that he’s aware of the inclusions of our package. Days passed and no return call from him.

This time, I asked the coordinator’s help to contact him and to make follow-ups. I was feeling worried with the customer service and was even thinking of looking for another service provider since he might not show up with the way he’s responding. 3 days before the event, the coordinator reported that Ralph confirmed our booking and explained to her that he was busy and he went out of the town the past weeks to do shoots. I just thought to myself, he must be really in demand and really good at what he do. That made me kind of excited to work with him. This somehow assured me that he’s coming. (What a relief)


June 2, a day before the event. I got a text message from Ralph telling me that I haven’t paid the down payment since we didn’t do the pre-debut shoot. I took this opportunity to make him realize that I asked him how are we paying him the DP before, and he didn’t reply, that’s why there was not payment made. He said, “Ayyy, sorry po. Sige po bukas nalang po.”


June 3 day of the event, two (2) photographers arrived at around 2 pm at the hotel room, but no sign Ralph Alejandrino. The shoot went on until the program started.

I was busy entertaining our guests when I saw Ralph standing and looking around so approached him and introduced myself, because that was the first time we saw each other in person. I’ve noticed that he is not shooting/covering. At the back of my mind, “what the heck, I booked you because I thought you’ll be the one to cover the event? No one told me that there was a possibility that it is not THE RALPH ALEJANDRINO who will personally cover the event!” I didn’t want to waste my time to dwell on this, and hoped that the output of his team is OK.

The party ended, Ralph approached me to say goodbye, so I asked him when do we get the photos of the event. He said he’ll just save it on DVD and have it shipped to me within two (2) days. The event was June 3, 2017. June 7, 2017, still no photos, I followed-up and he said “Hi i-ready ko lang mga dvd of photos next week.”


June 14, 2017 I texted him again but no response, so I called him. He answered and then he asked for my address so that he can have it delivered to my house.

June 18, 2017, still no photos at hand, I emailed him yet again begging him to send us the Photos, but still no reply. I remembered Tesa Alejandrino, because she’s the one who entertained us during the Expo. So I looked her up on Facebook, and messaged her asking for an update for the photos and ranting about how rarely her husband replies to me. After a few minutes I opened my message to her and still no reply but she has seen my massage and without any sign of being apologetic about all the complaints. It’s like she ignored me so I decided to call her number. She answered right away not knowing that it was me calling, again, I just repeated what I said in my message. She said that she’ll be the one to check on it and told me that Ralph was very busy and he was on an event that day. 

(Typically replies in a day daw, but in my case no reply at all! :( seen zoned not once but twice)

June 20, 2017 I received 4 CDs’ with all the photos via Grabexpress. Then Ralph texted me, AT LAST! He told me to select photos and send back the selected photos for them to proceed with the Photobook. So I did.

June 21, 2017 I sent back the photos to him. He then replied that it will take 4 weeks to finish the photobook, which is understood. I replied asking again regarding on when do we get the edited and full video coverage. No reply.

July 4, 2017 still no reply.

How many hours and days I’ve wasted just to beg for your response/update. What frustrates me was how many times I felt ignored. Am I the only one who experienced this kind of service from Ralph Alejandrino? If Ralph is too busy, maybe at least Tesa could reply to me on Ralphs’ behalf and apologize on the delay, but no, I was seen-zoned! :(

Is this the kind of service their clients get, or are we just one of the UNIMPORTANT ONES!? Is it because we availed of their PROMO PACKAGE? I believe even promo packages should come with CUSTOMER SERVICE, right?

To summarize my issues...

First, during the Expo when Tesa she sold us their package, she didn’t inform us that it was not Ralph that will cover our event. There was no mention that they have other teams to cover events.

Second, all the “freebies” of their package were of the lowest quality. Photo booth was late, photo output sucks! Photo gallery set-up was also late since guests were already inside the ballroom when they set-up.

LASTLY, and the most frustrating one, THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS!

P.S. As of today, we are still waiting for the Photobook & the Video coverage of this once in a lifetime event of my sister. I do hope we could hear from Ralph and Tesa.



9 comments:

  1. You should have booked Nice Print Photography. Photographer of the stars and celebs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ^ That depends on the package. They're good in marketing. Just so you know.

      Delete
  2. That's not even the case. If you booked a client you have to deliver whether you are a Nice Print Photography level or just a puchu puchu Photographer or or Videographer level. Things should be taken care of professionally. Just my two cents.

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  3. Report it to Philippine Wedding Photographers group. Or repost it here https://easywed.com.ph/suppliers-fraud-database

    ReplyDelete
  4. Regarding Mr Alejandrino not shooting, you should've asked that to Ms Tesa during the expo. Because some of the brochures of photo studio usually have this in the package(for example: Package A - "studio owner" + 1 photographer).

    Regarding the video, i think it takes time before they deliver that. Wedding video coverage takes about 6months-1yr, I dont know about the debut. But the thing is, they also have backlogs or maybe they have deliverables to finish first before your said event(first come, first serve kumbaga). The only thing that is wrong here is, they don't reply to your inquiries. This is just my opinion.

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  5. Thank you for posting your feedback. Muntik na namen ito ibook now sa wedding expo. Good thing we checked the intetnet first for some review. You saved us :)

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  6. I agree! He does not shoot during events even if he was there. Baka yung team nya ang magaling at hindi talaga siya! Up to now wala pa rin video and photos nung wedding ko! one year ago pa....we keep on calling him but no answer. Pupuntahan na lang siguro namin. Very unprofessional! sana di na sila i-allow sa mga wedding expo!

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  7. got our wedding album and videos 2 yrs after the event. during the event nagpic naman si Ralph pero mostly ay si Al. I'm okay with Al kasi he's easy to work with and maganda yung output ng pics. pero sa video, meh. and yes, soobrang tagal nya magresponse. Yes, maintindihan mo kung matagalan yung album and video kasi baka marami silang client. pero naman, mag update or magreply man lang sana.

    Nga pala, a year ago na siguro, may post sa page nya sa fb, frustrated client din so nagrant. ayun ang bilis ng response ni Ralph, delete agad yung post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi, I have the same experience with him, our request was to shoot our prenup earlier so we can have the photos used for the invitations, release save the date as early as possible (for our relatives travelling from abroad). Prenup happened early as requested. However, it took sooooo many weeks before they provided a copy of the shoot, and we requested specific music for the save-the-day (they said ok) but they sent a video which that really different from what we requested, PLUS we had 3 different outfits and it was showing just one scene and outfit (HALATANG MINADALI).

    Wedding comes, okay he was there. In our contract, HD Projector is included in our package, they did not provide. Good thing the sound system was ready.
    Photobooth was also included, the coordinator told me that they were not prepared, what they did was they put up a cloth then boom, photo booth, with out print outs (Guests were asking for copies - printed nor soft copies).

    after the wedding took MONTHS before he replied to our follow ups to get our albums. I posted his name and my experience in a wedding supplier group that was the only time that he became apologetic and responsive. He gave me the printed out (FRAMED ONE) a big one, I had to ask him to replace it, because it looks like just a camera phone shot where we were just standing at the altar (WAY SO DIFFERENT WITH THE ONE THAT HE SHOWED US during the BRIDAL FAIR) he was boasting about this "infrared shot"... I tell you, IG and phone edited photos were better that the one they framed. He replaced it as he know that its really "UGLY".

    I have a close friend of mine, a Wedding make up artist and she know Ralph, she told me that Ralph does SEVERAL BOOKINGS AT DAY, meaning he is not personally present in one of the weddings for that day, then end of the day will jump off to another wedding just to say hi/bye.

    OVERALL - not satisfied with photos and video and the service.

    ReplyDelete

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