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)
- I 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.
