Hi, I'm in a legal dispute with my wedding photographer/videographer and issued a court claim against him over a month ago claiming a specific settlement amount. He didn't deliver on his promise re: services, and we ended up with sub-standard wedding photos and terrible low-quality unedited footage as our wedding video (complete with raw sound from the day e.g. people walking around, chattering etc.) He then completely stopped communicating with us. After issuing the claim via MoneyClaim Online (to his business address), he sent an envelope back to the court with a note saying 'Gone away'. The court sent this back to me along with the claim form without any further instruction. I know he is actively operating at that address, and 'Gone away' doesn't mean the address is invalid, so don't know why they've sent it back to me. What should I do? Should I issue a warrant via MoneyClaim Online, or is there a better way? I'm so frustrated. I cannot let him get away with this, and am furious that he's simply brushing it off! Thanks.

Hi all, This is on behalf of a friend who got married just over a year ago and has had really bad experience from her photographer. The photographer himself / company was a recommendation and all the usual steps were taken in vetting him and his team, seeing is work, talking to a few others etc before the contracts were signed. On the day, he was really unprofessional demanding extra money or his departure nearing the end due to the wedding getting a little delayed - not something a bride wants to hear on the her big day. In contrast, my own wedding with another photographer stayed almost 5 hours after the event for free! It was later found out he was also very loud and shouting to guests in trying to get photographs etc. Fast forward to last Jan, the bride received her first draft of pictures. According to the contract, she had a year to vet them and so in November 2015, they were vetted only to find a huge section of the event was missing. This included all the lunch/dinner photos but more importantly, all the group shots with the bride and groom (50+ images minimum here). What was more distressing is her father in law had passed away soon after the wedding and these images would have been the last ones to have been captured. Despite it being within a year, the photographer tried to use this as an excuse that he no longer has the originals and would not be able to get them back - Something just not done by a good photographer - most keep all their photos as part of their portfolio! He then offered a £100 refund out of "goodwill" His actual response was as follows: I have managed to locate the master back up images in finalised JPG format and I have reviewed and taken on board your comments in respect of the missing group shots. Having looked through everything I hold, I have come to the realisation that there are approx 50-60 group images missing. Unfortunately I am unsure why/when or how these are missing, whether they have been deleted after the completion or when original transferring the images from my camera onto desktop. "Due to the above and complying with my terms of contract, I can agree that I am happy to compensate you the pro-rata fee for the missing images as you have requested. In accordance to the fees paid, the pro-rated compensation is £42.63 however I am happy to round this up to £100.00 as a gesture of goodwill. Breakdown of the £42.65 is £4450.00 fees paid for 5219 pictures handed over x 50 missing images = £42.63" A letter was sent back demanding an explanation on 1. how so many images were "lost" 2. As a professional photographer, surely he would have noticed in the 6 months+ of vetting/sorting, that such as major part of the wedding was missed out? 3. Apparently "some" images mysteriously re-appeared during the back and forth of emails and messages - how? With a concluding line that a part so called goodwill gesture refund is not enough if anything - it does not reflect his integrity at all. His response was simply: We were surprised by the complaint raised considering the images were provided to you approximately 10 months ago and to date you had given no indication of your dissatisfaction. As a result of our services over 5000 images were provided to you which covered the entire occasion. We have looked into and considered your various points raised and I must advise our original offer of £100.00 in respect of the missing images remains. For the reasons set out above we feel that we have performed our contract with you in the terms set out therein and we therefore consider this matter finalised. To enable us to make payment to you please arrange for supporting bank account to be forwarded so that we can arrange an immediate bank transfer to you. So where do they stand? I think they've accepted the photos and memories are lost forever and it was never about the money itself. But now that he has accepted that the photos are lost - why should they not go for a higher amount? Or are they contractually bound by the amount stated? I see two parts - the service was not delivered as per what was discussed and signed off despite the clause that missing images would = x * £x.xx Thanks in advance!

Hi, After some advice (as are most people here I guess!) We paid in full for the services of a photographer for our wedding, in August 2015. Due to personal circumstances we've cancelled the whole day, therefore we don't need a photographer any more! I called (and emailed) her to inform her of the cancellation, only to be told she "couldn't take that much of a loss, Ill give you 100% of your money back if I get another booking on that day" So in other words she's keeping all £800 we gave her! a £200 deposit was agreed to secure the date, there is no mention of this being 'non-refundable' We didn't sign a contract, however we received the following in writing after paying the deposit' 'Deposit for wedding photography to be taken at venueX, on date X. To include all photographs & Album X. Total £200 bank transfer, received with thanks" How can we get her money back? We were more than willing to forfeit the £200 even though there was no non-refundable statement, but we cant just throw £800 away Many thanks Rich

Hi This is my first post on the forum, and hoping you guys can help. In 2007 I got married to my lovely wife, and we had all the usual wedding photos taken (600 I believe). At the time we did not have a lot of money so just had an album off the photographer. He said if we wanted the wedding disc it would cost another £300. We thought we'd save up for it, or have the money to buy it some time later. Anyway the photographer went out of business, but we managed to get his mobile number if we needed to get in touch. At the time he said he would not be changing the number. Some time later we now have the funds to buy the wedding disc, but the photographer has disappeared, and the phone number no longer works. We have tried to track him down, asked other photographers, used online people searches, etc but no luck. Does anyone have any ideas how we could find him? I believe we should have some rights but not sure what we can try? Any help is much appreciated. Jason