Please stay tuned for the video of our wedding that we will link to show you first hand what kind of videography The Pros will provide you.
Introduction to The Pro's:
I found out about The Pros online through WeddingWire and The Knot, two well known wedding sites that brides will often use to find vendors and come up with ideas for their weddings. I tried looking them up on Yelp, but was unsuccessful finding a Yelp page for them using the PA address provided on their website. However, all of the reviews I could find on the wedding websites were positive - so it seemed like a good company to consider.
When I discovered The Pros, I was attracted to the fact that they were a full service company, providing access to local photographers, videographers and DJs in my area. While I had already decided on a photographer for my wedding, I still needed to lock down a DJ and videographer and figured one of thier local informationals would provide me with the perfect opportunity to see what they have to offer.
The informational was great! They provided me with a packet describing thier services, a room full of prospect vendors in every category and even discount options if we booked one or more of thier services following the event! I quickly engaged with one of the DJs, Bruce, and quickly booked him as our DJ. For videography, we really didn't want much - just a lot of raw footage of the entire wedding, like a home video! I figured looking into actual videos on my own time would be more informative, but ultimately, I figured any decent photographer, especially hired by a company as big as this one, would not screw up such a basic video request.
Conducting my research of their videography options online, there were 3 main things to choose from: 1. Video Package, 2. Videographer, and 3. DVD or Blue-Ray version of your video. Since, like I said, we did not want much, we were very attracted to what the most basic package, the Simplicite Video Package, had to offer: 1-2 hours of the key wedding moments unedited in our choice of DVD or Blue-ray with search easy chapters. All of the packages included a videographer of our choice, up to 8 hrs of coverage, the video in HD, complete raw footage and professional titling.
I chose my photographer, Jan Phillip S. after reviewing his credentials in his Pro Wedding Profile page. He had a documentary style, perfect for what we wanted for our video, and over 10 years of experience. Because he was local, we would not have to pay extra traveling fees. His page also had a clip of a wedding he video taped. It was really nice! We figured if he was so talented to come up with something like that, what we need will certainly be great, again, since we did not want more than just uncut raw footage.
We booked his services and asked to be put in contact with him by our Wedding Advisor through The Pros, Renee. We'd hoped that she would put us in contact with Bruce and Philip, but we had to go through hoops just to put in the request. Whenever we wanted to talk to them, we had to go through her. It made the experience really impersonal. Needless to say, we never got to have a full flushed out conversation, but with the work we did see, holding a camera up didn't seem like it would be an issue. We did consider getting a different videographer, but the level of experience was lacking and the price was ultimately the same or a lot more expensive. So, we stuck with our choice and trusted in credibility of the company.
When i finally did get to speak to Jan, it was the week of the wedding as outlined would be the case in our contract. He seemed very nice and asked about the venue. He mentioned that he had actually filmed their before - great! He seemed to know what we expected and what to do.
We used The Pros for video and DJ. The DJ was find but the video.... not so much.
Overall they gave use a horribly quality video, with bad angles, blurry shots, obstructed view and worse of all missing parts. For this they did not offer any substantial compensation and overall we had a horrible experience dealing with "customer service".
The list of things that were so wrong with our experience is so long.
1. 75% of the bride walking down the aisle was not captures
2. The 25% that was captured you could only see her shoulders up
3. The video of the bouquet toss ends before the bouquet leaves the brides hand.
4. When we asked where the rest of the video was, the manager claims the videographer accidentally pressed the pause button.
5. When the videographer arrived I told him to check in with my soon to be wife so he could film her and the girls getting ready. He left and came back and told me that he did and that she wanted him to film me and the guys. He lied, he never talked to her.
6. The videographer gave no direction of what he wanted us to do in non-candid shots.
7. The videographer got in an argument with the photography and audibly called her a b***h.
8. The videographer was very awkward and had poor communication skills.
9. The videographer kept dismissing our attempts to meet with him before the wedding
10. A lot of the video was shaky
11. You can see him switch lenses in the middle of moments like the bride walking
12. We paid him for 8 hours, he only worked 2.
13. By that I mean he sat there for the whole wedding, but only got up to filmed things when he though they were important.
14. He didn't think the garter being put on the lady who caught the bouquet was important
15. He didn't think our mothers being escorted down the aisle was important.
16. He didn't think the maid of honor and best man walking down the aisle was important.
17. Only one of groomsman/bridesmaid couples was important to him.
18. He filmed the sky a lot
19. He filmed people sitting looking bored before the wedding a lot
20. He didn't ask us any questions about what we wanted.
21. The cake cutting is just a video of our backs
22. The 10 min long ceremony was condensed to 2 minutes.
23. All our guest described him as weird and rude and and said it seemed like he didn't know what he was doing.
24. He filmed a bush
25. Most of his shots were from bad angles.
26. A good number of shots were blurry
27. He overused zoom
28. He zoomed in on women's breasts multiple times
29. It took him 20 mins to "change angles"
30. When we asked what he wanted us to do he said "Walk around"
31. For his non-candid shots he only shot them around fountains, no creativity.
32. He wasted too much time of our less than 2 hour on multiple attempts at an ending shot.
33. The full raw footage looks like he was only filming it to capture enough for a highlights video.
34. When we got the video the title screen had the wrong date.
35. We went to complain about the video we were directed to a guy named Vince, he was hard to get a hold of.
36. Once we talked to Vince, he defended the videographer by blaming us.
37. Vince blames us for not requesting more time... (Every thing we want him to capture happened during the 8 hours we hired him for, so that wouldn't have helped)
38. Vince blames us for not getting the premium package
39. Vince blames us for being from the east coast. (He said putting the garter on the person who catches the bouquet is an east cost thing so the videographer didn't know to film it)
40. Vince blames us for the videographer not filming even though the DJ announced that an event was happening.
41. Vince blames us for the videographer being ignorant about wedding traditions
42. Vince blames the exclusion of key likes the bouquet toss on accidentally pressing the pause button.
43. The videographer must not have known how to work his camera.
44. Vince told us he would get back to us in a couple of days with his "resolution" for us
45. Vince didn't get back to us for a week.
46. When Vince got back to us he told us to call him.
47. We had to play phone tag with Vince for a day.
48. Vince's resolution was offering us an edited version of the horrible video we received... that would still be missing all the parts and have all the problems we have been complaining about... just in a more condensed version.
49. I had to use my angry voice and tell Vince I was insulted at the offer, that what should have been a great way to remember the happiest day of my life was ruined and that if he couldn't offer a refund or better way to compensate us for the tragedy that is us missing the opportunity to have a decent video of our wedding by early morning that I would take whatever action necessary to right this injustice.
50. Vince didn't heed my warning and now I'm making sure that no one else is blindsided by this like we were. My wife and are filing a chargeback, posting reviews everywhere we can and creating pages, posts and blogs to make sure that the information is out there that The Pros are far from that. They are a scumbag company that buries their negative reviews and tricks people into buying the lowest class product possible. Nothing but a SCAM.
The Pros Weddings Reviews
Please stay tuned for the video of our wedding that we will link to show you first hand what kind of videography The Pros will provide you.
Introduction to The Pro's:
I found out about The Pros online through WeddingWire and The Knot, two well known wedding sites that brides will often use to find vendors and come up with ideas for their weddings. I tried looking them up on Yelp, but was unsuccessful finding a Yelp page for them using the PA address provided on their website. However, all of the reviews I could find on the wedding websites were positive - so it seemed like a good company to consider.
When I discovered The Pros, I was attracted to the fact that they were a full service company, providing access to local photographers, videographers and DJs in my area. While I had already decided on a photographer for my wedding, I still needed to lock down a DJ and videographer and figured one of thier local informationals would provide me with the perfect opportunity to see what they have to offer.
The informational was great! They provided me with a packet describing thier services, a room full of prospect vendors in every category and even discount options if we booked one or more of thier services following the event! I quickly engaged with one of the DJs, Bruce, and quickly booked him as our DJ. For videography, we really didn't want much - just a lot of raw footage of the entire wedding, like a home video! I figured looking into actual videos on my own time would be more informative, but ultimately, I figured any decent photographer, especially hired by a company as big as this one, would not screw up such a basic video request.
Conducting my research of their videography options online, there were 3 main things to choose from: 1. Video Package, 2. Videographer, and 3. DVD or Blue-Ray version of your video. Since, like I said, we did not want much, we were very attracted to what the most basic package, the Simplicite Video Package, had to offer: 1-2 hours of the key wedding moments unedited in our choice of DVD or Blue-ray with search easy chapters. All of the packages included a videographer of our choice, up to 8 hrs of coverage, the video in HD, complete raw footage and professional titling.
I chose my photographer, Jan Phillip S. after reviewing his credentials in his Pro Wedding Profile page. He had a documentary style, perfect for what we wanted for our video, and over 10 years of experience. Because he was local, we would not have to pay extra traveling fees. His page also had a clip of a wedding he video taped. It was really nice! We figured if he was so talented to come up with something like that, what we need will certainly be great, again, since we did not want more than just uncut raw footage.
We booked his services and asked to be put in contact with him by our Wedding Advisor through The Pros, Renee. We'd hoped that she would put us in contact with Bruce and Philip, but we had to go through hoops just to put in the request. Whenever we wanted to talk to them, we had to go through her. It made the experience really impersonal. Needless to say, we never got to have a full flushed out conversation, but with the work we did see, holding a camera up didn't seem like it would be an issue. We did consider getting a different videographer, but the level of experience was lacking and the price was ultimately the same or a lot more expensive. So, we stuck with our choice and trusted in credibility of the company.
When i finally did get to speak to Jan, it was the week of the wedding as outlined would be the case in our contract. He seemed very nice and asked about the venue. He mentioned that he had actually filmed their before - great! He seemed to know what we expected and what to do.
We used The Pros for video and DJ. The DJ was find but the video.... not so much.
Overall they gave use a horribly quality video, with bad angles, blurry shots, obstructed view and worse of all missing parts. For this they did not offer any substantial compensation and overall we had a horrible experience dealing with "customer service".
The list of things that were so wrong with our experience is so long.
1. 75% of the bride walking down the aisle was not captures
2. The 25% that was captured you could only see her shoulders up
3. The video of the bouquet toss ends before the bouquet leaves the brides hand.
4. When we asked where the rest of the video was, the manager claims the videographer accidentally pressed the pause button.
5. When the videographer arrived I told him to check in with my soon to be wife so he could film her and the girls getting ready. He left and came back and told me that he did and that she wanted him to film me and the guys. He lied, he never talked to her.
6. The videographer gave no direction of what he wanted us to do in non-candid shots.
7. The videographer got in an argument with the photography and audibly called her a b***h.
8. The videographer was very awkward and had poor communication skills.
9. The videographer kept dismissing our attempts to meet with him before the wedding
10. A lot of the video was shaky
11. You can see him switch lenses in the middle of moments like the bride walking
12. We paid him for 8 hours, he only worked 2.
13. By that I mean he sat there for the whole wedding, but only got up to filmed things when he though they were important.
14. He didn't think the garter being put on the lady who caught the bouquet was important
15. He didn't think our mothers being escorted down the aisle was important.
16. He didn't think the maid of honor and best man walking down the aisle was important.
17. Only one of groomsman/bridesmaid couples was important to him.
18. He filmed the sky a lot
19. He filmed people sitting looking bored before the wedding a lot
20. He didn't ask us any questions about what we wanted.
21. The cake cutting is just a video of our backs
22. The 10 min long ceremony was condensed to 2 minutes.
23. All our guest described him as weird and rude and and said it seemed like he didn't know what he was doing.
24. He filmed a bush
25. Most of his shots were from bad angles.
26. A good number of shots were blurry
27. He overused zoom
28. He zoomed in on women's breasts multiple times
29. It took him 20 mins to "change angles"
30. When we asked what he wanted us to do he said "Walk around"
31. For his non-candid shots he only shot them around fountains, no creativity.
32. He wasted too much time of our less than 2 hour on multiple attempts at an ending shot.
33. The full raw footage looks like he was only filming it to capture enough for a highlights video.
34. When we got the video the title screen had the wrong date.
35. We went to complain about the video we were directed to a guy named Vince, he was hard to get a hold of.
36. Once we talked to Vince, he defended the videographer by blaming us.
37. Vince blames us for not requesting more time... (Every thing we want him to capture happened during the 8 hours we hired him for, so that wouldn't have helped)
38. Vince blames us for not getting the premium package
39. Vince blames us for being from the east coast. (He said putting the garter on the person who catches the bouquet is an east cost thing so the videographer didn't know to film it)
40. Vince blames us for the videographer not filming even though the DJ announced that an event was happening.
41. Vince blames us for the videographer being ignorant about wedding traditions
42. Vince blames the exclusion of key likes the bouquet toss on accidentally pressing the pause button.
43. The videographer must not have known how to work his camera.
44. Vince told us he would get back to us in a couple of days with his "resolution" for us
45. Vince didn't get back to us for a week.
46. When Vince got back to us he told us to call him.
47. We had to play phone tag with Vince for a day.
48. Vince's resolution was offering us an edited version of the horrible video we received... that would still be missing all the parts and have all the problems we have been complaining about... just in a more condensed version.
49. I had to use my angry voice and tell Vince I was insulted at the offer, that what should have been a great way to remember the happiest day of my life was ruined and that if he couldn't offer a refund or better way to compensate us for the tragedy that is us missing the opportunity to have a decent video of our wedding by early morning that I would take whatever action necessary to right this injustice.
50. Vince didn't heed my warning and now I'm making sure that no one else is blindsided by this like we were. My wife and are filing a chargeback, posting reviews everywhere we can and creating pages, posts and blogs to make sure that the information is out there that The Pros are far from that. They are a scumbag company that buries their negative reviews and tricks people into buying the lowest class product possible. Nothing but a SCAM.