Portrait Innovations
Reviews and Complaints

I had my pictures taken there, and come to find out an employee (Desra enders) took them home and hung on her wall. It was brought to our attention through social media about this theft! We contacted corporate and they informed us that if an employee chooses that they can just take yhe pictures home if given permission by a manager not permission from the families in the photo! This is outrageous and is violation of customers privacy!
They will not fire this employee... This is proof that this company does not care about their customers

This is the third year in a row that I've ordered Christmas ornaments from Portrait Innovations. I've always had a great experience with their products. This year they can't get it right. The pictures and wording on the ornaments are off centered. They look horrible so I called for a replacement. The representative was very nice. She said she would put a note in so they were sure to be centered before shipping out to me. I think the replacements are worse! Maybe they changed companies that make the ornament but I will never order a Christmas ornament from them again that doesn't have the picture covering the entire ornament or words because apparently they can't get it right!

hello. on December 6th our family had our pictures taken at portrait innovations. we had never gotten pictures taken there before. but had heard lots about them. upon arriving for our appointment we Wer Told we would hav to wait 25 min. n we had called in to schedule the appointment. my lil girl had gotten fussy. about the same time they called us back. also to inform ya. we Wer the last group that got pictures taken that eve. the photographer taking the pics had a helper for some of the pics. then she walked out n started cleaning up. if she wood have stayed in n helped to keep my daughter smiling fr the pictures. I would have been happy. we rely didn't have much of a picking choice of the pics cuz she was crying in almost all the pics. so my experience of getting pics taken there was horrible. n I won't recommend anyone to go there. I'm still upset about the money that was wasted there. n hoping yous will do something about it

I called 5 days ahead to schedule an appointment for my 3 children (ages 12 & 9yrs. and 11 mos.) I arrived 10 minutes early to the set time. I began looking around at the amount of people waiting. About 30 minutes of waiting I asked the girl how late they were running. She told me that 2 people were ahead of me. Because I was told that a session would take about 45 min. to an hour, I knew that we were still an hour out from taking photos. I left the store and refused to make anymore appointments with them. If they know how long each session takes they should allow for extra time between appointments to give them some cushion. I chose the middle of the week because my boys were already out of school for Thanksgiving. Now I don't have another day to go to another studio. Out of Luck for Christmas I guess. This company doesn't care, they've got others lining up to get photos taken and ready to spend $100's.

My mother went to Portrait Innovations with my 2 daughters (2yrs and 4yrs) and my nephew (3months). She wanted a picture of the grandchildren. When she arrived and they asked what she wanted she advised that she wanted the group picture (all three of them). And that was the only reason why she went there. They did not even start with the group picture. They started with the 4 year old and the baby. By time they got to the group picture the 2 year old and 3 month old were cranky. Now the 2 year old is very shy and we knew this going into it. We knew we would probably not get a smile on her, but we were fine with that as long as she looked at the camera. Needless to say the group picture turned out horrible! There was two. One with the 2 year old cut off and big spaces between all three of them. They were all looking in different directions in both pictures. My mother informed me that during the shoot the 2 year old would only sit on a red chair (we were fine with that) however she wouldn't get up. So what the photographer did was picked up the chair while the 2 year old was sitting in there. That is a huge safety issue! I called the studio and talked to the manager. It seemed like she did not care one bit. All she kept saying was uh huh and yeah. When I expressed how unhappy that my mother was not once did she say that she was sorry that she felt this way. Not once did she try to compromise with us on the situation. Never offered a re-shoot or anything. In fact I had to ask if we could. My Mother and I are talking if we even want to go back there. The entire time she acted as if I was bothering her. I am very unhappy with the experience there and mostly because they did not listen to the customers wants and address that first. Nor were they very safe with my children. I will be in contact with the headquarters.

I was an employee of this sham of a company for a year and a half. I worked hard and loved my job. I loved it but HATED the corperation! This Christmas season, in order to help other studios, I traveled to the understaffed studios in my area. In doing so, I was rarely at my studio on the weekends (this is the best time to up your average). My average went down to a 98.50 by the end of Christmas. Portrait Innovations requires they you keep a 100+ average in your sales at all times in order to make your bonus for the year (we are not paid by commission) and keep your job after the Christmas season. How this is possible when they have an ongoing promotion for a 9.95 package, I don't know. I thought I was considered a valued employee. I was one of the top photographers in my studio and my avg was usually very high. Sadly, 2 weeks after Christmas I was given two options: transfer to a studio 50min away from where I lived (mind you, I lived less than 5miles from the studio I was at) or take a two week severance. So much for valued employee. I was told that I should be greatful because people below 100 avg after the holidays get fired on the spot. I unhappily took the offer to transfer only to find out that it wouldn't be processed for "a couple days". Meaning I missed 3 days of work of which I would not be reimbursed.
Not only was I missing out on pay, I now had to travel my hour every day to work which was killer on gas, since they refused to offer a mileage payback for transfers.
When I finally began working for the new studio, I was treated like a child. It was as if they thought I had never worked in a studio before! The girls were snobs and catty towards everyone.
I had decided enough was enough about a month after I started the new studio. I was very ill and had gone to the doctor for testing. I was scheduled to work that day, but my doctor said I needed a few more tests done later that day. I was given a doctors note for the day and called the studio to tell them I wouldnt be in. I was called back 10 min later by my very angry manager telling me I HAD to come in to close the studio that day because it was my "responsibility". So, I would lose my sick pay for the day, drive an hour, work 2 hours, and then drive and hour home! That's when I decided I was done! Funny thing is, another employee called off the day before with NO doctors note an was not forced to come in and close the studio as she was scheduled to do so. Who was made to the studio for her that night? ME! How is that fair?! This company cares NOTHING for its employees. In fact, saying anything "bad" about the studio can and will get you sued! They do nothing but play favorites. DON'T WORK FOR THEM!

So my mother, 2 year old son and I decided to walk in to have some pics of my son taken for his 2nd birthday and we had an ok experience last year so figured why not. When we walked in there were 3 photographers sitting on the couches and 2 others at the front desk and they were all just chatting. There was not a single customer in the studio. My son was afraid of the camera and studio so he was not wanting to cooperate very well-typical 2 year old! The gentleman photographer that was working with us was nice, but the other girls were acting like we were wasting their time. We spent about 15 or 20 minutes and my son was really starting to get better and he was able to take a few quick poses, but not very good ones. The photographer then said that we would have to do it another time because they are only aloud 15 minutes per session and the entire time we were in there and even when we left not a single person walked in to have pictures done! I WILL NEVER GO THERE AGAIN AND DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN! They don't care at all about capturing your special moments, but simply taking your money and shoving you out the door! They could've made some money by simply being patient and taking a little extra time, but instead they got NOTHING!

I should have known things would not go well when we arrived about 10 mins. early for our appointment and the rooms were filled, wall to wall kids and adults. We were told they were running about 20 mins behind schedule. We left, returned 40 mins later to find two families still ahead of us. They expected "it won't be that long" so I calmly explained why this was a problem ( at this point, 7:40 pm) and removed our family from the roster. We planned our day around this appointment; wish I'd read some reviews first!

Extremely poor management. Tells employees they will make 30, 000$/yr when in reality you will not even come close. Claimes they have medical benefits for thier employee, in which they do not. Claim that a dollar raise will be given after 90 days training in which it never was. Gives vacation time, but does not allow you to take it. Uses your vacation time for you whenever they want to. Gave a two week notice like a good employee should and was told normally they fire you on the spot for quitting, but they needed the help so they are just going to tell corporate office that I just didn't show up after the two weeks. Horrible customer service as corporate forces overbooking appointments. Sets sales goals at unreachable ranges so the "bonus" they talk about all year is never recieved.

I had taken my 6 month there previously for her newborn and 3 month photos. Yesterday my husband and I went around 4:05pm for our appointment at 4:20pm. Complaint number 1. Under-staffed. The "photographers" were too busy answering the phone to actually take pictures and review them with you. Number 2. They were still answering the phone at 5:00pm by asking if the person on the other end would like an appointment TODAY! Keep in mind they had an entire store of people waiting with babies and kids crying and running around EVERYWHERE! Number 3. If is 6 month old can't sit upright unsupported you'd think you might try something other than laying her on the floor. The cold, plain, fake hardwood floor. Yes, I'm serious - that was the picture. Number 4. When describing the packages please, please remind the customer they can swap out sheets. i.e. A sheet of 3.5 x5's instead of 8.10's. Who wants 7 8x10's ?! Number 5. When doing the special effects maybe take more than 30 seconds picking out the pictures and adding effects. When the customer feels that rushed you get home feeling ripped off, pissed off and ready to explode! I've spent 400.00 there in the past 6 months and by this point I could have gone to a PROFESSIONAL photographer and had quality one of a kind prints. There's my 2 cents.

Do not go to Portrait Innovations on 41st St. in Sioux Falls, SD. They advertise $9.95 special! No sitting fees! and then you get there and find out that what they don't tell you is that they are going to take about 80 pictures and then put you in front of a computer and fly through them, 3 at a time, wanting you to "choose" one from each page to "narrow it down". They then start flipping through those and putting combinations together until you're so confused you have no idea what you're ordering, in what combination, or in what sizes, or anything else. And it's like committing a cardinal sin to ask to go through them again, or to take a few minutes to think about it - they got very impatient and acted like it was a huge imposition. (Personal opinion is they don't want you to have time to think about it because you wouldn't buy as much!) And when after being told to pick one of three on a page, I stated that I didn't like any of them, I was told to "just pick one" for comparison...

I went in there simply wanting 1 (ONE) good pose of a head shot of each of my boys to hang on the wall, as well as some wallets to send to family, and then a shot of my 3 kids together to hang on the wall, also with a few wallets.

Well, I was so confused by the time I got out of there after being rushed through the viewing that I ended up spending $140 by the time it was all said and done and came home with just "ok" individual pictures of the boys to frame (bad enough that I'm already trying to figure out where to go to get new ones), but not one single wallet pic of either of them alone. And 6 different 10 x 13's of the 3 together, but amazingly the one pose that I actually WANTED in a 10 x 13 I only got an 8 x 10 of. I did however end up with about 40 wallet size pics of the 3 - (of course none of them were in a pose that I liked). And multiple copies in 5 x 7 size of what are, honestly, I think the absolute worst pictures I've ever had of my boys. Oh, and not just separately, but also the two boys together (without their sister) - pictures that I didn't even want taken.

UGH...Needless to say this was the absolute worst portrait experience I have ever had and I will NEVER go back and am going to do everything I can to make sure that I warn as many people as possible. Bottom line...they suck!