I related my story to my uncle, who is a professional portrait photographer. He was not surprised. He told me that the motto for places like that (he also referred to Wal-Mart specifically) is “Get 'em while the tears are still in their eyes.” He speaks favorably of JC Penney, and says that Sears is fairly okay. He & my aunt took their kids to JC Penney (before he opened his own studio).
I’m still working on the email. I think I will send them a paper copy too. And Shirley, if you’re reading this, the name of the photo company is FirstFoto! When you have your baby, avoid them!!
There is almost no way to avoid FirstFoto. A lot of hospitals have some kind of deal with them for records purposes.
At the hospital I used when my son was born 18 months ago, the nurse just came in and wheeled him out of the room telling me (doped to the gills at the time) he was off to have his picture taken. This was the day after he was born so he’s about 12 or 15 hours old. I was too dopey to protest but they brought him back no harm done 15 minutes later.
The hospital provided all the info pamphlets on the FirstFoto people but when I read them and saw the no proof policy, I gave it a miss, BUT six weeks after we got home, they called us! How’d they get the number? Obviously from the hospital, 'cause I don’t give it out to too many people. So prepare yourself, Cristi, you’ll probably hear from them again.
Well Yankee, if I do happen to hear from them again, I will politely inform them that I have begun my campaign against their no-proof policy, and I will again tell them where they can stick those photos. But it’s good to hear from someone else who told them no. 