Park Avenue Weddings – Our Wedding Photographer Nightmare
by admin on Nov.06, 2009, under Chicago Wedding Photography
If you’re thinking about using Park Avenue Weddings (Plainfield, IL) save yourself a hassle and move on. Our experience with Roger Matteucci (the owner) and his business has been far from stellar and we are so disappointed in how things have turned out. It’s been over 1 year since our wedding was photographed and we have yet to receive the proofs / DVD and album of our photos. We have been told many times that the proofs would be sent and yet we still haven’t seen them. We have been told that there were delays in our order as well as many other orders in his ‘lab’. We were advised that we would hear more after he followed up with the lab and that never happened. Calls left on both of his phone numbers are rarely returned – the same goes with e-mails. In some cases it was over a month before a reply was heard.
Your experience with this company may vary and may turn out great – ours was and still *is* not a happy experience. If you have a story about this company to share, please share it – good or bad!
-Zac Anderson
16 Comments for this entry
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November 13th, 2009 on 2:44 PM
Roger is the worst business owner I have ever dealt with. He only tries to get you off the phone by telling you you’ll have your information soon but then 2 months go by without word. I recently had my 3 year anniversary on 11/11/09 and I still do not have an album to show for. I am currently working with the Better Business Bureau and the Illinois Attorney General to try and get my album or atleast my money and my proofs to have someone else do my album. This has been nothing but a headache from the get go. Everytime they send a proof album for me to approve it comes back with different layouts and pictures. When asked about it I’m told that the layouts were discontinued and they took the liberty of picking out the new layouts and the new pictures to go with it. Roger even had to come out to my work in Schaumburg one time because they messed up things so badly and I was sick and tired of spending hours in their offices and on the phone to try and get it fixed. I can honestly say that I hate him and his company.
November 13th, 2009 on 2:46 PM
p.s. Now he won’t even return my phone calls or my emails and he sends back his mail as ‘undeliverable’ when the BBB tried to contact him. Buyer beware!
November 13th, 2009 on 3:18 PM
@Jennymello – We received the DVD of our photos yesterday, 11/13/09. Our wedding was 10/18/2008. The address for his business is now a Plainfield IL address, make sure you use that. If you need anything from me, please advise – thanks for your comments.
December 9th, 2009 on 2:43 PM
I went through the ringer with Roger as well. Thankfully I bailed before I got in too deep and only lost $300 and he did not shoot our wedding.
His address is
1506 Lasser Drive
Plainfield, IL 60586
I threatened him with court documents to get my money back.
But he’s probably too busy being the “official” photographer for Haray Caray’s. And Mcdonalds. And Chicago Bears, etc.
January 15th, 2010 on 3:38 PM
I too went through the same mess. We were married summer of ‘07. When we were creating our album it must have gone through 20 revisions because he kept changing it with different pictures or layouts. After we finished the final proof, he said it would take 8 to 12 weeks to print. Well, nearly a year later still nothing. He did send us the dvd with our proofs but I wanted the album that we spent all that money on.
We would call him everyday until I got an answer from him. Then in Oct 09 we received our album in the mail. I should have known…..the album was wrong. It had several pages that were not the same as the final proof. It was as if he changed things once again. I called him immediately and he actually answered the phone. He said that he would fix the changes and resubmit the album back to the printers and they will get me a new book right away. It has been 3 months now and it is now impossible to get a hold of Roger. I call and email him almost everyday with no response.
I even tried to call the printers (Black River Imaging — http://www.blackriverimaging.com ) They basically flat out refused to help me and said that I need to call my photographer. I am going to contact the BBB as well. Has anyone else had any luck lately?
February 22nd, 2010 on 6:43 PM
Can you believe this guy??? The most special day of your life and he screwed all of us over. He shot my wedding in October and we are still waiting for our thank you postcards. I do not except to see them ever. For 4 months I have tried to contact Roger through email and phone. After reading these posting and when I found out that I was not the only one I had to get my proofs fast. If anyone wants their photos do what we did and get them quick. We showed up uninvited and unannounced. The best time to go is a weekday in the evening after 7:30pm. His address is
1506 Lasser Dr
Plainfield, IL 60586
Phone: 630-861-8212 Cell: 630-201-0981 Not that he will anwser his phone. We went and asked for our pictures. And were not going to leave til we got them. Can I tell you how scarey it was?????????????? Roger has all the files mixed up. We saw our folder and it had the picture of another couple in it. It took him 45 mins to find our photos and our wedding was only 4 months ago. So glad we walked out of there finally with our proofs. Not excepting any thing else but at this point the only thing that mattered was the proofs and we have them. SO GO GET THEM!!!! Or you’ll never see them. I just filed with the Better Business Bureau as well and are tring all the action we can against this jack***. He was flat out lying to us the whole time we were their. A professional Liar!!! And conartist as well. GO FAST!!!
March 15th, 2010 on 11:16 PM
I thought I was the only one..but now I see that he has done the same thing to several people. My husband and I got married in the Fall of ‘07. We met with Roger in Feb. ‘08 to choose our pictures for the album and the layout..I have still not seen the album and I am starting to think I never will. Sometime in ‘08 (after a few attempts) he finally sent us our DVD of proofs, so I have that, but I have also paid for an album. I have called him several times and left messages, but he has never called me back. When we did talk to him last, probably about a year ago, he said that our album was accidently put into the completed file (during his move) and that it should be done in six weeks or so. I hate when people outright lie to you. Now he won’t answer or return my calls. I feel that I have been really patient with this situation thus far.I would even be happy with getting my money back and putting it toward making the album myself!! Anyone have any more suggestions or updates? Please let me know if you get through to him.
April 23rd, 2010 on 4:48 AM
Hi Everyone! I am having the same problems. I got married sept 08. I have my proofs, but no DVD or ablums. He is absolutely awful to deal with. Has anyone considered a class action lawsuit? Since we were all shorted, it would help. I do not have my ablums, he is not returning my phone calls or emails though I call several times a day. The last I heard from him was October 2008 and was fed some bs about how the company was in financial trouble and I should have my ablum by thanksgiving. STILL NOTHING!! I have thought about filing a complaint with the BBB, but what good does that do? I’ve never filed one before, so I am not sure. I read on here that someone filed a complaint and hes ignoring the BBB? What do you do? Something needs to be done since I am not the only one experiencing this. Has anyone had any recent luck?
May 26th, 2010 on 3:04 PM
I’m in on the class action lawsuit. He never refunded my $100. I’d be happy to pursue this with you skiz68@hotmail.com. Anyone else interested?
July 28th, 2010 on 5:08 PM
Hi. I found this today through an online search. I actually was able to get a hold of Roger recently. He informed me that he has sent or is sending letters out to all clients informing them he is bankrupt. He supposedly is trying to get proofs to everyone (I have mine already), but is not doing the albums anymore (with few exceptions). I am equally frustrated with the whole process of this. Right now I am out about $300 in album costs. Though it may be unlikely at this point, I would like to recover the album costs so I can buy one elsewhere. Let me know if anyone decides to pursue this further.
August 11th, 2010 on 12:09 AM
My husband and I got married in early August 2008 and decided to save a bundle by using Park Avenue Photography. The phrase “you get what you pay for” cannot be more true. I guess all I can say is “ditto” to the previous comments about Roger’s lack of professionalism, lack of communication, and lack of delivery of product. I would like to add that his lack of hygeine added to the unpleasant experience for us and our guests on our wedding day, granted it was the hottest day of the year last summer, but still.
We are fortunate that we did receive our album. However, we were promised in our contract that after our year anniversary we would receive ALL of the digital prints. Since that date has come and gone without hearing from Roger despite our phone calls and emails I was wondering what we should do:
-Call and e-mail him repetedly
-Physically go to his house
-Notify the BBB
-Sue him
Any advice?
Thanks,
KSwi
August 11th, 2010 on 12:45 AM
Greetings again! We couldn’t wait and we sent a complaint to the BBB. Our “desired resolution” is just to get a copy of our digital prints! Cross your fingers for us and we’ll hope for the best!
August 22nd, 2010 on 11:10 PM
We have already filed with BBB and it went against the Park Avenue record because Roger failed to respond. Filing with BBB is no longer helpful to anyone because Park Avenue already has a rating of F. We also tried to get help from the credit card that we used, but because Roger and his inability to manage a business took over a year to get us nothing, it was too late for them to help. In other words, lawsuit might be our only options as a group. Bankrupt or not, he has our pictures and we all deserve to get them!! Why is that so hard? Buy a bunch of CD’s and be done with it!!!
Also, the album we received has several pages with random formatting and pictures, and the parent books we ordered and paid for are missing pages! I am looking for a full refund plus my pictures.
Anyone know what the first step could/would be??
August 23rd, 2010 on 7:01 AM
@WIKK (et al) Sometime in June / July, I received a letter from Roger via USPS. The letter stated in so many words how his business was closing and the reasons around it. It also had info related to communication with him and how he would only accept letters to a PO Box he had setup and *not* his home address. I’ll scan a copy of the letter or type it verbatim on a new post. (I’ll have to find it first.)
I would talk to a lawyer about the situation. Find out what your options are. Others might be interested in joining your plight. I decided not to pursue legal litigation as it wasn’t cost effective for me and I had already received my DVD of photos.
I’m very saddened by the whole Park Avenue Photography situation and I really hope it comes back to bite him (Roger Matteucci) in all his future endeavors.
-Zac
August 27th, 2010 on 6:13 PM
This is a response to “theswifox” comment on suggestions. I do not believe you will make any progress with calls or emails (his email is most likely shut down, and his website). He does not return calls except in rare situations. BBB won’t be much help either, as it has gone too far that he won’t follow-up to that.
This leaves showing up at his house or a lawsuit (a 3rd option could be a certified letter with a requested response by a certain date). It is your choice, but I would say he will most likely give you the proofs if you “show up” (as long as he is home). I would suggest first leaving a voicemail (or sending a letter) explaining that you will do this if he does not respond to your request for the proofs.
August 31st, 2010 on 4:07 PM
Hi,
I just stumbled upon this blog and I think I may be able to help address some questions raised here. I worked for Roger as one of his photographers. WIKK, you asked why is this so hard, just buy few CD and burn them. Yes, it may seem easy but in order to do that you have to have the images which Roger probably does not have. I was naive enough to believe his distress stories regarding his business being slow do to economy and couples not paying on time and such. Plus I personally feel that the clients should not be involved in my relationship with the studio. So I sent him all of my high resolution images for each wedding that I shot for him; however, some photographers may have held the images until they get paid for the work they did for Roger. The images on the website are low resolution and not good enough quality for print; Roger was able to show you the proofs but was unable to send them to print. Now, I am not sure if that’s the reason for all this mess, but if I had to guess I would say it may very well be. I have never encountered such problems at other studios I have had the privilege to work at. Those of you who have not seen their proofs or prints, I suggest you contact your photographer, they probably have backup copies of your image files. So far I have not heard anything form the couples I have worked with so that’s a good sign, but if anything I still have the copies of the weddings I shot for Roger. If you guys decide to go ahead with the class action lawsuit, i may be interested as well.