PLEASE READ BEFORE CONSIDERING ZAJLAUG STUDIO IN ST. PAUL!!!!!

[xyooj_gurl]

From a customer:

If you value customer service and business owners who keep their promises, then DO NOT go to ZajLaug Studio located in St. Paul, MN.

For those of you who do not know, my mom, my sisters, and I went to take some “girl” pictures at this studio on January 1, 2010 for the New Years on request of my mother. It got late so we received a CD to pick which shots we wanted. The husband said we should just email our choices to their email. I did so 3 days after we got the CD and he sent an email saying that they would work on it after finishing another’s family package. At the time, they did not give us a date to pick the picture up so I told Mai Nou to keep contact with them every week to check up with them and see when it would be ready. Every week she called him, he said they were working on it and that it should be ready in a week. Well, a week turned into another week and another and another. Well, I was getting tired of these wishy—washy responses, but nevertheless I gave him the benefit of the doubt each week he said this.

Well, the week of the 18th he finally said they would REALLY be ready on the week of the 25th. Mai Nou called him the 29th asking if we could pick it up. APPARENTLY, he couldn’t remember who we were, which photo package it was, or even if we had sent him the numbers. He had to frantically retrieve the email I sent him in the beginning of the month and read it softly to himself as if this was the FIRST time he even truly looked at it. I wouldn’t doubt it if it was. What bothered me was the impression he gave and the comments he made that led me the horrifying conclusion that he had not even lifted a finger on our package yet and basically had been just nodding and saying he had been working on it every time my sister called, but hadn’t been. After a long, uncomfortable silence as he read through the email and finally found our photo shots on his computer, he said it would be ready the next day. Five minutes later, I received a voicemail on my cell (Mai Nou had called from my cell) from the wife who said that they had looked at our file and that there was a repeat in photo choice—more solid proof that they did not take one look at my email until today. Mai Nou called them back with a new number and also told them that we would like to come by 5:00PM on Saturday the 30th since we had some birthday plans. They agreed.

Since I had to pick up my mother at the funeral home, the both of us swung by the studio together before heading out. We got there at about 5:15PM. Well, SURPRISE SURPRISE! The pictures were not ready. He had the nerve to ask if we could swing by after dinner to pick it up (about two hours). His reason? They took down the numbers we wanted from the email but forgot to write down the sizes for each shot. Apparently he didn’t feel it was important to run home to get his laptop (which he claims is the only computer to have this email—which just seems like such BS). They found out early on in the day but didn’t really bother to have someone run back home to get it. He didn’t even bother to call us either. He asked if I could recite which sizes went with which shot. I was like, are you serious??? He even had the balls to ask if one of us could run back home to go grab the numbers and give it to him. WTF???

Anyways, by this time I was completely upset and brimming with anger. I pointed out all my suspicions and told them that this was really disrespectful (among other angry things). He again had the nerve to ask us if we could wait an hour for him to do the pictures (I didn’t understand how he could do it without the sizes). I told him we had an engagement to go to at 5:30 and we were late. He modified the 60 minutes to 30 to finally, 10—which just seemed illogical and impossible. He then said he would run to his house in MPLS and come back, do the pics, and drop them off to where we were. I said it would be too late and wouldn’t work as this process would take more than a couple of hours. Just a bunch of empty promises.

With all the other things, this was the last straw. I told him that I was extremely unhappy with the CS and with them breaking their promise. In addition, he didn’t even bother to call us in advance once he knew he was not planning to go home to grab his laptop. He said to make up for his error, he would give each of us one wallet size photo. I slapped the offer down. I told him I wanted a discount. He offered $50 dollars, but I didn’t feel it made up for the lies and loopholes he made us jump through to get pictures that we already paid $500 for. My mom suggested $100 (20% discount) which I agreed with. The wife came and said that if we wanted $100 off, she would take away several of the biggest photos we ordered. WTF??? This just didn’t make sense. She just didn’t understand that that discount was for the shit they put us through and not for a smaller package (well, I’m sure she understood it, but didn’t want to do it). We argued for a bit and the husband finally turned to his wife and said that he was in the wrong and would give us the $100. The wife was not happy. The $100 was to be picked up with the photos.

Well, we went to pick it up today and they lied to us and said they never made such a promise! Un-fucking-believable. She and he said that the $100 was my mom’s idea and that they never accepted it. The husband denied saying yes, but then later contradicted himself by saying that he only said yes to get us out of their place and that since we were women, he didn’t really feel right saying no—which is bullshit. And apparently, he didn’t take us seriously either. The husband started getting pissed at us because we wouldn’t take the big picture that he had printed for us to take in place of the money. I told him we didn’t want any more pictures. They offered $50, but I felt so pissed off for them lying and not following through on their promise. They said that their ‘sorry’ should be good enough with the $50 and that since we’re Hmong we should forgive each other. She finally raised it to $70, but principle is principle. She said we were trying to rip them off their hard-earned money. Apparently they didn’t think our time wasted was worth anything. She also said she didn’t want to give us $100 because she didn’t want others to take the same action as we did when the studio made mistakes (and apparently, they’ve been careless several times as the wife said so they didn’t want a “precedent” to start in which people would ask for a discount for mistakes the studio made).

The husband got fed up with us not caving in to their wishes and said that if we didn’t take what they offered then we better get out of his business (or else he’d call the cops, ha!) and also said to take him to court for the money. So I left without the photos and the money. Urgh!!! What a %*#$!

Sorry for all the negative language--I'm just really fucking pissed right now. Contemplating what I should do.

I can't tag every one so please spread the word to your friends and families.

[Miss_Sonia]

That was some serious ranting!

Sometimes Hmong people do provide some really bad CS. But luckily I haven't met many of those.

Think happy thoughts. It helps relieve some of that anger.

[bboi_chubbyz]

We argued for a bit and the husband finally turned to his wife and said that he was in the wrong and would give us the $100. The wife was not happy. The $100 was to be picked up with the photos.

Well, we went to pick it up today and they lied to us and said they never made such a promise! Un-fucking-believable. She and he said that the $100 was my mom’s idea and that they never accepted it. The husband denied saying yes, but then later contradicted himself by saying that he only said yes to get us out of their place and that since we were women, he didn’t really feel right saying no—which is bullshit. And apparently, he didn’t take us seriously either.  

I can't tag every one so please spread the word to your friends and families.

you should take this serious and take that fool to court. he already agree to an oral agreement.

[krazyyaj]

^need documented proof though.

nonethe less. just do what i do. ignore the hater and let karma do its thing.

what goes around comes around.

[Chicken]

It's unethical how some people conduct business.
If you are thinking about taking them to court then I hope you saved all those emails/voicemails.

[XIn]

Xiong_gurl,

If you have any request, you should take it up with the his wife. The husband can really be a fawker, he is impatient and does whatever he wants or feel. I just feel sorry for the woman whom married him. Just makes me wonder how she can even stand this sob. My folks went to take some pictures there too and that sob is all bitching about them taking too much time and etc. When it's shooting time, he just fawking do burst shootings as if he's all that.

And like you, my folks never got their pictures as promised. If you're going to take him to court, you need people to testify of his bad service.

[pure gamer]

and also said to take him to court for the money.

You should take his advice. Go to court and sue, it is the only way to fix small business owners.

^need documented proof though.

Get the phone bill with the numbers called each time from your party to his studio/cell phone

Get all the emails

The CD

Get papers from the funeral, birthday party, and engagement party that you missed because of this.

-Let us know the update

[ditto]

eh... took pictures from them. didn't turn out NICE at all. guess what? we "beep" him for refunds. it works! money is money.

[krazyyaj]

and also said to take him to court for the money.

You should take his advice. Go to court and sue, it is the only way to fix small business owners.

^need documented proof though.

Get the phone bill with the numbers called each time from your party to his studio/cell phone

Get all the emails

The CD

Get papers from the funeral, birthday party, and engagement party that you missed because of this.

-Let us know the update

yea if you do what he said. that's documented proof.

[UnderCoverNinja]

^ Unless it's voice recording, it's likely a winnable case with just the phone calls. With documentation, it'll help the cause.

Best way to resolve this issue is to contact your the BBB (Better Business Breau) and report them.

http://www.bbb.org/us/

[Handsome1]

Well, serving many thousand customers over the years, one would expect to come across one not so desire one, I mean really out-of-line one.  I feel sad for those siding with one side of the story.  There may be more to the story then just this bad experience story.  Sorry to say, but one thousand happy customers to one badly mistreated customer is normal (the best way is everyone is happy, but business is business, and to meet every customer's demand would bank-up the business in days).  I run business before, and serving the Hmong never easy.  They ask for one, you gave them, they will ask for two, and three, etc.

[Handsome1]

Xiong_gurl,

If you have any request, you should take it up with the his wife. The husband can really be a fawker, he is impatient and does whatever he wants or feel. I just feel sorry for the woman whom married him. Just makes me wonder how she can even stand this sob. My folks went to take some pictures there too and that sob is all bitching about them taking too much time and etc. When it's shooting time, he just fawking do burst shootings as if he's all that.

And like you, my folks never got their pictures as promised. If you're going to take him to court, you need people to testify of his bad service.

  Photos are unique of your own, and so refund is out of the question.  It appeared the owner has offered a reasonable $50 discount and yet they refused to take it, but demanding $100?  I don't have the answer!

[LaujMe]

the owners sound like a lot of bull.  $500 for the photoshoot but yet very unprofessional attitudes/characters.  if they are not willing to respect their customers than kiss their business bye bye.

Xiong_gurl,

If you have any request, you should take it up with the his wife. The husband can really be a fawker, he is impatient and does whatever he wants or feel. I just feel sorry for the woman whom married him. Just makes me wonder how she can even stand this sob. My folks went to take some pictures there too and that sob is all bitching about them taking too much time and etc. When it's shooting time, he just fawking do burst shootings as if he's all that.

And like you, my folks never got their pictures as promised. If you're going to take him to court, you need people to testify of his bad service.

  Photos are unique of your own, and so refund is out of the question.  It appeared the owner has offered a reasonable $50 discount and yet they refused to take it, but demanding $100?  I don't have the answer!

$50 does not make up for the mistakes.  They paid $500.  That's a lot of money.  If someone is going to pay that much for pictures than they better get the most out of their money.

[Chicken]

Well, serving many thousand customers over the years, one would expect to come across one not so desire one, I mean really out-of-line one.  I feel sad for those siding with one side of the story.  There may be more to the story then just this bad experience story.  Sorry to say, but one thousand happy customers to one badly mistreated customer is normal (the best way is everyone is happy, but business is business, and to meet every customer's demand would bank-up the business in days).  I run business before, and serving the Hmong never easy.  They ask for one, you gave them, they will ask for two, and three, etc.

What kind of business were you in?

[YangThugs_517]

Damn that dude f~ed yall over, man if it was me it woulda been a different story, so you guys paid him 500 dollars n didt even take the pictures?, damn i cant believe he lied to yall over n over again, i am so pissed just from reading this story, wish i could do some thing about it, ill spread the words though.

http://tinychat.com/hlubbers

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