Horrible experience with Jimmy Tan of JTP Productions (www.j-tanphotography.com/)

MaximusCruiser

New member
Dear friends,

I am writing this to warn would be newlyweds who are considering to hire Jimmy Tan from JTP Productions or at www.j-tanphotography.com. Don’t do it! If you are interested to know what happened, please read on. Sorry… the story is a bit lengthy.

My wife and I got married on 12 June 2014 and hired Jimmy Tan for photography and videography services late last year, where we made a $200 deposit.

I am sure for most of us, hiring a photographer is a leap of faith and we are just hoping that based on our research and recommendations, things will go well as there are no 2nd chances. We took a leap of faith because at that point, his pricing was reasonable and there was no clear negative feedback on him (not much feedback to be accurate). My wife also checked out his past works available on his website and felt it was decent.

Everything started fine and Jimmy appeared courteous and professional. We met up to pay the deposit, discuss details and also to test the projection at the hotel ballroom…. all without issues.

Then comes the Actual Day…. Jimmy, the photographer, and Daniel (I think), the videographer, showed up in the morning at my wife’s place and started taking pictures. I won’t bore you with too many details but suffice to say, we do not feel that they were very creative or have much experience in directing people for good shots. For example, the bride’s shoes were specially ordered and we stick sparkling words “I Do” at the bottom… this is completely missed by them, even though we reminded Jimmy. More on their work in later paragraphs.

3 weeks after the wedding, we had to arrange to meet with Jimmy again to collect the photos / videos and to make the balance payment. Almost immediately, I can see a change in attitude. We arranged to meet… only for him to tell us last minute that he could not make it. I told him we had to set aside time to meet so please try to keep his appointments next time. He replied to say he was busy taking care of his baby as his wife is not around so no choice. The tone of his message does not appear to asking for our understanding but it is just something we have to accept. What choice do we have? After our wedding, he holds our photos and that is more important to us than the amount to be paid to him. And it was clear that he knows it.

We finally arranged for another meeting and he assured us that it will show up… and yes, he did. We were then given the photos and videos on a thumbdrive, which we viewed via his laptop. Only then did we know how they did for our actual day. And though we were disappointed with the work… we tried our best not to express it.

The quality of the shots were average AT BEST, since quality is subjective, I will not focus on that. The main problem I like to highlight here was actually the quantity. To sum things up… Jimmy took a total of only 464 photos for the entire day, including a side trip to reservoir for photoshoot, solemnization ceremony at 5pm and the banquet at night. I wonder… his package does not include a print album, so it cost him close to nothing (digital shots) to take as many shots as possible. At a mere 464 shots for the entire day, including many table shots of 33 tables at the banquet, do you think that was adequate? So much details and moments were lost! The only conclusion one can easily draw is that he was not “on the ball”. This is a far cry from a photographer my friend hired for his wedding who shot almost a thousand shots and that is after editing!

As if this was not disappointing enough, we were even more disappointed with the videography service. Guess how much footage we were given for the entire day of shooting post editing? Less than 22 mins!! My wife, who always love photos and videos was visibly disappointed that a lot of footage was edited away… including important moments during the gate crash which I gave a speech that my wife did not get to hear (she was in the room).

She asked Jimmy if she could get the raw footage instead of the edited one as she would like to do her own edits and more importantly, she would like to view all the scenes. I am sure every female will relate to this and is a perfectly reasonable request. Jimmy said the raw footage is not in his laptop but at home, so we request if he could burn them into CDs and send it to us (since it is difficult to meet up with him), to which he agreed. We trusted him as this was a simple request and we proceeded to make full payment in cash. This was a BIG mistake.

For the next 6 weeks, the CDs never came and Jimmy was impossible to contact. Both my wife and I tried messaging him separately. He replied my wife initially to say he has already sent the CD and will look into what happen… that was only in the 2nd week. Thereafter, Jimmy completely ignored her messages for weeks. Is this how you treat customers? My wife even patiently explained to Jimmy in a message that she would really like to see the missed footage… to which, Jimmy continued to ignore her messages. My wife was so upset over this.

So I took over… and message Jimmy as well. Again… no reply for days. Finally, I used my house phone to start calling Jimmy. On my 3rd try in 2 days, Jimmy finally picked up the call and from his voice… he clearly did not expect that it was me. I asked him what was going on… I offered to go meet up with him and have him download the raw footage to my thumbdrive, trying to reduce as much trouble for him as possible. He said he needed to check with his friend (Daniel, I presume) as the footage is with him. Note that this contradicts his claim that he has already sent the CD and that the footage was in his home computer. He is just full of crap. This is how I felt but I did not say it as the objective was to get the footage that my wife really wanted.

I ended the hurried phone call (Jimmy was eager to hang up) with him saying he will get back to me after he checks with Daniel. However, my wife reminded me of what “getting back” means to this person. So I immediately sms him again to ask him to just pass me Daniel’s number and I will save him the trouble and arrange with Daniel directly. To this message, once again, there was absolutely no reply.

The following day, I message Jimmy him again. This time, I asked him why was he treating customers this way and why he is not concern with his own reputation. Finally… I received the one and only response from him for weeks…. He said and I quote:

“Look I have to ask him first before giving his number ok”

It would seem that once money has been passed to him, the tables are turned and he is now the boss. All I was asking is for him honour what he promised and for that, he felt the need to tell me off. I replied to say that he could have communicated that he is checking with his friend instead of total silence. We would have no idea if he is even doing anything about this, especially after ignoring so many of our messages over the weeks. Again… no reply.

In fact… the above was the very last reply…. and it was 8 days ago from today. In between, my wife and I made our separate last attempts to get through of this punk who calls himself a photographer. Nothing. We have officially given up hope of getting the raw footage.

But we don’t want what we have gone through with this fella to have been in vain. Which is why I am taking the trouble to warn everyone in the online community.

If you considering but have not hired Jimmy Tan of JTP Productions (http://www.j-tanphotography.com/), please think twice. Wedding is once in a lifetime. Your photographer is important and he NEEDS to be on the ball and professional. Jimmy Tan is clearly not. Do not base your decision on mere pricing and the work he posed online… those are not a good gauge of his attitude. It is simply not worth the risk… unless you are fine with below average quality, less than 500 digital photos and 22mins of video footage for the WHOLE DAY.

If you have already paid him a deposit… please consider to forgo the amount. I know it sounds wasteful and drastic, but like I said earlier… it is simply not worth the risk. You will hardly remember details of your wedding because it is a VERY long day. So you need to rely on your photographer and videographer to capture the moments for you. With such lazy guys… important moments of your wedding will be lost for good.

If you choose to stick with Jimmy and not forgo your deposit, I can totally understand. But please please assign 2 persons (one each), to give them directions throughout the day. And above all, don’t make the same mistake as we did. DO NOT pay him in full until you get all the items you want and that you are 100% satisfied that he has fulfilled his obligation. Both points are equally important and MUST be done when dealing with Jimmy Tan. Even then, post wedding, as I have mentioned, the tables are turned and he will exploit this if he needs to.

Jimmy Tan, of JTP Productions, is a person with absolutely no professional ethics and does not honour his promises to customers. Do not trust such a person with the most important day in your life.

All the best.

Joe
 
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