“I have never posted a review before. However, baby art have earned this right.
Do not use this company, their High pressure sales tactics could cost you £2000. Everything that has been said in these reviews is true. They manipulate you right from the beginning, their high pressure sales tactics will either make you pay or walk out. We were strong enough to walk, but I fear others might not!
If you do buy you will not see a cute photo on the wall, you will see your own mug shot, as you reflect and process the costs vs the quality. It is a con! The entire show has left me feeling very angry, and as read the other reviews it has made me feel very emotional. Heni made me feel worthless, I think he might have thought we couldn’t afford to pay £2000, offering us payment options! I am happy to agree we may have been naive, but I am not stupid and I am happy to accept our learning! Hopefully my post will help you learn from our mistake! Do not use this company!
PS:
To give you an example, we were shown a real of photos, when they finished we were asked to choose a package. I asked if I could see the photos again, I was told no, if I wanted to see the photos I would have to pay £1000! This is one example of their closing tactics!
I said I wanted to think about it, Heni said if I didn’t agree to pay he would delete the photos that night!
Delete away Heni - however, I hope this honest post has more shelf life!”
“I decided to share with you our experience, as I felt this company didn’t play fair. I contacted Baby Art UK on messenger to book a photo session (Bump2Baby) as I couldn’t get through by phone. They called me and took my details. They told me what the package offers and that any extras will be charged and that a book with their prices will be sent by post, but they didn’t say anything about the actual price prior booking. After paying for the package and the fee they charge, I have received a few days later the book and the prices they have, are huge. I felt that they tricked me as not anyone affords to pay £75 on one photo only and I consider is fair for them to actually inform you about this prior booking. To get ONLY 5 photos on a USB is £395. I have contacted them for a refund that obviously they refused to do. They said I can get what the package offers(that means 2 photos only) and is no need for me to buy anything else.
I am asking now what is the point of a photo session of 1 hour for a Bump Shoot and a 3-4 hours Newborn shoot to get only one picture free. Why put your newborn baby through all of that for just one photo?
Hope this will help you and you won’t feel tricked by them as I did.”
“I was led to believe I won a competition at the baby show, which would include a photo shoot, the weighted bear and a photo from the shoot. Quickly I paid the initial £35 deposit, not thinking anything of it but after being sent the package details via email, found out I would have to attend 3 shoots in order to get my deposit back and the weighted bear. The prices for ONE photo is £60! I will be on maternity pay, how on earth will I afford that!
I read reviews and found this is a marketing ploy, quick to take your deposit and at the shoot will bully you into spending an absolute fortune on the photos. I even read some reviews of photographers deleting the best photos because they are for suitable for canvas only.
I tried to contact the company via their email but heard no response, and I doubt I'll get my deposit back but I'm sure I've saved myself tonnes of stress if I were to go to the newborn shoot. I won't let myself get bullied, in such a vulnerable time with a newborn baby.
I feel really disappointed in myself for falling for it. They shouldn't be allowed at the baby show taking advantage of soon to be mothers who would be excited to win a competition for their new born baby / maternity journey. I have complained to the show and I really hope they no longer get the chance to advertise their scam.
You should be ASHAMED of yourselves, exploiting soon to be families by advertising a 'free competition' but bullying them out of hundreds at the shoots so they never see their deposit again.”
“The photographer was accommodating and friendly. She captured some beautiful photos of our new born.
It is a shame that the prices are not displayed transparently, especially with signature prints which cost a lot more - in order to get all of these you have to spend roughly £1000. That is more than my wedding photographer who I have for a whole day and will receive 500+ photos from! We would have liked more family photos that one, we could afford (not signature ones) and two, more to choose from, from the whole 4 hour shoot we only got 2 family photos.
We will not be returning to baby arts for the sitting up or cake smash shoot as it is unaffordable.”
“Experience from the start to when Matt phoned us up regarding the newborn photo shoot was second to non very professional and put our mind at ease. On the day of the photo shoot we were made to feel welcome. To get all 4 children smiling was a feat in it self all thanks to Dionne when at the photo shoot it was a relaxed no rushed photo shoot. Drinks and food was available. The props were out of this world. Really enjoyable experience. When we went to have a look at the photos 2 weeks later the photos were incredible. The slide show which Matt did us blew us away can’t thank him enough so much thought went into the slide show he put it together beautifully. We then went on to have a look at the signature photos after viewing the photos Matt left us to have a think which ones we would like after all they were all amazing so it was a hard choice we wanted to keep them all as they were that good. There was no pushy sales intact Matt helped us to get the best value package which before hand we went into the studio knowing how much we wanted to spend. We left the studio on cloud 9 was a great memorable day out. Shall be looking forward to seeing you guys in the future.”
“We bought the pump to baby package with the four shoots and the four photos, which was ideal for us. The photo shoot for the newborn was lengthy, but I thought the photographer was lovely, treated us really well, and thought we would get a good picture out of it. We had not received the booklet with the additional price packages before going to the shoot, We were given the booklet after the newborn shoot, wow I could not believe how expensive the photos were for the packages, I might as well buy myself props for my baby and take photos on my phone, I can’t believe they think people have that kind of money for photos, five digital images for £400!!! Other packages go up to £2000, are you crazy.
Obviously the packages and the additional costs were not for us as we are on a very restricted budget at the moment considering I’m on maternity leave. We went to view our photos, and were told about the additional packages, we politely explained that these packages were not in our budget and we were happy to just take the prints purchasing our original purchase. The photographer from that moment went from being so nice to us to rude and passive aggressive, I understand that a lot of that it goes into trying to upsell these packages but baby are need to understand that not everyone can afford these, and we shouldn’t be guilt tripped into buying these packages, it felt like some sleazy fake selling tactic. I felt upset, emotional, guilty and couldn’t believe how quickly the switch flipped abs how rude the photographer was to us, You could tell he thought we had wasted his time! Baby art should not sell the bump to baby package if there is such rudeness when you don’t buy additional prints. I wish we never got the photos to begin with and put our babies through the photo shoot. I would not recommend this company it’s such a rip-off and the staff are rude and fake!”
“If I could rate lower than 1 star I would.
After seeing their stand at a baby fair, my friend entered a contest where you could win some free either maternity or newborn photoshoots, all you had to do was pay a £35 fully refundable deposit. After winning this competition (as I imagine every single entrant did) she paid the £35 deposit under the assumption that this was fully refundable.
After some time she looked at the prices, and saw that included in the photoshoots was 1 digital photo for free (watermarked) and if you wanted to buy any more it would cost hundreds of pounds for just digital copies. She saw this and looked to get a refund, as she obviously could not afford this. They said that there was absolutely no chance of getting this refund, as the photoshoots need to be completed for the deposit to be refunded.
Unfortunately, later on her pregnancy was unsuccessful. This was a tragic time, and through the grief she thought to let them know that she would not be able to attend due to her miscarriage and would like to get the money refunded. They played dumb and said that she had never paid a deposit or made an account, forcing her to go through the emails herself to provide proof, which was in fact with the same email and location she had told them in the first place. A week afterwards she has been getting daily calls from them, which is just awful. She has no room to grieve.
This is by far the worst company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with, and while it may not be an outright scam it is incredibly shady and should be avoided at all costs.”
“We ‘win’ four photoshoots with a free picture from each one as we attended a baby show in London and supposedly correctly guessed the baby dolls weight. However, my friend who I was with guest completely differently to me and also got a message saying she had a photo shoot because she guessed right. So clearly, it’s a way of getting customers in the door. The newborn photo shoot itself was a really good experience and good memories were made, The maternity issue I had first wasn’t as good and sadly you could tell by the end pictures that the photographer didn’t have as much experience as the owner did and so the pictures weren’t very good. Sadly, baby studios don’t do their own editing meaning that whatever image the photographer has in their mind that they are trying to capture is not communicated with the editing team that all the photos are quite generic. Sadly, the family picture from when I was pregnant wasn’t nice at all it had a massive dark shadow in the background that hadn’t been edited out and generally was quite sloppy and messy with my partner hidden behind our Child. This was actually the best of the bunch and obviously since I can’t go back in time and do it again, we ended up having to take it as it is. In all honesty I found the man who owns the company very very pushy with sales and was questioning us could afford to pay each month and also questioning each of us separately about it in front of one another it was so awful. He also began the sales pitch by saying ‘ Those tissues there Mum in case you’re still hormonal and dad, they’re there for you for when you come to pay’ I found this so offensive. I had had a really hard first month with our baby battling what I thought was postnatal depression so to have somebody mocking women for being hormonal after childbirth really angered me right from the off! When it came to having the prints posted to us Obvious, they tried to make profit postage which just seems crazy to me when they charge so much anyway! Sadly, you don’t even get a digital copy of any prints that you do purchase! So there’s not really much you can do with just one print anyway. I really don’t think this is the place to go if you’re looking for a newborn photographer or family pictures at all! We have gone to a different photographer now and she is absolutely on another level compared to this place!”
“The biggest con going ! Apparently well known for it too so wish we done our research before wasting our time!
I have emailed at least 3/4 times querying what we were promised and have been totally ignored each time. I have no other choice but to share so someone else don’t get conned. I would totally avoid using this company! Especially if you’ve won this as a competition or you see them advertise a deal. We won this competition at the baby show in Olympia, we were told that we got the maternity, newborn and 6 month package. We were told to put down a deposit to hold our space which was refundable once we attended and that on the day we would get a complimentary photo of our choice on a 7 day turn around sent to us. We went to this shoot on Wednesday in the Ipswich centre and was told there that we won’t get your maternity pictures until the newborn shoot. Firstly, why the hell does anyone want to wait that long for the maternity pictures and who would even be interested in the maternity pictures when they have a bundle of pictures of their newborn?! Already that has put a dampner on our experience. Once the session was over we sat in reception expecting to see the pictures. We were given a brochure of all of the extortionate packages we could choose from, both my partner and I was taken back since we were told there would an exclusive on the day offer of £99 for 10 of our pictures plus the complimentary picture on a 7 day turn around! We’re now seeing a brochure with the most extortionate prices we’ve seen for a baby shoot. We come home a little deflated, upset and very confused with what it is we’ve actually won here. Since we were also told to email the studio if we had any queries. I emailed 3 times in the end and had no response. I would totally avoid this studio! Policy of having to wait for both sessions to take place should put you off in itself let alone the brochure or prices they offer. I mean for digital files only it’s disgusting, let alone when you’re told you’ve won this as a price and there is no prize other than a complimentary picture of each session. Really?!. They offer “competitions” to reel you in and then shove a load of unrealistic prices in your face. To put things in to perspective. I have since been in touch with another studio who responded immediately. Helpful and full of information so I know where I stand before I booked them. She’s also much cheaper and you’re able to get your maternity pictures in the normal standard time frame! Please do your research.”
“My partner and I were due to welcome our son in May 2022 and I had won a free photo with BabyArt studios as part of a wider package. We drove 4 hours to Dundee and back to Edinburgh for this photoshoot (on 2 separate occasions for the Bump2Baby photo shoot and the newborn photoshoot). We came back to see our photos and of course we fell in love with them. We were told that if we paid for the platinum package (£2195.00) we would be able to have large photo prints all framed across all the photoshoots (including the upcoming sitters photoshoot and cake smash). We paid it without hesitation. The photographer said to whatsapp her when my son is sitting upright so that we can come along for our photoshoot. 7 whatsapp messages later, 2 text exchanges with an Admin from BabyArt studios, phonecalls, 2 emails to the BabyArt Dundee email, and messages to BabyArt studios facebook page....and nothing. We have been scammed of £2195.00 and are forced to take legal action. Disgusting of such a large company to do this to a young new family. Some new mum's I have reached out to have also decided against using this company because of this situation. If you do use this company - please make sure you have all photoshoots booked in and just be very very careful.”
“We have been very pleased with the care and attention to detail David at Baby Art Studio in Kent has given to us.
We have attended for Maternity and Newborn shoot so far and look forward to our viewing session.
He has a great personality and a real passion for his work. He is very warm and welcoming and really made us feel relaxed.
Would definitely recommend to any parent who wants to have some great memories captured.
Thanks again David for all your time and effort so far.”
“Great experience and wonderful pictures, memories that we can keep forever. Would recommend the team at Baby Art Kent to anyone looking to make some special memories.”
“Second time I have visited. Always made to feel welcome, even with 4 disruptive children! Such lovely photos and very adaptable - twice I asked them to photoshop images where one child was not smiling at the camera and they achieved a perfect picture for me both times! Thank you Baby Art for helping me make wonderful memories 🥰”
“We purchased the bump to baby package and went to the Coventry studio for our maternity and newborn shoots, these were both amazing, the photographer was so professional, interactive and just lovely!!
The variety of props & poses were incredible.
My partner hates photos but even he had to admit they were incredible and we purchased the whole VIB package!
We are very excited to be returning in December for our 6 month one with the whole family….!
These guys are highly recommended and has exceptional professionalism and welcoming!!
The easiest 5***** I’ve ever given!!”
“Amazing service, photos have been absolutely beautiful
On photography day, we felt so at ease and everything went smoothly even with two little ones!”
“The photographer Mel was amazing so kind and helpful and what beautiful photos she toke. I’m so happy with what we got thank you much for all the help we definitely recommend baby art studio ❤️”
“Initially on my maternity shoot as I knew my baby’s arrival date I was told a date that would be ear marked for me for my baby’s newborn shoot. When I went to confirm after he was born this date hadn’t been saved. Finally after a couple of months we got our newborn shoot. The photographer was lovely however as he was 2months old she said he would be able to regulate his own temperature and so turned off the heat. With a stripped baby it wasn’t the best idea. He became congested after it and has had bronchitis (not saying it was definitely solely the reason but can’t help wonder if it attributed as we had been so careful otherwise). On shoot day our photographer mentioned we could get some pictures on wall art, we both agreed that’s not our style. When it came to the viewing I was unaware that I couldn’t obtain images unless I purchased the wall art for £395 each. These images admittedly were beautiful (they were what I’d asked for) however, when I asked to speak to the manager via phone to see if we could compromise and receive them digitally or print he told me no as I would only likely leave them in a drawer or delete off my phone when storage was full. I said that wasn’t my way but he told me it was likely as 90% do. I have photo books & email images/videos to an email address I’ve set up for my son. I am not one for sharing too much on social media. He told me his ethos and story as to why the business was set up and I understand this however I felt so hurt to see images of our family -specifically images I’d shown the photographer I wanted of our family to then be told you can’t have them unless you buy it on a block of wood. I wouldn’t have wasted mine or their time if I knew this was the case. I found The owner belittling on the phone and had to say I think we should end this call. I cried (which as a new mum I had only done once since giving birth) and I am not experiencing PND. Would I recommend - no. Please don’t be fooled like I was I wish I had read reviews on this site.”
“We went for our newborn photo shoot to day not only were the girls so friendly and helpful but they were so professional!
We had Kaylie Jasmine and Chels and they were absolutely lovely 🥰 I took my mum with me thinking I would need the help as having triplets is always a task trying to go out on my own 🙈 but if I went on my own I still would been okay as the girls were very attentive and gave us the help we needed 🥰❤️
The studio was very clean and very covid friendly!!! The girls wore masks the whole time and we were there from 10am till 5:30ish💙
I’m soo excited to see the finished photos and get them up around the House 🥰 thank you soo much to Kaylie, Brendan and the team at Ipswich ❤️❤️”
“We recently went to Baby Art Aylesbury and Heni made us feel welcome straight away. A maternity photoshoot was not something I wanted to do but as it was part of the package, I decided to give it a shot. I felt so comfortable and I was speechless at how the photos turned out. Now coming to the newborn photoshoot, Heni took our son Jude into his arms and took great care of him, taking his time soothing and comforting him. When we came to view the pictures it was incredibly emotional. I will cherish these photos always and can’t thank you enough for the way Heni captured Jude, myself and my partner. What an amazing experience and precious memories to have!”
