Lifetouch Photography - Lifetouch/prestige monopoly
I have gone through this for years. The photo company Lifetouch which is the same as Prestige have a Monopoly in the school system in Georgia.
You have to pay them and buy from them or you get nothing or your child will not appear in the yearbook. I understand that to have order, the school system had to chose one company who does very good quality pictures, and i have to admit they do, but they basically leave you with no options. Until last year i had time to research and found out another company "Portrait Innovations" who charges a lot less, yes you get probably a 15% less quality but at least you can afford them. Lifetouch prices are ridiculously huge, $380.00 for graduation portraits for a couple of pictures and just one pose and then from there, the prices go up, with packages up to close to $800.00.
They know that parents have very little options, so in schools that are in low income areas, you guess, the parents of those students just cannot afford to pay those outrageous prices, they do not get graduation pictures at all. I have heard of parents that only get one picture of their student in their robe, probably for between $25.00 to $45.00 plus taxes and fees and shipping.
I have paid their outrageous prices just because there are no other options, it seems the school system does not allow other companies to offer their products to the parents. I am disgusted with their monopoly and their incredible high prices.
Reason of review: Humongous prices and monopoly.
Monetary Loss: $900.
Preferred solution: Price reduction.
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Comments
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I agree. I have already talked to a few parents here in San Diego.
I just paid 258.00 for two poses. And about 20 pics of varying sizes. It's robbery. Solution....
organize a parent group and fire lifetouch/prestige. Go to the school board. Make some noise. Especially if you bring the folks who are less fortunate.
Not that I am.
I just used savings to pay for it. It hurt.
And sometimes Lifetouch isn't even the company hired to do the yearbook. Go figure if that's even legal!
It's time to appeal to your school to break away from the monopoly that is Lifetouch.
Why does this review have so many stars?
Because is true.