Clench Your Buttocks, Smile & Say Cheesy (Olan Mills)

Member Name: charis18uk

Product:	Olan Mills
Date:	17/10/04 (1442 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free Sittings, Free Portrait

Disadvantages: Hard Sell, Additinal portraits cost a fortune, Very staged photos

From the moment you find out you are pregnant one of the first things that prospective parents think about is the scan and the first picture of their unborn child. While packing, unpacking and re-packing our labour bags one of the first items to have pride of place is the camera.

As early parents we should have shares in Boots for the amount of photographs we take of our little darlings in the first year. We feel the need to document every first with a photo (or ten).

This has not escaped the notice of many a businessman. Before you have even left hospital you will probably have already purchased your first ever collection of professional portraits of your little one.

However it does not stop there. Oh no, that is only the beginning. As many mums will be aware we, as new parents, are gently pressured from the beginning of our childs life to pay for our memories immortalised in print.

The first step that is often utilised by Olan Mills and other similar companies is to target us with freebies in the famous Bounty Pack. Now for those of you who may not have had children this is a pack of samples, vouchers and not to be missed offers that are handed out to all new mums while in hospital. It usually contains things like nappies, wipes etc. Somewhere in this pack you quite often find a voucher for a free sitting at places like Olan Mills with a complimentary portrait thrown in.

Excellent!! That sounds so cool! Well it is and its not. Let me explain

Olan Mills do not make any money from these basic sittings. What they depend upon is that part of all parents that cannot let a single photo of their little darlings pass them by. They also depend upon the fact that we cannot help sharing and giving these photos to every family member we know. The basic sitting is a good offer. Its free! However, if you are the sort of person who is susceptible to the hard sell of photographers who depend upon high sales to achieve a large pay packet then its going to be an expensive visit.

The fact is regardless of the type of sitting you are interested in, Olan Mills do not openly advertise the cost of additional photographs. If you check out their website you will see that they have a range of packages/single sittings such as:


*Watch Me Grow* £26.99

Four separate sittings. One every three months. One 8x10 Colour Portrait of your choice from each child sitting. Choice of props and background. The Watch-Me-Grow Plan is valid for 12 months from the date of purchase.

*Club Plan* £26.99

Three separate sittings, one every three months. One 8x10 Colour Portrait of your choice from each child sitting. Choice of props and background. The Club Plan is valid for 12 months from the date of purchase.

*Girl Zone* £12.95

Mini make over and photo session with a free 5x7 portrait included.

*Elegance* £19.95

Adult make over, make-up tip sheet & photo session with free 5x7 portrait included.

*Family Photo Session* £ 9.95

Includes sitting with free 5x7 portrait.


What Olan Mills do not tell you on the website is the cost of ADDITIONAL portraits. I will give you some idea of the cost of extras. The cheapest additional portrait will set you back £30. This is for a 5x7 photo that costs about £1.50 to actually produce! If you want a set of six small portraits (they are smaller than normal photographs) this will cost £40. So if you have a really good sitting and your buying several portraits you could expect to spend hundreds of pounds. Olan Mills do offer packages of portraits that can reduce the price overall but only if you are buying a good amount of portraits.

So by now you probably have worked out that the service that Olan Mills offers can work out very expensive. What you are probably wondering about now is the quality of portraits and service.

Here comes the personal experience bit

I have only dealt with the Ipswich branch of Olan Mills and all my comments and experiences are about this branch. I have had several sittings with Olan Mills. My first session was due to the free offer I received in my Bounty pack. From that sitting Olan Mills obtained my contact details. Thus followed numerous phone calls from Olan Mills sales department. I eventually succumbed to a Watch Me Grow package. This involved four sittings a year and four free portraits for £26.99. I thought this was an excellent deal and signed up. From this point on I was bombarded with numerous phone calls about booking my sittings, was I still able to attend a sitting, did I know any friends or family who might be interested in a sitting. These phone calls could come at any time of the day right into the evening and more often than not when I was watching Eastenders! Once they get your number I tell you they really is no let up.

For every sitting that I have attended (seven in total) I have found the staff very busy and not particularly interested in you as individuals. Also they do not appear particularly child friendly and they can be very brisk. From the moment you enter the door you feel like you are on a conveyor belt. There is no time for individual style or opinions. They tend to have a set pattern of poses that they take you through every time. If you offer suggestions they are rarely listened to. If you know that you want a family photo for instance, with mum/dad/baby then you will get some poses of these. However they MAKE you do others too. This is so that you have more choice and therefore are more likely to purchase additional portraits. You go in, sit where you are told to sit, click click and then leave.

Depending on the branch you may come back at a later date to choose portraits. However if they are using digital photography you wait for about 30 minutes (with junior going mad in the reception area) while they upload your photographs and then you get to choose straight away.

This is where the hard sell starts. It is now their job to sell you as many portraits as they can. They will also steer you towards buying more photographs than you want by offering incentives and discounts for larger packages/purchases. You are also generally made to feel like some low life pond scum if you opt for just the free portrait.

Once you have survived or not survived the hard sell you have a good wait on your hands to receive the portraits. This can be in excess of four weeks. The portraits generally are of a good quality but nothing to get excited about. Some of the portraits I have had the option to choose from have actually been quite poor with lights showing, edges of carpet and worn props and accessories.

If you do purchase a package such as the Watch Me Grow package be aware that they have very strict time frames in which your sittings have to fit. The first sitting must be within three weeks of purchase. Subsequent sittings must be 90 days apart. Now if you times 90 days by 4 you realise that it comes to 360 days. With only 365 days in the year that is a very tight schedule. Inevitably what you find is that you can lose your last sitting if you fall behind. On my first Watch Me Grow package this is what happened to me.

In conclusion I would say that the Olan Mills experience is not a perfect one. The studios/props and accessories look tired and worn. The staff are very brisk and not particularly good with children. The photographer is not interested in individuals, he is interested in getting as many sittings done as he can in one day and hoping for large purchases from doting parents. The portraits themselves can appear very staged, false and of poor artistic standard. The quality of the actual prints themselves is average and nothing special. The time frames that you have to stick to with some of the packages are very strict and difficult to adhere to.

My advice would be to use Olan Mills if you feel that you want one portrait from each sitting and can resist the hard sell. Keep your purse in your pocket, clench your butt cheeks together and be brave. Try to be assertive during sittings and make them listen to what you want not what they want. If you do want to purchase additional photographs have a set budget before you arrive and STICK TO IT.

I would however encourage all parents to seek out alternatives such as the school/nursery/playgroup photographer who may work out considerably cheaper than Olan Mills.

I hope this review helps in some way to support your future successful and pain free purchases from companies such as Olan Mills.

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