Is this rude/unprofessional?

Question

I booked a maternity photo shoot for March 17th which is this Sunday. I booked in advance by messaging the photographer on her Facebook business page. (We live in a small town and she’s a professional photographer who does photography on the side, she doesn’t work for any business so she asks that you book through her Facebook page) and we agreed on the date. Each message I sent, she took 3-5 days to reply, which I understand, she is busy and I’m not her only customer. However, during the time she wasn’t replying to my messages, she was posting coupon deals on her Facebook story on her business page. The last time she replied was February 26th, when we agreed on March 17th. After that I asked her what time we should meet and if she knew any good locations for the session, and she hasn’t replied. Mind you the session is supposed to be this Sunday. Last week she posted on her business page a promotional coupon for couples sessions, and today she posted a promotional coupon for Spring deals. 
I’m getting really frustrated, as our session is in 4 days and she hasn’t responded in 3 weeks but has been posting on her page, and I still don’t know what time or where the session is. However I don’t have much experience working with professionals of any given profession so I’m not sure if this is normal/fair behavior. What do you guys think? Would you be a little annoyed too?

Accepted Answer

That’s not professional. She clearly doesn’t care about her clients. Can you find a new photographer?

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Id post on her wall publically, and call her out 🤷‍♀️ and cancel.

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I’d post on her wall telling her you’ll be cancelling this Sunday. I bet she’ll message you back pretty fast after that.

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I’d send a new message saying “Hey, I haven’t heard back from you in awhile should I find a new photographer? Please let me know soon, thank you”

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That’s ridiculous and I would have taken my business elsewhere. There’s no reason for her to take weeks to reply to any message especially a message about something she’s going to get paid to do.

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Super unprofessional. If she has a phone number or little studio I would call or drop by. I also would be sending follow up messages OR posting directly to her page. It can just be something like, "Hey! I sent you a message about our shoot this weekend- looking forward to it 😊 ". It doesn't come across as passive agressive or rude and hopefully then you can get an answer since she probably doesn't want to seem as if she doesn't respond to those on her page .

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I'd message her and say that you're going to find another photographer because the planning has been dragged out so much by her. It's very unprofessional, she shouldn't be taking on extra work if she can't keep up with it.

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Yeah that’s pretty unprofessional, I would probably send her another message asking her what time she was thinking for Sunday again just so you know how to plan your day.  She might have looked at the message and forgot... but still, that’s not okay to leave your clients hanging all the time.  I would definitely be annoyed.

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Hey! Page manager here! Just FYI she may not be ignoring you. I (and many others) are having serious issues with Facebook manager app. It will show me notifications that aren’t there. Says I have messages but I can’t see them. Tells me I don’t have access when I’m the only admin. Believe me it’s so frustrating and on your side it looks like we have terrible customer service. If she uses the app she definitely could be missing things. 
Obviously I don’t know this woman and she could be totally ignoring you, just food for thought. Facebook has the worst support too, they never fix anything! 
Another thing. Just because there’s posts doesn’t mean she *just* posted it. She could have scheduled that out months or weeks in advance to push automatically. She should be checking in multiple times a day, but not everyone does or has the time if they’re also running a business. 
Hope your pictures turn out great and she’s not intentionally not getting back to you!!

Answer

Sorry, i shouldve selected yes its rude and unprofessional. Its better to go somewhere that will actually communicate with you. This isnt a free favor from her to you, youre paying this person. Your bussiness is doing THEM the favor. So not worth having to stay on this person to get in touch with you for services youre paying them for. Can you imagine how hard itll be just to get the pictures back from her? Screw that! Go somewhere you know its more reliable, a stress free experience will make the photo session so much better. Best of luck! Try googling reviews, those are usually pretty reliable.