Stephen Lassman Studios Ltd, Toronto, ON

My daughter had two appointments scheduled for graduation photos with this studio. Understandably, the studio cancelled the appointments due to the lockdown in Toronto. However, while monitoring their studios webpage, my daughter found that they had reopened dates booking for her U of T college in early June. When she tried to schedule a booking for these dates, the studios online attempts disallowed her because she had previously booked. When she tried to reschedule the old cancelled bookings, no dates appeared on the calendar. OK - online booking system is flawed. In an effort to have the photos done for her composite, she flew to Toronto during the week in early June that had originally showed as open for her college. She emailed the studio ( min 5 business days for a response ... but please indicate if it’s a time sensitive issue...) with a time sensitive issue prior to her departure. The flights are over $1000 from Vancouver. But, after 4 years of hard work at U of T, these photos were important to her and her family. The studio has blocked all form of communication. No phone calls and good like getting any form of reasonably timely reply. After camping out for over an hour at one of their studios (no sign of life there), she tried to reach out via email again (well after the 5 business days) only to receive a stern reply from Lassman studios lecturing her on her attempts to contact them. I gather clients are a nuisance to them. She was also told that COVID was the reason they don’t communicate with their clients. Interesting. Although Vancouver has not had the lockdowns Toronto has had and photographers her don’t have an issue with providing service to their clients, I might give them a slight pass for not taking photos. But, their extremely poor communication and treatment of their clients is not as excusable. Interestingly enough, when both my daughter and I contacted a few other profesional studios in Toronto, the calls were answered immediately and they were more than happy to schedule appointments. This has been a very unfortunate experience with this business. My daughter is extremely disappointed and sad that her photos are not done. When poor service impacts an important milestone in life and the business doesn’t even seem to get it, that’s remembered and the word spreads.