Oh Snappr, where do I start?
Let’s be clear about two things from the outset.
1 Wedding Snapper is in no way affiliated with Snappr. It never has been and never will be.
2 I’m going to keep the tone and information contained in this post, fact based and neutral in tone so I don’t get sued for defamation! If we were having the same conversation over a beer in a pub I’d be far more scathing about this photography service that unfortunately bears a similar name to mine!
Book Your Professional Photographer in 2 Minutes Online, From Only $59 ? Only Hand-Picked Pros ? Full Insurance Cover ? Service Guarantee ?
These are just some of the claims made by Snappr on their website and the first I have an issue with is the claim that you can ‘Book Your Professional Photographer‘.
I’m not saying they’re not supplying professional photographers, but if you check out their profiles you’ll see that they mostly look fresh out of college and their listed equipment is usually a notch or two below the professional standard.
For example, ‘David C’, one of their Melbourne photographers lists his equipment as being two Canon 6D bodies. They’re great cameras and do take fine photos, but they are usually grouped in the consumer level bracket, priced at an affordable $1200. You don’t see photographers from The Age running around with a Canon 6D…
‘Hand-Picked Pros‘? Really?
The Melbourne photographic community is pretty tight knit, so even if I don’t personally know another photographer I’m usually connected with them by mutual colleagues/friends which makes me question the ‘Pro’ claim.
If they were working as professional photographers in Melbourne, I’m pretty sure one of us would recognise or know them. Googling their name and the word photographer doesn’t reveal much either. I’m not sure it’s going to pass the smell test! The word ‘professional’ is probably a bit of a stretch.
Look at the ultra low pricing
You can book a ‘mini-shoot’ for $109. So take the 10% GST component out and that brings it down to approximately $99. Snappr apparently takes 20% of the profit, the photographer gets the remainder.
So, at the time of writing, for around $80 a photographer drives to the location, pays for parking, uses equipment worth thousands of dollars, shoots for one hour, drives home or to their studio/office and edits and uploads the images for selection by the client.
At this stage they haven’t paid any tax on their earnings, parking meters, fuel, insurance, or bought coffee to keep them jazzed at having been shafted so badly.
By my reckoning, they’re working at about $25 per hour in a ‘professional’ role. Pfffft.
I’m guessing the photographer isn’t going to be motivated to go the extra distance on these shoots and turn in a fantastic job – they’ll be doing it because they’re desperate for work or want the exposure.
Here is a list of the current fees paid to photographers by snappr. It’s not pretty…
Don’t take my word for it, this article in The Australian is a measured and reasonable response to the Snappr experience, eloquently pointing out that someone with a camera and a few nice snaps is very different to a professional photographer offering their service at a realistic and sustainable price.
Photography site, Inside Imaging also recently published a good article on Snappr here.
I pride myself on my quality reviews and recommendations and would just like to draw your attention to some of the negative reviews for Snappr on Google:
Used them for corporate headshots after reading some of the great reviews. Photos were dark and completely unusable. I cant really blame the photographer as he’d probably get paid more delivering pizza. Snappr are slave merchants with no respect for people or photographers. Some of their reviews are written by their employees if you read them properly – I’ve reported these to google! (slight conflict of interest!) Most of their online imagery is clearly taken by commerical photographers (not paid a snappr wage) so you really cant expect any sort of consietncy (sic) when using them. Even their website lies by faking their google ranking (screenshot attached). I wont be using them again. Don’t trust these guys. Instead talk to an independent photographer and see what they can do within your budget.
-Samuel Ross
and
DO NOT USE! I booked a photographer last week and despite confirmation of my booking, nobody showed up on the day. There wasn’t a call or email advising that the photographer couldn’t make it, nor are you given any details to contact the photographer directly. I called and emailed the Help Desk to find out what was going on, but it’s directed to an overseas call centre and they are unable to give you any answers as they have no idea themselves what the situation is.
I ended up having to chase for a refund and that was the last I heard from them. No proper apology, no rescheduling nothing.
This entire company is a scam. They list their address as Surry Hills but you don’t speak to anyone there. All of the communication, from phone calls to emails goes directly through an overseas external service who have no idea what is happening. They just tell you they will investigate and get back to you in 24 hours.
-Pablo Cudareli
Obviously there are plenty of 5 star reviews there too, but they all feel a little scripted if you know what I mean? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something doesn’t feel right.
Update 21/3/23 : A Melbourne photographer named Edward got in touch to say that he’d read this article and after checking out their reviews he noticed a pattern to their reviews:
“I had a look at TrustPilot and found what it was. Every time they get a bad review – they get 12 to 14 good reviews within 2 days of the bad review.”
Great sleuthing Edward! Of course, this may just be an extraordinary coincidence, but I’ll let you be the judge of that one.
Thinking of booking Snappr for your wedding photography? I recommend booking a professional wedding photographer to avoid getting something crappr!
Do you see what I did there? Oh, don’t make me explain it…
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