Artona Group Inc

I’ve had nothing but problems trying to order my daughters grad photos. Terrible customer service. It’s been back a forth phone calls for 2 months. They say they can’t process my order because of a ton of problems on their end. They had no problem processing my payment of almost 400.00$ but have a ton of technical difficulties on their end. So I have to spend a ton of my time back and forth on the phone and online, because of all their issues, stilll haven’t gotten any answers or pictures but you sure took my money. I’ve never written a review for a company before
But I’m so upset with the zero care your company gives. It’s disgusting!!

I phoned Artona and asked to have a new go card be made at the end of June. They informed me that I needed a special transit form or I could order through the website. I went online, made the order. Then I called to ask if I could pick it up that day. They said no it would be ready in 2 weeks. It did not say on the website anything about it taking such a long time and they did not warn me of this on my phone call. So I asked to cancel. They then told me if I paid 50$ extra I could cancel my order. If I wanted to expedite my order I could pay an additional 50$. I already paid 30$ plus a 5$ fee for being processed singly. I called the manager and was completely floored that they would not work to help me get it done faster. It's been an entire month and I have still not gotten the gocard my child needed for summer school bus travel. I would have cancelled it on my visa if I didn't need to order photos from them in future grades. I will be instructing my PAC to find a new photographer. Horrible customer service. Buyer beware!!

I have never in my life experienced such terrible photographers. These people are not trained. In anything. They don't know how to communicate with people AT ALL and end up screaming and /or standing there not directing u at all. They are rude and I almost got up and left. This has happened year after year for school photos and grad photos were worse. The photographer didn't even centre the photos. I'm so angry these photos were even allowed out of that room. I'd rather have a friend take a picture on my phone and print that out for two bucks because it would sure as hell be better than the crap I got. If you can avoid artona u should because I gauruntee it's going to BE a waste of time. I wish I could give this 0 stars.

I agree this is the worst place, imagine, I waited twice, over 23 h to have my call returned
The order placing section of the web site can not take a few changes before freezes and a message pops up to call for assistance......good luck trying.
Artona Group Inc has contract with all or almost all schools, no wander their customer service is so awful, they know we (parents) have no choice; we are stuck with their crappy service and prices almost as high as a sky, because they do know, we are not able to go elsware.

As per the group of kids from Ladner and Mission who cannot afford to pay for pictures, I'm happy they are getting them for free, but I'm absolutely shock that Artona is taking credit for this noble acct. We all are paying for these pictures, with these unbelievably high prices, one picture $42.00..... really?

My name is Karen Pruim and I run a 100% non-profit program that provides Graduation outfits for students from Ladner out to Mission who cannot afford the outfit to attend this event. These are students who have faced more than most adults ever will. We, at the Princess Project make sure that they are treated like Princesses for the day with a dress, shoes, purse and even hair and makeup. This is where Artona stepped up to the plate when they were asked to help out - they have attended EVERY one of my last 4 years of events and taken portraits of 100+ students at each event. They provide these packages to the students at absolutely no cost. They are the most warm and loving individuals it has been my extreme pleasure to work with. I cannot say enough about how happy the students were to have their pictures taken (like their peers had done) and to know they actually got them for free brought some of them to tears. Thank you to all of you at Artona for helping me, and all of these students!! You are phenominal.

People think twice when going here so unhappy with my daughters grad photos the photographers have no idea what they are doing and in no way helpful we also had booked time for a family shoot and were told well we usually do those in the spring but we will do them anyways and they were just horrible we will be having them redone somewhere else where you feel welcomed and happy with whats going on the prices unreal in this day and age who can afford that lucky for them they have the contracts with the schools or else i don't think they would get much buss,never mind the work of getting everyone ready and showered and groomed at home time spent going there then having been hurried through...They need to help the people who are un photogenic pose better and guide them threw ya good luck with that not a happy camper....

We are currently reviewing the proofs for our daughter's Elgin Park Secondary 2013 grad photos. These are without any doubt the WORST so-called studio photos I have ever had the misfortune to see, and I have seen more than one student's proofs for this particular class. The "photographers" looked to be in their early 20's, clearly lacking experience, and very obviously lacking any talent whatsoever. No real posing guidance to the subjects, no recognition that they were about to take a photo that should never happen. Of course we're only seeing the proofs after the "photographer" has already weeded out the bad ones, so I imagine we'd become violently ill if we saw the duds.

I won't say too much on the pricing. The word "robbery" jumps to mind. We will be buying a single 8x10 for $40 and that's it. The ridiculously cheesy grad video is nothing but low resolution versions of the still photos twirling about the screen, so that's too laughable to consider. Even trying to choose the single photo for the 8x10 is hard - sifting through garbage is an ugly job. Buying the digital versions of 20 still photos and getting the copyright release is a non-starter at $300, but for such horrible photos that's no loss anyway. Our thinking now is to get proper grad photos taken privately when we have the graduation gown temporarily in our possession. We know a couple amateur photographers with relatively high-end camera and lighting gear that can do a vastly superior job.

How Artona gets the grad photo contracts for our school system is beyond me. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that some kind of corruption was involved. I don't know who in the school district is responsible for awarding the contract, but those individuals need to be dismissed with prejudice.

Of all the professional photo studios I have ever been to, Artona has the privilege of being right at the bottom - this is what happens when they have a monopoly over graduation studios. No doubt they have an extensive set but their photographers are new and inexperienced and the pricing is terrible. Generally they can't pose people properly to bring out the best - they use a formula that only works for photogenic people. The photos are disappointing. Additionally, when they say return low resolution disc, they really mean LOW - like 72. You probably get higher resolution scanning your hardcopy prints.