Avoid - digital expressions video

[Mialonghorn]

All,

 

This is a long story but read below for my complaint with the BBB. you can contact me directly if you have any specific questions.

 

My wedding video from Sep 09 is not yet complete after 8 months. I've called and emailed numerous times and I always get the same excuse about the economy. Since he caused my wedding to start late by showing up almost an hour late, he promised to have it to me ASAP after the wedding. In Oct, he said it would be ready before Christmas, on Dec 19th, said it would be ready in Feb at the latest, and then on Jan 31st, my video was in line #24 but he would put it ahead. On March 18th, told my husband that we were all of the sudden #28 in line but he'd move it ahead. On March 23, he told my wedding planner that "I have a few post wedding edits that I have to work on personally but I will bump Mia and Joseph's wedding to fifth on my personal workload." Also in Jan, he tried to get out of it by trying to make me sign a form for "free" raw footage video, which according to my lawyer, is a scam. By signing for this "free" form, I would have released him of providing me anything further. The form states: "The studio is under no further obligation to the client once raw footage is turned over to the client." I've already paid for the service in full before Sept and now he's trying to get out of providing me the video. I have no faith that he's actually working on my video at all and will need to get my lawyer involved once I've filed this complaint.

[Kai-15]

I'm the owner of Digital Expressions. I just wanted to respond to the allegations above. This is our first complaint to the Better Business Bureau in over ten years of business and over 800 weddings completed. We are a small business not a fortune 500 company with bail out money. We had to layoff nearly our whole staff in late 2008 to survive the bad economy. In 2008, I had a staff of six employees. Due to the bad economy, we had to downsize our staff from six to one employee so it was just myself and one other editor for almost a year and a half. So I admit that our turnaround time tripled for all of our 2009 and doubled for our early  2010 clients but we are finally catching up with our work. I accept full responsibility for the bad turnaround time. This could not be avoided. 

 

I was not late almost an hour. The ceremony started over an hour later than the posted start time. We were late by ten minutes because the Honolulu Airport had some major problems and we had missed three consecutive flights to Maui. I notified the bride's coordinator via telephone call from the Honolulu Airport as soon as possible. Normally, we arrive an hour to 45 minutes before a wedding but with the flight delays and drive time to the wedding site, we were ten minutes late but ready to shoot upon arrival. 

 

She hired us for 4 hours coverage but I felt bad that we were late so I stayed the whole night free of charge. I also bumped her video ahead of a lot of other clients videos because we didn't arrive to the site at the time we were suppose too. Normally, we edit in the order of the events but I bumped her video ahead of a lot of other clients.  

 

We also offered her free raw footage (valued at $350). The raw footage release form that she is referring to as a scam is because the wording for the raw footage states, "The studio is under no further obligation to the client once raw footage is turned over to the client." We give the raw footage to the clients after we finish their video so it basically means that we won't have access to the files once its turned over to the client because it will no longer be on our hard drive. We were not trying to scam the client.

 

We are finally back at full staff as of only a couple months ago so we are expecting to be fully caught up with our backlogged work by the end of the year. If you were our clients in 2009 or early 2010, we apologize for the bad turnaround time. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Please contact me for your free raw footage (valued at $350) and some clients are also qualified to get a free slideshow (valued at $950). Call or email me to find out the details.

 

Sincerely,

Kai

Digital Expressions

www.digitalexpressionshawaii.com

(808) 674-0020 

 

 

 

 

[Pushed2Limit]

I second the problems that the other wedding couple had.

 

STAY AWAY FROM THIS WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHER! I had my wedding in the middle of March 2012. It's now December 2012 and I have yet to receive my dvd. It took me no more than a month after the wedding to email Kai Kekaulike my song choices for the video. At about six months after the wedding I have been contacting Kai trying to get an estimate for when the video would be available. The excuses I've received from then through now go on an on and on....(i.e. it's the busy season, busy with Japanese weddings, just came back from neighbor island wedding, just came back from Mainland, short staffed). Just a week ago he specifically told me that he would be emailing me a delivery confirmation by...Oh let's see, yesterday. Yes, more lies again. I am now having to hire an attorney to take him to court.
As I stated STAY AWAY FROM DIGITAL EXPRESSIONS! There are other wedding videographers in Hawaii that will not take years off your life.