Tammy Markee
1/5
Update: 12/18/24:
Customer service — M-F, 8-5 at best (when are most photo booths in use and when would they need access to customer service support? F-Sun I’m sure you can see why this is an issue)
Slow responses or no responses. Continuing issues with software — no one understands why halfway through my sessions the Screens/frames disappear from the images. Continue to struggle with maneuvering a machine/cases 3/4 my size and weight (although I explained I’m 4’ 10 1/2” and would most likely be working alone). This is just the absolute worst experience and decision of my life (that says a lot). I’m not only disappointed, I’m actually heartbroken over this, and I’m also financially strapped because while I invested over $8k, I’ve only generated $1k in almost a year. I’ve tried to make this work, I’ve invested hours upon hours — I’m not sure how everyone else had such an amazing experience with PBI, but this has not been the case for me. 12/13/24 I sent Josh an e-mail titled “request for immediate resolution: non-functional photo booth and associated losses” after investing hours upon hours of fruitless attempts to get it to work. Five days later, not a peep out of Josh.
UPDATE 5/16/24:
I have downgraded from a genuine five star to a one star rating because:
1. I was sent home without my printer, still don’t have it. Why? It took two weeks to build my machine, so it’s been four weeks waiting for my printer.
2. The in-office training I received was brief, which is okay, but I had requested three times to have printed instructions as well so I could follow them step by step until my brain locked it in (I have a slight cognitive function issue) — I even told the guy training me that he was going too fast and I wouldn’t remember anything. 🙁
3. My first attempt at use at home I was extra frustrating because I didn’t have my software product key; Dark Room let me go a few rounds (like my in-office training session) but then stopped letting me in — I looked everywhere PBI said to look and couldn’t find my product key — out of sheer frustration I pushed enter and that did the trick. SMH Would have been cool if someone would have simply told me that would happen.
4. I’ve missed three events / opportunities to promote our new photo booth because a. I don’t have my printer (but I could easily only offer digital) and b. I haven’t been able to connect a custom strip to an event — I was able to figure out how to make the custom strip and it looked great! Just couldn’t add photos or put it in the event folder.
5. PBI folks keep saying “we’re always here, just reach out” but they’re not. They’re available to assist M-F 8-5ish, no weekend hours, no weekend helpline — their solution is for me to reach out to their Facebook group members for assistance. Whenever the other photo booth owners check the facebook page and take time to troubleshoot/ answer.
6. Their troubleshooting appointments are Tu-Fr and during regular business hours (a.k.a. while I’m at my day job), I don’t get a lunch break, so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that.
7. I sent a message to PBI Support over the weekend stating that I thought I’d made a mistake, and haven’t heard anything back. So I reached out directly to my rep today — who had always jumped on the chance to connect when I was thinking about buying — haven’t heard a peep.
I’m just so disappointed. This was supposed to be a fun and enjoyable side hustle and it’s turned into 16 hours of driving back and forth to the showroom, probably 5 hours of simple frustration, and thousands of dollars wasted on what’s effectively a glorified paperweight. I spent every last dime I had on my Cloee and hoped it would pay for itself fairly quickly, but I have absolutely no idea if or when I’ll be able to get it to work and be confident to start advertising this service. SO DISAPPOINTED AND FRUSTRATED!
April 2024: brought my photo booth home
