Pixiq

not a single person was told about it happening… no warning, no pay for xmas, no nothing… olan mills has ruined christmas for a lot of people. Not only the employees but the customers who have basically had their money stolen from them for christmas presents etc.

Oh they tried till the end I’m sure! I remember when they pulled out of Canada, I miss them so. They always hired me when I needed a job and let me quit when I had a good gig only to come back when my cards were maxed again. I feel for the folks who lost their jobs but take what you learned there and go for your own business. Every sitting I have in my studio reminds me of my Olan Mills days and I’d give anything for a good Portrait Consultant to sell my photos!

Photogs, be glad of your traditional posing training it is a dying art. Go to Zuga.net and continue your training, look for Monte Zuker and learn from a master.

All the best to my Olan Mills friends past and present!

Cheers,

Ingelbert

We didnt mind the low pay, the long hours and the minimum amount of time given for diffecult photo shoots but I have worked there for nearly a year and the gift of unemployment with no notice and no pay for Christmas wasnt exactly on my list.

However, my real sympathy goes out to all those lovely customers who dragged all the grandchildren together for a christmas picture for Grandma or such like, and were given absolutely bugger all but an empty bank account. The Company KNEW it had gone down the crapper at 4.30, yet continued to trade until 7.30….sound fair?

My grandsons were having their photos taken on thursday afternoon. We got the news first thing Friday morning from one of their employees.

I work for Olan Mills for just short of 6 years. Never in all that time reveived a present or a card from the company at christmas. They certaily made up for it his year

i think this is disgusting on olan mills behalf as my nan was currently working for the company in the walsall store in the west midlands and she is very upset to find out that after a total of 16 years working with olan mills it was literally thrown back in her face. and to find that they will not get their final pay this close to christmas is disgraceful i also think that it is horryfying to know that they are reported to have known about the company failing for up to 6 weeks’ and so surely they could have had the decency to notify their hard working employees so they may have had a little longer to find re- employment rather than stretching it out this close to christmas. i hope the owners in charge are proud to know they have ruined many peoples christmas due to their insensitivity

Well, Thankyou to the top dogs at om for this most delightful xmas pressie. My nieces, sisters brothers and the rest of my friends and family who will be going without gifts this year all send their thanks too. and thankyou so so very much for the lack of goose or turkey i’ll be feeding them when they all visit me!! Just beans on toast this year im afraid

Im not surprised they were in debt, after working for olan mills for almost 2 years it became apparent that studio staff (the real hardworkers of the company) were treated like crap and not paid enough for what we had to do while at the other end of the spectrum they were all sitting pretty with their company cars, mobiles and laptops not to mention the meetings located in expensive hotels where apparently …”everyone slept with everyone”.
The final kick in the teeth came when my wages were taken out of my account a day after a had been paid…this is definetly corruption at it worse.

I was shocked to hear they went out and legally stole customer money without a care. Killed off staff wages for another bite of the customer cherry. As a customer who has lost £200, with no pictures all goodwill has gone. My view is professionally the company failed in its duty of service to everybody. the USA body is still running, the UK is probably dead for good. If anybody gets anything back all the best I am not surprised staff took what they could after such treatment.

I worked for the company for 7 years and count them as some of the best years of my life. Olan Mills was a way of life and my colleagues were more like family…in fact I saw more of them than my family sometimes.The way the company chose to inform us..ie: a 5min recorded telephone call was scandalous.

Someone somewhere chose to keep us all in the dark and I suspect that it may well turn out that the reason was because there was something to hide. I don’t know but the reality is that 1000 workers are out of a job with no money….

Weekly paid people did receive a weeks wage on Fri 15th but the company bank (HSBC I think) has recalled that money back out of peoples accounts using a Direct Debit…I am not sure of all the details except that I did have a wage on Friday but now it will be taken back out on Monday and there seems no way to stop it. I do feel sorry for all those that have lost pictures and money and I hope that when the dust settles down all the pictures in the stores will be released to their owners….

olan mills has been open for over a month or so peterborough, milton keynes, nottingham are just a few and there going into most of the mother cares again quite alot of old staff with jobs back. mike wildman has bought it owen mathews is regional manager. neil clarke is back and so is paddy,adele and vicky parker are doing the mother cares again. apparantly theres no customer service everythying is deat with in studio the pay is increased with every skill you have and commision is better, so ive heard

All sounds good. I know how customers felt also, I was also an employee but also had pictures done myself.

I hope the new company takes off bigger and better than before. I think the in house management will be a lot better for the staff. And everyone knows happier staff means better quality. That works ten fold for anything.

Hoping to see some ex staff/new staff at the reunion in June.

Well, as im sure you know Olan Mills is re-open. New company, new attitude to both customers and staff. They really are improved! So, come down and see us at the southampton store, we’re in the back of mother care. We are honoring any vouchers you may have had with the previous company and also have loads of special offers for the first month! Hope to see you there soon! Craig M

HI sorry to hear about all the OLAN mILLS STAFF. iVE HAD WATCH ME GROW FOR 7 YEARS AND TOOK IT FOR GRANTED to do one yearly . Photos always good at Romford Branch, Essex. Been sitting here reading all these messages and its shameful whts happened to all of you effected.
Last few messages mention that some have reopened . Any one know if Romford or there abouts has? Thanks if you reply.

hello!sorry to all the staff and customers who lost their money along with me. I lost £75 on the nicest photos I had of the children on sat December 9th 5 days before it went into liquidisation. I finally got hold of customer services on January 15th and wrote to the claim address 3 times. I gave my order number to the man on the phone in January and he said my photos had managed to be developed and I’ll recieve them within the next few weeks and guess what I still haven’t recieved them. The helpline is no longer available. My photos were taken in Neath store in South Wales and were meant to be going back to the store for me to collect. I’ve been past the store every week to see if I can see anyone in there to see if my photos are there and there has been no sign of anyone been there as there is still mail on the floor. I still feel sick to this day as you can’t replace memories and I feel for all those who lost their jobs and had their christmas ruined just like I did. I’ve noticed that some stores have now been reopened does anyone know if I can contact them with my order number to see where my photos are as they were uploaded onto the computer. Thanks and all the best for the future to those affected!!!!

can anyone help me and know who I can contact about my photos thanks

Do you think OL went bankrupt because of venture portraits? and not keeping up with modern style.

no olan mill went bust because they were millions of pounds in debt

Hi Sarah, as along time server to OlanMills in Swansea i first of all Thank you for you thanks and sadness to all the staff who loat thier jobs, to many people have slated the staff, but we all lost out just like our customers. I understand where you are coming from with regards to you portaits but, i do not think you will be able to get your photos as all of the computers would of been deleted. I would also like to add that OlanMills may of opened back up, but NONE of the people who are now running it WHERE OR ARE responcible for what happened in Dec of 07. They have bought the rights to the name. I know in my heart of hearts that ALL in head office fought really really hard to stop what happened happening. I had just been promoted to a senior level of the company and i know that this is NOT the way that the orriginal OlanMills directors wanted it to happen. They had all worked far harder than i hard to make the original Olanmills work. Thier sweet and blood went into it and they all lost far more money than any of us did. I personally thank Sharon Barr, who gave me more than ob=ne chance, so thank you. In conclution, if you see an Olanmills open by you, please support them as they are trying to help the country by giving them great photo’s at a fantastic price again. If you want to chat or just have an insite to what went on at Olanmills, email me at lwheatley83@hotmail.co.uk.

I would also like to add that should anyone (old staff inparticular) wish to comment in a negative way against olanmills staff then please email me with you name and number and i will quite happily talk to you about the real Olanmills

Thanks

I for one ran a profitable olan mills store for 9 years and was totally shocked to hear the new on thursday eve.

I would like to assure any customers that we as staff had no clue as to wat was coming on thurs night, until they started to send tsa staff home then i knew something bad was afoot.

I apologise deeply to all customers that have lost orders and monies to olanmills and hope that they can make the best of a very bad situation.

I have lost a months pay expences and commission which was very hard earned with a mortgage due out next week and no xmas present for my younger daughter purchased as yet :(

Hope the new year brings better fortune to all concerned cos overall this has been a really crap year for me x

I live overseas and have only just found out that Olan Mills have gone bust as I was trying to organise photos for when we return with our children in the summer. We had pictures taken on several occasions at the Coventry branch and also in Cheltenham – each time the photographs were absolutely fantastic and so were the staff that organised everything and took the photographs. I have never been able to get such lovely pictures taken anywhere else. I don’t know why the staff are getting a slating on this website as they were very helpful and pleasant whenever I used their service. Good luck to all the staff and I hope that they have found employment since. Sympathies to everyone who lost photographs but it’s not exactly the same as losing your livelihood!

has anyone heard if this is going on the the USA?

I work for OM in the states in the Church Directory Division as a Portrait Consultant. As far as I know, there is nothing “shady” going on here apart from the norm. You might not know that OM “partnered” with a store calleed K-Mart and let this crap supermarket use the OM name on their in-store studios. OM then closed down the studios near the K-mart studios because it was a conflict of interest; then, K-Mart went bankrupt. Needless to say, there are not a whole lot of OM studios left in the states anyway. The Directory Division is the biggest and though it is hurting in its own ways, it seems to still be going strong.

The thing that is hurting is is that Gen-X and Y don’t seem to care about quality–they as a norm seem to not think ahead, instead, they live for here and now. This butts heads with Olan’s mantra of not sacrificing quality for price. Who knows where it will go, all I know is that there is pretty good money in the Division I work in and with as little as they are reimbursing me for gas (19 cents a mile), they have to be doing well.

ok-thanks!

I used to work for Olan Mills until I read this article. I quit and left for another photography business. I felt that if that happened overseas, then it is going to happen here. I don’t dispute the quality of portraits that Olan Mills produces, but I think people these days are in to the “fast food” type of photography and that gets lost when you are trying to do a good job with your customers and trying to give people the best quality photos, but playing the numbers game. People are annoyed when they have to wait an extra fifteen minutes when they could have went to another portrait studio that they feel will get them in sooner with less quality. I think that people also see Olan Mills in a K-Mart and relate that to a lower grade portrait studio. None of the employees were told in the states about thieir bankrupcy during this time, or at least in Cincinnati, and I felt they should have been honest and upfront about it. Certainly they did not care about the workers overseas. I think this was an act of bad business.

Olan Mills does do bad business! I will never ever return there again. We had our baby’s first pictures made there and we were told to come today to pick them up. I have to drive thru 2 counties and 30 miles w/ gas more than $3 a gallon to get there to be told that they won’t be ready until December. I asked what the problem was and she said the ‘plant’ had some sort of shut down. Olan Mills calls me the day before the appt. & the day of the appt. to remind me. Could they not call me to let me know there was a problem? No, because I’ve already paid for the pictures. They have the money and I have no pictures. This company clearly does not care about customer service. I’d rather go to WalMart!

OK…I worked for Olan Mills for 4 yrs on and off…they taught me ALL i know about Photography…never had to go to college or anything…i was a manager within’ 6 months of working there…they don’t pay their photographers well at all…we all know that one…I was one of the higher end paid photographers in our district…I would ask for a raise b/c i was workin’ MY TAIL END OFF for that company…and i was carrying the rest of the district MANY times…I would work 9-11hrs without a lunch or any kind of a break…I dealt with too much Drama and i am sorry but not worth my Life or safety…so i FINALLY quit for good and started my own Buisness…I do it on my own now…which has been very successful…I am forever GRATEFUL for what they taught me and I am saddened that so many people have been screwed…but HEY…they don’t care…in their eye’s you can be replaced…and look where it’s getting them…BAMKRUPTCY…hhhmmmm….wonder why? What goes around comes around baby…i pray for all the Employee’s that have been affected…Hold that equipment ransom and do your thang….you can make good money at it and you ALL know that!!!

NONE OF THIS IS TRUE… I WORK FOR OLAN MILLS AND THEY ARE STRONGER THAN EVER. THIS WILL BE TURNED OVER TO THE PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE COMPANY

Hi All

Well I’ve just skimmed through the posts! Some are absolute Crap and Others are spot on! Having worked for Olan Mills for 10 years and having my position made redundant thanks to the “New Regime” you’d think I might be bitter? But not at all!!!

Olan Mills was miss-guided, dated, often run by suits that weren’t in touch, relied on the good will of it’s employees far to much and offered very little to those employees in return!!! HOWEVER – It was full of some of the best people you could ever wish to know! And as a team we were awesome! Anyone that had the pleasure of working with Paul Findlay, Jon Tremlett, Matt Webster, Mark De Gietlink, Michael Stevenson, Darren Rudge, Les Moore, Jordan Baines, Chris Heggarty would know how dedicated these people are! That’s why more than half of them are still working very succesfully in photography with Venture or other professional outfits!

So please have a go at the Old company if you wish but please Remember that amongst all that was wrong, we had some very, very talented people that were producing high class work on a regular basis and that this was produced in a bisic studio without the aid of Digital technology!

Good Luck to Mike and all involved with the new Venture! From looking at the website and knowing the people involved I’m sure that given the correct pricing structure they will continue to grow.

Ad for me I’m still working in Photography in the North East shooting Digital and 10 x 8 plate cameras!!! So if you want to get in touch : northerngunner@hotmail.com

Regards

Dave Carnelly

Along with so many of the great and good of olan Mills I had the unfortunate experience of working in a company that had Sanch in a position of authority, apart from the fact that the woman wouldnt know a good idea if it was covered in chocolate and served to her on a golden platter, she would not only stab you in the back she would also take the knife out wipe it clean on some animal print or velour outfit she had the misfortune to be dressed in that morning and then use it again on her next victim, all in order to save costs you understand so she could carry on with her numerous affairs with the cab driving masses of middlesboro and drink her self up a dress size on latte and bottles of wkd. the woman manipulates to the point of meglamania and can talk a glass eye not only to sleep but to suicide when she gets going about herself, her nails her hair and a bit more of herself, obviously i was saddened to hear that she had survived a car accident, seems that what goes around does actually come around, just a shame i never managed to get to one of the tsa awards, i hear she really brown tongued the top brass at those, Sharon Barr must be gutted that she ever met the woman never mind trusted her with such a responsible job, im sure her new venture into glamour will be just as successful as she made olan mills telesales, and wont be long before we have flawless makeover staff relaxing indulging and enjoying the surroundings of the local benefits office, still one good thing is the staff that work for the benefits agency are atleast human. a gastric bypass some clever photography and a decent hiar cut will not change the womans character traits just her appearance, wolf in sheeps clothing springs to mind. As for me, well im not bitter in the least, since leaving olan mills ive got married, inherited my fathers estate and live quite a good life, and in the hope that miss chipendale is reading this, i have a significant financial interest in property, and ive always thought it best to be nice to people on your way up, you never know who your going to need on the way down

Well the phrase we tried comes to mind. Find the treatment of staff in all this absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately it seems that certain customers, who i admit have ever right to complain do not seem to be looking at the bigger picture. I along with a handleful of other staff in the lincoln studio went back on friday morning after the news and took to our phones and called as many people as we could who had appointments with the studio to warn them against making wasted journies.

We managed between us to cancel the majority or leave answer phone messages for the majority of people booked right up til the end of december. Howeevr this was not in the slightest easy owing to customers ranting and raving at us down the phone and demanding things in return. One customer came down the store threatening to smash things up even though he had paid only a measly £10 for a single sitting that he had not even taken.

From a staff point of view I fully support all customers however a little grace would be appreciated. end of the day we did not have to go in on fri and help people. On that note I have still myself got a few photo’s of people that were delivered to the studio, i have been doing my best to play santa and get these to customers, only 10 envelopes remaining from 56. shame Olan Mills cant pay my personal phone bill for all the calls iv made in chasing people about collecting their pictures….

All the best to all the staff, btw check out the National Insurance Fund and also Emploment Protection Regulations, employees maybe able to claim money from owed wages through these national funds… why else do we pay national insurance each week/month

Hi – I’m not sure whether this will appear but a few months ago I entered a competition. I was charged £10.00 for a telephone call to claim my prize and GUESS WHAT – the prize was a voucher sent to me entitling me to a professional portrait sitting PLUS A FREE 40″ X 30″ PRINT!!! I have to say that the company forwarding me the voucher sis not enclose any letter or EVEN THE ADDRESS OF THE SENDER – so my conclusion is that there is a company out there knowingly offering a prize from a company which was not operational at the time the voucher was sent to me i.e. end of August/beginning of September 2008.

I do not have any information on anything that is going on outside of the USA, but I personally have received a letter from a Law Office investigating Olan Mills for not properly paying employees overtime & compensation. Here are some sites I have come across dealing with the issues:
My e-mail is Marie4Fun@gmail.com if anyone wants any more information about the Law Office that contacted me.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-125197823.html

http://www.olanmillsphotography.co.uk/

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-656627701.html

does any one know who to write to about photos i didnt receive from olanmills ?

I’ve had a terrible weekend just thinking about it, and still feel sick now. I’m a single parent who had taken my daugher along for part of her watch-me-grow programme and ordered photos for family members for christmas presents. Now i have no photos, no money and therefore no presents for my family, when this time of year is a big enough struggle. I’m in tears again now just thinking out it. PLEASE SEND ME MY PHOTOS

I was as shocked and surprised about the collapse of Olan Mills as everybody else was and offer my heartfelt sympathies to all of the hardworking staff and disappointed customers. I’m a photographer with a studio based in Bedford and have been able to offer free sittings for anybody who had booked and paid for an appointment with Olan Mills and who has a receipt or appointment card and would like to make the same offer here for anybody who is within driving distance of Bedford.

Unfortunately I am unable to offer a free print with the sitting but hope that at least this will help reduce the disappointment for anybody who wishes to take advantage of our offer. I can be contacted on 01234-363914 during normal hours.

strange. never heard of this website, yet its the only one, other than the mirror and the olan mills website that says anything about the company or situation other than some crap about “career building”!

The OM site is all a load of crap for the customers, the mirror paid some attention to the staff (my “colleagues”, more like work family considering we saw each other more than our own families due to long LONG hours over xmas that were for bugger all essentially!). but generally the customers seem to be the ones being sympathised with and though it is understandable (i can at least say in our studio about 10% of our customers were NOT evil pricks to us, and they will know who they are cos there is definitely a certain truth that cant hide in the face of a pissed off studio staff member!), it must be said that a lot of customers were complimentary grabbing demons who seemed to be running in parrallell with the company to see who could demoralise us the most. i totally empathise with the previous messager who was shouted at by customers whilst trying to inform them of the news on his/her first day of unemployment (your a bigger person than me!). also to the messager who named us, the studio staff, “the real hardworkers of the company” – THANK YOU!

Throughout the time olan mills was open the customers had their service line to call and complain that their FREE picture wasn’t big enough or that their photographer wasnt a professional clown making their children laugh and smile in their mums and dads ideal manner!

SO THIS IS FOR THE STAFF! so many of whom i knew and yet so many more i didnt, so many people i considered family that i wont see again cos we weren’t given any time to say anything to each other. i dont know who these people are who’ve left messages, i could know any of them! that job and that studio was all consuming and we all gave everything we had til one day they just said no more thank you goodbye get out! this whole situation seems very BIG to me but is so isolated in perspective with the rest of the world.

I feel very isolated from the people i need to be with when i think about all this. i just wanna say i hope everyone’s ok and that we’re gonna be alright, all of us. i do hope the customers get whats theirs, especially the ones who were good to us, they will be missed; i hope all your little ones grow up to be very cool big ones! most were heading that way already… and for the ones who never had a say, i hope all studio staff take care and experience some better luck. it would be extremely extremely well deserved!
take care guys,

. . . x

My daughter had worked for this company for almost 7 years, having just moved back up North from Basingstoke where she managed her own studio which, I might add, won the top sales local and national!

She came back to settle down with her partner and have just signed up for a mortgage on their first house on Wednesday. So, when I received the shocker of a call from her in tears on Thursday, I couldn’t believe it. She absolutely loved her job and had nothing but praise for her co-workers, this company was like a little family to her, she worked hard at her job because she loved it so much, always talking about the kind of day they all had.

I’m gutted and dismayed at how things have turned out, especially when my sister rang me to say that loads of little girls were outside the studio on Saturday on the phone to their parents to say that the studio was closed, I was informed later that it was a girl zone party that had been booked, probably some poor little girls birthday treat!

I hope the people in charge have happy children this Christmas! Because my child certainly isn’t!!!!

i worked in tsa for quite a while the people i worked with were like family,, we had our ups and downs but hey isnt any job like that? ill never find a job like it!! the manager was great.. (hey sara!!) we had our shit like u have with any boss but she became a very good friend to most of us and will be greatly missed!! im so gutted!! how can a company just go like that? we have been left with nothing its unreal. cant get my head round it!!

We all moan about work but i just wish this was a bad dream and im gona wake up… Or even better olan mills might pay my wages and il have a half decent christmas, but the way its goin i doubt it.. they paid me and took it vack which has now left me over drawn how shit is that!! no job no money and now bank charges!! can it get any worse? i just hope we all keep in touch and everyone who is owed money or pictures gets them at some point tin the very near fuuture!! (( THEY MUST HAVE KNOWN)) !!!!!

To every olan mills employee out there who is feeling this shit …. good luck for the future we’ll all get over this but you will all be missed very much xxxxxx And to the person up there who hid the fact that we were going under MERRY FOOKING CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO YOU SELFISH BASTARDS!!!!

excuse the spelling mistakes as u can gather im not in the right frame of mind for this either!!!!!! lol

I have a watch me grow package with olan mills and have now lost my money for this.
perhaps if they didnt charge so much for the photos they take them more people would buy them then they wouldn’t of gone bust!!!!

i worked for the company for 4 years and although i know we didnt get paid much and the hours were crap, i loved every minute of it and actually belived in what i was doing. when i found out what was going on my heart broke. everything i’ve know and loved gone. the people that were my staff who grew to be my friends were as destroyed as me. our christmas is ruined and i dont think i will ever find another job as satisfying again.

my sincere apologies go our to all the customers who came to the wigan studio, i took many of the xmas portraits this year and i know how excited some people were about reciving them.

as for the u.s side of things. there still going strong. i emailed them a couple of days ago and they send there deepest regrets. the u.s. had nothing to do with us after the company piper bought them out years ago.

and for all the ex employees. good luck, try to have a nice xmas and take care xxx

There are some interesting comments on this site with regards to Olan Mills, however there is another perspective on all of this.

There is sympathy for all of the Olan Mills staff that have worked directly for the company and who have suddenly found themselves unemployed and nobody would wish for somthing like this to happen.

Regular calls were placed with a third party IT Support Company who supported the external IT for Olan Mills seven days a week, which involved calls such as sending one of their Engineers to Manchester (a four hour journey) to plug in an ethernet cable into a computer, or travelling to the South Coast (another four hour drive) to change one digit of an IP Address on a Server (which incidently could have been resolved remotely by Olan Mills IT Support themeselves because there was a dial-up connection to the Server already in place). There were other such calls such as travelling to the South-East Coast to swap out the CDRW Drive because it made a ‘noise’ or plugging in a Power Cable to an Appointment Terminal becuase it wouldn’t turn on, in fact this list is endless.

And so, added to this, due to the obvious incompetance of the IT Managers and IT Support Staff at Olan Mills, they decided to pay a tremendous amount of money to this third party IT support company so that their Engineers could do these poorly managed and unqualified calls on their behalf.

Furthermore the understanding is that these hardworking Engineers from this third party IT Support Company would often travel hundreds of miles to carry out these poorly managed and unqualified IT Support Calls and in return would recieve no thanks from their Employers, no thanks from Olan Mills Staff and would instead often be at the recieving end of unhelpfulnes and rudeness from the Studio Staff.

The point to all of this, is, that Olan Mills paid fairly good salaries to members of the IT Department at Olan Mills, who were often incompetant staff with little to no knowledge of IT, and it was these people who spent the huge amount of Olan Mills’ money on a third Party IT Support Company so as to hide all of their mistakes and poorly qualified IT Support Calls. This money alone could have better been spent internally at Olan Mills and may have helped contribute to the prevention of the lquidiation of this company. Maybe, if Olan Mills had implemented a better Management Structure, then they may still be trading today!

Just wanted to send my sincerest condolences to all the staff that have lost their jobs at Olan Mills. x

I feel very sorry for all those people who have lost out to this terrible situation. I have been a loyal customer of olan mills for some years since the birth of my daughter 7yrs ago. Only 2 weeks ago i purchased another plan for 3 sittings. Fortunately for me this has only meant loosing out on 20 pounds unlike many many other customers and staff. Just a thought for those people who made purchases using credit or debit cards it’s worth checking with the bank to see if you can claim this back with a letter from the recievers to confirm that you will not be getting what you paid for. Sorry theres no advice i can offer the staff other than my thoughts of sympathy.

I was only an OM customer, on at least my 5th watch-me-grow package in 7yrs (I’d hate to think how much i’ve spent there!). I got a call on fri 8th dec to say my portrait was ready, but didn’t have time to collect it yet:-( Its so frustrating as I can see the cupboard where my picture is sitting if I look in the studio window at Bromley, but i wonder if i’ll ever get to see it! If only I had gone and got it before… I still had a sitting left on my plan too and we were going to have a portrait of the grandchildren done for the grandparents 40th wedding anniversary.

I would just like to say a big thank-you to the staff at Shirley and Bromley studios who captured my most special memories of each of my babies. You were always so friendly and kind and really made the effort with the children.

For me its only 1 lousy picture and a sitting, I just hope the new year brings better luck for you all. My thoughts and best wishes are with you this xmas xxx

I worked at chatham for just under 2 years missed out on redundancy by 3 weeks! A RECORDED MESSAGE! To watch my manager lose her job after ten years, have a cry, pull herself together and contact her staff,many who considered her a friend,and inform them no job and no pay 10 days before christmas was heartbreaking something I will never forget!

I often felt frustrated with senior olan mills staff and as a telesales operator felt undervalued I had no idea this extended to managers studio staff and photographers aswell. Does the time of year mean nothing! I can’t believe this was handled in the best way! Taking money back from peoples banks is that even legal?

I tried so hard to get commission for christmas, and happily took card details at every opportunity i got and often got to know a little about customers and their families, feel like shit now!

To all I worked with take care try and have a nice christmas I will meet up with as many of you as poss to get pissed and slag off Olan Mills! THE BEST OF LUCK TO YOU ALL!!!!!!!

Fed up – to hear that another company goes under.

What is happeing to the economy so much for looking for a job when you have one it goes before you do!!!