Once again a commenter reminded of a story.One afternoon I had an appointment pop up for later that afternoon. A woman came in for it about thirty minutes early. Her daughter, age 4, was coming with grandma at their scheduled appointment time. So I figured I would use this opportunity to get an idea of what photos were important to them. The key photo they wanted was with a cat.
Cats and other pets, I should explain, are not allowed. I looked up the policy and it has to do with health codes. They're allowed only if your studio is separate from the Sears itself (or if it is an assist animal. Did you know, by the way, that there is something called a helping hands monkey?). I explained the reasoning and even printed out the policy sheet, but of course she wasn't having it and we had to continue to discuss this for the full thirty minutes while we waited for the girl to show up.
At one point, she relay the policy information to grandma. Grandma's response, rather than leaving the cat at home, was to smuggle in the cat. So in walks this woman coming down the corridor with a bag slung over her sholder. The bag is shifting back and forth and meowing the entire way.
Grandma tried to bribe me with $50, which I declined, wanting to have a job more than I wanted $50, explaining that every photo we take is reviewed by corporate, so that it would be impossible to do without anyone knowing. Eventually I just "had to go help a customer" while they pulled out their own camera "without me knowing", and we called that good: I didn't take a bribe, they got their photo, and I'll take the lesser of two evils on that one. Plus they bought a collection, so I wasn't complaining.
When it was time to go they plopped the cat in the bag, zipped it shut, and I watched the wriggling bag head out the store.
edit: see comments for another great story.
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4 comments:
Oh god. We had a woman smuggle a cat in up her pant leg last year. And another woman bring her bat that she keeps in a crown royal bag around her neck in.
I had to take pictures of a "service dog" the other day. They totally worked the service dog angle on the phone, making us think that the dog was necessary for them, but they are really just training it to be a service animal...the dog is only four months old!
Now we have to wash all of the backgrounds they insisted on using so that one of the kids who comes in doesn't have a massive allergy attack.
And to top it off, I was stuck taking the pictures adn I'm allergic to dogs. The darned thing jumped all over me, practically bit me, and I suffered through sneezing and coughing through the entire day. Aaargh!
i heard that we are now allowed to shoot pets as long as they pay a $25 pet fee. when a customer asked if they could bring in their fully grown mastiff....i declined. i couldnt see explaining that to the store employees when pets are not allowed in the store. (is that the reason for dog strollers?)
I had a mother and daughter that were told by the appt sched. they could, bring a mall dog in, I told them about the policy. They wanted to put the poor dog in the closet or block them in the other camera room..you kidding? Im not paid to clean up after it or pet sit.
she went and got a shopping cart and put the dog in it and said she was ready! I told her I could not let her do that.10 min later She said she found "someone" to watch the dog and I took the pics.
and whoever heard about a pet fee?
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