PhotoPress Production a Worskhop FRAUD

I realized that two months quickly have passed since I wrote anything here on the blog. Lots of crazy things been happening and along with work time would not let me have a couple of moments to spare with the blog.

Besides having to update Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and now Google+ there is also the blog running. Not saying that the blog will turn into some old stuff but I believe more and more that times are changing and blogging will turn to be a thing from the past, sooner than we think. Also great things are buried under the hood on the LightingMods blog that people sometimes do not have time to dig them up.

I'm talking about the great articles I have written about off camera lighting and gizmos that some of you never read or ear about them. Things evolve so do people.

Enough talk already about this, let's cut to the chase ;)

I decided after a long period of waiting, along with the agreement of photographer David Tejada, to bring this case public has I feel this matter is something we all need to take in account and pay attention when going or looking for a photography Workshop. This is a real story and it happen to me along with a couple of people around some cities in Europe... but let's start from the beginning.


Well it all started at the end of last year 2010 when fellow photographer David Tejada announced a couple of Workshops around Europe where Lisbon was scheduled.

Called Small Strobes Big Results workshops and if you know what I'm talking about you also know that is something you will not want to miss when it passes by your door step. Reputation precedes David Tejada on this matter along with names as David Hobby from Strobist and Joe McNally just to name the most important ones on the matter of Small Strobe lighting.

As soon has the registration opened I logged on to their account at www.photopress-production.com (no longer working) and made a pre-registration for the event.

Made the pre-registration on 10th October 2010 and received an email on the same day with the confirmation

Things were looking good has I had no problems with paying things with PayPal has done before for the David Hobby Strobist workshops in London. On 13th January 2011 I sent an email to the PhotoPress Production team asking if everything was going has I had no more contacts since 2 months.

Got a reply a couple days later.

PayPal payment was issued for the Workshop.

I also add PhotoPress Production to my Skype account in order to verify if they were serious about this going on in Portugal or if it would be any kind of flop. They reply to me saying they have received the transfer.

Then when everything seems to be rolling out I received an email from Daniel Lugosi, a couple of days before the workshop, saying that the workshop has been postponed.

Well I asked for the refund as promised during the next 30 days and got a reply back.

Not the answer I was expecting from a professional workshop organizer but as I know by experience everything has a timing and I thought that was the problem. So I waited a couple days more and asked again...

Well I decided to wait a couple more days for the refund but things were not meant to be. And got another excuse email.

And another one now with a "real" excuse to the problem and saying that there were some other people involved in the story.

And by the end of May got another excuse.

By the end of May and after getting this email I decided to contact David Tejada directly to see if he knew about this situation and got a very interesting email from him.

Then Daniel reply us back with more waiting time for the refund that was supposed to 30 days after the cancellation of the workshop and so far nothing except waiting time...

Tried to get some more info over skype but no mic and more excuses.

That's when I tried over Skype to talk him to refund me but the answer kept the same all over again.

And again.

As up till today no refund was issued. I also noticed that this company keep giving Workshops in Hungary with some students.

David Tejada also published some replies at his blog concerning this situation and will be issuing, soon, a blog post about this all embarrassing situation.

Photographer Ugo Cei is another of the subscribed photographers that, until today, did not received any refund for the money he has paid for this Workshop. He also blogged about it here in an attempt to stop this situation to grow and affect some more people.

There is also a Discussion on Strobist.com Flickr about this all situation where names like David Hobby from Strobist condemned this kind of actions "Oh, criminy.
This sucks. I have written to Mr. Lugosi, trying to get to the bottom of this. This is way not cool, really needs to get fixed ASAP. ".

Some more information about these people:

Daniel Lugosi

Daniel Lugosi his facebook page

Also his account at Linkedin page

Contacts:
PhotoPress Production
info@photopress-production.com
info@photopress.hu
press@photopress.hu
+36 36205433320

Take a look at all the workshops he and his company been making without having the decency of refunding people first. And some of these Workshops were made after the cancellation of David Tejada workshop.

They also got another page over Hungary server called PhotoPress Hungary.

And another place more for their acclaimed workshops.

Budapeste PhotoWorkshop facebook page

Here are some photos of their workshops and workspace.

If you call it a FRAUD or not I leave that thoughts up to you. My intention here was to warn you about these guys and also warn potential instructors that could have their career's affected by these kind of people.
They promised me the refund for 6 months now and so far nothing. I do believe it will never come and that this kind of photography FRAUD must be stopped for the sake of all us photographers.

I will let my thoughts about this sided has much could be said against Daniel Lugosi and his companies for not fulfilling their refund policies nor having any concerns with their students. Where did the money went, maybe for the new office or a camera or a lens or to some other place that should not been.

If you are one of the affected by this matter please leave a comment here and also contact Daniel Lugosi directly has I have posted here all his contact information. And if by any chance you go into one of these workshops pay attention to the refund policies.

Warned and out!!

--- 2011-07-27 Update ---

- I received a contact by another Portuguese photographer in the same situation Luciano Reis and also had another email from photographer Ugo Cei that is still waiting for the refund.

- Daniel Lugosi sent me an email with a confirmation of the money transfer to my account, let's see what will happen in the next couple of days.

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--- 2011-07-28 Update ---

- Photographer David Tejada posted some more information concerning this matter in his blog, just check it out here.

- I also decided to hide the faces of the photographers that are visible on the photos I posted as a matter of courtesy to them as this has nothing to do with them personally.

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--- 2011-07-29 Update ---

- Finally and after almost 6 months waiting I received only the refund.

Thank you all for the great help and hope you will get yours too. Will leave this page as a warning to all people making business with these guys.

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--- 2011-07-30 Update ---

- David Tejada got some more information concerning this case. I think you should check it out as I think it's an AWESOME offer from he's part and in respect to all those of you who are still waiting for the refund from Photo Press Production!!!

Read "I Want To Hear From You" at his blog page as it starts like this...

For those of you who did not receive refunds from PhotoPress Production, I want to hear from you. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I cancelled my tour before I ever received a contract for the workshops from PhotoPress Productions. I feel absolutely terrible about this situation, even though I had no responsibility regarding bookings and refunds... I want to make this right...

Sounds interesting don't you think... SO GO READ IT RIGHT NOW!!!

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