Flora Fotography

My only dealings with Flora Fotography are through a contest that they ran for free wedding photography via Facebook. Flora Fotography advertised that they were running a contest from March 17, 2011 through March 31st, 2011 in which couples with wedding dates that met their specific requirements would be entered into the contest. Flora Fotography advertised the contest as a voter-driven competition where the contestants would encourage their friends, family, etc. to "friend request" Flora Fotography via facebook, and then once accepted, those friends could post "votes" under the images of their favorite contestants. At the end of the competition, Flora Fotography stated they would declare the winner based on the number of votes each contestant received. The couple with the most votes would be declared the winner. \t\n\t\nDuring the final day of voting, when two couples were fighting for first place and it was clear it would come down to the wire, Flora Fotography chose to ignore requests by potential voters, individually select those who could vote from the rest waiting to vote, and denied others who had otherwise submitted "friend requests" in accordance with Flora Fotography's rules. Flora Fotography also counted votes through Facebook messaging, a method not disclosed fully to all participants and contradictory to the accepted form of voting as listed in their posted rules. \t\n\t\nFlora Fotography claims they were overwhelmed by voter volume and therefore could not get to everybody before their rule-directed cut off time of 12:59pm on 3/31/2011, but then chose to accept more individuals, but not all individuals after their stated deadline. They state that who they chose to allow was a random decision. It must be said that the winning couple is also the only couple in the competition from Flora Fotography's home town, thereby creating local business for them should they win versus potential out-of-town winners. \t\n\t\nMy complaint against Flora Fotography is that they falsely advertised a "competition" based on votes, but was clearly based on who Flora Fotography wanted to win, and in doing so has created an environment of hurt feelings, and waisted the time of all the other contestants and the voters. Flora Fotography has in turn gained "town hero" status (their words) in their home town for choosing the "hometown" contestants as the winners, but has left nothing but spiteful and condescending comments for those who would like to know the details of the outcome of the contest. They also are allowing a negative environment on their Facebook wall against anyone who speaks out against the contest. This is not professional in my opinion. \t\n\t\nIt is not necessarily the case that Flora Fotography "stacked the deck" in their own competition, but it sure appears that way. Flora Fotography has admitted that they did make exceptions to their contest rules as they saw fit by individually selecting who could vote and who was turned away. They admitted to denying well over 40 friend requests they had knowledge of as being potential voters for cadidates, other than the "winning" candidates. *The gap between first and second place was less than 20 votes on the final day of voting. However, per their disclaimer, they reserve the right to do so at their sole discretion. \t\n\t\nIf how they choose to handle their contests is any indication of the way they handle their customers and their business practices, I think I'll pass on Flora Fotography and find a more reputable photographer, one with some integrity, to record my special occasions. I would also caution anyone who is considering entering one of their competitions as well to save yourself, your friends and your time, and perhaps seek elsewhere.