I am a former Customer Service Rep. for Picture Me and Sears Portrait Studios. The following is just an FYI.
The Good
1. CPI Corp. now owns both businesses.
2. The are currently working on imporoving Customer Service within the Customer service area.
3. Most of the Pic Me Film studios are converting to digital within the year.

The Bad
1. The training that one receives in the coroporate customer service call center is beyond professional, informative, or helpful. You sit and listen to various phone calls with various other reps. for a couple days. Hardly any procedures are given to you. They all tell you different things, no one person knows everything. It is basically, winging it most of the time. I was so appauled at what I was having to tell the customers who was calling in, and not being able to help, that I finally quit.

2. The stress level in the call center is horrible. The hours are horrible. Especially around the holidays. They give you a list of the do's and don'ts and send you on your way. Many times, I just made my own decisions and refunded the customers.

3. Many people don't realize that with the Film studios, that if we send the film back in for whatever reason, such as cropping, lighting, what not...The film will come back the same if not worse. This just aggravates the customer further. Where I would like to be up front and tell the customer what their options are.

4. Many of the photographers are shipped in to the corporate building for 2 weeks. All expenses paid. Then sent back to the studios, and they only get paid mininum wage. . If you want quality, they need to pay the photographers for it.

5. They are always willing to give out free sheets that you can use at another session. Be it whatever your complaint is. I have heard reps just ask ' what do you want ' and they give it to them.


Working there was the biggest mistake. The bigger mistake, was doing it for 2 years.

Hang in there folks!!