artona.com Reviews 

School photo companies are a scam and Artona is right up there with the worst. My son had to go in for "grad" photos if he wanted to be in the yearbook for Grade 12. First off, they take a $60 deposit from you, which you can spend against their photos or, allegedly, request to be refunded within 30 days. Then they shuttle your kid onto a conveyor belt of rooms with cheesy backgrounds and make them wear graduation gowns that don't match their school's colours. Then you get home and find out that they want $130 for a single photo! ONE photo. So you ask for the deposit back, and they put up a fight -- long emails back telling you how you're missing out on your child's "cherished memories" (none of those cheesy photos are cherished memories) and you should just look at their "single sheet" options for $50 (buried way down in the ordering process). Then, of course, they want you to pay $20 for shipping (note, their studio is five blocks from my house?). They should just refund the deposit when it's requested. I'm still not sure I'll get my deposit back, which is a shame because I want to hire a real photographer to do a session with my kid.

Do not use this company, I ordered 2 t-shirts size XL ,no where near the correct sizing the quality of the items was shocking ,the delivery time was a lot longer than stated , when i asked for a refund I was asked to take photos of the garments and because they where in a sale i wasn't entitled to a refund but finally got offered 30% of what I paid £42.50 and i didn't need to return them ,I'm not surprised they don't want them back as it was over priced tat, it's a con

Absolutely shocking size to reality the 2 shirts i ordered do not even look like the colours I expect avoid another shit Chinese company.

Ordered a large leather jacket

After a long wait an extra small plastic jacket arrived. Not happy 😞

absolute horrible photos and shitty photographer

The Artona photographer verbally assaulted my teenage son - telling him "get the hell out". Artona turned positive in disaster. Luckily my son is good. Why would Artona and John Rak got contract from BC Education - not with reviews like that!?. This must be investigated by RCMP.

Do not use this company. Why are all the school companies using them? They don’t work to make families happy they make families struggle! With their high rates then to make a quick change they charge you $50 to do a payment plan they charge you $15 on already high prices!!!
It’s horrific, there’s bad rude customer service. I emailed again maybe for a different experience. But currently it’s such a depressing experience. Yet we are paying $300+ in photos! How sad. To capture a memory of a child the rates are horrible.

Pain in the butt placing orders online. They purposely takes pictures blurry so you'll get enhancement packages which is absurdly expensive. Website is not user friendly,making it difficult to navigate. Schools should choose a better photography company.

$154 for 2 Digital copies? Are you Serious?
THIS IS A HUGE SCAM!

The photos that were all taken on my graduation were aweful and on top that this guys refuse to give me my refund deposit as they promised if i dont like the photo. they stole my $60 and i will keep bugging them till i get my money.
To save your self time find someone else or better still use your phone camera.

Very rude and over priced. They shouldn’t be allowed to do school photos. They don’t even know how to take photos.

1. They gave me a paper with a code, 16 code number, school name. I scanned the code, it didn't work.

2. I enter the 16 code number in Artona website. It didn't work.

3. I chat, they didn't help me. They asked me to send an email.

4. I sent the email with all the info.

It's taking more time.. I don't have an answer.

Same experience as all negative reviews. This studio overcharges, price gouging on student graduation photos. If you have a child / siblings graduating from high school or university, beware of their price and policy. I would write to school board district to request proposal for graduation photography. I cannot understand why we have to put up with this kind of service and over pricing. After all, students just want to have memorable graduation photos but it seems like we are all getting disappointments!

Modern day scammers, swindlers, con artists. They line you up right after the graduation ceremony and say you get 4 photos for 75 dollars. So you are happy, you pay $75 and wait for your pictures to get delivered. Then you notice the digital copies available online are not downloadable. And then you get a mail delivery at your doorstep finally thinking you got your dream pictures. This time it is a magazine that tells you how you can get your pictures and order them online for a lot more money. And in the magazine you see thumbnails of your photos. Kind of like blackmailing/kidnapping. I am calling this blackmailing/kidnapping because you will have to get these pictures especially because they are from one of the most memorable days of your life. Each printed picture costs over a 100 dollars. And if you just want to download digital pictures, it costs you over 200 dollars for 4 of them. These guys really are modern day con artists. Going to graduation ceremonies and getting innocent fresh graduates. There's no justice for people against these criminals!

Rip off mafia that works in collaboration with school boards. They charged deposit of $60 that was confiscated after 90 days. This was only the beginning of rip off, when we actually bought the photos the prices are extremely over priced, they squeeze money out of you because you want to save your kids grad precious grad memories. The picture quality was bad, most pictures were taken hastily without proper lightning and camera alignments. My suggestion is drive by a nearby neighborhood studio around the grad ceremony and get a better service at much much better price. Also suggest school boards to find a better vendor, I hope they are not giving kick backs, than tell my why every school board is hooking up with them???