Tempest Graduations Reviews 

Company charges extortionate amounts for graduation photos and doesn't provide access to the digital copies. The only way to get digital copies is to buy individual USB sticks of each photo at £18 each. Photographer service, print quality and website quality are all poor and genuinely disgusted by the feeling that I'm being scammed by both this company and my own university. Ruined the whole graduation experience.

I had issues with logging in, check out, my account and the cost! Logged into the website, which was meaningless despite putting in the p/w etc. On the website I selected the graduation image I wanted. At checkout was told I already had an account (I knew that because I had just logged in) and yet I was told to log in (again) which I couldn't do because the system kept telling me I already had an account (round and round we go....). So I created a new email account, logged into that and paid. And then: the cost!!!!!! Tempest Photography must have a monopoly on institutional photography and they are raking in the cash by over-charging proud parents who want a good photo of their child. I can not believe that the costs of taking a photograph, the frame, the photographers' time and equipment necessitate in these prices for thousands of photos at every graduation or school. It is shameful.

The graduation photograph mounts which include the university name and logo do not fit any standard frame size. It would appear this has been done to force you to buy their (average and over priced) frames. If you're thinking of buying a silver or silver plated frame (from John Lewis, Carrs, or any such retailer), for what is a particularly special photograph, forget it! It appears to be a case of profit, over service!

Their service is so far behind the times. After my graduation ceremony in 2022 the only purchase options were an expensive print, which didn't include a digital copy, with the option to add a CD (!) with an image on. I didn't bother buying them because I had no way of accessing the images. Who has a disk drive in this day and age?

They have slightly updated this in 2025 by providing a USB stick, which takes up to 28 days to arrive and costs £6 for delivery. You still have to purchase an extortionate print AND pay for a digital version of the same photo on USB stick. You can't just buy a digital copy.

I would happily have paid 50% more for the digital version of the photo with an instant download and foregone their printing service. Tempest would have made almost the same revenue from the sale and wouldn't have to pay for printing and USB sticks. Everyone wins. But this monopolistic company clearly doesn't care about keeping up with the modern world and providing consumers with products in the way they actually consume them. They control every official school and university photo so why would they want to innovate?

Photos are okay, the photographers don't generally do a good job at getting a genuinely nice photo.
The best cheapest package consists of three photos at £40 (yes £40 for cheap to produce photos).
You can't get a usb option separately and is only an add on at an extra over priced cost.
Graduates pay for graduations (which are expensive enough as it is), but the package prices are out of control. The most expensive package for some photos (which are cheap to print) are nearly £100!!!! (Currently set at £93 specifically).

Bad service, they charge extortionate prices for photos as you are a captured audience. They charge additional postage £7.50 for one photo on top but dispatch photos on second class delivery with Royal Mail!!! Also takes them 28 days to process one photo before posting! Universities should use their own in house talent to keep costs low and any money made to be put back to the university and not use companies that rip off students and parents for 2nd class service.

Absolutely terrible. Extremely expensive and ridiculously long delivery. 28 working days to despatch 3 photos from Cornwall to London? Without this stupid monopoly given by universities, the company would crash within a week. Please avoid.

Bad customer service, over priced,

Just awful, whilst my photographer was great and I’m sure the photos will come out brilliantly, this company clearly works with the university to create a monopoly in which they make an enormous amount of money through their outrageous pricing and useless website which is really horrible to use. Just seeing the existing poor reviews describing exactly the same thing demonstrates that I’m not alone. I am disappointed in my university for choosing to use such an awful company that is taking advantage of graduating students to make an enormous amount of money, something the uni are rather good at themselves the rest of the time!

Cmon the payment method sucks! At least provide more ordering and payment options. Its absolutely terrible. I want my daughter photos!

Bad all around - website capabilities and customer service

Photographer at my graduation was lovely and very easily communicative and directive, when it came to ordering the pictures though the prices were very very expensive so I ended up ordering a medium picture and two USB ones for £80 including postage. Bit of a rip off tbh...too damn expensive. But at least my items arrived within two weeks of payment. Postage was via RoyalMail

Placed extremely low quality images on the website. I contacted to ask for higher quality ones to get them printed but they refused to do that. Extremely expensive and extremely bad customer service. I contacted several times about this but they still refuse to send the images to me. This caused me to not print any as I believe the images quality will still be extremely bad

Tempest Graduations truly made my graduation day unforgettable. The whole team was fantastic and ensured everything ran smoothly, making such a significant moment even more special.

I want to give a special shoutout to Melissa, the photographer. She was absolutely brilliant. Melissa captured stunning photos that perfectly reflected the joy and excitement of the day. Her professionalism and infectious enthusiasm made everyone feel at ease and truly enjoy the moment.

I also want to express my deepest gratitude to Carmen. After the graduation, she helped me get hold of my photos, and her kindness and dedication were truly heartwarming. Carmen went above and beyond to make sure I had everything I needed, and her support really touched my heart.

Thank you, Tempest Graduations, for providing such an amazing memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Your team’s hard work and exceptional service made all the difference.

Absolutely, ridiculously unacceptable service.
You pay a huge amount of money for some photos and they give you 28 days for processing and delivery.
Instead of providing these to the graduates @ affordable prices, they just rip them off.
What shamelessly greedy people @ Tempest Graduations.
Do not order with them !!!

My daughter paid for my graduation pictures since 19th of January and haven't receive them yet. They have you waiting on the phone for long periods, no answer.
Pls can you refund or send us the photographs. Thank you

Really terrible customer service, they did not include my digital photos with my order which was over £100 and are still requesting payment of £17 per photo, Even though I originally ordered it. Customer service agents uninterested and unhelpful over the phone, you’re better off taking your own graduation pictures much less disappointment.

hateful people

Have been trying to order graduation photos since December 13th and the website has been very temperamental. It won't accept addresses, postcodes or credit card payment. Staff are slow to respond to emails too. Would love to have a photo from the day but it's looking less likely as time goes on!

This is our second set of graduation photos in the last few years and yet again the service was impeccable, very well organised and a quick moving queue.Wendy and Amanda were friendly and very professional in helping to create wonderful graduation memories, the photos are a high quality and a good variety of different packages to buy. I would highly recommend Tempest photography.