What happens if I need to reschedule my session or appointment?

This page was last updated on 12/03/24.

Dear families,

The past couple of years has seen an increase in the amount of reschedules due to illness and other circumstances. For the smooth running of our business, we have outlined our rescheduling processes in our terms & conditions (sent to you when you made your booking) and on this page.

The following applies to all reschedules that occur within 2 weeks of booked sessions and within 1 week of booked purchasing appointments regardless of the reason for reschedule.

Katie & Jeremy (Heartstory owners)

Sessions:

For reschedules that occur within 2 weeks of your booking due to illness, EMERGENCY or other reasons and to sessions that have been rescheduled due to inclement weather.

In the first instance, we will offer you any available times within two weeks of your original booking. We will do our best to offer options that suit your preferences and we request your flexibility and promptness in responding.
If you can’t take any of the times we offer (or there are no available times to offer), we will put you ‘on hold’ for our next fully booked weekend or weekday (depending on original booking preferences). As reschedules are happening all the time, it’s almost certain a spot will come up, so once we have your confirmation for a date or weekend, we consider this booked, pending further details.
If you decide not to take a spot that we offer on your confirmed ‘on hold’ day/s, you will remain ‘on hold’ for our next dates. If this happens, we may charge a fee of $100 if we have not already done so (see #6 below).
If you’ve been ‘on hold’ for a month and not taken a spot, or you are not responding to our correspondence, we reserve the right to cancel your booking.
We are unable to book you into free spots ‘further ahead’ in our calendar, unless there are extenuating circumstances.
We reserve the right to charge you a fee of $100 for any rescheduled session, regardless of the reason. This is to cover staff costs and other losses and is at our discretion.

Purchasing appointments:

For reschedules that occur in the week of your booking due to illness, emergency or other reasons.

In the first instance, we will offer to move you to a Zoom appointment at the same time as your original booking.
If you can’t do a Zoom appointment, we will offer you the next set of available times in our schedule for an in-person appointment. It’s important that you take the first time you can (preferably within a week of your original booking) so we don’t end up with a bottleneck, which inconveniences other families waiting for an appointment. We request your flexibility as we may not be able to offer you your first preference of day or time.
We reserve the right to charge you a fee of $100 for any rescheduled appointment, regardless of the reason. This is to cover staff costs and other losses and is at our discretion.

Important notes:

Action on a reschedule request will always be taken by us immediately unless there are extenuating circumstances or an emergency.

As per our terms & conditions, we require any rescheduled session or appointment to be finalised within 7 days of the original booking (regardless of when the new session or appointment will take place). If you do not finalise a rescheduled session or appointment within 7 days from request and we have not made other arrangements with you, we will charge a cancellation fee of $100.
We expect you to respond to us within 48 hours. If you become unresponsive for a number of days or after a number of attempts on our behalf, we will cancel your booking altogether, at our discretion. Cancellation fees may also apply.

These are business decisions and have been put in place to keep our business running. They are not intended to be mean or unsympathetic. If at any time you feel we are being unfair or not understanding your circumstances, please reach out— we are happy to chat with you any time.

Our goal continues to be a positive outcome and the highest level of quality service for every family and every portrait experience.