Our actual makeover day went quite well. The lady who greeted us was very friendly, took our bags, coats etc… offered us drinks and generally made us feel at home. We were having our hair done within about half an hour of being there, which i thought was quite good. I seemed to draw the short straw with the stylist though as she was quite young and didnt seem to have been doing the job too long. She asked me how i wanted it done and when i said i wasn’t sure and was open to ideas she didnt seem to have any so i said i’d usually have it in fairly big, open curls so thats exactly what she did. It was ok, looked nice enough but nothing other than what i would do myself. I didnt say anything as it did look nice. I would however like to point out now that the stylist my friend had, Paul, was excellent! He was lively, had loads of ideas and made her look amazing!

We waited about another half an hour to go to make up, which again i thought was quite quick. Both of the make up artists were lovley. I dont tend to wear much so my make up artist went through various colours with me, asked me what i liked and suggested what would suit me and i was very happy with the outcome. I couldnt fault this stage of the process at all.

About 40 minutes later we went through for photos. Once again, we all enjoyed this stage. The photographer was very friendly and made us feel at ease as none of us had done anything like this before. We had three outfit changes, had some individual and some group photos and the photographer directed us really well and got some lovely shots.

The only part that really let the whole experience down was the viewing and sales pitch at the end. The gentleman initially came over very friendly, showing us the photos and giving us time to look through and choose our favourites. When it came to the actual sale, he spend very little time going through the prices, just what was included in each package (cd, number of prints etc..) In fact i dont believe he actually gave us a grand total for any of the packages, just broke it down into how much we could pay each week. We initially just wanted the free shot that was included in the package, and a few group ones to take away. There turned out to be lots we liked, so he said he could do us a deal and for £8.50 per week each over 12 months (interest free) we could have a whole CD and set of prints. This sounded like a good deal and £8.50 didnt sound like much on the spur of the moment so he rushed ahead, did a credit check on me, which included falsifying the length of time i’ve been in my current job so it would allow him to do the check, and printed all the contract agreements and finance papers out before we actually had chance to think about it and work out how much it would actually cost. After seeing the total down on paper (about £1250!) we said there was no way we could justify paying that and wanted to change our minds. It was at this stage the atmosphere changed, he spent about 10/15 minutes typing various things into the computer, telling us we could have it for £5 per week over 24 months, and then £3 per week over 36 months (also failing to tell us this wouldnt be interest free so would end up paying far more than that, I only knew as i was reading his computer over his shoulder! At no point was this mentioned) We ended up saying one of my friends was on an apprentice wage (stretching the truth slightly, but trying to make him see we couldnt afford it) and the other has a young child to support and a job thats less that safe (truth!) and yet he was still pushing. At one point when we had been in there quite a while he even said to us he was hoping to finish work early that night but there was no hope of that now! My friend was very close to tears at the end of the whole experience and we ended up buying 2 group shots. I know the whole point of a salesman is to sell, but had he explained the actual cost of these shots in the first place we would never have seriously thought about buying the full CD and would have saved around an hour of everyones time!

All i could say to anyone using NEW ID studios is be very careful! Double check everything they try to sell you, take your time, work out prices and dont allow them to rush and push you into anything you dont want. It is very easy to get carried away in the moment when you first see your photos, which they then take advantage of and you end up regretting later.

I booked the above for my wife and mother to attend together for their respective Birthdays. My wife had to pay £50 deposit (after I had already paid the the day in full). Their hair was not done. the make up was so bad the photographer had to call someone in to re-do it as so much light was shining off my wifes face, and then they were pressured and bullied into using the deposit to purchase other photos - being told that ‘they would not be making any money on them if they just had the included one photo each’ - I kid you not! The photo’s were supposed to arrive within ten days. A month has now passed, no photo’s, no reply from their phone number, no reply to numerious emails sent to them. This is a complete rip off. My wife and mother left there feeling as such. It cost me over £60 for the package, my wife £50 in the form of deposit, £20 for the day’s car parking in the centre of Manchester plus the cost of fuel (we live some 65 miles away) and for what? A bit of make-up badly applied, and nothing else to show for it. How a company like Virgin can associate themselves with people like them is beyond belief