7 On Your Side helps student get his senior portrait back

TRACY, Calif. (KGO) -- One of the most important rites of passage when you graduate high school is getting your senior portraits taken. A whole class at a high school in Tracy ordered their pictures from the same company and never got them, so they contacted 7 On Your Side.

Parents and students were worried they wouldn't get the pictures in time for graduation, which is only weeks away. Not only did they spend hundreds of dollars for prints they never got, they worried they'd never see their senior portraits at all.

Tracy resident Melody Wilkins made a picture frame showing every school portrait of her son Noah since he was in kindergarten.

"I thought it's really nice to look back and see how he's changed into a man," Wilkins said.

It tracks his growth each year, but after 11th grade it stops. His mother has been waiting since Aug. 1st to fill that last spot that is supposed to show Noah's senior portrait, but he's about to graduate and the space is still blank.

Noah and the other seniors at Kimball High School in Tracy all had their pictures taken last summer by ABC School Portraits of Benicia. However, like Noah, many never received them.

"It was still kind of astonishing to me that I wasn't the only one," Wilkins said. She began calling the company in November, since she had paid for them. She was told the portraits were in final production and that they should be printed within three weeks.

Melody had paid $267 for a package of prints. More importantly, she said, the photos captured a point in time in Noah's life and there's no going back.

"I wanted him to have his picture. I wanted the picture, I want the picture," Wilkins admitted.

Noah was as sentimental as a typical teen. He told 7 On Your Side, "I didn't really care that much. The only thing I was worried about was because you had to spend money on it and you're not getting what you paid for."

Melody contacted 7 On Your Side. We contacted ABC Portraits and the owner said he was backed up after losing key staff members last fall, just as school was starting.

The owner said: "We acknowledge our delivery problems, and both regret and apologize. We appreciate and value our customers and will continue to resolve issues as they arise."

Hours after our call, ABC Portraits finally did send Wilkins those pictures and she was very grateful to receive them.

ABC Portraits admits 52 families at Kimball High still don't have their senior portraits. The company says it expects to ship all the orders by April 21.

If you don't get yours, tell me about it. Contact me here