School picture day is usually full of fun and excitement for students. They get to choose a special outfit to wear, pick a background, and smile for a photo that will hang on the walls of their parents’ and grandparents’ houses for years to come. However, one mother from Utah was unhappy when she received her son’s school portraits.
The mother, who goes by @singlemomsaga on TikTok, revealed that she had gotten her son’s school photos back, but was stunned to see that the boy in the pictures wasn’t her child.
Utah Mom Opens Son’s School Photos And Gets A Huge Surprise
“Got my son’s school pictures today but there’s a problem,” she wrote in a caption overlaying the video. The Utah woman went on to show a photo of her son, Maddox, smiling with his backpack on getting ready to head to school. “This is my son,” she wrote. She then cut to a sample photo on the Lifetouch website. “These are the pictures I received,” she added.
The photo was clearly not her son. “Who’s [sic] kid is this?” she asked. “I mean, he’s a handsome kid, but not mine,” she continued in the caption of the post. “Maybe if I find the real parent, we can trade?” She also added that she’s had problems with Lifetouch photography in the past.
Have Other Parents Gotten The Wrong Photos?
The mom quickly realized that she wasn’t the first person this has happened to. In the comment section, others shared their stories of their child’s photo mix-ups. “I got my son’s pictures one year…opened them up and it was a girl,” one person stated.
“We have a random boys pics on our wall from when our daughter was in 3rd grade. We named him Adam. We contacted LifeTouch and they told us to discard them and they’d send our daughter’s photos. They never did, so Adam is with our kids,” another mother revealed.
“Someone, somewhere out there has my 3rd grade pictures that my parents never got from picture day,” a third comment read. “This is happening way too often,” a fourth person noted.
Photo Mix-Ups Happen Outside Of School Too
Last month, a parent from Florida shared that her daughter was also given the wrong school photo from Lifetouch. Another woman named Hannah on TikTok revealed that it’s not just school photos that have mishaps.
When she got her wedding day photos printed out at Walgreens she was hilariously surprised when she looked through the prints to find a photo of someone she didn’t know smiling back at her.
What Should You Do If You Get The Wrong Photos From Lifetouch?
Parents who open a package and find photos of a child who isn’t theres do have options. According to Lifetouch’s help center, the company has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. This means that a retake can be requested, as well as full refunds. Many schools offer retakes for students looking to re-do their portraits, or one who may have missed the first opportunity for photos.
If schools don’t offer retakes, families can request a full refund instead. Lifetouch also notes that photos of every student are typically taken for things such as yearbooks, class photos, and school IDS whether or not the family purchases an order.
If you get the wrong photos, or have any other questions or concerns, the first step is contacting Lifetouch.
How Do School Photo Mix-Ups Happen?
The mistake is easier to understand when you find out that Lifetouch is the country’s largest school photography company. The company takes pictures of roughly 30 million students each year, CEO Ken Murphy previously told the Freakonomics podcast.
The undertaking is so large, that Lifetouch hires about 6,000 seasonal photographers yearly. They keep the photos matched with technology that includes a camera that auto prints student information onto the negatives.
Picture day is supposed to leave families with a keepsake for the wall. For one Utah mom, it left a mystery instead, along with a portrait of a handsome stranger. If the right photos don’t arrive, Maddox’s mom could ask for a refund, per Lifetouch’s satisfaction guarantee, but she’d likely be happier with the correct photos of her son.
Noticed News has reached out to Lifetouch via email and will update the story if they respond.
