The other day while discussing stamping options with a customer, the customer showed me another contractors website and asked if we could replicate a design that was pictured. The picture looked vaguely familiar and I was not sure why.
After returning to our office, I checked some of our suppliers’ catalogs and found the reason why the image was familiar – it was taken from the manufacturer’s marketing materials… along with numerous other images.
I didn’t tell the prospective customer that the work pictured was not that of the contractor whose website it was found on. I will not divulge the contractor’s information on here either. The purpose of this post is this – we will never use or buy stock photos to share on our website or in our marketing materials. When we had our website designed (both our previous and current websites), we stressed the importance of not using stock photographs.
We are proud of the work we do, we are capable of doing the work we say we can, therefore there is no reason for us to use stock photographs. All of the images on this website are our property and are of projects we worked on.
The contractor does not expressly state that the work is his, but he also does not expressly state that the work pictured is not his. It is easy for us to understand how customers would come to assume that the work pictured would be work completed by a contractor since it is on his website.
Please be cautious when selecting contractors and do not make any assumptions about the images shown on their websites. Don’t hesitate to ask the contractor if the work they display on their website is their own.
We promise you this: all photographs on this website were/will be taken by employees of Carbaugh Concrete or our customers, and will be of our work. We will never use stock photographs.
