BEAMING as she posed with her children, Samwarit Tuku felt sure the photographer was capturing stylish portraits to treasure for a lifetime.

But when the proud mum inspected the prints she'd handed over $790 for at the PixiFoto studio in Target Chadstone, she was disgusted.

"The photos were ugly. My children looked really horrible," she says of the snaps with daughter Carina, 4, and son Kareem, 9.

"They used a black backdrop for some shots and you couldn't see my daughter's beautiful hair.

"There were bags under her eyes. My son looked like I didn't give him a shower. They were terrible."

media_camera Mum Samrawit Tuku with her daughter Carina, 4, at Port Melbourne beach. Picture: Sarah Matray

The Port Melbourne mum refused to accept the bundle of block-mounted prints she'd ordered and also left behind a CD with dozens more digital images.

When PixiFoto head office declined her requests for a refund, Ms Tuku launched legal action at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The single mum told this week's tribunal hearing she'd burst into tears when shown the results of the expensive shoot she'd saved hard for.

"I said 'I love my kids to death … but please, hide it. I don't want to look at it any more'," the tribunal heard.

Ms Tuku, 31, claimed she was embarrassed when a staffer suggested in earshot of others that her children didn't look good in the photos because they hadn't slept enough.

"I did everything to make them look beautiful," she told the tribunal.

She claimed staff had promised before the shoot to "touch up" the images to remove small marks on the kids' faces, but this hadn't happened.

The tribunal heard she selected just one print from the shoot - which she paid an extra $10 for - so her daughter would have a keepsake.

media_camera Mum Samrawit Tuku sued PixiFoto because she thought the $790 photoshoot made her kids look horrible. VCAT agreed and ordered a refund. Picture: Sarah Matray

"I looked at it that day then I put it in the cupboard," she told the Sunday Herald Sun after the hearing.

Ms Tuku said she considered her children absolutely beautiful and it hurt to say they looked ugly: "For me to say that about my own children is a big thing. For any mother."

PixiFoto's parent company - Photo Corporation of Australia Pty Ltd - has recently gone into administration and nobody turned up at the tribunal hearing to respond to Ms Tuku's claims.

In their absence, VCAT member Dr Rebecca French ordered the company to refund the $792 on or before October 10.

But Ms Tuku might never see the money, and must go into the pool of unsecured creditors lining up to extract cash from the flailing business.

Meanwhile, she's bought herself a digital camera: "The photos I take are much better than theirs".

fiona.hudson@news.com.au