How should a contract address the issue(s) of refunds when the client is not satisfied with the videography work?
In other words, what recourse does the videographer have if clients demand refunds?? Is there a certain part of the service that is "non-refundable?" (i.e., labor/time involved)

I would be interested to know how some of you address this in your contracts.

Jean King

I've always offered a 100% money back guarantee. If the client is not happy I don't want him bad mouthing my reputation or the reputation of my company. Clients have to approve the script, the prices, any changes, final edits etc. The big key is never any surprises. If the client is making changes that effect the final price he has to sign off on the changes. Any excessive expectations are laid to rest in the first one or two preproduction meetings.

In all my years of production I've not charged a client once. We had equipment failure on a live event, one camera shoot. The camera operator never checked the tape (Betacam has confidence heads, Duh) and large sections were blank. We didn't discover the error until it went to post. I basically edited what I could, gave him all the copies of it he wanted and hoped he didn't sue me.