Wedding DVD's not picked up - Wait Time?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Guys

Up to last year my contract stated that my payment terms were 1/3rd on booking, 1/3rd two weeks prior to the wedding date and the final 1/3rd prior to delivery. I have since changed this in the new season to everything up front 2 weeks before the wedding BUT I still have a January 2015 wedding that is sitting on my shelf as the bride hasn't paid nor will she respond to any mobile text messages or emails.

My contact doesn't specify a "delivery date" so how long would you wait for this bride? It's now 5 months with no contact besides "I will pay you on Friday" back in February. She has already paid 2/3rds of the cost and has nothing to show for her money so one would think that she would make a effort to pay the last 1/3rd so she can get her video delivered.

Is there any legal requirement that says we have to sit and wait for 5 years or something silly ?? Luckily this is just one isolated case but the DVD cases are sitting on my shelf gathering dust!! Of course all future booking for 2015/16 are not affected as I will be paid in full anyway with the contact term that changed last year (she booked in 2014 so I had to honour the 3 payments agreement)

Any suggestions ??

Chris

[Steve Bleasdale]

Chris change to deposit 250 on booking, give them service agreement to sign straight away. Then within 6 months they have to pay another 250, then 30 days before not two weeks final balance due. No problems since then. steve

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Steve

I already did that last year and this is a "straggler" that booked prior to the conditions change. From the start of my 2014/15 season (from last August) They pay 1/3rd on booking and then 2/3rds two weeks before the wedding so everything is paid before we even start to shoot!

Luckily it's just the one set sitting on the shelf gathering dust BUT it's been there for 5 months now!! I'm tempted just to trash it but what happens if she says in a month's time ..here is my balance, where is my wedding? I wouldn't mind if she was upfront and said "we are broke, hubby lost his job so we can only pay in 6 months" but she won't even respond to calls/messages/emails

Chris

[Don Bloom]

Chris, you know my infamous story about hanging on to 3 vhs tapes of a wedding that I did almost 30 years ago. I held those tapes until 2012 or 2013 (I can't remember) before I FINALLY got rid of them.

Since DVDs really don't take up a bunch of room, why not send her another Email, phone call and registered letter stating that her wedding DVDs are finished and waiting for her. Then put them on the shelf, and delete the footage if you need the space. This way you've done all you can do legally and can prove it with the letter and Email in your outbox and don't worry about it after that. If she gets ahold of you great...if not hang on to it, call, send a letter and Email once or twice a year until you're too feeble minded to care anymore (another 30 or 40 years). ;-)

[Chris Harding]

Hi Don

Yeah I remember that ... 30 years !! Just for interest, in 40 years time I might just be breaking a few records as I would be 109!! Yep, I could be reasonably feeble minded by then and the bride would be in her 80"s too!!! Then again 30 years just might happen! My Dad made it to 99!!!

I'll do an email again to her to really bug the hell out of here (used that technique with a bride who was hassling to pay me once and she got daily mails until she paid out of sheer frustration) I'll toss the covers in a drawer somewhere ..her footage is already on a backup drive so it's not taking any work space!!

I trust you are enjoying your retirement still?

Chris

[Don Bloom]

Well, you're still out there running around with the "young uns" and we're the same age so I applaud you. A stronger man than I.
Retirement is just fine. As a matter of fact, my wife is setting the date for hers. When she does, we're thinking about moving the hell out of this cold stupid place we live and moving to warmer weather so we could cruise whenever we want (hint hint) it's the land of the mouse ears or more commonly referred to as Florida. We're just talking about it right now but... ;-)

[Chris Harding]

Sounds like a clever idea Don .. I had a friend (also a videographer) who was in St Augustine ..it looked really nice, warm and right on the water! Sadly Bob emailed me 3 days before his 70th birthday and told me he really didn't want to turn 70 .. I never heard from him again but his wife emailed me a week later and told me he had a massive heart attack on the eve of his birthday!! Sad, as we were really good mates!!
It's a nice place to retire and not to close to the big cities either!!

My wife was born in the Bahamas but you have to be super rich to live there!! However with political changes she says she would never go back!!

Let us know what you decide ... I couldn't take the cold weather in Chicago at all ... anything below 50F for me is Arctic weather!!! Around 80 to 100 is more my style

[Don Bloom]

Yikes. That sucks. Too bad we only have 2 choices when it comes to aging. Either we do or we don't.

80 to 100 sounds really good to me. It's 78 right now and it feels GREAT!!! Excuse me, I'm going outside to sunbathe! ;-)