Stupid clients... again..

[Peter Jefferson]

Oh ive got some doozies...
Having a heavy one this week.. gonna crack some skulls in a minute..

its funny.. 99% of my clients are fine.. 2 to 3 months after the wedding, theyre like.. oh hey Pete, we back from honeymoon, we need to give u the music and fotos and the ph number to the hot lil braidesmaid u were flirting with.... (heeh yeah i wish.. )

Then there are the numbnuts who are like.. DUH... Wheres my video... ..
And im like.. well dude.. i need ur tunage..
DUH... WHY DIDNT U TEL ME I NEEDED TO GIVE U A MUSIC LIST..

and im like.. i DID u dope.. the first time i met u i gave u a friggin info booklet which details YOUR conditional requirements which need to be completed BEFORE i can finish my work with u... This includes music.. titles blah balh

DUH... umm... but.. why didnt u remind us.. .
and im like.. you signed the forms yes?? to me, for u to sign it means u understand what u need to to... hence the wording, "i understand and agree to the general agreement... SIGNED... Bloody Blah"

Yeah but i didnt know... But Duh.. but i want my video...
GGGGGRRRRR

BUT WHAT?? What part of "Please list a selection of music to be used within the presentation" do u not understand? This is CLEAR...

You should have reminded me..

Actually, its your responsibility.. if your project is due for editing and u do not have music, u have signed the agreement that I can use my discretion.. hence the reason why i dont "remind" you that yove agreed to give me music...
I cant hold ur hand through an agreement which is clearly laid out in front of u.. u either take it or leave it...
U took it..

DUH..I dont like this, im seeing my lawyer...

---------------------

OK a bit of background..
cheap all day package.. i needed the cash, so i gave them a good deal...

NEVER AGAIN AM I DOING ANY FEKKER FAVOURS...

DOnt fall for it.. be broke and happy and without work for a couple of weeks instead of taking on tight arsed uneducated idiots..

ive jacked my prices to twice that now and i dont have any more problems..
No offense, but I find its the scummy budget I want I want I want to be the most difficult clients to deal with after the fact.. and im a nice guy.. hell ive about 60 weddings a year and its THESE ones which give me strife...

GGGGGGGRRRR
back to editing the sooner i get this out the better..

RANT OVER..

But id like to hear ur stupid couple stories... please tell me im not in the minority here..

[Michelle Lewis]

hee, hee, I feel for you Peter. Don't let them get you down.

On a related note: Why do brides brag about how EXPENSIVE their photographer is, but also brag how CHEAP their videographer is? I noticed this trend on a few message boards. I'm wondering if videographers TRIPLED their prices, would brides brag how expensive the videographers are?

Also, why continue to offer videography, when photography pays five times as much, and requires less time? hmmm...

[Peter Jefferson]

good question there michelle, which is why im getting out of teh game as soon as i can... prob with this game is that when u have booking booked years in advance, u cant just walk away..

Its funny, i Shoot video and i make 2 grand, i shoot fotos, which to me is dead simple and much easier AND doesnt have the post prod work as video, but i make double that.. its a bloody joke.. and were the fools who bust our asses for it..

[Steven Davis]

First advice for you Peter, find 1 part lime, 1 part salt and 1 part tequila.

I've not had a client yet that has beat down my door for thier product, but I have had consultations with ones that I felt would be. Fortunately, I have not moved my prices to get them. So I'll use your story as a headsup.

I have an idea for you. Call me crazy, but given the volume you do, you might could start a message board of sorts, and have each client have thier own thread/section, so if they want to give you a message, they will be able to read what you and they have already said. I remember somewhere you mentioned that you do a lot by email, that's what made my idea pop into my head.........................or it could have been 1 part lime, 1 part salt, and one part tequila.....

:}

[Peter Jefferson]

good idea there. . bout the tequila.. ;) and the forum itself..
thing is i already help run a tech forum here in aus and im already stretched for resources (ie time)

Thing is though, is that i do what i KNOW i can do, and im perfectly clear on the outset yadda yadda..

I jsut dont understand why people are like this..
i mean on average we do the mid to high 2k' jobs..
In teh past, i did go a bit cheap, but after i realised it bought on more problems than the money is worth, i jacked up the prices..

I mean i try to work smarter, not harder... but as a perfect example, i jsut did a 48hr run with a 3 hour break in between... this is what i mean.. this is what i DONT want to do..

either way, i think im just going to a wanker now and be a prick to those that have the audacity to complain simply cause theyre too friggin lazy to read the contract.

bad attitude.. maybe.. but ive still got a business to run and i cant let these morons bring me down..

[Agustin Uribe]

No doubt about it, you have a tough life.
I think you are fed up with work and stessed out.
Don´t forget that those "morons" are the ones that pay for your food, clothes and equipment.

Maybe you need a vacation.

[Peter Jefferson]

Originally Posted by Agustin Uribe

No doubt about it, you have a tough life.
I think you are fed up with work and stessed out.
Don´t forget that those "morons" are the ones that pay for your food, clothes and equipment.

Maybe you need a vacation.

Tough life... i wouldnt call it tough, i'd call it very intense.. but not overly difficult. Difficulties only occur when people dont read their contracts, or when they expect you to pull miracles out of your ass..
Stressed.. yes.. i can get quite stressd when these "morons" continually bark at me. Dont get me wrong, im all for customer service.. Hell, from what ive seen, my contract to the client is far more precise and detailed than any pther comapnies on teh eastern seaboard. Not only do they get th service details in EXPLICIT writing, but theyre also given instructions, AND theyre we also go through the forms together, explaining what each element means, before i LET them sign it..

Yes they pay my bills, but im also offering a premium service at a decent price. When they ask me why, i tell them the truth. I have alot of corporate work. This corporate work lets me keep wedding prices down... BUT with these discounts might come delays as te corps are given priority over weddings. This is all told to them and i make no secret of it..
So to them, a week or so delayed isnt much to deal with when they know theyre getting a decent product at $500-$1000 less than what they SHOULD have paid if they went anywhere else.

So in the end, its a 2 way street. In any business, dont ever forget that yes, the customer IS the customer, however in many cases, just coz theyre commisioning your service, doesnt mean theyre gods.. or deserve to be sucked up to, butt licked or ass wiped... Yes theyre customers, but no one should bow down to anyone else... let alone to bow down for a Dollar...

Agreements and contracts are there to protect the clients investment financially (ie how much they paid), emotionally (ie structure of the piece to convey the emotion/feeling blah blah) and more important, archivally (being the footage and sound acquired should be of the best possible quality, based upon price and event locations covered for the day- in other words, raw footage)
Agreements and contracts are also there to protect the business from unscrupulous and ignorant clients. Being that in some contracts (like mine) a conditional requirement is to fill out 2 page info sheet, which covers filming and editing requirements based on discussions and the package in question.
If however only one section is filled out (lets say hey couple are stressed out or rushed... but they only give info such as locations but not editing/music) then we continue to shoot
The client understands that they still need to provide more information down the line.. usually when tehy get back from tehir honeymoon. 99% of clients do it this way.. i prefer music before the shoot, so i can shoot with the music playing in myhead.. but then again im a freak..

Now most clients understand this (that im a freak and that they have to gimme info) and everyone is happy to move on.
This biggest issue is the client communicating to the studio what they want. In most cases its music.

Either way, this information is a "conditional requirement" of the agreement of service. Being that without the info/music, the service cannot be completed.
Its a simple concept, but people dont understand.

If however everyone did what they were supposed to, wedding client or not, then issues like this wouldnt be issues. The jobs could be done alot more efficiently and people wouldnt have to waste time calling and emailing clients explainging over and over again what the delay may be.

I kid u not, i have a client who i met in Jan, got married in Feb, i STILL dont have her music and its almost august. Now, there have been somethin like 8 emails sent to her about this. Then she writes back with teh audacity to tell me that over 3 months have already passed. And for the 9th time, exluding the other 2 times BEFORE the wedding, i had to explain to her AGAIN that i need her music selection.
Now i dont know what you would call THIS type of client, but to me her behaviour is moronic.

IM not stressed, but i know some people take what i write in a strange tone.. coz i do get a lil excited about things.. lol but in all i love what i do.. thing is though, the joy is taken away when people start doing stupid things and they make life tough, when they havent bothered with looking into what theyre meant to be doing..

[Michelle Lewis]

I always tell clients if I don't have their music selections before I shoot their wedding, then I will use my discretion based on my observations of them and use my own music. They never ever get the music to me on time. I always have to use my own music. I haven't had a complaint yet. Actually I had one person thank me because they were musically clueless.

[Jonathan Nelson]

I get pissed off sometimes but this is what I have learned:

Climb a mountain for your customers. Its a hobby I have, take the toughest dumbest customer and try to make them happy. It has always paid off for me.

I had a TOUGH TOUGH customer last month who was pissed that I wasn't an omnipresent entity that had the ability to videotape every little detail. It was almost as if she just wanted to be difficult for the sake of being difficult. Her wedding looked great and every detail that she requested was videotaped.

On top of that, she kept calling me with requests to remove clips where she kissed a man on the cheek because I guess her husband gets crazy jealous. Anyhow, after all the extra editing work, I made an uncut version that consisted of 4 dvds and a simple 2 dvd version. She told me that she was happy with the uncut version and I couldn't believe it.

She called me a week ago and she now needs 50 extra copies of the uncut version for her family and friends.

So it paid off for me to be nice and put in a little effort. I made an extra 2.5k out of copies that would not have existed.

I don't know how you deal with your customers but I think it's sometimes worth it to cater around the difficult ones. Obviosly, there are limits...