If your client loses their wedding CD....

[2.8orfaster]

How much do you charge to make them a new one?

[Maureen Souza]

Nothing.

[siuleung]

I think that's about right. They paid for the first one, right?

[arachnic]

Again nothing, for two reasons.

One, it would be morally questionable, given they have already paid a substantial amount for your services.

Second, How many weddings would you lose if they started complaining to friends, family and anyone else who will listen.

[NFRs2000NYC]

$1 +shipping costs. All it cost you was a CD right?

[tim]

I had this in the past week - a customer gave their CD/DVD to their parents, who are in another country, and didn't want to get it back. The customer wanted another CD, DVD slide show, and all of my CD/DVDs come in a fancy box that takes quite a lot of time to make. The images are in my offline archive, and the Proshow show was around but i'd deleted the source files. To make their CD, Proshow DVD, and case took me around four hours. I charged them only $180, which I thought was generous given I charge $250/hr. I had to find/make the time to do this for them, so I think it's fair to be compensated for my time, especially since they could easily have had their parents send it back or copy it for them.

[mgrover]

I usually charge $25.00 for an additional copy of a DVD. This is assuming that I have saved an archived copy of the DVD, which I always do. The $25.00 covers my time to burn another copy, the cost of the DVD & case, and the postage to mail it to them. Granted, my DVDs are usually sports related and don't contain any fancy packaging. I imagine I'd charge more if it took more resources to create the copy. I guess my advice is to charge enough to cover your expenses and time.

[symes]

I had this in the past week - a customer gave their CD/DVD to their parents, who are in another country, and didn't want to get it back. The customer wanted another CD, DVD slide show, and all of my CD/DVDs come in a fancy box that takes quite a lot of time to make. The images are in my offline archive, and the Proshow show was around but i'd deleted the source files. To make their CD, Proshow DVD, and case took me around four hours. I charged them only $180, which I thought was generous given I charge $250/hr. I had to find/make the time to do this for them, so I think it's fair to be compensated for my time, especially since they could easily have had their parents send it back or copy it for them.

This guy usually has about the soundest advice around here...

Cheers,

[Mike R]

This guy usually has about the soundest advice around here...

Cheers,
Agree!

[sfaust]

$1 +shipping costs. All it cost you was a CD right?

Actually, no...

$1 for the CD.
$xx for 25 minutes of your time
....15 min to pull the images from the archive,prepare to burn.
.....5 min to burn the cd.
.....5 min to print the printable CD label
$5 for packaging, postage, and mailing CD


It tends to add up. Its a distraction from your work, and should be charged for IMO. But....

I generally will make a CD and send it out for free the first time. I include an invoice with a $75 Retrieval and Create CD charge, but discount it to a zero balance. I add a post it note saying that there is a normal charge for this service but I waived it for them this time. I also mention they should duplicate it and store the second copy in a safe place so they can avoid that charge in the future.

It shows a good will gesture, lets them know in a subtle way there is a fee for this, and that next time I'd probably charge them. The second time, I charge them without guilt.

[ilantis]

I generally will make a CD and send it out for free the first time. I include an invoice with a $75 Retrieval and Create CD charge, but discount it to a zero balance. I add a post it note saying that there is a normal charge for this service but I waived it for them this time. I also mention they should duplicate it and store the second copy in a safe place so they can avoid that charge in the future.
That is quite clever and I can see how that would create another bond of loyalty between you and the client. Kudos! :)

[2.8orfaster]

That is quite clever and I can see how that would create another bond of loyalty between you and the client. Kudos! :)

agreed.

[Hark Photography]

I always take a copy of the dvd anyway, so its just a case of ripping that ... in this event I wouldnt charge, however if I had to put time and effort into it it would be chargeable

[Raymanet]

If its just a matter of burning another copy onto cd which for the cost of a cd and time is pretty small, I dont think I would charge them at all - obviously if they kept on loosing it, I would have to consider charging a fee based on my sheer irritation . . .

[tchan]

Do you guys put something in your contract about providing an additional copy if they do happen to misplace/lose/scratch/whatever the disc and require another copy 6 months down the road?

[Pete]

Clients should be encouraged to make backups when given a CD/DVD, and loan out copies of the DVD when being sent to family/friends.

CDs/DVDs have a finite life and won't last forever.

[tim]

Why would that go in the contract? It's unrelated. If they want something else later you give them a price.

[sfaust]

Do you guys put something in your contract about providing an additional copy if they do happen to misplace/lose/scratch/whatever the disc and require another copy 6 months down the road?

No, and I wouldn't recommend it. Supposed you said you guarantee the availability of their images for one year. 5 months from then, you suffer a fire at your house and loose all the images (yea, you hadn't got around to creating the off site archive copy). Then 3 months after that, the client want's the copy you are contracted for.

Not only will you be trying to recover your personal life because of the fire, you will also be funding a recreation of their wedding in order to reshoot the images you promised, or providing a settlement.

In my contact it states quite the opposite. That we make the images available as a courtesy for an unspecific period of time, but it is their responsibility to safeguard the original product once delivered to them.

[aram535]

You have convinced me to keep copies of the ISO files that I use to burn the CDs. Until now I have been just creating the ISO, burning two copies and dumping the file, as I still have the original. Come to think of it, I do end up with a lot of requests for a duplicate, so this may make my life easier.

[tim]

I've only ever had one duplicate request, so i'm not going to keep ISOs. I have the RAW and XMP files, I can batch them to JPG in 30 minutes, and it saves me 700MB/wedding (ie 20GB/year). I know storage is cheap, but i'd rather not have to buy more drives, as then i'd have to change my backup procedures.

I have a txt file on all my CDs, recommending people copy it and store it somewhere outside their house, at a parents place or something. I also recommend people store a copy on a PC hard drive, as CDs aren't overly reliable.

[sfaust]

I don't keep the ISO files either. I have the RAW and .XMP files, as well as the edited .PSD files. The client masters are created as .TIFF files and also saved. These are all saved on multiple hard disks, one in the studio, and on off-site. The lower resolution .JPEGs for web, galleries, etc, are all dumped, as are the non-selected images from an assignment.

I can burn two discs at the same time, so when I burn a copy of the images for the client I burn a second one as well. The second one get stored in the job folder with all the paperwork. Its a short term backup in that is probably good for 5-10 years based on CD media longevity. But my main backups are my hard drives.

[elysium]

Nothing since I only provide CD's on request in the event they cannot download large proofing zip files from my site.

I keep ISO files of all proofs for any clients until after the delivery of the final pictures. That way, I have something to revert to if needs be. I allow clients access to the ISO and zip if required.

[lil_miss]

I've not had the request yet... but if I were - I would consider it on a case by case basis... ie. what they were asking for.. if it were a simple copying of their images then the charge, if at all, would be minimal. If it was creation of a slideshow and all sorts requiring time and effort then definately a charge involved