First all-Asian wedding - a complete disaster!

Karl Johnston wrote in post #12895658
I just read the first post too but your customer service skills and etiquette are really bad. What's this have to do at all with their ethnic background? Wouldn't it have made more sense to get the payment settled in the initial consultation, usually I don't get paid in full until a week or two after. Or immediately a week before in full ideally, or half is standard.

It is poor taste to ask about $ at the shoot itself with the clients and their family present, - don't argue or ask too many questions, it should all be handled before and.

What's the big deal with having a complaint over the lunch room? Hell I'd be happy to scarf down a sub in the bathroom.

I find weddings are a lot about putting on a bit of a show and really more about customer service and experience than anything. Be polite and cheerful for goodness sakes and it makes everyone's life a whole lot easier.

The whole threatening to delete their photos is nuts. Oh well chalk it up to experience. I hope you got paid, and it worked out eventually (didn't read the thread, just the first page) but generally you really should work this out WAYYY before hand ....(ah wait nevermind, scratch this part i read it wrong..seriously long wall of text) All you would really lose out on is a few hundred and a day of work is all you write off...but your the one with the images, not them...they'll get in touch with you. Jeez.

Glad there are at least some others on here who share my viewpoint. All this time of court action/hardballing clients will not get the OP anywhere in regards to payment.

cdifoto wrote in post #12895663
Something tells me you don't run a business. Handing over your product without being paid is never a good idea. If you read what has transpired (available in the rest of the thread), you'd realize it's an especially terrible idea for the OP in this situation.

Initially of course I wouldn't hand over the product. but having reached this stage, where the only option is court action/giving them the product, of course I would give them the product. It gives a much better chance of resolution, and you lose a lot less money than hiring a lawyer. I'm only an amateur photographer, so I have no idea how much he charges, but for the purposes, lets say he charges $2000 for the complete package? trust me, a lawyers fee will reach that amount very quickly if you pursue it all the way to court.

bigrob wrote in post #12895680
=lazy

No, selective reading. page one tells you a man has been murdered. I don't need the rest of the 500 pages to work out if he is dead or not. Likewise, the OP's post gave me a fairly good indication of how he handled the situation. Having read the rest, I stand by what I said. there is nothing professional about the way he acted initially. the B&G can be excused for the initial conduct. He cannot. His problems are the result of his attitude on the wedding day.

bigrob wrote in post #12895680
what a load of tosh.

You leave your front door open, then someone breaks in to your house and steals your camera. You then find the guy and say "I'm terribly sorry old chap, may I have my camera back". He then politely says back "f*ck off". You then meelky walk away. .

wow amazing reasoning skills there. Cos what you said is exactly the same as the current situation. There are police for theives. please enlighten me as to location of the police station where they have the special-police-who-chase-down-brides&grooms-who-do-not-pay so I can refer them to the OP.

bigrob wrote in post #12895680
Who are you speaking from? Maybe they can join the forum and speak for themselves.

Lol..I am speaking from myself. I study law. I thought the sentence structure was clear enough.


edit:

casp3r wrote in post #12895660
Sorry but you want him to give them the photos and then hope that he gets paid? Not a great business plan. Soon word gets out 'here just pay your deposit and forget about the balance you'll get your photos eventually anyway'.

Edit: It's a long thread but the bottom line is they jerking him around with regards payment, even to the point that brides father demanded to know where the photos where even though they haven't been paid for.

how is that a business plan? now it is for damage control. the OP has two options:

hire a lawyer/take court action: he might get his money back, but he's get only a small percentage like 10% after taking into account the legal costs.

or

try to resolve:play nice, give the B&G a few edited pics, along with all the unsorted pictures. If the OP really has skill, the B&G and parents will love the images, and want the rest edited, and they will happily pay you the money. Thats the business plan, and the right way to run a business, let you products speak for themselves. If not, improve you're skills, ( i saw the OOF image) learn your lesson, move on. I mean come-on, its not all about money. Business image you cannot buy.

Sorry Ebwly you've misread my post, I certainly don't share your viewpoint.

Ebwly wrote in post #12895713
Lol..I am speaking from myself. I study law. I thought the sentence structure was clear enough.

I was taking the mickey. Although I understood what you meant, I was surprised that the English was so bad.

I cannot believe though that you would hand anything over to these people. These are the type of people who get what they want (from weak people) because they play hardball.

The OP must stand up and not give anything to these people until the cash is in his account.

bigrob wrote in post #12895736
I was taking the mickey. Although I understood what you meant, I was surprised that the English was so bad.

I cannot believe though that you would hand anything over to these people. These are the type of people who get what they want (from weak people) because they play hardball.

The OP must stand up and not give anything to these people until the cash is in his account.

casp3r wrote in post #12895734
Sorry Ebwly you've misread my post, I certainly don't share your viewpoint.

Well each to his own I guess. I hope the OP gets all this resolved out. Most interesting read in a while on here I must say.

I share your viewpoint on that

Ebwly wrote in post #12895744
Most interesting read in a while on here I must say.

More interesting than watching the Kiwis give the Aussies a hammering AND a lot more interesting then watching England vs Wales (& seeing how bad Northern Hemisphere rugby is at the moment).

bigrob wrote in post #12895750
More interesting than watching the Kiwis give the Aussies a hammering AND a lot more interesting then watching England vs Wales (& seeing how bad Northern Hemisphere rugby is at the moment).

I actually thought the latter game was quite exciting, especially the final quarter. Yes, it was a bit scrappy but you can't expect much from a pre-season warm-up game. As far as the Tri-Nations is concerned, that whole tournament is a joke this year as no-one is really taking it seriously.

Owain Glyndwr wrote in post #12895771
but you can't expect much from a pre-season warm-up game. As far as the Tri-Nations is concerned, that whole tournament is a joke this year as no-one is really taking it seriously.

Actually Owain I think you are spot on. Got to feel sorry for Stoddart.

Anyway sorry for getting off topic.

Go Rabbit-O's!!

Ebwly wrote in post #12895713
Glad there are at least some others on here who share my viewpoint.

i think the best advice anyone can give the OP is to accept that mistakes will happen, don't fret. Try again next time, you learn, you get better, hopefully everyone gets as happy as you can make them without sacrificing yourself...i dunno what happened in the other 20 pages, heck i didn't even read the last page..but generally keep the client happy (without sacrificing your well being) is a good par to shoot for.

That's good, but generic, advice Karl. It doesn't apply here anymore though.

Thanks Don

Karl Johnston wrote in post #12895658
What's the big deal with having a complaint over the lunch room? Hell I'd be happy to scarf down a sub in the bathroom.

Please quote where I complained about where to eat...

So I'm curious, did the first check clear?

EOSAddict wrote in post #12895539
Like many others am following this with interest... My only input FWIW on the legal side is.. if you don't sue you could appear to be letting them get away with it... grapevine will then drag every like-minded couple out of the woodwork ... and how do you know who are the good ones and the bad ones up front??

That shouldn't be an issue. The trivial solution is to never more accept a job without money up front.