response to change in coverage time

Last week I had a wedding scheduled for 12-5pm. I showed up to start working--I was an hour early actually--and ended up waiting more than an hour for them to get ready. By the time the ceremony finished they were about an hour and a half behind the schedule we agreed to on the day of booking and in subsequent discussions.

When 5:15pm came I left, explaining that I had other obligations (in this case personal ones that had been long planned--I departed that evening for Ottawa).

How do you handle these situations ? to be honest, had I not had other obligations, I would gladly have stayed longer. I think I would have charged my per/hour rate following 5pm--is this reasonable ? What sort of agreements do you make with clients about booked times and your obligation to be 'available' for hours outside that which has been agreed upon ?

thanks a lot.

The way I see it is that you agreed a time, if they didn't take into account the fact that things might not go 100% to plan that's kinda their problem. As long as you explained the situation that it's fine.

Personally I never leave on the dot from work, I work up until that point the use my own time for "packing away/shutting down" 5:15 seems like enough time to not make it seem like your and you did inform them.

I usually agree a over and above charge. If I charged lets say £500 for a day's work (8 hours) I would charge the % of time over multiplied by 1.5. So effectively time and a half.

I also agree with them that they are ready before so that once I'm setup, shooting can start immediately. That way they can't complain I wasn't doing anything. Once spent 4 hours waiting for someone to get the products I was shooting ready. Then they didn't want to pay for the 4 hours I wasn't doing anything.

Did they know about the obligation you had after their wedding?

What does your contract say? If you were contracted from 12-5, then you are WELL within your right to cut out at 5:00. I try to leave as close to my contracted time as possible. Now, with that being said, I have a few "points."

1. If you had "long planned" personal plans, then maybe you shouldn't have booked the event. Most things don't run according to schedule and there are always things that pop up.

2. I have it laid out plainly in my contract that if they request me to stay beyond my contracted time, then there will be an additional charge. They will not receive any product without this additional payment being made.

Things like this, are why I just went to 8 hr minimum... because everytime i book a six hour they need 8 and i DO NOT like talking biz during their day. I did it 2 times this year and i hate it. Also, seems like when i book a cheaper 5-6 hour wedding, i get some one else wanting a full day for that date, and as you know there are only so many saturdays...

I set out a time line before the wedding and my clients know when to expect me to leave. I had a couple run way behind. We had 5 hours and I had to waut on her and ended up shooting it in 3. They didn't get a lot of extras bc I only had time for the traditnal group shots and stuff.

I don't work specific hours. I have a day rate and contractually state that a day is limited to 10 hours. If the situation is right, I'll quote a special rate for a short job, but I'm always real clear about the exit time and why it's important that they remain on schedule. That said, I also make sure I'm open right after a job so that I can stay if I had to.