December 1, 2011
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Drawing the Line
I received an email from a client who wants to submit her photos to a few wedding blogs. Every single sentence except one (which was a question) ended in exclamation marks.
"Hey Fern!
I just joined TWO BRIGHT LIGHTS to send photos of my wedding to different blogs! But they only allow the photographers to load the photos!!! Can you load the following photos on TWO BRIGHT LIGHTS so I can submit them? Thanks so much!
Here are the numbers to load up! Thanks Fern...24,33,44,48,50,52,120,160,112,116,108,95,24,49,42,59 AND the one with me rings and the close up of me!!
Thanks Fern! Please let me know when this is done so I can submit them to the two blogs!
Cheers!"
Somebody needs to calm down. LOL.
Question: The client is always right, right? Does this mean I am expected to do extra work (create an account, load those photos, etc)? This request is triggering such a bad attitude in me, probably because I have enough work to do and I know it will take a while to do this favor.
Additional background info: they paid me $500 for wedding photos and the wedding was a disaster. Haha. I'm not very eager to work with them again, though it was my fault for agreeing to shoot a wedding at a fraction of my normal rates. (In my defense, I only did a half day coverage instead of the normal 8 hours.)
What should I do?
** edit **
Okay I'm going to submit them. lol.
Comments (10)
Well, if you say no what would be the potential fallout?
@Roadlesstaken - Good question. I don't know. I guess they could write a bad review of my business on yelp... or talk smack about me to other potential clients. I would hate to make them angry at me.
yah....... thats the crappy part abt being in a service industry.. always have to bend down to ppl...
You have the right to charge for a service to a customer if it takes up your time.
Maybe you should have in your contract that anything beyond the scope of what is expected from you may result in a fee from the customer.
I think part of it is, you are so nice and people take advantage of you. You should be firm and say to people that additional time spent for a client will require an additional fee.
I wouldn't worry abut them saying anything bad about you. Your work and portfolio will speak for itself. Unless you are willing to do something for free because you like the clients or feel you might owe them something in addition, you should not hesitate to charge for your time.
I'm glad you decided to submit them. Honestly, it is a little out of your way but not something too outrageous or anything. You have standards. Keep them up, even if you priced yourself low for some reason. Even if the client sucked, it wouldn't be in your best interest to piss them off and have them sharing with other potential clients of how poor your service was.
Although damn. $500 for a wedding? That's like.. nothing.
At least you're getting more exposure? Just sucks that you had to do it for them!
@luvs_u - I do it way too often! It must stop...
@misuterihomme - It's true, I am easily taken advantage of, especially in my business. I'm trying to improve in this area. Thanks for the input.
@AzureRecollections - Haha yeah $500 is less than 1/4th of my normal price...
@karen0z - Yeah... it didn't take as much time as I thought, I'm just lazy
Interestingly enough, just had a friend request a quote for their wedding. I knew they were on a budget, so offered $800 for full day event coverage, one photographer, and one videographer... and engagement shoot (essentially I was working for free, the cost was to cover the other person and our gear). I don't think they thought that was cheap.
@AzureRecollections - That is a STEAL to offer all those services for $800... that doesn't even cover one photographer, let alone two and a videographer!!!! Very generous of you!
@onlyjustbegun - I don't think they thought so lol! Any ways, if they manage to find a photographer for cheaper, I'd be seriously concerned.
Comments are closed.