Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Choosing Beggar Groom Pushes Photographer Too Far


This is why it's important to do the research on a professional photographer before hiring them. Otherwise you end up looking like this picky groom who seemed impossible to please. That can be the case for some choosing beggars. Sometimes giving a choosing beggar something for free isn't even enough.

1.

Text - r/ChoosingBeggars u/TinderGuy11• 208d + Join 1 2 3 4 Choosing beggar groom pushes me too far and I threaten to delete his wedding photos LONG Hi all, I posted this in a different sub-reddit and then someone suggested that am. First time poster on this sub. might fit in here, so here I (Requested: TL/DR at the bottom)

2.

Text - I run a company where we hire out wedding and event service providers with our main focus being photography and videography. Other services include DJs, drone pilots, hair and makeup artists etc. (not relevant at all). So a few months back, I get an instant chat from a bride via our website. She informs me that they are coming down to South Africa in December and they need wedding photographer and videographer; I send our packages to her and she says her fiance wants to call me. I say tha

3.

Text - He ends up offering us about a 3rd of what the packages charge, offering to make the hours less, removing any physical copies etc. He also adds that he'll give us an R500 tip on the night, I ask him why I can't just add that as part of the quote to which he just replies "gentleman's agreement". Anyway, somehow I accept his insane offer..if I was a drinker, l'd be saying that I really should stop drinking at work. NB: I had emphasized that they will get no overtime; if my people stay 1-min

4.

Text - The Friday event I did the photos myself and took one of my videographers with me, and I will add, they were insanely nice, especially the groom. The time did drag a bit because there really wasn't much to shoot, just a group of people sitting around a table, but whatever. After an hour and a half, the groom told us we could leave. Awesome. I wasn't able to do the second evening myself (I had made them aware of this from the start) but sent a different photographer (one much more talented

5.

Text - So, how we work is that none of my people own their own gear and everything belongs to me, therefore after each shift the shooters have to return the gear to me. The wedding they were shooting was about a 25- minute drive from my place and the one I was shooting was an hour drive. I was also booking until 22:00. I got home after 23:00 and saw that they hadn't returned yet, all my others teams started arriving shortly after me and returned their gear, but no sign of those two. This had me

6.

Text - I turned my car around and drove home. I asked them what had happened, they explained that they had stayed until 21:45 as ordered, but as they were about to start packing up, the bride had sent her maid-of-honour to request another hour. They had explicitly said they will talk to me about it afterward and I can just add it to their invoice. They were also making my videographer do things that were only reserved for our biggest package. More importantly though, apparently, the couple had g

7.

Text - I stared at this message kinda dumbstruck as our contract clearly stipulates that the waiting period for photos is 4-weeks and 8-weeks for video. His quotation also clearly said "no physical copies". I texted him back, the next morning, saying that there was no way I was going to have everything done before January. I did offer to give them the raws before they leave, but a harddrive would have to be added to the invoice, along with the overtime bill. To this he replied that he would like

8.

Text - The phone call happened later that afternoon. This story has already gone on waaay too long, so l'm gonna skip most of it and just cut to the parts that made my blood boil. Groom: "So you say you cannot have it done before we leave." Me: "Unfortunately not." Groom: "Oh, that disappoints me, because all our guests are asking how much longer the photos are gonna take, but we understand." Me: "Great, I'm glad you understand. I can give the raws to you if you wish. But you'll have to pay for

9.

Text - Me: "Because it's over a 100 gigs of materials and this is South Africa; with our internet speed it'll take about 2-years." Groom: "Oh. Do you think we need the raw materials?" Me: "No, I don't." Groom: "Okay." Long, awkward, pause. Groom: "I don't understand why there's an overtime bill". Me: "Because you asked my people to stay an extra hour".

10.

Text - Groom: "No, they only stayed 10-minutes longer and you owed us 30-minutes from the night before." Me: "I took the 30-minutes into account and they still stayed an hour after that." Groom: "No, that's not true." Me: "I have the timestamps on the photos when the first and last ones were taken, you want me to send that to you?" Groom: "No, I don't." Me: "Awesome." Groom: "But we hired you and got someone else." Me: "You hired the company, not me. And on Friday you even said that I must enjoy

11.

Text - Groom: "I just don't think we should be charged extra for them." Me: "Unfortunately, that's what we agreed upon." Groom: "But you offer me a better price on the overtime?" Me: "I am offering you a better price on overtime." Groom: "Oh, but this is the best you can do?" Me: "If you take into account the tip we never got, then this is actually almost nothing." Groom: "What tip?" Me: "The gentleman's agreement we made." Groom: "I don't know what you mean." Me: "That's the surprise of the cen

12.

Text - Groom: "So, when do we get the photos?" Me: "In January, but you need to pay the rest of your invoice first, including the overtime." Groom: "Yes, you send us everything and then we pay." Me: "No, the contract you signed stipulates that you will receive nothing until all invoices have been settled. That is our policy." Groom: "Yes, but then we don't know you ever send photos." Me: "I thought you had heard so many people tell you about how great our service is?" Groom: "Ja, but I'm not hap

13.

Text - Me: "Yeah, that's not happening." Groom: "But you cannot ask me to trust you like this?" Me: "You're right, we cannot trust each other. I think the simplest solution is that I refund your deposit, delete your wedding and we can be done with each other because l've heard enough." Groom: "I feel I have offended you." Me: "You have not, but you are wasting my time. And I'm done doing favours for you. The only difference between you and our other clients is that they all paid full price." Gro

14.

Text - Groom: "And you cannot offer me a better price on the overtime?" Me: "Have a good Xmas." And I hung up the phone. The next morning the bride sent me a text that they just paid the outstanding balance and now want their photos, because "January is a long time to wait" (January was 8-days away). It has now been 3-days and the money has yet to show in my account... TL/DR Cheapass groom offers us a 3rd of our package price and then tries to get out of paying, I threaten to delete his wedding

15.

Text - Side note: Thank you so much for all the awards, I was not expecting that, but I really appreciate it. Something I forgot to mention in the original post. While I was busy at my wedding, about an hour before my photographer was meant to be at theirs. The bride texted me a list of the family photos they needed, I forwarded it to my photographer, just as she was getting into her car to leave. At the wedding, the bride had started yelling at her for not having a print-out of the list. I fina

16.

Text - The assholes did actually end up paying, my surprise was as big as yours. However, turns out they did zero research before hiring us and had no idea what our editing style was. I completed their entire album, sent them a few previews and all I heard back was "lighter, we want lighter". I obliged and made all the images lighter, this was no quick task. I sent the lighter images and again got a response that they want it even lighter. If I was to do that, the pictures would be overexposed.

17.

Text - They then sent me some grotesquely edited images from their previous wedding (oh right, did I ever mention that this was their second?) and said they wanted it to look just like that. One difference though, the photos they sent were taken mid-day on a beach with harsh light and clear skies, the pics we took were taken late afternoon, on a cloudy day. I tried explaining to them that there was no way these pictures were ever gonna look the same. They accused me of lying that the weather was

18.

Text - They are now complaining that they don't like their fucking facial expressions during the ceremony and somehow expect me to fix this, telling me that they won't accept the pictures with them looking stupid and fixing that is my responsibility.

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