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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Retainer Fee: question about amount taken at time of booking | |
InSanE wrote:
Why? Because everyone else does it different?
Not so much because they do it different, but WHY they do it different.
The answer to that is because they have been screwed over, some of us more than once, it's cost us money and has proven to be an unwise business practice not to get money up front.
Look around and you'll see pretty much every other business that takes bookings does the same...... Like the venue and the church and the florist and the celebrant and you lawyer and the guy fixing your roof or driveway and.......
All my clients love this policy and business is good.
Yeah, I'll bet they love it! You leave them free to pull out and change their mind on a whim. YOU are the one taking all the risk and letting them get away with no commitment or obligation at all. Why they hell wouldn't they love it?
As for business being good, can't comment on that without seeing your books but I can say there is a big difference between getting lots of booking s and having a good business.
I believe in good people, and if someone has to cancel a wedding something bad happened.
Yeah, pretty sure we all started out believing all people were good and trustworthy and bad things happened to others but then experience and time led us to very different conclusions.
In light of that experience we changed our policy's to cover ourselves and allow for the fact our faith in people was not always wise.
There are many stories on these boards of people cancelling bookings because of things OTHER than the wedding not going ahead. If you think that's the only reason people might cancel on you, I'm afraid you are going to be in for some big disappointments like most of us have had. IF it WAS the only reason people pulled out then I'm sure none of us would charge a deposit but those of us more experienced have come to learn painfully and at cost a lot different reality.
I am always happy for a free weekend (still pending), and do not want financial gains on others sadness.
You really think people that charge a deposit are heartless bastards that WANT to gain from others misfortune?
Let me tell you something..... 18 months ago almost to the day, I had a real kick in the guts and the people here, even those I had argued bitterly with and didn't know me from a bar of soap, gave me so much kindness, support and well wishes, I still can't get my head around it. I may be a lot of things but unappreciative or dismissive of people that were good to me is not either of them.
Some of those were people that have responded on this thread and for you to insinuate they are out for personal gain through others misfortune I take as a great personal insult.
I doubt there is anyone here that would hold a deposit for a cancellation through genuine tradgety or misfortune but to believe that no one is going to cancel for illegitimate reasons is as naive as you are offensive in your insinuations.
All good and well to make an alternative POV here but be real careful you don't go too far or cross any lines on your high horse. You might find some unpleasant person like me takes great exception to it and is in a position to do something about it.
Again, they are not only going to cancel because something bad happened. If you believe that you are going to get played for a Royal sucker and probably too many times before you wake up. They find cheaper shooters, friends and relatives want to play hero and do it for nix, get cold feet, decide they want to cut back on their wedding spend and a whole lot of other reasons other than something unfortunate happening that forces them to cancel the wedding.
What will happen if you do not charge a wedding in advance? People will give up their memories? Who are those people? How many times will this happen? I piss on all this imagined business practices!
These "Imagined" business practices are going to piss and shit all over you when you finally discover that you are giving people way too much credit. It's HAS happened far more than you seem to be aware of. Plenty of cases documented here.
I fully realise I don't have a hope in hell of giving you a heads up at this stage, but in time if you stick with this, You will come to see why people charge deposits and that people are not as wonderful as you have in your head now.
As dismissive of what I and others are saying now you are going to be, maybe one day when it happens ( and it is a matter of when rather than if) you might think back and say "Geez, they were right after all."
At that point you might want to do it just the same as everyone else because you understand WHY they do it the way they do.
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Jan 07, 2017 at 10:53 PM |
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