form wrote:
You don't know how diplomatic I can be...and I have more trouble lying to a client that I have already spent a considerable amount of time 1. telling that I am available (before the alerts), and 2. communicating back & forth...
So you'd rather spend yet more time (lowering your income), rather than having a simple, essentially templated email saying you're not available?
Yep. However, I'm not lowering my income because I don't have other plans except to continue retouching photos...which I do pretty much every day except the weekends.
form wrote:
Yep. However, I'm not lowering my income because I don't have other plans except to continue retouching photos...which I do pretty much every day except the weekends.
But this is time spent on the business, not spent on retouching photos? Sorry to be pedantic, I'm not meaning to be. I guess if you're happy that you're paying yourself for this time all is well. It just seems like time & effort wasted to me.
form wrote:
I have more trouble lying to a client that I have already spent a considerable amount of time 1. telling that I am available (before the alerts), and 2. communicating back & forth...
Maybe I am missing something here, but you keep using the word "client", which is confusing me. If you aren't photographing their wedding, then they aren't a client; unless you already have a contract with them from a previous session or at doing something else for them. Sure, they were a potential client, but you've chosen not to book them because of red flags.
You've already been honest, so no need to lie. Reply to their last message with suggestions of other photographers and stop replying. Unless you see some big future in photographing them, you're just wasting time replying to the non-sense
A little different take here: Maybe your replies are getting caught in her spam folder? Try requesting a read receipt on one last email. If you don't get the receipt within a day or two, I'd pick up the phone or send a letter.
you definitely need to be starting at around $3k (lowest commission)
Change your prices and focus on the quality client.
1 client at 3k is a lot better than 3 at 1k
The crappy part about this situation is that the couple seem like the kind of people who would contact you from fake email accounts to check date availability, what then?
Yea, Form has been told frequently he undercharges. We work in the same area and our prices are 3-4 times higher and we are constantly busy. Come on dude. Take the leap! You do great work!
Form, no offense, but I've taken to ignoring your complaint posts. It's like you're banging your head against a wall and complaining that you have a headache. People have told you to stop banging your head against the wall. If you ignore the advice and your head continues to hurt... see where I'm going?
Inku Yo wrote:
Form, no offense, but I've taken to ignoring your complaint posts. It's like you're banging your head against a wall and complaining that you have a headache. People have told you to stop banging your head against the wall. If you ignore the advice and your head continues to hurt... see where I'm going?
Well, as far as I can see, he seems to be completely ignoring such suggestions anyway, or at least not being willing to discuss it. Odd. Perhaps it's been discussed before, and is a sensitive subject, I don't know...
I am not responding to the comments about my rates because I already made a thread asking opinions about how rate changes would work and what extra work I would expect to do for it, how much actual profit difference I would see, etc...this thread was not intended to be only about that very weird client experience. Not a complaint really, just a very odd situation...
form wrote:
I am not responding to the comments about my rates because I already made a thread asking opinions about how rate changes would work and what extra work I would expect to do for it, how much actual profit difference I would see, etc...this thread was not intended to be only about that very weird client experience. Not a complaint really, just a very odd situation...
Regardless, your replies to the answers to YOUR many constant complaining questions are similar to the "client" that you are complaining about. In other words, YOU ignore the obvious answers just like your "client". You do really nice work but your people skills are a little ..... ummmmm, strange to me. I read your post for the soap opera.
