stacy_c

<p>So I originally posted about this couple in 2014. In summary, they are the kind of clients that cause you to rewrite all of your contracts. Then they try to send their "lawyer" father on you. We finally said your previous agreement released us of any further obligation to you, you acknowledged we fulfilled our agreement, goodbye. Months passed, nothing happened, we thought we had put everything behind us.</p> <p>Then I get a new email - apparently their DVD of the images is "corrupted" and their back ups are gone too. We just decided to ignore their messages. Then the onslaught of phone calls to every number they could find for us and emails 3x a day and bogus wedding inquiries began. So we responded listing all the harassment we endured and said it'd be $10/photo (The total would be $10k - we didn't expect them to agree but figured this might get them to leave us alone or negotiate something else)</p> <p>This was in February and they just sent us an email yesterday with our address in the header and these two sentences: "We appreciate your offer." and "Our preference is certainly to complete our business and avoid litigation." They want 70 photos for $500. We don't mind doing this if it'll get them off our case forever, but NDAs are not enforceable in my state and I'm not sure what will happen if they have the photos.<br> <br> Anyone have any ideas of what to do or language to include in an agreement? Apparently I have a few more business days to respond. Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Thank you everyone for your imput! Sorry, I should have been more clear (guess that's what I get for staying up late stressing about this) We gave the additional images unedited and in RAW format to the clients earlier this year because we figured that was the easiest way just to move on. I had only met and spoken with the groom's father on the day of the wedding and our contract was with the couple. My husband point-blank refuses to edit any more images for them because they were so rude.</p> <p>In hindsight, I really regret even responding to the father, but once I checked our facebook and saw in one message he threatened to contact the BBB, I was quite worried. I am going to tell him that our contract was with the bride and groom and they signed an agreement that states at they will not ask us to edit any more images for them. This is what it says verbatim: "This agreement releases <em>[company name]</em> from any further obligation to the clients other than what is stated above. <em>[it stated that we would send them the DVDs in RAW format]</em> The clients agree they will make no more claims for photos or editing from <em>[company name]</em>."</p> <p>Thank you all so much for your help! I'm glad to know that I can dispute any bad reviews and I have revamped our contracts to include more protections for us. I mean this bride was too demanding. She asked my husband to photoshop out the groomsmen around her in a photo (which he did, for free). Won't happen again.</p>

<p>Just want to make it clear, we DID NOT release them all of the RAW files. We gave them the extra images they wanted in RAW. All that they included were duplicates of other images (which is why we didn't include them) and some other not really important reception photos. <strong>We would never, ever give them all of their images in RAW.</strong> We don't care about the RAW files. I care about them being such huge jerks.</p> <p>Okay,now to read everyone's responses :)</p>

<p>Hello everyone,<br> I'm a first time poster but I have a very... different situation. For some perspective, I work with my husband and we run a very successful Wedding/Portrait photography business. He has been doing it for over 8 years and I've helped him for about 3 years. Before I took over the customer service aspect, a relative was helping him and she was not very specific in her contracts and wasn't so great at being clear with our customers about timelines, what we can edit vs cannot, etc.</p> <p>We shot this couple, and after they said they hated everything, insulted us, demanded that first, we show them every picture from their wedding and we give them every picture unedited and in RAW format, we finally came up with an ultimatum: we would send them their additional pictures in RAW and they would release us from any further obligation to them. They signed, we sent the DVDs and moved on. </p> <p>A couple weeks ago, the groom's father starts calling our relative (who no longer works with us) every day. Then he messaged us on our facebook. When I don't respond right away, he KEEPS texting me, messaging me, etc. I shouldn't have said anything, but I kindly explained that we weren't editing any photos because they were rude and they signed the agreement. He shot back about lousy service, etc etc and still wants us to re-edit every photo from their wedding. (which we are not doing - you don't get to bully us and insult us and then expect us to work for free)</p> <p>We have never encountered this before. We have never had any bad reviews. Our business is about 70% referral-based and don't really advertise. Unfortunately, before I took over, our contracts weren't very specific, and we usually accommodated almost any request.</p> <p>I am going to tell this groom's dad that I'm not discussing this further with him because the bride and groom have already signed an agreement releasing us from any further obligation to them. But how do I protect my business's reputation if he for example, leaves a bad review on the knot, wedding wire, facebook, or contacts the BBB, etc? We would like to expand but don't want this affecting us.</p> <p>Any input would be GREATLY appreciated. I've already thoroughly updated our contract because of these people because I absolutely do not want to go through this again.</p>