Clients NOT picking up their dvds

[Kelly Huffaker]

Has anyone ever had trouble getting hold of a client they shot a wedding for, and could NOT get a hold of them? Its going on 7 months now, and I still haven't heard from them. I've tried emails, called, text messages, and even called the photographer that was there to see if he's heard back from them......I'm starting to think maybe one of them died????

[Noel Lising]

Mine has been 1 year & 5 months now. I made a mistake of not collecting payment in full before editing their video. Some couples fall into hard times after an extravagant wedding or in some cases gets divorced. In your case I'm thinking they got divorced.

[Chris Medico]

Do they still owe you a lot of money for your services?

[Jeff Harper]

If they owe you money, there are a couple things you can try. Find them on Facebook and dig around to see what you can find about their life, what is going on with them. If you can find their friends, look there and see if you can get any clues.

If they live relatively close by, if you have their address, stop by for a friendly chat.

Or, if you have online access in your county or city, run the names through a records search for criminal or civil court cases. In some counties, one search will look through both civil cases and criminal at the same time.

Essentially, you want to dig up whatever you can to help you to understand what is happening. Even if there is nothing you can do with the info, you can sometimes gain peace of mind or put some closure on something that you otherwise could not do.

[Oliver Nuther]

I'm fairly new to this but I have taken over some business from someone who's recently retired. Amongst contact details of his previous clients he has left me a DVD from 2006 which has never been collected. He's left it with me in case one day they do turn up, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Kelly Huffaker]

Originally Posted by Chris Medico

Do they still owe you a lot of money for your services?

That's just it, they DON'T owe me anything. They paid their balance in full on their wedding day. They saw the highlights video which was uploaded to my site a week after their wedding, and they loved it. The dvd contains everything else we shoot that day, (ceremony, getting ready, toast etc.) in its entirety. My guess is that they moved away, thinking that the highlights was good enough.........kinda odd.

[Jeff Harper]

Hopefully to be more helpful than I was my previous post, I have waited as long as two years. I have never not been paid, yet. My two year client lost touch for over a year and did turn up after I contacted a relative and made polite inquiries. They made payments over time and everything worked out great.

[Bernie Johansen]

I had a problem like this, I shot a wedding this past May, they had paid their $320 deposit and I was owed another $1280, I had filmed two other weddings earlier that month so I told them wait time was going to be particularly month. I was done with their wedding in July, and they would answer my emails, texts, phone calls or Facebook messages. Eventually after a few months I sent a big email where I went on a big rant about how they're abusing my trust and how surprised I am by this as they were very nice to me and my second shooter through the whole day, that they're hurting an honest small business, our verbal contract is binding and it's too late to change your mind about this. They did email me back then. Lots of them putting it off over and over, but last week they were finally ready and I met with the bride one last time to exchange their DVDs for cash. So all is eventually good, although I definitely learned a lot from this situation.

I think they had spent up a lot and regretted getting a videographer in the first place. This was the last wedding I filmed without a written contract, and have now started asking for payment in full before the wedding date.

My suggestion is to not give it up, continue emailing/texting/calling every month or two, and don't be afraid to threaten legal action - you are owed money, and they are obliged to pay. They are reading the emails you're sending, even if they're not replying. Couples don't just forget about things like this - they know they're in the wrong and if you don't stand up for yourself, you're leaving yourself very vulnerable.

[Don Bloom]

Back in 85 or 86 maybe 1987, I shot a wedding and I was getting 50% up front-and the balance when I delivered the tapes. I finally threw the finished tapes out about 5 or 6 years ago. I figured that after years of hunting for the poeple without sucess, and zero contact from them or anyone that I knew who I thought MIGHT know them, I decided that they were not interested in receiving their finished tapes. SO yes, I held on to them for all those years, always thinking that MAYBE they'd come looking for them. ;-)

[Kelly Huffaker]

Yeah, it looks like we're goin on 6 months now and still no reply. Im just gonna hold onto them for however long it takes, or hopefully i run into one of their family members and I can give it to them. Again, im not sure why they are ignoring me, cuz I have already recievd my full payment. Beats me??