Trying Not to Be Mad at Photog...Please Help Me Put Things In Perspective!!

[rodent]

You have to buy his studio album? How much is he charging you for that?

[Kits55]

He is charging it to us at his cost, which is $445. Then he also wants us to buy one for ourselves at the same price. BUT the thing is that he's not allowing us to use our $500 deposit so the way I see it; it's now just being pocketed by him.

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kits55 He is charging it to us at his cost, which is $445. Then he also wants us to buy one for ourselves at the same price. BUT the thing is that he's not allowing us to use our $500 deposit so the way I see it; it's now just being pocketed by him.

Weird He has some strange arrangements. How has he explained the deposit?

[Kits55]

He hasn't really explained the deposit. The deposit was to reserve the date of our wedding with him. I then asked if that could be used towards the purchase of any albums. He said yes. Now that he wants an album of his own to show he doesn't want to let us apply the deposit towards the double album purchase.

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kits55 He hasn't really explained the deposit. The deposit was to reserve the date of our wedding with him. I then asked if that could be used towards the purchase of any albums. He said yes. Now that he wants an album of his own to show he doesn't want to let us apply the deposit towards the double album purchase.

usually it's called a retainer & can be applied to the remaining balance. But, that is something spelled out in the contract so without a contract it's hard to say if you can really do anything. I'd keep pushing him on letting you use your $500.

If not, what about ordering your album from someone else & just being done with him once you get the disc. It sounds like he is really being a jerk. sarah on the forum does custom flush mount albums. There are some options for brides to order them too.

[Kits55]

That's the heck of it. He said he would give us the new CD WITH the album that we order. So he's totally playing games now which makes me even more angry.

[Dmitri_Markine]

I wish I could offer further advice,but your first mistake was to choose a free photographer. There's no free cheese...He now wants to get his costs back and there's little you can do. $445+445+500 is a good price for an album you've never seen(!) and if you are paying him so much, you might as well make sure your album has the images you want.

 

Good luck

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmitri_Markine I wish I could offer further advice,but your first mistake was to choose a free photographer. There's no free cheese...He now wants to get his costs back and there's little you can do. $445+445+500 is a good price for an album you've never seen(!) and if you are paying him so much, you might as well make sure your album has the images you want. Good luck

Many BDW brides have had great success with a photograper that only charged for travel. I would say the mistake was not having a contract with everything spelled out.

[Kits55]

Yes, I think the biggest fault is not having the contract with very specific items in it. I don't know that a contract would have been good enough in my case because I completely failed to realize what the most important things would be to me until AFTER the wedding. At the time my main concern was having CDs with high res images on them but I would not have known enough to be specific in the size of image I was referring to. I have sent him an email and I am waiting to hear back and see how much he is willing to do.