$200 Late Fee?!!!

Great posts everyone. --Look elsewhere is right! I feel bad that our $100 will be gone.

Trueth-be-told I think she was a tad salty after our first meeting. When I called the tech school to find a grad student I gave them all of my specifications including cost. When I met her the first time she mentioned she had done 2 weddings and one of them was her sister. The other wedding she did for about $500. I politely asked her did the school tell her that this job was for $300? She said yes, but kept mentioning this $500 she got from this last wedding but the $300 was fine because she needed the work and experience. (MY POINT EXACTLY!!..lol)

So the whole $200 late fee I think is to make our final bill the $500 that she keeps talking about. Which is silly because I made the mistake of telling her we had paid all of our other vendors in full. So shes not going to even see that late fee.

Its funny how some people act. The first photographer I met up with had been shooting for years, mostly fairs and musicians. She hadn't even done a wedding yet and I had to struggle to get her down to 300$ for four hours. She was very full of herself and her work. After our meeting I told her I had other people to talk to and it might take a while to get back to her. A few weeks later she sentme an e-mail saying that I have taken you off my client list due to no response. I replied and said yes I am sorry, but you were a little out of my budget and I went with someone else. Thank you for your time. She replied back "I hope you get what you pay for"

So moral is, if you get a bad feeling from someone then don't use them. I bet she would have been a pain like your current photographer...

Chelsey S. > Wow!! That lady you were dealing with sounds like a total witch! The sad thing is that ppl need to understand that you are not just missing out on the money and experince you will get with that person, but all of their connections are lost as well.

For example my daughter needs Sr portraits and we are under the gun to get them done. But it wont be "Ms 200" who will get to do it. Also right now I have several girlfriends who got engaged after I did and I will be helping them plan their weddings....guess who Im NOT going to reccommend? My mother is the manager over a retail store on a military base. She needs someone to take photos at their yearly fashion show--I know who WONT be there.

As a service provider (and I know cus I have a small business) you have to think beyond the customer and strive to give excellent customer service skills at all times. You can never be so arrogant to think you have made it to the top.

This all sounds VERY fishy...I would try to get your deposit back if you can, if not, just cut your losses. It almost sounds like she put the late payment fee clause in there because she EXPECTS to get it. She could say your payment was late even when it wasn't, and it would be your word against hers? I don't know...it doesn't sound like you get a good feeling from her either. Potential scam is written all over it. Run!

I think this is a scam too. She had way too many outs written in that contract. How am I suppose to know if the cake baker treated her wrong? Im not going to follow her around all day to see if everyone is playing nice.

We had NO information on this woman beyond a cell phone number. Had we not paid with a money order and asked her who to make it out to, we wouldnt have even known her last name! So I took the information I did have and did an old fashioned Google search. Low an behold I get her Facebook page that has all kinds of information plus her resume! She wouldnt even give US her resume! I printed it all out just incase things get creepy. ---as if! (they already havent)

I hate to start searching for a photographer so late in the game. =0(

That is the craziest story I have ever heard! Definitely cut your losses and start looking again. That totally sucks but better to deal with the pain in the ass now than on your wedding day. I cant believe she had it in her contract that she could walk out if anyone was "mean" to her! I'd love to have had that on any job I've ever had! When you work in a job where you deal with customer service and lots of people, part of the job is being able to graciously handle abuse. Sad but true! She won't get very far in life thinking that she gets to walk out on any job where she thinks she wasn't treated great. Good luck in finding someone new! They certainly can't be any worse than the one you're walking away from

Congratulations!

I would have to say I agree with Pastor Brian Cookson. I also believe that if I didn't agree with the contract that I would not do business with the company. Keep in mind that if you have not signed the contract that it is not binding.

Blessings!

Barb

A $200 late fee is ridiculous! I only charge $200 for 4 hours on a wedding to begin with. I did not even consider putting a late fee into my contract. I require half no later than a month before the wedding and the other half by the day of. If you don't pay, you don't get your pictures.

Wanting you to sign that it is okay for her to walk off the job is absurd. That essentially is saying you have to pay me $300 and if I feel like it I can leave at anytime. I wouldn't think twice about looking for a new photographer. There are good ones out there, you just have to look.

Find someone else. It is not standard in the industry, and do you really want to work with someone like that?

On the other hand, 300.00 is about one tenth of what wedding packages cost in my area (north NJ) and that alone would scare me. Your wedding day is something that cannot be redone.

Unfortunately, With the way the economy is right now, most vendors are doing pretty much the same thing. What you do not get to see is some of the brides set things up then do not follow through, leaving that photographer in a bad way. I am sorry, but you are getting the worst of it due to what other brides might have done in the past. I recommended this to someone else, maybe you could look into it. I got my photographer from Sears, she was willing to do the side job and I saved a lot of money, best part was NO CRAZY DEPOSITS/LATE FEES. I am sorry you are so upset, I really hope everything works out.

Best Wishes,

Oh and Good Job getting rid of the sketchiness!

Are you in South Florida? If yes, then maybe I can help with that. I'm starting my own photography business and I'm trying to shoot a wedding. I will shoot your wedding for free. If your interested I will send you some pictures of work that I've done and we can see from there...

I don't know if my contract has a late fee in it, but with a $300 photographer I wouldn't worry about it and just pay her on time. It may not be "standard in the industry" when you talk to other people but maybe it was when she was looking things up online. Also the $200 isn't so ubsurd when you think of the fact that the people she was finding online probably charge alot more than she does. Also that late fee may or may not acctually ever be inforced it may jsut be there to scare people into paying on time.

But as for the really long contract I have a huge one too, but my photographer is also right out of School and got her contract off of the internet as well.

Doesn't seem like there should be an issue if you just pay her on time.

A penalty like that is incentive for you to do the honorable thing and pay for her services as you promise to do so by signing the contract.

Sorry, I have to disagree. A penalty like that is not an "incentive". She already holds all the cards by keeping the photos.

A penalty like that is chalked up to an inexperienced photographer who is not confident enough in their own skills that we would want to purchase those gorgeous photos. -- Its just bad business all around.

As a photographer, I am going to defend her contract.

First, she is charging too little for her services. I hope, for her, and your sake, that she has backup equipment in case of accident. I assume she does not have liability insurance or camera insurance either.

Second, I would charge a higher fee for late penalties if I wasn't charging much. I would do this to protect my rear. Most professionals require the final payment in full before the wedding, not the day of. If you forget to pay her the day of the wedding (a common occurrence), she will be working for free. What happens if she breaks something? If you bounce a check on her, her fees will be at least $50, perhaps higher if she was counting on the money for other bills.

Third, I would be restrictive about guests taking photographs too. Especially since she is working for so cheap.

I hope this puts things in perspective.

With experience comes pay. Her experience warrants her pay. she signed up for the shoot. No one twisted her arm by any means. If she felt she was worth $500 I would have respected her more if she had stuck to her beliefs. She was well aware what this shoot was paying and in the economy (and the fact that she is waitressing -- no disrespect to waitresses) lets me know she needs the money and the experience.

We pay by money orders, not checks so that point is mute. Like I stated previously, I have paid ALL of my vendors in full. Dropping a P.I.F is no problem. The problem comes in when you get bad service. If you give bad service, don't expect to be given the red carpet treatment.

Using stage names and not giving a real address, too many "outs" & the list goes on. --We're the ones being dooped, not vise versa.

My bond with my 'well experienced' videographer is strong. He is who I am counting on. Little Miss Muffet is just appetizers. LOL

Am I missing part of this?

If you give her $100.00 to book her, and another $200.00, which is your full payment, on your wedding day, when do you have an opportunity to pay late?

The 1st $100.00 is done, and she won't take a picture till the other $200.00 is paid.

I think that part of the contract is a meaningless waste of ink.

L&L, April

I'm paying $250.00 just for the rights to the high-res images from my photographer, that doesn't even count the actual taking of photos part, which I think all in all runs just under $2000 for me, and this is a friend of my fathers, so we're getting a good price.

She's just starting out, she's probably never done a wedding before, and she's probably just going with a standard contract from the web to cover her butt. For $300 I'd say get over it, I'd be more concerned about what you're NOT getting for $300.00 than the late fee. If you get stuck with a late fee for something as small as a $300.00 total, then its your own fault anyway.

Not sure that some of you late responders actually read the full thread here. The $200 late fee quickly became the least of the issues with this "photographer" She had many really unreasonable stipulations thrown in the contract. I don't think the price is an issue, it was agreed upon as a mutually beneficial arrangement since she needs to build her portfolio. But honestly I think she's got much bigger problems than lack of experience after reading everything the OP has had to deal with. I hope you've found a better one now!