Refundable deposits during holidays?

5 years 2 months ago #633260 by Scott Klubeck
Well I had the most arrogant potential client today.  Her and her soon to be husband who I have met with once before, started to try to tear apart my contract with changes.  First off, my first fee is not termed as a "Deposit", it's a flat fee paid in advance with an invoice.  She wanted me to change it as a deposit and refundable with 48 hour window.  They are booking wedding session for July 4th.  She claimed that other photographers offer full refund and call it a "Deposit".  

Actually the other items are kind of small, but still I'm annoyed.  

Will you alter your contract to get business? 

I'm not going to budge on what I call the first payment, so this is just aimed at the other smaller items.  I'm going to offer a meet in the middle with changing the smaller items, and standing ground on the "deposit".

Thoughts please?  


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5 years 2 months ago #633374 by garyrhook
You didn't ask, but I'll throw this in anyway:

The initial payment is to book time on your calendar, making it unavailable to anyone else. It therefore becomes a non-negotiable reservation that they can use or not. But it becomes their time. Thus, not a retainer, not a deposit. Booked time. And it can become more expensive when the time is on or near a holiday.

As for other small stuff, are they just trying to nickel and dime you, or trim items that are of no interest? For nickel and diming, I'd have some wiggle room but know what my baseline is, so I know what I have to have in order to make the gig worthwhile.

If they want to get rid of certain things because they don't want them, that's a package content issue. Again, you know your business, and what you can and can't delete/alter.

Finally: any time anyone says, "others do this, others do that," the response should be, "this is how I run my business." You owe no one an explanation, and you certainly don't need to defend yourself against vague, unnamed persons.


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5 years 2 months ago #633402 by Ozzie_Traveller
+1 from Downunder
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