Imagine being a wedding photographer, and a client tries to negotiate a better price. Would you be willing to work with them, or would you insist that they pay full price like everyone else?

In this story, one wedding photographer makes the mistake of negotiating, but now, he’s realizing it was a big waste of time.

Let’s read the whole story.

Entitled client pushes me too far and I threaten to delete their wedding photos

I run a company where we hire out wedding and event service providers with our main focus being photography and videography. Other services include DJs, drone pilots, hair and makeup artists etc. (not relevant at all).

So a few months back, I get an instant chat from a bride via our website. She informs me that they are coming down to South Africa in December and they need a wedding photographer and videographer.

I send our packages to her and she says her fiance wants to call me.

I say that’s fine and I give her my number.

The fiance definitely knows how to get what he wants.

A few hours pass and I’d almost forgotten about them but my phone finally rings.

The fiance, speaking in a very heavy German accent, starts sweet-talking me. Mentioning about how people rave about our fantastic work and service.

I’m calling BS on every word he says, but I’m also infamous for my inability to say “no”.

He ends up offering us about a 3rd of what the packages charge, offering to make the hours less, removing any physical copies etc. He also adds that he’ll give us an R500 tip on the night.

I ask him why I can’t just add that as part of the quote to which he just replies “gentleman’s agreement”.

He knows he shouldn’t have accepted the offer.

Anyway, somehow I accept his insane offer…

If I was a drinker, I’d be saying that I really should stop drinking at work.

NB: I had emphasized that they will get no overtime; if my people stay 1-minute longer than agreed upon, I’m gonna charge.

He said this was fine.

It was a 2-day shoot, and the first day went well.

So what they required us for was 2-hours for the Friday and 3-hours for the Saturday. Nothing too hectic, hence why I agreed, but it did require me redoing the entire shift list for that weekend as to free two, qualified, people up to go cover their events.

The Friday event I did the photos myself and took one of my videographers with me, and I will add, they were insanely nice, especially the groom.

The time did drag a bit because there really wasn’t much to shoot, just a group of people sitting around a table, but whatever.

After an hour and a half, the groom told us we could leave. Awesome.

Here’s how things were supposed to go the second day.

I wasn’t able to do the second evening myself (I had made them aware of this from the start) but sent a different photographer (one much more talented than me, if I’m being honest) and the same videographer from the night before.

They were booked from 18:15 to 21:15, I had told them to stay until 21:45 to make up the 30-minutes we had skipped the night before.

So, how we work is that none of my people own their own gear and everything belongs to me, therefore after each shift the shooters have to return the gear to me. The wedding they were shooting was about a 25-minute drive from my place and the one I was shooting was an hour drive. I was also booking until 22:00.

I got home after 23:00 and saw that they hadn’t returned yet.

He was starting to get worried.

All my others teams started arriving shortly after me and returned their gear, but no sign of those two.

This had me worried as they were working the closest and were supposed to finish before anyone else.

I tried calling but no answer from either of them.

Just before 12:00, I got in my car and went out to look for them, I had driven for about 10-minutes when I saw them passing me from the opposite direction.

I turned my car around and drove home.

They explained why they were late.

I asked them what had happened, they explained that they had stayed until 21:45 as ordered, but as they were about to start packing up, the bride had sent her maid-of-honour to request another hour.

They had explicitly said they will talk to me about it afterward and I can just add it to their invoice. They were also making my videographer do things that were only reserved for our biggest package.

More importantly though, apparently, the couple had gone full Entitled People at this second event, yelling at my photographer and just being completely rude.

I have a very low tolerance for rude people.

The groom was being really unreasonable.

The next afternoon (Sunday), I see I have a missed call from the groom and then a voice note, thanking me for my team and then adding that they are leaving the country in 7 days, so they will appreciate it if I can have their wedding photos and videos done before then, they also want all their raw materials on a harddrive.

He made no mention of the overtime.

I stared at this message kinda dumbstruck as our contract clearly stipulates that the waiting period for photos is 4-weeks and 8-weeks for video. His quotation also clearly said “no physical copies”.

I texted him back, the next morning, saying that there was no way I was going to have everything done before January. I did offer to give them the raws before they leave, but a harddrive would have to be added to the invoice, along with the overtime bill.

The groom wanted to talk.

To this he replied that he would like to call me to discuss our “situation”. I knew exactly what was coming and I was dreading that phone call.

The phone call happened later that afternoon. This story has already gone on waaay too long, so I’m gonna skip most of it and just cut to the parts that made my blood boil.

Groom: “So you say you cannot have it done before we leave.”

Me: “Unfortunately not.”

The groom says he understands but isn’t completely understanding.

Groom: “Oh, that disappoints me, because all our guests are asking how much longer the photos are gonna take, but we understand.”

Me: “Great, I’m glad you understand. I can give the raws to you if you wish. But you’ll have to pay for an external, I have some in stock.”

Groom: “I don’t want to pay for a harddrive, you can just WeTransfer me all the raws?”

Me: “No I can’t.”

OP explained the situation.

Groom: “Oh, why?”

Me: “Because it’s over a 100 gigs of materials and this is South Africa; with our internet speed it’ll take about 2-years.”

Groom: “Oh. Do you think we need the raw materials?”

Me: “No, I don’t.”

Groom: “Okay.”

Long, awkward, pause.

Then the argument turns to overtime.

Groom: “I don’t understand why there’s an overtime bill”.

Me: “Because you asked my people to stay an extra hour”.

Groom: “No, they only stayed 10-minutes longer and you owed us 30-minutes from the night before.”

Me: “I took the 30-minutes into account and they still stayed an hour after that.”

Groom: “No, that’s not true.”

Me: “I have the time stamps on the photos when the first and last ones were taken, you want me to send that to you?”

Now the groom is lying again.

Groom: “No, I don’t.”

Me: “Awesome.”

Groom: “But we hired you and got someone else.”

Me: “You hired the company, not me. And on Friday you even said that I must enjoy my wedding on Saturday. You always knew you weren’t getting me.”

Groom: “But we were not happy with who you sent.”

The groom keeps trying to get the price lower.

Me: “Really? Why’s that?”

Groom: “I just don’t think we should be charged extra for them.”

Me: “Unfortunately, that’s what we agreed upon.”

Groom: “But you offer me a better price on the overtime?”

Me: “I am offering you a better price on overtime.”

Groom: “Oh, but this is the best you can do?”

Remember the gentleman’s agreement? The groom doesn’t.

Me: “If you take into account the tip we never got, then this is actually almost nothing.”

Groom: “What tip?”

Me: “The gentleman’s agreement we made.”

Groom: “I don’t know what you mean.”

Me: “That’s the surprise of the century.”

Back to arguing about the photos.

Groom: “So, when do we get the photos?”

Me: “In January, but you need to pay the rest of your invoice first, including the overtime.”

Groom: “Yes, you send us everything and then we pay.”

Me: “No, the contract you signed stipulates that you will receive nothing until all invoices have been settled. That is our policy.”

Groom: “Yes, but then we don’t know you ever send photos.”

OP gives the groom another option.

Me: “I thought you had heard so many people tell you about how great our service is?”

Groom: “Ja, but I’m not happy with this, you send us everything and we decide if we want to pay.”

Me: “Yeah, that’s not happening.”

Groom: “But you cannot ask me to trust you like this?”

Me: “You’re right, we cannot trust each other. I think the simplest solution is that I refund your deposit, delete your wedding and we can be done with each other because I’ve heard enough.”

It’s not about being offended.

Groom: “I feel I have offended you.”

Me: “You have not, but you are wasting my time. And I’m done doing favours for you. The only difference between you and our other clients is that they all paid full price.”

Groom: “Okay.”

Me: “Great, I’ll wait for the money to show up in my account and then I’ll start the editing process.”

Groom: “And you cannot offer me a better price on the overtime?”

OP was done trying to reason with this guy.

Me: “Have a good Xmas.”

And I hung up the phone.

The next morning the bride sent me a text that they just paid the outstanding balance and now want their photos, because “January is a long time to wait” (January was 8-days away).

It has now been 3-days and the money has yet to show in my account…

I don’t think that couple is ever going to see their wedding photos.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person has a suggestion.

Here’s another suggestion that’s a little more aggressive.

This person would insist on the gentleman’s agreement tip as well.

Another person would not refund anything.

I wonder how many other wedding vendors the groom doesn’t want to pay.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.