Client from 5 years ago.

greggphoto · Feb 20, 2014

I had a client whose wedding I did 5 years ago. I was just starting out and just wanted more for my portfolio.
It was a family member of mine and his now wife. No contract signed however a decent bit was paid. The average rate of a shoot and burn. I told them I would be happy to make an album for them. I provided them with fully edited and airbrushed images, a disc with all the images and album layouts for their approval.

Have not heard a peep from them in 5 years. All of a sudden, girl wants me to just print the album. She doesn't remember the layouts, admits that it has been 5 years and they haven't selected so much as 1 photo to change in the layouts. (She is not even sure she has the disc or layouts anymore).

Would it be considered wrong to at the very least ask them to pay for printing costs of the album now that it has been 5 years?! I am now an actual professional with contracts and my time is pretty valuable. I still have the layouts and the pictures but it will cost me several hundred dollars to print them an album.

Thoughts? Other professionals how would you handle this or have you had something like this happen before?

~G

tirediron · Feb 20, 2014

This seems like an extreme case, time-wise, and I would very definitely charge for this.

The_Traveler · Feb 20, 2014

Why not charge them? - and give them a contract to sign.

ronlane · Feb 20, 2014

How nice of them to wait to see if they make it past that 5 year mark first and THEN get the album. lol

curtyoungblood · Feb 20, 2014

If they've already paid you to print the album, I don't think it is fair to charge them a second time for that work simply because they took a long time to get back to you. It may be fair for you to charge them a small fee for the extra work they've caused you, but I would think it would be somewhat minimal if you already have the layout done.

robbins.photo · Feb 20, 2014

greggphoto said:
I had a client whose wedding I did 5 years ago. I was just starting out and just wanted more for my portfolio.
It was a family member of mine and his now wife. No contract signed however a decent bit was paid. The average rate of a shoot and burn. I told them I would be happy to make an album for them. I provided them with fully edited and airbrushed images, a disc with all the images and album layouts for their approval.

Have not heard a peep from them in 5 years. All of a sudden, girl wants me to just print the album. She doesn't remember the layouts, admits that it has been 5 years and they haven't selected so much as 1 photo to change in the layouts. (She is not even sure she has the disc or layouts anymore).

Would it be considered wrong to at the very least ask them to pay for printing costs of the album now that it has been 5 years?! I am now an actual professional with contracts and my time is pretty valuable. I still have the layouts and the pictures but it will cost me several hundred dollars to print them an album.

Thoughts? Other professionals how would you handle this or have you had something like this happen before?

~G

I guess for me it would depend on what I agreed to do for them in the first place. But I'm different than most I suppose, I've never considered my word to come with a statute of limitations. Would it be reasonable at this stage to charge them? Yup.. it would be I think. Would I do it?

Nope. I'd go ahead and honor the original deal because that's what I said I'd do then, so that's what I'll do now. For me the 5 years, 10 years, wouldn't matter. YMMV of course, not everybody views the world quite like I do and it certainly wouldn't make you evil or wrong. But if I could honor the request I would.

KmH · Feb 20, 2014

greggphoto said:
. . . No contract signed however a decent bit was paid. . . . I told them I would be happy to make an album for them. I provided them with fully edited and airbrushed images, a disc with all the images and album layouts for their approval.

Have not heard a peep from them in 5 years. . . She doesn't remember the layouts, admits that it has been 5 years and they haven't selected so much as 1 photo to change in the layouts. (She is not even sure she has the disc or layouts anymore).

Would it be considered wrong to at the very least ask them to pay for printing costs of the album now that it has been 5 years?

Thoughts? Other professionals how would you handle this or have you had something like this happen before?

They failed to hold up their end of the deal by not selecting layout and photos in a timely manner.

I would charge my current rates for re-doing the layouts.

If it were an immediate family member - brother, sister, mom, dad - that got married, I would bill them my full rate but give a 100% discount.

I have to ask - Why didn't YOU contact your family member about the album 4 years and 9 months ago? And again 4 years and 6 months ago,. And 4 years and 3 months ago, Etc.

SnappingShark · Feb 20, 2014

You provided them with a layout for their approval - they didn't tell you any changes.

You were not a professional then, but you are now.

They were charged at the time.

I would personally say that you should do it for them and not charge them.

Yes, they left it 5 years, but you also left it 5 years - that's why you're professional now, because YOU wouldn't do that these days

sm4him · Feb 20, 2014

If you TOLD them you'd be "happy to make an album" for them, you DID have a contract. It was just an oral one, rather than written, and it sounds like way, WAY too much was also left UNsaid, like how long they would have to select the layout for the album.

If it were me, I'd feel like the only ethical thing I could do would be to provide the album I *said* I would do for them.

Question: WHY will it costs you "hundreds" to print the album? How many pictures are we talking about here? I'm no professional, but do ALL your albums have an actual *cost* to you of hundreds of dollars?? Surely there's a more economical choice.

Since this was 5 years ago, and you weren't really a "professional" at the time--what kind of album did you plan to do for them at that time? Surely you didn't plan to do one that cost YOU hundreds of dollars. So, do the kind of album that you would have done for them at the time.

weepete · Feb 20, 2014

I think you should do it. Print the pictures to the best of your ability now and give them an awesome album.

Sure, now you are a pro and charge a lot more for your time and she probably knows she is chancing it. However if you do this chances are you will be reccomended to everyone she knows and any time in the next few years when someone needs some photography they'll get that story and get told how awesome you are. You can't buy that kind of word of mouth so at the worst write it off as a business expense.

Plus she's family.

Nevermore1 · Feb 20, 2014

I'm not a professional but I would just print and give them the album. It will be good for your reputation. Also, you didn't say how close this family member is (is it a sibling or distant cousin that you never see), if you don't do it you may run into some "family drama" if they are the type that would decide to go complain to other relatives that you are close to. It could possibly make things awkward at future family functions for both of you. This is one reason I would be very hesitant to offer or accept and offer from a family member or close friend to do work for them. My cousins wife is kind of a professional (she does it in her spare time) and offered to do his brothers wedding for him at no charge as their wedding gift and was a little upset when they said they wanted a "real" professional to do their photos instead.

CCericola · Feb 20, 2014

You had a verbal agreement and you were already paid. You are both at fault for letting this much time go by. Print them what you were going to do for them 5 years ago. If they want a fancier album then they will need to pay the difference for an upgrade.

This could get real ugly real fast especially when it's family. So tread lightly.

CMfromIL · Feb 20, 2014

This is family...not some dude you've never met. He paid you, your cost to make the album is 'sunk'. You wouldn't have charged them then, as it was included. The length of time is irrelevant to the discussion. Is this the hill you want to die on with a family member? I would provide w/out question and in all likely hood make a family joke about it or something. The fact that you are even asking is a bit unseemly. The only caveat to this is that the album should be of the same/reasonably the same as you would have offered 5 years ago. If they are demanding the gold bound edition printed on paper farted out the butt of a unicorn...then charge accordingly.

jamesbjenkins · Feb 21, 2014

From what you've shared, this would seem to be about 98% your fault. Contract or not, self-proclaimed professional or not, you had an arrangement 5 years ago that you failed to follow through on.

You've already been paid, so you should, IMO, suck it up and provide the album. Obviously, as Christina said above, if the client wants to change or upgrade something, you might consider charging for those changes.

But, this is definitely 98% your fault. Just make it right and go back to whatever you were doing.

greggphoto · Feb 21, 2014

greggphoto said:
I had a client whose wedding I did 5 years ago. I was just starting out and just wanted more for my portfolio.
It was a family member of mine and his now wife. No contract signed however a decent bit was paid. The average rate of a shoot and burn. I told them I would be happy to make an album for them. I provided them with fully edited and airbrushed images, a disc with all the images and album layouts for their approval.

Have not heard a peep from them in 5 years. All of a sudden, girl wants me to just print the album. She doesn't remember the layouts, admits that it has been 5 years and they haven't selected so much as 1 photo to change in the layouts. (She is not even sure she has the disc or layouts anymore).

~G

To clarify -- I had emailed them several times within the first year about it. And they never responded with any changes or approvals. They said they were working on it.

This is a close cousin. Directly related.

The hundreds of dollars is accurate -- 200-300 dollars for an album. I used to use graphi-studio because they were the first album maker with which I was introduced. But that is about how much a digital album costs.

I feel like this falls into an extreme case. It would be like me asking a photo lab to print my images and then never picking them up and expecting them to have the images 5 years down the line. NO?