There was no written contract ( another red flag!). I guess it's really my fault, I could have asked on here for a reference or spent more time looking.
This a disagree with, contracts are red flags in my opinion. For a maid service, lawn mowing, any service it is a one sided contract, they are making it for them not for the customer. I talked to one wedding photographer locally to me who said in his contract it states that can't hire another photographer, to me that's ridiculous. If I buy a piece of art from someone he won't make me sign something saying I can't hang up another piece of art in my house. At the end of the day contract or no contract when they say the RAW images got lost and we only have the JPEG you're screwed. If you want a contract write it yourself, although I'd just try to find someone honest that a contract isn't needed. To me a photographer is a art service, if I'm paying and I want them to shoot on my card in Raw images and give me the card when they're done well they shouldn't have a problem with that, although the images will look like crap without processing.
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