Clients client didn't like the image, client can't pay me

lol

i had the same problem with a major brewery i spent 3 months shooting and being paid expenses with weekly meetings with there designers after 3 months they said it wasnt what they wanted grrr, good job i over exagturated (cant spell) the expenses. I settled for 75% in the end , but this is a totally different case. You have supplied goods on cd rom and waited 2 months for payment being strung along week after week.

My personal letter to them now would be you got the goods, you didnt tell me for 2 months i now want x ammount plus interest at x% as theoretically they have had time to pay and the money they have is gaining interest

its all down to how far you want to take it, dont worry about legal costs, your local business link should be able to help and advise you.failing that wont BIPP help??
 
Ian T said:
Pete - if they don't respond, send them a solicitors letter. There's a firm on the web that will send one for £3 with no obligation to use them to push a claim through if it fails.

I haven't read all of this thread, but my advice would be don't accept half - that's what they want to do, fob you off. The fact is, you did what you were asked, they owe you for that. If they don't like the photos that's tough. I've had a couple of recent situations where my photos have been stolen and I've invoiced them - eventually enough letters/pressure has done the job and they've paid in full.

Let me know if you want the web address of the solicitors firm and I'll find it. A mate used it when we had a fiasco with somebody not paying up and he received a cheque within a week.
Click to expand...

Cheers :) If I don't hear anything in a week, its a solicitors letter. Someone linked to one earlier for £10 which ain't bad. £3 is better :D
 
so, without reading every post here - there's you, a middleman/agent. and the client the agent has been contacted by? as per cartoon above - maybe the agent should have made it clear payment must be prompt. sounds a feckin' shambles to put it bluntly and in the nicest way. Too long to wait imo, solicitors letter plus interest on the full amount. No messing, just get straight in there - we're all behind you and there's tons of people here with great info should you need a nudge, quite a bit's already been suggested :D top stuff!

p.s. once we've all polished our bats where do we call in to administer the pain?
 
The letter was signed for and received. Tomorrow is the deadline. I've heard nothing so far. I was hoping they'd pay up. Guess I'll have to get tough. :(
 
Just to play devils advocate here, regardless of who the end client is your client did not want to pay for photos that they could not use.
They decided that they were not suitable for their needs (their needs were to pass them on to their client), now none of us here know if the shots were good or not, but going by the general mood here it would appear that everyone seems to think they should pay you regardless of the quality of the work.
I know if I contracted someone to do work for me which I was not happy about, I would be reluctant to pay.

I'm in no way saying that the shots suck, but they didn't meet the clients expectations.
 
Thats not entirely accurate. They met my clients expectations. They had them for 2 months without a peep. So they were perfectly happy and it had been made clear to me on many occasions that I would be payed in full. Now 2 months down the line, a month after they should have paid me, and they say their client didn't like them. Thats not my problem. I did the job, and I had one guy with me all day assisting on the shoot. I met their expectations. I do appreciate that they now have to pay £500 for something they can't use but if you bought a lens from Jessops and after 2 months had no use for it you can't take it back can you?

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Two examples. Thats what my client asked for. Thats what they approved. The feedback I got was "They hated them." I was told they are very very picky.
 
I've jumped into this thread late and what I'm saying is probably by the by now. I've briefly read through the thread, sorry if I'm repeating stuff. Here's my take on it (from someone who occasionally buys photography as a job):

1. You have a contract with your client, not your clients client.

2. You are totally within your rights to ask for all the money and the agency that hired you should stump up, or at the very least give you a chance to re-shoot. If you've hit brief and they're happy, then really it's a done deal.

3. Having said 1 & 2, if you have a good relationship with this company and want to maintain it for repeat business then it can sometimes help to forget about T's & C's and come to an agreement for part payment, as long as you get all the originals back and ensure that they no longer have a licence to use the images.

Photography is highly subjective and this sort of thing will crop up again. I'd suggest that after 2 months they don't have a leg to stand on. I assume your T&Cs give a timescale for disputes?

Have you thought of getting an agent so you don't have to deal with any of this anymore?

My company recently coughed £5k for 3 images to be used for an ad campaign. After months of development the client decided they didn't like the concepts or the images in the end but as it met their original brief they agreed to pay us in full (y)

Good luck with sorting it out mate :)
 
Walked in late on this one...I agree that all you've said regarding the payment issue is correct from your point of view - you should get paid the original agreed amount regardless of what the end-user liked or disliked about your images.
However, having assisted a National Trust Interiors photographer (Erik Pelham)many, many moons ago, I can see several glaring errors with your images.
The sunlight on the sofa arm and chair-back is a big no-no - shut the curtains or time the shoot so the sunlight falls elsewhere - this comes down to preparation and scouting the location properly beforehand.
The odd reflection over by the door (reflected sunlight off some surface?) is distracting.
The white balance in the first image is off a little too - it's not balanced to the same degree as the overhead lights...
DofF in the second image isn't enough for an interior shot (or appears that way from your image) - the whole bed should be in focus and if you're shooting off a tripod, then there's no real excuse for it not to be.
I watched Erik spend two days setting up a shoot once and while there's no need for that kind of attention to detail in interiors such as this, I do think you've let yourself down a little with these two.

To be honest, I would have rejected these as well, but that's not the point - you should still get paid as the agreement is beteen your client and you, not thier client and you...
 
I gave them a total of 223 images from all different perspectives. They're just 2 samples I picked at random. I had a day to shoot 10 apartments, which was about 5 rooms per apartment.
 
Pete - 50 rooms for £500 sounds like your client was getting a bargain. Hope it works out. I assume you won't be doing business with this client again!
 
Hopefully they'll respond to a solicitors letter and pay up - this should scare them and show them you mean business. I have a feeling that you can push a claim through the small claims court (also online) and then you will avoid paying the costs to the debt recovery team (£180 in this case, I think). I'll try and find you a link to the web page...
 
A solicitors letter has been sent out today according to the Debt Recovery site. Fingers crossed it works.
 
You may also want to send a copy of the letter to the Company's CFO sometimes it helps to CC them in to let them know. Having a CCJ against your company can make it really hard to get future businesses and even phone contracts so making a copy and sending it directly to him may let him in on their payment practices. Then again he may be the one who has set the bar but at least he will be aware.
 
Tomorrow will be 7 days since the solicitors letter arrived. No word yet. Whats the next step?
 
:bat: :bat: :bat:

:woot:
 
I would have thought they would have paid by now.
 
On the letter I sent I stated 7 days. I gave them a week. Not working days. Not sure what's on the solicitors letter from www.debtrecoveryonline.com.

Edit: Actually by the time I'd sorted the solicitors letter it was 7 working days.
 
I guess you have no option but to pursue them as you said you was going to. What did you threaten them with?
 
Further legal action... Solicitors letter done. I don't know what the next step is which is why I asked :)
 
Yes. For £500 I wouldn't use the same company that did the letter - you'd end up losing about a third of the money on their fees. I've emailed someone who's done this before, he should reply shortly with a web link which I'll post up.
 
Messiah Khan said:
I suppose taking them through the small claims court would be next.
Click to expand...

Yep. Sounds like the easiest, and cheapest route.

You can do it online, here: https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco/index.jsp

Quote from site:

Money Claim Online can be used by:

Individuals
Solicitors
Government Departments
Businesses

who wish to issue a:

Claim (fixed amount of money)
Judgment
Warrant
 
I would be very interested to see the majority of the images. Does this (i suppose) ex client already have a database of images to a standards yours have apparently not hit?
 
Just out of interest, what would happen in their absence at a small claims court? ie, if they continued to not respond to any phonecalls, letters etc. Would the court send round bayliffs in the end?
 
By the sounds of it they already accepted the photos. This is clearly a matter of them delaying, then deciding they don't need them and trying to cobble a story together to try and get out of paying.
 
I dunno what they have. Their original plan was simply to get a guy in the office to photograph the places using a compact. But they "loved" my work so got me to do it and were happy with the result. Their client is apparently messing them about being very picky. None of it really matters to me at the moment. Just wanna be paid.
 
My guess is you start court proceedings. Not sure how to do that though.
 
I'd go with the fact that they don't think you'll follow through on the threat. It might be worth paying for an hour with a lawyer just to make sure your case will stand up.
 
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