client frustrations

catwine

I'm a photographer and I was supposed to do a wedding in September but I pulled out of the contract.  Here's why: I was supposed to meet with my clients in August to go over their wedding day timeline and visit the locaion they wanted their pictures taken at.  They never showed up, which really annoyed me becuase I had scheduled the rest of ym day around that meeting.  I sent the bride a Facebook message when |I got home and told her she missed the meeting.  She replied with "I totally forgot" so we rescheduled.  Of course, they didn't show up to that meeting either!  I even messaged her to confirm we were still okay to meet and she said yes. 
So after waiting I decided to go home and send her yet another Facebook message.  She said she didn't realize it was a Saturday and oh, btw-they changed their wedding date to next summer!  I told her I'm not shooting their wedding and am keeping the deposit as per our contract. 

I'm so frustrated with her because she seems to have NO interest in her wedding pictures but I'm also worried that she may bad-mouth me to other potential clients.

ARGH.

jenandsal

I'm also in the wedding industry, I design wedding invitations. I always get stood up for meetings, which is totally frustrating since I usually jump through hoops trying to arrange my schedule around them, so I know how you feel. I usually don't cancel on clients, although I have wanted to more than once, however I finally built up the nerve to cancel on one particularly difficult and rude client earlier this year. I had mixed feelings about what I did because on one hand, I'm glad I was able to avoid more problems in the future with her, but on the other hand she left me a really nasty review on yelp. Granted, that was the only "bad" review up there so hopefully potential clients won't be too swayed by it. It bugs me though, especially since the outside person doesn't, and will never know, the entire story. In the end I think I made the right decision for me, and as haunting as that review is I was able to avoid a lot of stress.

nyc artist

OP You are lucky and SMART for asking for a deposit!! At least you got that. I have been jilted a few times over graphic design services for clients from hell who made me do countless revisions only to can the whole project. Darn, I wish I had gotten a deposit then. Well...lesson learned. I think it sounds totally understandable that you cancelled your plans to photograph this wedding.

catwine

I was surprised that they actually postponed their wedding and I was only finding out a month before the original date...so yeah, cancelling was the best thing for me.