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Client mailed me back my external harddrive incorrectly and it broke…
I mailed an event video client of mine a 2GB Slim Seagate external HDD with the raw footage I owed them. I mailed it with bubble wrap and marked it fragile. When I received it back, it was just shipped plain in a small box with ample room for it to bump around. Of course, it is now dysfunctional.
Is it worth starting a conflict with the client over this, or should I just take the $80 hit as my own fault (for not including shipping instructions or a clause in the contract about damaged materials)? Could a compromise be to ask the client if they had shipping insurance on the item? Thanks. This is for a $1200 Bar Mitzvah shoot/edit.
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6 Replies
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Probably too late now, but I either ask the client to send me a drive and I load the footage and send it back using their FedEx number. Otherwise I purchase a drive, charge the client for it, and ship for an additional fee.
It would be rare for a client to send me back my drive.
Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com -
I’m a little confused about the size issue.
Not to second guess and play Monday-morning armchair quarterback here, but if you only had such a small amount of footage/data (2GB), why didn’t you just send it on a five-buck throwaway thumb drive?
In this case, I’d probably just write it off….
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Oh! Sorry, I meant 2TB. It was an $80 2TB drive.
Yeah, I might just take this as a learning experience and take the hit. I’ll see if it was insured to at least $50 through USPS, but am not counting on it. Thanks.
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Todd – I’m thinking he meant a 2TB drive. There’s not a lot of raw footage you can put on a 2 GB Thumb drive.
Greg Ball, President
Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
https://www.ballmediainnovations.com -
Take the hit. The negative feelings you’ll leave them with if you even mention it just aren’t worth it. If you want the drive back next time, include a foolproof way of them sending it back to you with zero hassle to them.
Shooters we occasionally use charge us for the hard drive, or offer to drop the footage around for transfer (they’re close).
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Take the hit and learn from it, to add the cost of a drive to each job, going forward. Or maybe seek a cloud-based transfer solution next time. Of course, you also clone a backup of everything *before* you send the drives.
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