Talk me down, I’m about to blow a gasket

[Mark Raudonis]

DRW,

This is a simple one. No check, no master tape.
If, as you’ve indicated, everything was spelled out in advance, then you’re
entirely within your rights to withhold delivery until payment is made.

Obviously, that didn’t happen. Your bad. My suggestion is to email your client
in “unemotional, factual language” that you expect them to uphold their end of the bargain.

That’s step one. Let us know what happens.

I hate to say it, but you let them off the hook on this. If “immediate payment” was important to you,
you should have demaned “COD”.

Mark

[Todd Terry]

“What would be a convenient time today for me to come down and pick up a check? How about 2pm?”

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[David Roth weiss]

[Mark Raudonis] “I hate to say it, but you let them off the hook on this. If “immediate payment” was important to you, you should have demaned “COD”. “

All true! However, like most big outfits, the worker bees are unable to generate checks without bureaucratic intervention. In this case, there simply was no time between the initiation of the job and the final delivery.

They are good for the dough, but so very inconsiderate of my own needs. It’s the uneven playing field that has me ticked-off. And, this is not the first time for this client either. I wrote to the big boss several years ago about this very type of thing, and he was appalled and assured me it would never happen again. Of course it nothing to bolster my relationship with the producers (my contacts) who were at fault. That’s the conundrum I face.

THNX for your help…

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[David Roth weiss]

[Todd Terry] “”What would be a convenient time today for me to come down and pick up a check? How about 2pm?” “

Already did that… The doctors are not in today, so I was told next Wednesday is the first available pay day. That raised my blood pressure a bit…

THNX,
David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Todd Terry]

Well sounds like you are going to have to yell at the big boss again… if it irks your contacts (the producers), so be it. I think the best you can do is explain to them that you know it’s not their fault… but that you do enjoy eating and living indoors, and that you’re not a bank. If they can’t understand that, sounds like a bigger problem brewing.

I would of course say that in the future in a situation like this the master doesn’t leave your hand until the check is in it. I know it doesn’t help now (and we break this rule all the time ourselves), but not much else seems to be a solution.

Closest similar situation I was in, an agency client of ours asked for new dubs for a commercial we had done a couple of years earlier (some store’s Christmas sale). We made the dubs, and called and told them they were ready, and that they were welcome to come pick them up as soon as their open invoices were settled (they had several overdue, going back quite a few months… this is, by the way, a company notorious for late paying… not with just us but every vendor in town). Well, one of the partners came down, stomped her foot in the lobby, accused us of holding their tapes hostage, and vowed to find someone else to work with. She wrote a check and took her dubs away in a huff. I think there may have even been tires squealing in our parking lot.

Next month, they were back. And have been ever since.

Sometimes you do have to ruffle some feathers to get attention.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[John Davidson]

Go outside for a nice walk in Brentwood and enjoy the sun. It’s a gorgeous day here in LA, so if you have to wait a week on a check, that’s not too bad. There’s no sense in blowing gaskets or anything else for that matter. If you need to vent, write an email calling them every name in the book, and then delete it. You can laugh about all the creative insults you came up with while walking in a neighborhood most people dream of living in, and listen to some Kansas/Carry On My Wayward Son on your ipod (or iphone, if you wanna take it up a level).

Relax buddy – it’s a great day to be alive! Don’t fly too high! (Why am I so in to Kansas today???).

John
Magic Feather Inc.

[Steve Wargo]

I have a couple clients on credit card status. They signed a contract that we could charge their company credit card when ever they generated an invoice. So far, so good.

We did a golf product infomercial a few years ago for a 10 year client and he sweet talked my wife into waiting for all of the money at once because of 9-11 and the international transfer of large dollars, etc. We’ve never received a dime and this is after a lawsuit and judgment in our favor.

I have recently suspended almost everyone’ account. Just can’t take the chance any more.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .

[Mike Cohen]

This thread is diverging into two topics –

Helping to cool down David – David, take the rest of the day off.

Unusual contracts – I guess this does not mean such clauses as “only yellow M+Ms” and “50 lbs of shrimp cocktail at every shoot”. I have had a few proposals copied, pasted and modified and made part of a longer contract provided by the client. The larger the client, the more stipulations, rules and CYA provisions. The advantage is I can make my proposals in the future fit into their practices better.

Mike Cohen

[David Roth weiss]

[John Davidson] “Go outside for a nice walk in Brentwood and enjoy the sun. It’s a gorgeous day here in LA”

That’s good advice JD, and it will certainly make my doggie very happy too. Augie has been staring at me for hours from his perch on the client’s chair, where he patiently watches every keyboard command I enter throughout the day, every day.

THNX

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[David Roth weiss]

[Steve Wargo] “I have recently suspended almost everyone’ account. Just can’t take the chance any more.”

I typically demand that all accounts pay 33 1/3% in advance, or in the case of COD accounts, they must be paid down to a zero balance by 5pm on Friday, as work progresses. I let this “legacy client” slide, but never again.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.