Christmas Works Party

[barry 0]

Hi all hope you are all busy.

 

My question is,

If you was booked to do a christmas works do and told the time to start and time to finish

would you be a anoyed if when you tell every one thats the last song, thank you very much and have a good christmas only to have the person who booked you come up and say.....Why are you stopping you can carry on till i tell you to stop :lil devil:

What anoyed me even more is the peolple that was telling me to carry on didnt leave the bar all night(yep it was free) till i played the last slow song.

And i had gone over the agreed time by an hour so am i right to be p... off. :shrug:

[McCardle 1]

I send my clients a written confirmation which details all of the information including start and finish times, and in my terms of booking it also includes details of what happens in the event of me being asked to play extra time, my charges for this, and the fact that any additional hour(s) are paid in advance at the stated fee(s) at the turn of the previous hour.

 

The client then signs and returns a copy agreeing that (a) the details stated are accurate and (b) that they agree to the terms as provided. It's legally binding. I keep this copy with me at the booking in case of any dispute or the client suddenly deciding that they'd actually booked it until 1AM and not Midnight :ads:

 

I'm more than happy to play an extra track or two out of goodwill if its been a decent gig, but beyond 10 minutes and its time to play pass the hat for the additional booking fee for the next hour. If they don't pay the power gets thrown, and I start pulling out leads and they can whinge and moan as much as they like......whilst i'm packing away. I'm not running a charity.

 

Unfortunately, some clients do take liberties especially after a few drinks, and if you aren't careful you'll end up there all night for the cost of a 4 hour booking. I don't treat my business any differently or less seriously to any other service provider, and they all charge for labour by the hour. I don't know many Taxi Drivers who'd take you an extra mile for nothing, and I don't know any Hotels that would let you stay an extra night for free, so I don't consider asking them to pony up the dough for an extra hours' music to be that strange or why DJ's are considered the exception to the general rules that other industries take for granted.

 

Normally you'll get somebody moaning about it but hey, just asking them if they put in an extra hours' overtime for their boss for nothing, usually does the trick and gets the point across.

 

The only thing i'd be p155ed off about was not securing my ar$e with a written contract, the client could have just as easily paid you a tenner saying it was the figure that was 'verbally' agreed and you'd just have to accept it up the tailpipe because by the sound of it, you had nothing written and signed to prove otherwise :wall: .

 

Its not the clients' fault, you handed them a blank canvas and they painted on it exactly what they wanted at your expense!. Take this experience as a sign that its time you need to start confirming details and your terms to clients in writing, make it a New Years' resolution to get it sorted and move on.

Edited December 22, 2012 by McCardle