Beware the Bridezilla...

If I've learned one thing in having my own business is that you never do a client a favour. NEVER!

I had a client who, upon telling me that they didn't really have any money to get photos done, and were having her parents pay for the album, I decided to do the thing that gets me into trouble every time... I decided to be a nice person and offered the woman an R800 discount on a package. Yes, that's right, you heard me... R800. Now, that's basically 80% of the profit that I make on an album, so I think I'm well within my rights to say that I was being generous. Very generous in fact.

Please note that on wedding day the couple had their reception at a very exclusive venue... and more than a fair amount of cash had gone into making the reception exquisite and damn nigh perfect.

But what happens when you're generous and do someone a favour? It comes around and bites you on the arse. So much for good karma...

This couple got extra photos, AND I delivered the albums (without payment at that stage I might add). The bride still sent me an OLD quote that I had sent her for half the price of the package, but the photos were also completely different. All that excludes the endless sms' that I got from the bride wanting to know when her album was going to be ready. So I had to go through that whole rigmarole. Then I had to wait just under a week to get paid... I wasn't sure I was going to get paid.

Then I get a call from the bride's husband last night...

He wanted to know if I had anymore photos, on top of the 108 (their package only included 60 photos) I had given them. Yeah, I am quite serious. AND he wanted the RAW files. UUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!! Of course I very politely told him that there was no way on this earth he was getting those.

I feel cheated. If I had known that this was going to be this much hassle I would never have taken the job, and I certainly wouldn't have given her my profit's discount.

So we live and learn... No more discounts... Sorry.