How would you handle this client who forget to pay?

Status
Not open for further replies.
PauFerro

PauFerro

Jun 8, 2008
3,304
4,121
5,326
United States
#1
So, I took a gig 1.5 hours away, did the gig, and then no one came up to me for the balance owed in our contract. I went to the dining area and found speeches from the family were going on. Found the wedding planner and asked for help.....she tells me to come to the dinner/dance/reception area (we were playing jazz in a cocktail area previously) after we are done packing up, and she will have gotten a check. They were doing speeches from the family, so I thought they'd already had dinner, and we'd spent a lot of time packing up our stuff at the performance site.

I come back after packing up, eager to get on to the road for our 1.5 hour drive home.

The family is still scurrying around to scrape up cash or a check. Some guy named Tony would supposedly look me up with a check -- he left the dining table to get the check. By the way, I had reminded the person who booked us (the mother of the bride) the day before about details of payment. But she told the wedding planner she had forgotten...

I look around and notice none of the desserts have been eaten, and there were still these really nice memorabilia books on the plates -- no one had eaten yet.

I start wondering if I'd thrown their pre-dinner reception portion into chaos.

Would you have just told the wedding planner to get the check in the mail, and left the wedding family to enjoy their evening, or would you have hung around until they came up with it, particularly when you realized you had thrown their reception into chaos before dinner had even started?
 
  • Like
Reactions: penguineman and craigie
#3
I don't feel that you are responsible for turning their reception into disarray. You fulfilled your end of the agreement. That they were unprepared to fulfill theirs is irresponsible and disrespectful. Someone had to have known that there was a balance to be paid. How is it that they had to scramble and collect donations in order to make that happen? Do you think the caterer or the florist would be okay with that?

The contract my main band uses for private parties specifies that the remaining balance is due BEFORE the band plays. There have been a couple of occasions where we've had to remind the client about this & had to push back the start time until the check appeared.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TalHaz, Ellery, onosson and 13 others
#4
The person we had at my daughter's wedding to direct everything was a wedding coordinator and not involved with planning, budgeting, hiring or payments.
 
#8
Stumbo said:
The person we had at my daughter's wedding to direct everything was a wedding coordinator and not involved with planning, budgeting, hiring or payments.
Click to expand...

Wow. That's great work if you can get it. This person simply told people where to stand and got paid for it? I'm going into a new field if you can get paid for that little.

That being said, I have played (literally) hundreds of weddings. I was pretty much in a wedding band for a decade. the band gets paid upon ARRIVAL, not completion of a show. Same for festivals. If we show up, we get paid. If you want to cancel due to weather you better make the call before we get there....and we still keep the depoit. And it was never an issue. The BL/contact person rarely had to track down payment. Someone always walked in while we were setting up and said "Who's John?" usually holding up an envelope. Sometimes it was the father of the bride and sometimes it was a wedding planner who actually did something other than point to spots on the floor to get paid. ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Garret Graves, TheBear, Lvjoebass and 3 others
#9
Good, glad it's unanimous that none of this was my fault. The wedding planner, after it was clear the family was having trouble getting the check/cash/whatever, sort of blew me off. She said "you'll see Tony writing the check". I didn't know who Tony was, what he looked like, where he would be writing the check, or anything, so I said "I don't know who he is". She said "my assistant knows him -- I have to start calling tables now" and bolted.

The assistant told me she had no clue who Tony was when I asked her.

Eventually the wedding planner showed up with the check, and kind of threw it at me -- not really throwing it but gave it to me without making eye contact or saying anything as she sailed by, holding it out to the side of her body in a kind of dismissive way. She seemed mad, I thought. And gave no apology.

Anyway, the client wrote to me and apologized by text for making me wait for 45 minutes after the performance the next day, complemented me on the music.

Regarding the timing of payment -- when I worked for a professional disc jockey service 25 years ago, my boss told me that "someone will come up to you during the night" with the balance of the contract. So, I have always adopted that approach.

From now on, I'm writing into the contract that the balance is due when we arrive. This is so I don't have to put up with this nonsense. I was finished performing at 8:30 pm and didn't get home until 11:45 pm due to all the hassle. And the fear of not getting paid.

Plus I had one guy that was our first time playing with. One of these "show up and play guys" and I gave him his pay at the end of the gig, before I was paid. In the end, it worked out, so I'm happy, but I'm gonna tighten up on the payment timing in the future.

What about bar gigs -- when do you get paid for those? Start, middle or end of the gig?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Garret Graves, Jimmy4string, Tbone76 and 4 others
#11
Bar gigs get paid at the end. That way the bar manager can try to swindle you with some excuse about bar sales being less than average, even though you packed their club for 4 hours.

OP - you handled this one properly. If you had left, you would have had to deal with the same run-around, but via phone, email, and text, which means you would not have been paid promptly after the gig.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jimmy4string, Jeff Elkins, xsnrg27 and 4 others
#12
This happened to me once before, but it was when I had booked a big band. 17 guys all waiting to be paid and the client told me she would mail the check the next day. I had to drive to a neighboring city to pick it up the next day. I was not impressed!!!

Do you ever call the client the day before to review details? Including payment details? Don't want to be "gauche" but when the gig was planned a long time ago (as in weddings) people forget. Or when the person writing the check has a lot to think about....that could cut down on shenanigans like these...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Jeff Elkins
#13
two fingers said:
Wow. That's great work if you can get it. This person simply told people where to stand and got paid for it? I'm going into a new field if you can get paid for that little.

That being said, I have played (literally) hundreds of weddings. I was pretty much in a wedding band for a decade. the band gets paid upon ARRIVAL, not completion of a show. Same for festivals. If we show up, we get paid. If you want to cancel due to weather you better make the call before we get there....and we still keep the depoit. And it was never an issue. The BL/contact person rarely had to track down payment. Someone always walked in while we were setting up and said "Who's John?" usually holding up an envelope. Sometimes it was the father of the bride and sometimes it was a wedding planner who actually did something other than point to spots on the floor to get paid. ;)
Click to expand...

My wife did 99% of our wedding planning, but we hired someone for the day of the wedding to run things. It was a whole lot less than hiring a full blown wedding planner, and it was worth taking the responsibility from my wife. I just showed up, slightly hungover, and did what I was told...
 
  • Like
Reactions: two fingers
#16
Also consider that wedding planners are almost always super stressed out during the event, at least that's my experience. They are running around like a chicken with their head cut off. The family can be too. But obviously if they were planning ahead, the check would had been written and waiting in an envelope long before the chaos of the guests ensued.

Getting the money upon arrival seems like a good solution. Before guests arrive and things are a bit calmer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: smogg
#17
I once played at the New Model Year Introduction Extravaganza Party at a local car dealer. The contract specified that w were to be paid in cash at the end of the night of the engagement. The gentleman who booked us, when asked for the money, replied that he thought that the terms were 2%10/Net 30, meaning it was due in 30 days, with a 2% discount if paid within 10 days. Um, no...I had to argue with him for an hour, during which time he actually claimed to have booked the Beatles at the Indianapolis Convention Center, and that was how they got paid. I had to explain the error of his ways (I may have threatened mayhem and violence, I don't quite recall), but we got paid...


















i
 
#19
Herrick said:
I thought wedding bands get paid before the event. Did all the other wedding service providers, like the photographer, caterer etc get paid after the wedding as well?
Click to expand...

I would never even start working as a photographer/videographer/dj or band at a wedding without already holding payment in my hand. Heck, I don't even take checks! CASH is the only possibility, and people are happy to pay it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rabidhamster, smogg, Sixgunn and 1 other person
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back