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Gather round, because oy vey it's been a fun time lately...and by fun I mean I might rather read the Twilight books or even watch the Emoji movie instead of going through this but hey. Beggars can't be choosers.
Our story begins after being contacted by a company who acquires expensive antiques, and they were having a difficult time selling said antiques, with their current setup. They didn't exactly take the best pictures, and that was a HUGE source of their lack of sales. I mean, if you're going to be dropping a thousand or more on a product, you'd want to be able to see a nice, clear picture of it, right?
And I mean, these were BAD pictures. They were taking them in a dim light, with an old 1.3MP phone. I had to clean up noise, brighten, bring the colors to what they actually were (which on rare occasions was a bit of a guessing game), and then clean up the background...as the "photographer" was prone to leaving their fingers or hair drooping into the picture.
This is where I stepped in. I offered a certain rate, and to clean up their photos, at about 3-4 pictures completed an hour. Everything sounded great, they were exhilarated over the example picture and everything. I asked for the first batch of pictures, expecting something along the lines of 50 at the most.
...they sent 400.
I confirmed with them about the number, and asked them to double check. They extra confirmed it, and stated that the first picture had already helped sell an item, so they knew this was going to be well worth it. I responded that I just wanted to make sure, as that was a LOT to work on, and that they needed to consider the time/money, based on working on the pictures.
Sure enough, about 100~ pictures in, they noticed my time...and the invoice that was building, based on it. The owner promptly went nuclear. Demanded to stop the contract immediately, wanted a refund, etc etc.
I calmly pointed out that I was not only doing exactly what I outlined in my job details, but that I had actually even managed to complete some pictures faster than the estimated time, so I was lower than expected on the budget. I also noted that many of the pictures I had edited and uploaded to the site -- the related products had sold shortly afterwards. They had been up on the site for a while, so it was pretty evident that my photo edits literally sold the item. And judging by the items' cost..they were still making quite the profit.
That didn't matter. I got some very...venomous emails...and threats that they were going to leave bad reviews everywhere about me scamming people by charging more than I quoted. Annoyed, I actually did explain to them that it would be libelous to do so, and again pointed out that I had confirmed the number of images, the rate of work, and the cost of the work, before starting on these.
The owner was "insulted" that I would even bring up the "accusation of libel", and went off on a rampage around their store, complaining about me to their entire staff.
At this point, one of the staff decided to email me on the side. He confided to me that before the invoice, the owner had been jubilant over the success of the images, and had constantly talked about how the cost was well worth it. He noted that the owner was simply...well....bad at math. They were also a notorious cheapskate, and commonly used yelling as a tactic to try and get costs lowered on invoices from their contractors.
Well, that sealed it. I wasn't going to deal with this, so I simply told the owner that if they were not happy about the cost of the work being done, that they could either reduce the amount of images they sent...or we could just close the contract, and bid each other farewell.
After some more quibbling attempts (which I ignored), the owner pulled a "well I guess if you don't want our money, we'll close our account." I said sure, finalized the invoice, and removed the images I didn't work on yet.
The most amusing part, is that I STILL get the occasional emails from the owner, asking if I'd be willing to touch up an image, or give them photography lessons. They always want it for free though, and get upset when I quote a price.
Our story begins after being contacted by a company who acquires expensive antiques, and they were having a difficult time selling said antiques, with their current setup. They didn't exactly take the best pictures, and that was a HUGE source of their lack of sales. I mean, if you're going to be dropping a thousand or more on a product, you'd want to be able to see a nice, clear picture of it, right?
And I mean, these were BAD pictures. They were taking them in a dim light, with an old 1.3MP phone. I had to clean up noise, brighten, bring the colors to what they actually were (which on rare occasions was a bit of a guessing game), and then clean up the background...as the "photographer" was prone to leaving their fingers or hair drooping into the picture.
This is where I stepped in. I offered a certain rate, and to clean up their photos, at about 3-4 pictures completed an hour. Everything sounded great, they were exhilarated over the example picture and everything. I asked for the first batch of pictures, expecting something along the lines of 50 at the most.
...they sent 400.
I confirmed with them about the number, and asked them to double check. They extra confirmed it, and stated that the first picture had already helped sell an item, so they knew this was going to be well worth it. I responded that I just wanted to make sure, as that was a LOT to work on, and that they needed to consider the time/money, based on working on the pictures.
Sure enough, about 100~ pictures in, they noticed my time...and the invoice that was building, based on it. The owner promptly went nuclear. Demanded to stop the contract immediately, wanted a refund, etc etc.
I calmly pointed out that I was not only doing exactly what I outlined in my job details, but that I had actually even managed to complete some pictures faster than the estimated time, so I was lower than expected on the budget. I also noted that many of the pictures I had edited and uploaded to the site -- the related products had sold shortly afterwards. They had been up on the site for a while, so it was pretty evident that my photo edits literally sold the item. And judging by the items' cost..they were still making quite the profit.
That didn't matter. I got some very...venomous emails...and threats that they were going to leave bad reviews everywhere about me scamming people by charging more than I quoted. Annoyed, I actually did explain to them that it would be libelous to do so, and again pointed out that I had confirmed the number of images, the rate of work, and the cost of the work, before starting on these.
The owner was "insulted" that I would even bring up the "accusation of libel", and went off on a rampage around their store, complaining about me to their entire staff.
At this point, one of the staff decided to email me on the side. He confided to me that before the invoice, the owner had been jubilant over the success of the images, and had constantly talked about how the cost was well worth it. He noted that the owner was simply...well....bad at math. They were also a notorious cheapskate, and commonly used yelling as a tactic to try and get costs lowered on invoices from their contractors.
Well, that sealed it. I wasn't going to deal with this, so I simply told the owner that if they were not happy about the cost of the work being done, that they could either reduce the amount of images they sent...or we could just close the contract, and bid each other farewell.
After some more quibbling attempts (which I ignored), the owner pulled a "well I guess if you don't want our money, we'll close our account." I said sure, finalized the invoice, and removed the images I didn't work on yet.
The most amusing part, is that I STILL get the occasional emails from the owner, asking if I'd be willing to touch up an image, or give them photography lessons. They always want it for free though, and get upset when I quote a price.
Really? Was a six year old in charge of their photography?
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