How do you say STOP!!

[carrbowl]

I'll try to make this short and understandable. I do a bunch of dance photos. A mother complains her daughters photos aren't up on the website. Yes a few are missing. I put the rest up. Months go by, the mother doesn't order, but sees me in the grocery store and asks me to put the photos back up. Sucker is written on my forehead, so I do. She emails me a couple times, the website doesn't work, I can't place an order, etc. So I email her instructions. (It's smugmug, it's extremely NOT complicated!!). So she orders a whopping $32 worth of photos. Emails me with High priority ---she is extremely unhappy with her photos. One has cropped off her daughters feet. She tells me which photo it is. Smugmug says the feet will get cropped if the photographer sends another photo, they will replace it for free, they want her to be happy. I look at the WRONG photo, and tell her I can't put her daughters feet in the photo, but we can use a different photo. Look at the website, does #999 work ok. She emails me back and says yes. She now gets the photo, emails me again with HIGH PRIORITY!! and says it is the wrong photo. Both my husband and I think she is just trying to get free photos. I'm ready to just tell her to take a leap....'

I don't need to hear about how I should have got it right..I'm not a rocket scientist but I already got that without anyone beating me over the head. I'm just ready for this woman to leave my corner of the earth----I don't care if she is happy with my business or not. Her reputation preceeds her and I am not worried about what she says about me. Can you tell I need to vent instead answering her email!!!!!!!!

[ka5txl]

It's that old caveat that I find in retail all the time. Those that spend the least bitch the most about what we aren't given them for free.

[Breezy]

that sucks Renae
Hope you can tell her to take her leap nicely :D

[Shane Jennings]

Try a phone call instead of an email. Talking might help find a final solution. ??

[CaptainTom]

I might ask her to mail ALL the photos back to you so you can see exactly what the problem is. No face to face meeting since that is time and time is money.
If she indeed sends them all to you, send her a check for the amount she spent and tell her there is no fix and that you appreciate her pointing out the problems, etc.

Write it off, and use her photos as 9mm target practice....

[toverman]

Why would anyone want the feet of a dancer in the photo? Kidding!

If you're willing to give it one more try, you may need to actually meet with her and both order the photo online so that it's the right one and you can be assured the crop is right when it's ordered. If you cropped the image at anytime before uploading to Smug Mug, the ratio might be off and it could be cropping the feet off without her knowing it. Have the photo sent to you and then forward it to her.

[jasonhuang]

raise your print prices. :-)

[bondarnes]

The main thing that separates a true professional from a wannabe is EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE. I think it is your job to make this right for her and to include some bonus prints for her trouble. I am going out on a limb here and surmising that if you were in her place you too would be sending high priority e-mails.

You have every right to be upset and to vent here, but in the end you need to take care of this with an apology and a big smile. Why is it that once something goes wrong on an order then nothing goes right after that? It just becomes the order from hell. Now take a few deep breaths and take care of this.

[CobyPhoto]

Amen Don!

I don't know how many "alot" is for your dance photos, but I do two studios of @350 kids in each and there is ALWAYS, ALWAYS at least 2-3 mom's with this attitude. If you can't handle this, you are in the wrong business.

And as far as the part about "I don't need to hear about how I should have got it right..." You are completely wrong. You need to hear it until you get it right and don't have that problem. I have a couple of mentors that have 39 & 40 years in the business and I hear it from them CONSTANTLY when I make a mistake. We all make mistakes.

If I were in your position and I had goofed up the image and chopped the feet off...I would be bending over backwards to make this woman happy. Retakes, etc. whatever it took to send her away from my business with a smile and beautiful photos in her hands. You will never be sucessful in your business if you continue to have the attitude: "I don't care if she is happy with my business or not."

Remember the age old addage: A Happy customer MAY tell one person...but a disatisfied customer WILL tell 10 people.

If you can't handle clients and dissatisfied customers with a smile and send them out of your business satisfied, you are in the wrong business. (Client reputation or no.)

CJ

[Howard Barlow]

Originally Posted by ka5txl

It's that old caveat that I find in retail all the time. Those that spend the least bitch the most about what we aren't given them for free.

And that's the truth.

[carrbowl]

Don, I had some other orders go wrong too. We got those corrected the first time, because the customers actually looked at the photos to make sure they were correct one. This customer actually agreed to the wrong photo, had it sent to her, and now is blaming me.

I have asked her to send all the photos back. I will get the order correct and get it sent to her. She has been difficult with the dance director also. In fact this clients best friend told the dance director she felt sorry for the photographer having to deal with this client. So the clients best friend even knows how difficult she is....in a way that is funny, but unfortunately it's sad that your friend even knows how difficult you are.

[barP]

amen to don and coby, but....

if she's truly a problem and you can rationally justify sending her down the road, then i suggest you give her the disk with all the images and tell her to never call you again.

wp.

[glchism]

All business is not good business.

[CFord]

Originally Posted by glchism

All business is not good business.

No. However all PO'd customers are bad for business. The key is to make every reasonable effort possible before dismissing a customer. When they tell someone else about their experience you want the recipient to hear all of the things you tried to do to rectify the situation. Even if they aren't satisfied, your potential market will appreciate the fact that you made a good effort to take care of your client after the fact.

[S-Man]

Originally Posted by barP

amen to don and coby, but....

if she's truly a problem and you can rationally justify sending her down the road, then i suggest you give her the disk with all the images and tell her to never call you again.

wp.

Not to thread-jack, but I recently shot an anniversary as a fill-in for a friend who was supposed to shoot it. Apparently the friends agreement was to offer a bunch of prints etc...I agreed to just shoot the thing and post pics on the website. Long story short, the client kept complaining and asking for more until finally the friend ordered a bunch of 5x7s from my website, and I provided all images on a CD.
I just wanted to get them out of my life. Finally they were satisfied.
I really wanted to explode on her (the client).

Point being, I guess sometimes you have to please the cheap bastards just to keep a good reputation...