cancellation fees

bigteethproductions

bigteethproductions

Well-known member
Hi all,

I'm just wondering what some of you do in this situation.

I was booked on a job to film some Man on the Street interviews for an Ad Agency. The shoot was loosely scheduled for last Friday, and then changed to yesterday forcing me to scramble around and change another appointment I had with a different client. Then, of course, they couldn't get it together and rescheduled it for today (Tues.) and when I called this morning to confirm, ultimately they decided they didn't have the time to put it together for their pitch.

My question is, this company has done this to me before where they call about a job and then b/c they are disorganized cancel before they do it leaving me in the lurch. In this case, I had to waste two days of doing nothing b/c I committed to them. I fully intend to charge some sort of cancellation fee, just wondering what amount you would charge? Flat fee? % of Day Rate?

Also, despite the fact that I can use the gigs to supplement my other work, I'm basically at wit's end with them, is it worth keeping this relationship or just (politely)turning down future gigs?

thanks
 
your call if you want to tag them this time. I would suggest calling them to discuss charging 50%. if you want to talk to them about future gigs, I would politely make it clear through this example why you need to implement a kill fee (which includes when they need to reschedule) from now on. Don't make this call until you can be more kind and respectful to them than they just were to you.
 
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking 50%, but its hard enough to get them to pay when I DO the work...:furious3:

I definitely will not call, guns blazing and insist upon things. I know that regardless of whether I decide to work with this company again that its a small world and no need to gain a reputation for being hard to work with. I agree, that calm and collected is the way to go.
 
use the next job you do to for them to explain your situation. let them know when creating your estimate that you have to charge a cancellation fee should they pull out. give them the reasons / examples why. if they are good business people they will understand. if they dont understand, then it may be good to look for other clients.
 
Charge them 50% up front, non-refundable, if they're that bad, especially if they're costing you money with other clients.
 
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