Photographer has gone mia

View Quoted Comment I just think its really weird that his phone is going straight to voicemail both times you tried calling, I always think the worse and I hope that that's not the case.

Madison, I have friends and family who work as independent contractors in catering, and I did during summers and school vacations a number of years. During busy seasons May through October, Nov - Feb 28 , they start doing prep work Friday 6 am and work at least 16 hours Friday, Sat, and Sunday. Ordinarily, they keep office hours, order and shop for supplies, all the background stuff, and see prospective customers, about 10 hours a week.. But if they decide to take off just 10 usual work hours a week, four weeks of the summer , the equivalent of taking 5 days off in a whole 12 week summer, they have someone listen for messages/ record them.And they only respond to those whose events were in the past 2 weeks, and those in the upcoming six weeks or so. They return those messages. And people with an event 5 or 12 months away, sometimes get ripshit if they do not get an answer in 2 days, and will call as much as 4 times a weekday every day for 2 weeks. Some say, I obviously don't have an interest in working with someone as unreliable as you, 8 days after the first call. Someone I worked for several years, years and years in business has standard forms in the computer for replying to such people, used often enough. Essentially saying, as you must realize, I am unavailable while working catering functions. I don't stop to return 20 phone calls wile serving a meal at a party or reception, and I work at least 36 hours most weekends, and up to 60 or 70 hours a week during the busiest season, plus office hours working with customers. I did receive your message inquiring on the price difference between entrées ( or changing frosting flavors, whatever... but since your wedding, party etc is 7 months away, I did not consider it a crisis sufficient to sacrifice time during the only two week period in months when I do not work any time monday- Thursday, and only 36 to 50 hours over the weekend. But if you are so upset that I feel I can have a life with my husband and 5 children, uninterrupted except for work questions for events coming up soon, than perhaps ot would be best you find someone else. I will be happy to send you a copy of your contract, marked VOID, When people are nasty and profane, she uses one with an addendum, ' given your rudeness and impatience, I will be quite relieved never to work with you again. . For years, she would apologize and put up with breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home interrupted, giving explanations on the difference between macadamia nuts and hazelnuts , prices of seafood, etc, for events 3 to as much as 15 months away Til she stood up for herself and said, only 10% of my customers expect total servitude from a vendor, and I can do without them. Anyone who cannot accept that I am a real person, not at their beck and call for trivia months in advance, has no respect for me, or how hard I work. So the answer to how long you should wait for an answer, is not long for an event coming up immediately. But 2 weeks and a day if your event is way down the road. This photographer will likely work 3-4 very long days every weekend, and has a right to take not just his usual 2-3 days a week off, but even a real vacation. He may have 2 weekend times when he takes no jobs, and actually goes away, you know, like the rest of us? My father and 2 uncles and an aunt and a brother are country doctors. They still make house calls when warranted. But perhaps that also is why I see that those working fixed 5 day schedules may think they are reasonable, because they don't understand the need for those with crazy schedules to set boundaries to protect their personal lives.

View Quoted Comment Wow. I’m just going to go ahead and say you are taking this forum WAY too seriously. Thank you for your response, but I’ve received enough helpful comments and suggestions from others that I feel comfortable with moving forward with my wedding planning. Have a wonderful 4th

View Quoted Comment If a professional can’t get their ish together enough to set an out of office e-mail for vacations or to return all e-mails within a week, they are taking on too much or they are not professional. 5 months out of the year my dad works 80 hour work weeks with no time off. He sees clients 7 out of 11 hours of each of his days at the office and he still returns all calls within 2 business days, whether it’s someone who needs immediate attention or someone who he isn’t meeting with for months.

View Quoted Comment Thank you, Sarah! It sounds like your dad’s clients are in good hands. Obviously my questions for my vendor aren’t life or death, but even an out of office email would be helpful for me. And as a PP said, his phone going straight to voicemail for almost a week is concerning as well.

I would say look into hiring someone is who not a friend or a family member. Hire a profressional.

View Quoted Comment A simple out of office message solves that whole issue in your essay.

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Basically you’re saying a potential or new client isn’t as important as others. That they don’t warrant the same professionalism and response. Guess some people’s money is better than others. If a “professional” got upset and cancelled my contract because I was frustrated of not receiving a response in two weeks, or a month, then honestly, obviously She didn’t need me as s client. That’s not how to run a successful business, and have happy clients.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a return call or email regarding contract questions/clarifications in a month.. even that’s a gracious time frame. You’re acting like OP is rude, and blowing up her photographers emails.

My best friend’s husband is crazy busy January to April. He still takes th time to return calls to clients, and potential clients.

View Quoted Comment I didn't read all of this, but a good professional communicates with their clients of any extensive delays. It's not up to a client to be understanding of a business' problems. It's up to the business to ensure that their problems do not affect their work and if they do, to notify their clients as swiftly as possible.

It's very concerning that his phone is going straight to voicemail. What is the connection with him? Friend of your parents? If so, I'd ask if they know what's going on with him and check his social media if he's on any to see if he's been active or said anything about being out of touch for a few days.

Great news everyone, I finally got a hold of him! Actually, my mom did. Apparently he was moving and had no idea his phone number disconnected in the move and none of his voicemails came through. He apologized for not responding to my prior email or setting up and out of office response. For the inconvenience, he threw in engagement photos for free to our package.

View Quoted Comment That's awesome! I'm so glad it all worked out for you and that he's okay.

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Thank you so much! It was such a relief knowing I didn't have to start over with researching photographers.

Since you had such a positive feeling after your first talk with this friend, it is good you were willing to hang on that extra time in case it was something personal, or unavoidable, rather than just poor customer service. I hope he does fantastic work for your wedding.