Small Claims Court for Vendor?

I would send him a certified letter telling them exactly what you expect and when you expect it, and of course, start a file detailing your attempts to contact. Give a deadline and tell them your next steps and when you will take them.

Of course, you'll leave reviews any where you can, but I probably wouldn't do that until you have a resolution (or the date for that resolution has passed).

I would only do small claims as a last resort; it's time consuming, it's a pain in the neck and there is no guarantee that you'll see the money even if you get a judgement.

I'm sorry this happened to you but thankfully you have your photos. I hope.

I agree with Celia, and you have to spend money to file. I went after a previous landlord in small claims court for taking money out of my deposit to replace the garage door motor (which isn't a tenant responsibility, and I only lived there one year so surely didn't use the garage door enough to burn out the motor, and to add insult to injury it was the door on the side that I used for storage and didn't really use). I had to pay two different counties to have him served because he moved since the first service attempts, and then he would never answer the door to be served papers. The officer told me that she knew he was there because she ran the tag on the car that was outside and it was his, she also said there were lights on in the condo and she saw someone look out of the blinds. So basically he avoided being served and until the person is served, you don't get a court date. I could have paid an additional $25 to have the attempt again on top of the court fees I had already paid, or I could have paid a private company to serve him which could have gotten real pricey because they charge an hourly rate. I could have added those additional fees to my claim but like Celia said, you still may not get the money. Since it's a civil issue and not criminal, even if they are served and you win, they could still not pay you. So trust me, it's a headache.

Here is another take on it. I learned a very expensive lesson when I did not get paid before a wedding several years ago. I spent time with the couple, with their planner, and sent one of my officiants to marry them and file their papers. I trusted them because who stiffs your minister? Is that the worst karma ever?

They skipped on the bill, I followed them through several collections websites and got to the point of taking them to small claims. They ignored all the certified letters from the collection companies (I'm sure those letters had plenty of company....), of course ignored all my offers to pay the bill in increments, and effectively disappeared.

After might righteous indignation (and probably a lot of Prosecco....) I decided to drop the whole thing, chalk it up to a lesson learned and stop letting it bother me. And it sorta worked, (plus it made me clean up my contract and practices as well, a bittersweet bonus).

When you give the company a deadline, give yourself one too, a deadline to either pursue it (knowing what you know now) or let it just go. See if any of your relatives took any video, and take great pleasure in knowing you're married and no shaky, shitty video can take that away.

And then start on a series of unemotional, factual reviews. "Our video was shaky, out of focus and included completely unrelated footage" is far more useful to others than, "Our video sucked."

Thank you all for your comments. I'm in the process now of documenting every technical issue with the video and providing him with a deadline date. I'm trying very had to give him the opportunity to make things right, even though he is treating us with absolutely no respect. The company also was our photobooth provider - half of the photos given to us were of him and his wife. All but six of the photos I had to edit myself because they were underexposed.

Can you share who the company was so I don't get stuck with them? Lol

On a side note, where did you find this guy? what made you choose him?

It all depends what your contract is. I really doubt going to small claims court would be beneficial.

I don't want to give out the name of the vendor just yet so publicly. I'm waiting to see on what we can work out before I start posting online reviews with them. They were referred to us by a family member. I had hesitations from the start. I should have listened to my instinct. I sent over a very detailed spreadsheet of things wrong from a quality and composition standpoint and gave them a week to get back to me as they refuse to meet with me face-to-face. Besides the very poor quality of everything, they are in breach of contract because we didn't get all materials. I will see what happens and if they refuse to work with us, then game on.