Hi guys,
I'm seeking some advice on dealing with a difficult client.
I get called a week out for an event that was close to my company's warehouse, on a day that already had one sizeable event and was pretty complicated logistically. However, my phone call with the client led me to believe that it wasn't going to be very difficult. She described a retirement dinner at which her husband was going to be surprised by a song and dance routine, for which they needed 6 wireless headset microphones. Also, she said the videographer needed a mixed feed.
My thinking was that I could send one of our medium-level engineers to handle an event at a small venue to mix six channels in the house (two of our speakers on sticks) and provide an aux feed to a camera. The performance turned out to be a lot more complicated, with a backing track and people entering from backstage, etc, and it was a multi-camera shoot. There was one hour of rehearsal for this show, which according to my engineer went mostly fine. One channel of wireless dropped out a few times, but she was not able to locate the source of the problem or reproduce it again. The videographer said after rehearsals that everything sounded "great".
Then the actual performance took place, and everything went to crap apparently. The channel that had been dropping out during rehearsal (conveniently the client's daughter's mic) started dropping out again, and the engineer was caught off guard several times when people took the stage, so levels were uneven. It's obvious that more rehearsal was needed, mostly for the engineer's sake.
Anyway, I already refunded her 25% of the total for the bad mic channel, and we seemed to be on the same page about the fact that things sometimes go wrong at live events.
When she actually saw the final product, the client became irate, saying that the inconsistent audio had ruined the video (which will likely sit on her husband's desk, never to be watched again, but that's besides the point). My business partner watched the video and his opinion is that we were providing a board feed, subject to all the surprises of live events, but she wanted a polished deliverable, as I said above. Had she been clear about that in our discussions, I would have supplied a second engineer and maybe even a second console, so my engineer wouldn't be stuck trying to mix the house and the video at the same time.
Here's the video, tell me if you think I should refund all her money back, or if I can talk my way out of this sorry mess: Greg Galluzzo Flash Mob - YouTube
Thanks.
I'm seeking some advice on dealing with a difficult client.
I get called a week out for an event that was close to my company's warehouse, on a day that already had one sizeable event and was pretty complicated logistically. However, my phone call with the client led me to believe that it wasn't going to be very difficult. She described a retirement dinner at which her husband was going to be surprised by a song and dance routine, for which they needed 6 wireless headset microphones. Also, she said the videographer needed a mixed feed.
My thinking was that I could send one of our medium-level engineers to handle an event at a small venue to mix six channels in the house (two of our speakers on sticks) and provide an aux feed to a camera. The performance turned out to be a lot more complicated, with a backing track and people entering from backstage, etc, and it was a multi-camera shoot. There was one hour of rehearsal for this show, which according to my engineer went mostly fine. One channel of wireless dropped out a few times, but she was not able to locate the source of the problem or reproduce it again. The videographer said after rehearsals that everything sounded "great".
Then the actual performance took place, and everything went to crap apparently. The channel that had been dropping out during rehearsal (conveniently the client's daughter's mic) started dropping out again, and the engineer was caught off guard several times when people took the stage, so levels were uneven. It's obvious that more rehearsal was needed, mostly for the engineer's sake.
Anyway, I already refunded her 25% of the total for the bad mic channel, and we seemed to be on the same page about the fact that things sometimes go wrong at live events.
When she actually saw the final product, the client became irate, saying that the inconsistent audio had ruined the video (which will likely sit on her husband's desk, never to be watched again, but that's besides the point). My business partner watched the video and his opinion is that we were providing a board feed, subject to all the surprises of live events, but she wanted a polished deliverable, as I said above. Had she been clear about that in our discussions, I would have supplied a second engineer and maybe even a second console, so my engineer wouldn't be stuck trying to mix the house and the video at the same time.
Here's the video, tell me if you think I should refund all her money back, or if I can talk my way out of this sorry mess: Greg Galluzzo Flash Mob - YouTube
Thanks.