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Thread: Customers haggling and trying it on - have you got any stories or future thoughts?

  1. #1
    Pazz's Avatar
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    Default Customers haggling and trying it on - have you got any stories or future thoughts?

    Following on from a recent post I saw on a social media group page I wondered what are your current thoughts about haggling customers who continue to try it on. The example in the group was that there wasn't going to be as many guests turning up as there will have been originally for the rearranged date (knock on effect from the Covid-19). Of course I'd imagine most DJ's would and should be saying that they don't charge per guest and there are many different factors that are considered for every individual booking.

    I've had a number of customers/clients try it on in the past. There was one event many years ago where at the end of the night I had to chase after my payment all the way to somebody's house near the venue I was playing (obviously that was before I insisted all payments to be received beforehand). Others where gigs have ended early because of trouble outside of my control (a drugs raid and underage drinking come to mind) and the client wanted money back. Of course I had these issues covered in my signed T&C's.


    One occasion I remember was to do with a regular school disco booking that I had for a few years at a local school. Me and the person who always booked me had an agreement and was happy with the price, what I was offering and booked me many times. Then on one occasion the netball teacher decided she wanted to book me for an end of season awards and disco but the event wasn't taking place in the school but instead at a nearby venue. The venue was a bit tricky being upstairs 3 levels (I'd done discos there many times) and it was to be for a longer duration and different format to what I would usually do at the school. She wanted to book me for the same price but I was adamant that price needed to be different as it took into consideration different factors which I explained to her. I thought all was well but at the end of the event she tried arguing with me and caused a bit of a scene. I just stuck to my guns and took the money agreed but she weren't happy suggesting she'd discourage others from booking me. Anyway I just took it as some you win some you don't but it does strike me how some people will take any opportunity of trying it on.

    With things obviously going to be different when bookings start coming in again in the future I'm sure there'll be plenty of customers/clients wanting discounts or other perks. With me personally unless it's a certain type of charity event or a very special cause I won't be listening to sob stories and will stick to my fee and pricing structure (with non refundable deposits). If they dont like it they can go elsewhere.

    What are your thoughts about what is likely to come and have you got any stories of customers trying it on that you can share?
    Last edited by Pazz; 28-05-2020 at 07:30 PM.
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    In the past, I've had people try to book me with, say a 10pm start (after dinner) or even an 11pm start (after a band have played). So I say yes, but I will be arriving to set up while you are sat down eating your dinner or coming in and out whule the band are playing (and maybe having to walk across the dancefloor). They still don't get it, some of them, and only want to pay for the two hours say, from 10 until midnight.

    I've also had people wanting me to arrive and set up by 7pm say, but then they don't want music until after dinner at 10pm so only want to pay for me from 10pm. So what am I supposed to do between 7 and 10 then? I know, I'll go off and do a 2 hour shift at McDonalds.

    I once got booked "to arrive at 6pm and the party will start at 7pm", so when I turned up at 5.45, I was expected to start playing at 6pm (while the guests arrived) and then kick off "the party" at 7pm, which actually turned out to be when the guest of honour was arriving for the surprise party, speeches, cake and food. Er, no, that's not what you asked for. I finally kicked off the party at around 8.45 and, they were a stubborn lot too.

  3. #3

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    I've been watching a few recent threads on Facebook where customers have asked:

    "Are you offering any Covid discounts as my income has dropped?"
    "Can you do discounts for key workers?"

    I'll just leave these alone for now...

    With regard to Covid related refunds of deposits, I've now seen a few stories where suppliers have held onto some of the deposit to cover itemised expenses (such as time and expenses for meetings, etc) and received invoices in return for the couples time and expenses to travel to the meeting and their time off work!! There's a lot of people out there who have clearly never been in the position of requesting a refund for a service before and don't really know how it works...

    In the past though I've had the usuals:

    "Can you setup up early? Oh great, can you play this music when we arrive at 2pm?" No - because early setup is very different from me being on site all day!!

    "We've got a singer - is there any discount for the 3 hours when you're not doing anything?" No - because I still have to setup at 7pm and the singer is using my PA and lighting!!

    "We had to end early because of a fight - is £x off alright?" (Traveller wedding) I'd usually say no, but in this case it was fine because the groom's Dad had quietly tipped me waaay more than then the tenner he wanted

    "You stole my iPad(!) - we want some of our money back!!" That one was hilarious - The iPad was connected to a projector I'd supplied and I'd handed the iPad and cables back to one of the party at the end of the night. They were absolutely hammered and called while I was driving home. I explained the situation, and then they called again as I was unloading and then I went to bed. I woke up the next morning to 20 missed calls and a barrage of abusive text messages threatening police involvement. 2 Hours later I got an apologetic text and a glowing review as they'd realised that it'd been put safely in someones room and said person had just forgotten he'd done it
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  4. #4
    Pazz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mattydj50 View Post
    In the past, I've had people try to book me with, say a 10pm start (after dinner) or even an 11pm start (after a band have played). So I say yes, but I will be arriving to set up while you are sat down eating your dinner or coming in and out whule the band are playing (and maybe having to walk across the dancefloor). They still don't get it, some of them, and only want to pay for the two hours say, from 10 until midnight.

    I've also had people wanting me to arrive and set up by 7pm say, but then they don't want music until after dinner at 10pm so only want to pay for me from 10pm. So what am I supposed to do between 7 and 10 then? I know, I'll go off and do a 2 hour shift at McDonalds.

    I once got booked "to arrive at 6pm and the party will start at 7pm", so when I turned up at 5.45, I was expected to start playing at 6pm (while the guests arrived) and then kick off "the party" at 7pm, which actually turned out to be when the guest of honour was arriving for the surprise party, speeches, cake and food. Er, no, that's not what you asked for. I finally kicked off the party at around 8.45 and, they were a stubborn lot too.
    Quote Originally Posted by DJ Jules View Post
    I've been watching a few recent threads on Facebook where customers have asked:

    "Are you offering any Covid discounts as my income has dropped?"
    "Can you do discounts for key workers?"

    I'll just leave these alone for now...

    With regard to Covid related refunds of deposits, I've now seen a few stories where suppliers have held onto some of the deposit to cover itemised expenses (such as time and expenses for meetings, etc) and received invoices in return for the couples time and expenses to travel to the meeting and their time off work!! There's a lot of people out there who have clearly never been in the position of requesting a refund for a service before and don't really know how it works...

    In the past though I've had the usuals:

    "Can you setup up early? Oh great, can you play this music when we arrive at 2pm?" No - because early setup is very different from me being on site all day!!

    "We've got a singer - is there any discount for the 3 hours when you're not doing anything?" No - because I still have to setup at 7pm and the singer is using my PA and lighting!!

    "We had to end early because of a fight - is £x off alright?" (Traveller wedding) I'd usually say no, but in this case it was fine because the groom's Dad had quietly tipped me waaay more than then the tenner he wanted

    "You stole my iPad(!) - we want some of our money back!!" That one was hilarious - The iPad was connected to a projector I'd supplied and I'd handed the iPad and cables back to one of the party at the end of the night. They were absolutely hammered and called while I was driving home. I explained the situation, and then they called again as I was unloading and then I went to bed. I woke up the next morning to 20 missed calls and a barrage of abusive text messages threatening police involvement. 2 Hours later I got an apologetic text and a glowing review as they'd realised that it'd been put safely in someones room and said person had just forgotten he'd done it
    Good to hear some of these stories and I can relate to some of them. The hanging around until your 10pm start was always a bit of a pain but I guess the incentive of being paid for nothing is good. It used to be good money and a good response for an annual double Boxind Day and New Years Eve bookings I used to have at the same venue. An artist and raffle amonst other things were on up 10- 10.30pm so I didn't have to do a long set. Only until midnight or 1am and of course that's when everyone usually wants to dance having had a few beverages. All was a good couple of gig to round off the year on top of a good few December bookings I used to have.
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  5. #5
    Jim - Scotland's Party DJ's Avatar
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    It's amazing how quickly people realise they don't need an early set up or you playing music throughout the meal when you let them know how much it will cost isn't it?


    I've actually seen more examples of suppliers doing themselves as opposed to the brides trying it on of late.

    I've seen some businesses post big discounts and promising to keep their (already low imo) fees the same until 2022. Not that it's really any of my business to comment on how other's run your firm but I bet mr photographer is kicking himself every single time he has to go out in 2022 for £500. Picking up future bookings just now really shouldn't be an issue so doing a weird panic sell for cheap to fill your books doesn't make sense
    I had someone a week or so ago come back and ask why my prices were over £300 dearer than stated on my FAQs - the short answer is I've not updated that page for ages, I put my prices up a good bit in January (and no, I'm not lowering them because of covid and yes, people are still booking at this new price) and there's more included in the service since the FAQs price.

    She's not come back and I doubt she will but that's the fair and true account of it - I'm not going to knock £300 off of my price just due to an old page on my site no one ever looks at and I'm not all of a sudden, especially when demand for 2021 is sky rocketing, lower my prices to grab bookings or cave in to fly people.

  6. #6
    Jim - Scotland's Party DJ's Avatar
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    In fact one I have seen but it's pertained more to venues is "we've had to move from Saturday in Summer to Monday in Winter but the price is the same" and so on.

    Which I can see the grievance as venues will promote prices based on the time of the season. I don't and I don't charge less for mid week either so that's not an issue for me either but maybe something to consider if you do alter prices dependent on time of year or what day it's on.

  7. #7
    Resident Antagonist Benny Smyth's Avatar
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    I did plan to increase my prices in 2021, but decided to hold off until 2022. I charge a good fee now and as odd as it sounds, I don't want to end up in a situation where I'm having to postpone and then work a 12 month period on a mix of pricing. Psychologically, it would just piddle me off and with the amount of gigs next year, I'm not exactly going to starve.

    Interestingly, the chain of venues that have been getting a royal kicking in the press about their postponement terms have ended up on my radar. I'm booked for a Wedding at one of their venues on a Thursday next July, which is 143 miles away from home due to a Covid-19 postponement (previously booked DJ was unavailable) and no gripe from this client about the venue's Covid-19 procedures. It's almost as if there was more to the story than what was being reported...

    Anyway, the point being is that I had to put on a considerable cost to cover the distance and they booked no issues. Makes me thing that I should make my standard pricing closer to that!

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    Over the past 15 years I have had most of these. The most regular one I have is people who email or call regarding an “event” they are planning and need a dj for and wanting a quote. It is always so obvious that these are weddings and they are doing this because they heard that vendors double the price for weddings.

    Truth is a wedding costs more for a reason. For an 18th birthday party I can send a younger, less experienced DJ with different equipment. I dont have to worry about first dances, timings and schedules for 10 different things and all the risk that comes with making a wedding absolutely perfect.

    For a wedding, I wouldnt dream of sending someone with barely any experience, and I would turn up with in excess of £6500 worth of equipment.

    My fave is “but X DJ has quoted me £150”…. But DJ X has £200 black speakers, wears a 20year old polo top, talks over the music and probably doesn’t even have a booth… I have a custom made oak dj booth that costs more than DJ X entire setup. This is one thing some customers cant get their head around.

  9. #9
    Disco Dude! DeckstarDeluxe's Avatar
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    I've slowly increased my prices over the years (more so in the earlier days of full time DJing). I have to say while I was at the lower end of the pricing bracket I had more people try and haggle.
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    Quote Originally Posted by DeckstarDeluxe View Post
    I've slowly increased my prices over the years (more so in the earlier days of full time DJing). I have to say while I was at the lower end of the pricing bracket I had more people try and haggle.
    Yeah this is very true. I very rarely get people haggling at my current prices.

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