The cheek of it....

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Well...just had a phonecall...well lack of thats annoyed the hell out of me.

Sent out the paperwork for a booking at the end of Feb...everything good.

Had a few issues with Royal mail not delivering properly and loosing my post, so once this contract became overdue I emailed them about it and got no reply.

So...just phoned them now, they answered...I got as far as saying its Steve from Dynamic Entertainment, Im just phoning abo..... and they hung up.

The annoying thing is that ive turned down TWO other gigs for the same night and the "client" doesnt even have the decency to actually tell me that they dont need me now...

Kind of p:Censored: me off TBH...anyway, rant over ;)

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I have had so many issues with royal mail Steve it got beyond a joke. Switching to digital contracts has been fantastic, not only does it get signed quicker but if they start messing around it becomes clear far earlier i.e if they haven't signed in 7 days you can pretty much open the date again but if you send out a contract, they claim they never got it, send another one out you could be talking 21+ days.

[ppentertainments]

I have had so many issues with royal mail Steve it got beyond a joke. Switching to digital contracts has been fantastic, not only does it get signed quicker but if they start messing around it becomes clear far earlier i.e if they haven't signed in 7 days you can pretty much open the date again but if you send out a contract, they claim they never got it, send another one out you could be talking 21+ days.

How do you get them to sign and return ?? Is there a program you use ?

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

I have had so many issues with royal mail Steve it got beyond a joke. Switching to digital contracts has been fantastic, not only does it get signed quicker but if they start messing around it becomes clear far earlier i.e if they haven't signed in 7 days you can pretty much open the date again but if you send out a contract, they claim they never got it, send another one out you could be talking 21+ days.

Had the same problem here, in fact 2 in the pipeline at the moment that I will be chasing up tomorrow.
My point is How easy is it to change to digital contracts??

Dave

[Charlie Brown]

Have a look at echo sign. You can sign up for free and send 5 contracts a month for free. Just have a quick play and see what you think.

[Shaun]

Echosign gets my vote. I signed up to the full version of echo sign. 95% of my booking forms are returned within 24 hours now. I haven't sent out a single letter in over a year. I love it's ease and simplicity.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

What I did was create your contract in word, you can add in fancy headers etc... At the top you have the field for client information, venue, times, service, home address and fee. Then you "print" and if you have a program like cutepdf you just select that instead of your printer and it creates a pdf copy of what you have done in word.

Upload this to echo, put their email address in and bobs your uncle. The first time you upload you need to place boxes at the bottom for both signatures and you can even select who signs first (naturally client for me).

Give it a good, well worth it :)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Echosign gets my vote. I signed up to the full version of echo sign. 95% of my booking forms are returned within 24 hours now. I haven't sent out a single letter in over a year. I love it's ease and simplicity.

Shaun

Can you send me something to show me how it works please? :beer1:

[hammy]

Shaun

Can you send me something to show me how it works please? :beer1:

+1 please Shaun;)

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I've had more people over time ask if they can do everything via email so I have sent PDF's to them. The only thing I don't like about that is that there is more work involved as I have to sign the PDF and then scan it and send it along with the Terms & Conditions. On a couple of occasions they have sent the booking form back and the backside has been blank because they haven't printed out the Terms & Conditions side.

Is there a way around this?

As I said, it's not too much of a problem because it's not the majority that do it this way but I have noticed more people asking if it's ok. I think it's a lot easier for people if they can do it there and then rather than receive it in the post and forget about it. The same with Online Banking, lots of people pay their booking fees and balances that way now with me.

[SC Events]

I've been using EchoSign for about a year now and almost all of my booking forms are sent via email via them.

I type up the booking form in Word, then upload it to EchoSign, add the date and signature blocks then send it...job done!

[DJ Paulie]

I used to do all my paperwork by email, I would confirm the date, time, price, playlist etc then take a hard copy for them to sign, unless it was a wedding, then I would get them to sign it at the meeting. Keep a copy of all emails in the sent folder and use POP3 or IMAP4 and you'll always have a copy on whatever you're using to read them. (iPhone, Blackberry, laptop, tablet, PC etc)

[hammy]

I've had more people over time ask if they can do everything via email so I have sent PDF's to them. The only thing I don't like about that is that there is more work involved as I have to sign the PDF and then scan it and send it along with the Terms & Conditions. On a couple of occasions they have sent the booking form back and the backside has been blank because they haven't printed out the Terms & Conditions side.

Is there a way around this?

As I said, it's not too much of a problem because it's not the majority that do it this way but I have noticed more people asking if it's ok. I think it's a lot easier for people if they can do it there and then rather than receive it in the post and forget about it. The same with Online Banking, lots of people pay their booking fees and balances that way now with me.


Gary, Why dont you sign in a box upload that to your pc then when doing a pdf just add your signature as a jpg.

[Dj Diddy Davies]

I've used echo sign and used to set up the contract, with T&C's at the bottom, all in Pages (Mac) and then export it as a PDF to echo sign. Easy.

I've now gone over to using DJEP and that fills in the contract for you, allows you to write in an explanation of what the client needs to do and the legal implications of signing. Even easier and they have to tick a check box acknowledging the T&C's.
Bit of a pain to set up the first contract as it's all done in HTML coding with merge tags, but once it's done....

Gotta be better than snail mail!

Steve.

[Vectis]

Gary, Why dont you sign in a box upload that to your pc then when doing a pdf just add your signature as a jpg.

Quick word of advice, just in case folks haven't thought about this already:

Don't use your "real" signature (i.e. the one you use on official documents and bank cards etc.) for day-to-day activities such as this. You never really know where they'll end up... ;)

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

Have a look at echo sign. You can sign up for free and send 5 contracts a month for free. Just have a quick play and see what you think.

Never heard of it so off for a trawl round the website to have a good look, Thanks Charlie


Echosign gets my vote. I signed up to the full version of echo sign. 95% of my booking forms are returned within 24 hours now. I haven't sent out a single letter in over a year. I love it's ease and simplicity.

Could be a +1 on "How it works"


What I did was create your contract in word, you can add in fancy headers etc... At the top you have the field for client information, venue, times, service, home address and fee. Then you "print" and if you have a program like cutepdf you just select that instead of your printer and it creates a pdf copy of what you have done in word.

Upload this to echo, put their email address in and bobs your uncle. The first time you upload you need to place boxes at the bottom for both signatures and you can even select who signs first (naturally client for me).

Give it a good, well worth it :)

Definately going to give this a try after the email I got back today, invoice sent out 14th Jan, contacted end of January and they said they were in the post, emailed again today incase lost and they have cancelled

Many thanks for all the info

Dave

[ppentertainments]

+1 please Shaun;)

Can I jump on the bandwagon as well please Shaun.

One of my oblectives for the year is to go virtually paperless :)

Also not being cheeky or anything, but is it simple enough for clients to understand what to do when they receive it ??

[Excalibur]

Also not being cheeky or anything, but is it simple enough for clients to understand what to do when they receive it ??
It's simple enough for a doddery old DJ to understand when he gets sent them

[ppentertainments]

It's simple enough for a doddery old DJ to understand when he gets sent them
Fool proof then :D :D

[super-hero]

How do the clients sign their end. And how does it get returned.

[Excalibur]

How do the clients sign their end. And how does it get returned.

I'm sorely tempted to say "black magic", but it's as simple as typing your name in a box, and clicking a mouse.

[super-hero]

Thanks for telling me, my brain was starting to ache, trying to work it out.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

You get a 5 documents free trial....so why not send a couple to yourself so you see the whole process?

[Jonathan Ford]

Just to add my support for Echo Sign too.

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

You get a 5 documents free trial....so why not send a couple to yourself so you see the whole process?

Ok tried this and liked the look of it and yes it is easy, thanks for the recommendation.
Just a quick question, At the moment I send the booking pack out which includes the contract, covering letter etc. When the people return the contract they include a cheque most of the time for the deposit, occasionally cash, sometimes pay straight into account as banking details are included.
How do you guys that use echosign all the time get your deposits and do you find you get contracts ahead of deposits?
Thanks in advance
Dave

[JAMdisco]

I've just used this for a last-minute booking for tomorrow night and really like the way it works.

The way I understand it is that I can use it 5 times per month for free - does this refresh every 1st day of the month or on the same day that I signed up?

If I start using it regular, I may upgrade to the Pro version for $14.95 / month.
I'll wait and see but I think it's definitely the way forward.

[edit] Bossman has a good point about the deposits, I guess direct bank transfer is the best way as Paypal incurs fees...

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Ok tried this and liked the look of it and yes it is easy, thanks for the recommendation.
Just a quick question, At the moment I send the booking pack out which includes the contract, covering letter etc. When the people return the contract they include a cheque most of the time for the deposit, occasionally cash, sometimes pay straight into account as banking details are included.
How do you guys that use echosign all the time get your deposits and do you find you get contracts ahead of deposits?
Thanks in advance
Dave

Easy, nobody sends a cheque, they all pay directly into your account, no fees for you or having to get down the bank. :)

[JAMdisco]

I've just linked my echosign account to twitter - I now get 10 free signatures per month for free - bonus :D

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

Easy, nobody sends a cheque, they all pay directly into your account, no fees for you or having to get down the bank. :)

Yes thats what I was thinking but I just wanted to check with you guys that are using it. Nothing worse than doing the banking on Monday and getting home to find a deposit cheque and contract through the letterbox.....:D :D :D

As far as sending order to you send it to them first to sign and then your email second to sign or do you send it out already signed from yourself.

Sorry about questions I guess change is a bit daunting :confused: for this oldie :eek:

[DeckstarDeluxe]

No worries.

When you upload the document you need to tick "I need to add my signature" however when you do there is an option that comes up which allows you to change the order they are signed in i.e client first and you second.

[JAMdisco]

As far as sending order to you send it to them first to sign and then your email second to sign or do you send it out already signed from yourself.

I would always get them to sign first - they commit first - and maybe add something along the lines that if it's not signed within 7 days you have the right to re-open the date to other bookings.

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

I've just linked my echosign account to twitter - I now get 10 free signatures per month for free - bonus :D

Snap!!!! :D :D :D

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

No worries.

When you upload the document you need to tick "I need to add my signature" however when you do there is an option that comes up which allows you to change the order they are signed in i.e client first and you second.

Must have missed that bit when I uploaded document :rolleyes:


I would always get them to sign first - they commit first - and maybe add something along the lines that if it's not signed within 7 days you have the right to re-open the date to other bookings.

Thats the way I do it with paper ones now, they sign return with deposit and I countersign and send them a copy back

Think I will get there eventually :) :)

[JAMdisco]

Snap!!!! :D :D :D

Yeah, I just saw it on twitter that you linked it :D

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

Yeah, I just saw it on twitter that you linked it :D

:eek: Looks like that my privacy gone now :D :D

[hammy]

Just started and sent myself the first contract, What an awsome system it is, Added to twitter and get 10 free