Dig it! Been shortlisted for wedding DJ of the year again
- Thread starter jbj
- Start date
I've been very lucky with my couples HUNDREDS of weddings I've only ever had grief from these 2 and one other groom (who was an alcoholic, got put to his bed during the speeches then got in a humph because he reappeared as I was loading away the last of my gear and wouldn't keep playing for him
)This couple in question were hassle from day 1. I have pretty straight forward and fair booking and payment terms - £x for booking fee is required along with the contract e-signed to secure the date. The balance is due in full 28 days before the wedding. I've only ever had one or two couples not want to do this, usually US based because they're dealing with IBAN payments or PayPal etc...
These guys wanted to pay the BOOKING FEE (which is roughly 15-20% of my full fee) in instalments of £50 each. Red flags already but hey it was around Christmas so I said sure but if someone comes in with he full fee and a contract even 10 seconds before their final payment was made, they'd lose the booking albeit I'd refund what instalments they'd already made. They agreed to this then went radio silent for weeks.
My contract has a 7 day window after which the link dies. About 1 month later I get an e-mail from the dude asking why he can't sign the contract so I reinstate it and he signs again. They eventually cover the booking fee and the date is secured. I did explain to them that the onus was on them to let me know when they made further payments because I don't always check my account for debits.
Over the next 18 months Id get an e-mail every once in a while complaining that they'd paid an instalment but I hadn't yet taken it off their total. Every time I reminded him he needed to tell me when he sent money, every time.
This continued. They disappeared again for a bit and I hoped they'd just fuck off and the gig fell through but alas my automated check ins and balance reminders put that in the bin. They eventually paid up and we organised our video chat to go over the final plans.
They'd spent a decent amount of time putting tunes into my online planner which is always good for the meeting. This was by video call, they were like half an hour late and when they jumped on they were sat in a driveway in their car. It was really weird and holding a conversation was challenging at times, I have a sneaking suspicion they were stoned, I can't be sure but I've done hundreds of these meets both in person and across Zoom and it's easily the weirdest interaction I've had.
During the course of the meet they bring up their options for the moonlighting - the groom wants green, white and gold a la the Irish tricolour. I explained that the gold would be tricky to nail and wouldn't know how it would look until I had it against the venue walls. Also and more to the point using 3 colours is usually a bit jarring on the eye, I'd set up a bunch of different configurations for him after we were finished and send photos over to show him and they could make a final decision but I felt green and white or green and gold would look better.
It's also worth mentioning that doing something like that is fairly inflammatory around here because of the history between Unionism and Irish Nationalism in the West of Scotland. I'm a Unionist but I don't judge, it is however a bit questionable to be incorporating political elements into your wedding reception I'd argue... more on this later. They decide to go for the green and white.
I get to the venue really early as I'd not been there before and my first impression is the gents dress code. Just as there's a certain way old money dresses at weddings, there's a way wannabe gangsters dress at weddings and from the get go I had that impression for the guys. I go for a piss and there's half a dozen of them in the toilets doing lines - this is before the meal has started.
Come set up time I've sussed that it's quite a rowdy and drunk crowd (which is good most of the time) but the venue's opening question was - "when are you playing till?" this usually means - how many more hours of these people do we have to endure.
Come first dance time the groom is hammered. The bride isn't happy.
The groom then decides he wants the green, white and gold mood lighting after all. Then moans about it holding the first dance up while I'ma way changing it for him!
The gig itself was good. The crowd were rowdy but generally quite pleasant, except for the groom. By half 9 he's got his top off, his eyes are bulging and he's sweating his tits off like he's in a field at a 5am rave.
They'd asked for a couple of football related songs which I played. He then shambled over and slurred "get the Rebs on". For the uninitiated, "Get the Rebs on" translates as "Mr DJ, could you please play some Irish Republican music, most of which involves British soldiers being shot." I refused. I don't have any of that and there's absolutely no place for it at a wedding. I'm a Loyalist which is the other side of that coin but I wouldn't play anything like that at a wedding either - football stuff if the couple demand it, OK if I think the crowd will be OK but religious / political stuff is an absolute no no. The bride and her family were all Loyalists too so even if it was something I was willing to play, it'd probably have started a fight.
Anyway the night draws to a close. He's barely able to stay on his feet but makes it through the last song. He's knackered because he's spent the last 3 hours running backwards and forwards to the toilet (still topless) and pulling up his kilt so people can see his cock and arse every couple of minutes.
Lots of nice compliments from guests and the couple themselves.
I was glad to finish and packed up pronto but not quickly enough for him to do or say something to the maid of honour. This was at the other end of the room but I picked out him saying: "I'll knock you fucking out" to the female who was able 1/3 the size of him. This understandably sets of major tears in the bride, her uncle then appears on the scene and tries to fight with the groom before being dragged away. The venue manage to shuffle everyone out except for me and the couple. I had 15 minutes of tear down with her in pieces and him sitting there slurring his words and just being a complete and utter scumbag. I was quite surprised she didn't leave him right there and file for a divorce the next day, seriously it was horrendous.
I clip together their photos and video asap (aka early the next morning) send it over and hope I never hear from him again.
They sent feedback a day or so later: "Brilliant Dj, made our night so so great and would recommend to anyone and everyone thank you so much mate"
Ah well that ended not so bad I thought.
Cue a month later. I'm not saying it's directly correlated but it doesn't take much to work out which football team I support. Groom supports our fierce rivals. We were doing great in Europe that season and about 3 minutes into a big glamour tie I got a big single paragraph screed from him:
"Hi I am sending you an email due to how unhappy we are with your service, you advertise about how you take pictures and videos all night. You sent us like 5-10 pics and a mediocre video. We feel totally let down. For the price you charge we feel like we should of had more! You did interact but that’s what most djs do! You said about a drone that was not out although it was a small venue but you advertise very wrong. We feel like we deserve some compensation as you could have sent more pictures and videos to us and not just a video for your page! Your meant to be one of the best and the service does not show that. We were expecting a lot from you and your service. We used you because the high recommendation from others.
The pictures and videos you took and you were taking alot all night and you said you deleted them cause they were not great but we should be the judge of that in our opinion. The service you provided we could have paid £500-600 not what you charge to be honest."
I sat on it for a few days then responded, here's the cliff notes:
- I have hundreds of pages on my site showing the amount of pictures and length of video that I provide. It's also explained in my quote e-mail that you'll receive roughly 10 and a short video montage. I'd rather not bring this up but you spent most of the night with your top off and sweaty. You were also flashing your genitals which meant I could only use footage from the earlier parts of the night with the exception of some parts of the last dance I had to be very careful with - I don't want to put a video out there to embarrass you or spend time editing it then have you come back asking me to pull or re-edit it all. At that, your video is on the shorter side but no different from the length of other videos where I've only had a few hours to get footage.
- Contrary to your statement about the photos - I made a point of gathering more as I knew the video would be shorter. You received over 20 fully edited photos which as you seem aware is around double what my average couple would receive. As with a daytime photographer - I only edit the useable photos - any where people don't look great or there's something or someone in the background that you don't want to appear get cut. Again because you had your top off, I lost a lot of what were otherwise decent shots of your guests.
- The drone can only got out weather permitting and if it's legally permissible to do so. This is clearly explained in the quote e-mail and I mentioned in the meet that it was under Glasgow Airports flight path so I wouldn't be able to get it up.
- The video, photos and drone stuff are clearly labelled as a little freebie I throw in as a keepsake for my couples as it's something I enjoy doing. The equipment, set up and editing time isn't charged for either but as you're unhappy with the end result, I've removed all media from the site.
- With regard to having money returned, I've done hundreds of weddings with the exact same service and approach and never had any complaints. I received none from you, the bride, the guests or the staff on the night. In fact your were all very complementary throughout the evening and as with every couple, I checked in with you and (bride) several times to make sure everything was as you wanted it. Further to this, given the positive feedback you formally submitted through my planning portal at xx:xx on y, the yth of y using a phone which the metadata has clearly tagged as belonging to your number, a refund will not be forthcoming.
He complained a bit more about the drone stuff saying the venue said drone were fine. I eventually called him out on it - I was PfCO licensed at the time and knew the regulators, the person manning reception at a small hotel, probably not so much... There's absolutely no stock footage of the place online so if people have filmed there, it's been done on the snide. Also, here's a diagram from Glasgow Airports website. The big purple X are the flight paths which are highly restricted. I can't fly in my own garden as it happens but drive a couple of hundred yards to my brothers place and it's all good. You will note your venue is directly in the middle of it. It's also too close to the neighbouring houses and there's not enough space in the grounds to fly near the venue itself for me to do it legally, ethically and with insurance.
After all that the fucker asked me to put the photos and videos back online. I said the whole thing had left a bad taste in my mouth so I didn't want them on the website, drop boxed him then and bid him farewell, I wouldn't respond to any further contact.
I was expecting negative reviews to go out on socials and google but none ever came. I'd be surprised if he didn't try the same thing with the other suppliers given their track record dealing with money.
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smorgdonkey
Kick Henry Jackassowski
It makes me wonder if that bride had seen that sort of behaviour from her groom before. He sounds like a real d!ck.
Sadly I get the feeling she has I mean of all days not to reign your shit in.
tiger roach
Urban Bovine Knievel
What’s next?
DinoMikeSr
I have the box
tiger roach
Urban Bovine Knievel
sweet, good luck
Gorgon90
Harmonic Dive Bomber
Luck? JBJ doesn't need luck where he's going.
