OK, so we are a Birmingham-based wedding band.
Booking was in Devon, just outside Plymouth - 3.5 hours away with the wind in your sails and no cameras.
We had been paid an extra £150 between us to stay until 1am instead of the usual midnight finish, to provide our DJ service for that final hour.
The £150 was potentially going to pay for us to stopover somewhere cheap rather than drive back from Plymouth to Brum at , what, 1:30am, maybe even 2am once everything was packed up.
We arrive at the gig to find that the venue manager insists ALL music must be off at midnight. He agrees the couple have paid for the bar to remain open for an extra hour but is firm that he cannot allow music any longer due to ongoing local disputes over noise levels.
What do you do? Do you stand firm on the agreed fee, on the basis that whilst you will get away an hour early, it is still dangerously late to be driving home and you need the £150 for the Holiday Premier Days Lodge Inn and we have arrived prepared to do everything we were contracted to do - if the couple hasn't squared it properly with the venue, that is not our fault, so why should we be out of pocket?
Or do you refund the difference to the couple, on the basis that you are not going to be putting in the overtime, so why should you be paid for it? Even if that means driving home cos it blows your stopover budget?
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Parlty depends on how big the rest of the fee was as well though and if you have already paid out or are stuck with the cost of accommodation you mention.
I assume there was no chance of a compromise of the band being done by 12 and a deal of music after so long as it is quieter and can't be heard outside.
Though i realise that wasn't necessarily an option, so...
If presented with the scenario in reality and no contract with a clear provision for the change, I'd probably offer to meet them in the middle at 75 to cover most of your cost but recognise that they aren't getting the full extra hour of music they wanted.
He also said he would make sure the couple knew the situation....and he didn't, meaning when we cut the music off at 12, they had no idea it was coming, making US look the bad guys.
The fee without the extra was comparable to more local gigs for us, I would say, and without the extra it was probably a wee bit less than we'd normally want for a Plymouth gig, but it wasn't scandalously low. Certainly would have still taken the gig if it had been offered at the lower price.
I hadn't paid out in advance for accomodation, thankfully.
1. They take the cash, think you are very honest and lovely chaps, recommend you to friends etc and provide glowing feedback; or
2. Tell you not to worry and keep the cash.
Both ways you win.
My own opinion wasn't so positive......this dilemma is typical of my experience of weddings. You turn up with a clear expectation of what is expected of you, only to find that the arrangements made by the happy couple aren't actually very well arranged and that you have issues and buggeration to deal with.
I've had the opposite experience where we expected to play until midnight, only to find the bride demanding to play music through our PA until 1:30am. How do you say no to a drunk bride on her special day? They didn't pay extra either.
So....you made a commitment to provide a service. You weren't able to fulfil that commitment due to your client not knowing the facts. It's their problem, not yours. Take the money.
It's business - you provide a service for money and should be paid.
What did you do, anyway?
In practice you could go one of two ways. If you've got committed costs, such as non-refundable hotel payments, then you should take the money. If you don't then @Tuscan777 has the answer which would suit many people's sense of values.
Some organisations think that the customer is the person who pays the bill. Some act as though the customer is their own head office. Some realise that the customer is the person who buys the next piece of work - please this current customer and they will tell their friends.
The groom was not expecting it and said it was 'very decent of us' and also added how it had been a brilliant night up until midnight, so I walked away with a clear conscience knowing that we had done all WE could do to ensure a great night.
Of course, the band is a business and reputation is important and we know full well how many gigs come off the back of 'I saw you at so-and-so's wedding two years ago and decided to book you for our day too' and also I know how many other line-ups our agenty-person has who he can send out instead of us if we start leaving him messes to smooth over.
And, equally cynically, I would rather just give them the damn cash back myself than have them phone up agenty-person after the event and demand it back, thus still having to hand it over anyway, only now with the added kick in the goolies of having though we had gotten away with it.
At the end of the day, the three of us agreed it was the right thing to do, we all still got paid handsomely for what was a riotous gig, and we also got to see the groom and his mates do their 'Shed Metal' turn for two songs, so I don't feel at all hard done by.