Policies regarding business between customers and myself &/or my assistants:
(Policy means the general way business will be conducted, in the absence of making other specific arrangements. It is not the only way it will be done.)
We reserve the right to refuse or withdraw service to clients, including part way through a job. There are some people we don't want to work with, working conditions we won't tolerate, or jobs we don't want to do, and we're not obligated to do so. Be upfront about what you expect us to do, if you unexpectedly spring undesirable conditions upon us, we may terminate a job immediately.
I do NOT get involved in productions that promote violence, harrassment, discrimination, abusive issues, etc. Nor do I particularly want to do any work that depicts them in any way.
We do watch the films and tapes that we're asked to copy or work on. This is necessary for technical quality control, and to check that we aren't doing anything that we shouldn't.
Clients who involve themselves in work that's a breach of the law (copyright, for instance) are entirely responsible for the breaches, themselves. Likewise clients are responsible for finding out what is permissable, and/or obtaining permission, themselves.
Methods of payment:
- Payments can only be accepted as cash, cheques made out to “Tim Seifert,” direct deposits made to our bank, or through PayPal.
- Cheques will only be accepted by prior arrangement. No credit cards.
- Accounts will only be run for regular clients and then only on a due in seven days basis. Late fees may be applied.
- Certain jobs may require part, or full, payment in advance.
Ownership of products will only transfer to the customer after full payment of a bill. Depending on arrangements between myself and the client, the client may or may not hold the goods in their possession prior to completing any, or all, payments.
Customers cannot delay payments pending internal approval. You agreed to pay the bill, within the “due by” period, when you booked the job. If you have missed a step in your internal accounting procedures, that's your problem, not mine.
Customers who expect jobs to be done on certain dates or times must accept that they must pay bills by the due date. In the past, I have dealt with clients that think otherwise, by charging extra, not doing the job, not doing it when they wanted, requiring payment in advance, or refusing to do any further work for them, etc.
Equipment hire:
- Most equipment is only available for hire under supervised use.
- Some equipment's hire rate is more expensive for off-site hire.
- Advance bookings confirmed by paying a 20% deposit, remainder due when equipment is supplied to customer. Some equipment is only available for hire under supervised use.
- Clients who refuse to stop treating equipment in a way that may cause damage will have the hire of that equipment terminated by me immediately, no refund will be given.
- Damage caused by clients will be charged for in full, and, the hiree will be billed the daily (or weekly) hire charge for any damaged equipment that must be sent for repairs until it is returned in proper working order.
Insurance:
The hiree is responsible for insuring the goods against loss or damage, and for any further costs not insured for.
Productions:
Advance bookings confirmed by paying a non-refundable 20% deposit, with the remainder due when the product is supplied to customer.
Electronic engineering:
Customers may need to pay for parts in advance, remainder to be paid when equipment is supplied to customer.
Materials and expenses:
Some jobs require the pre-purchase of expensive materials (bulk tapes, components for specialist jobs, etc.) before the job can be started; in some cases it may be necessary to pay for these items in advance.
Quotes & estimates:
The payment due for a job will be the same as the amount quoted for a job unless:
- The job description was changed by the customer after the quote.
- There was no quote given, or, only an estimate supplied to customers.
- The cost of the job changed from the price quoted due to unforeseen circumstances. In this case the customer will be notified before continuing and exceeding the quote, unless the customer left prior instructions about exceeding the quoted price, or, there was an understanding, or a precedent set, with regular customers about authorising price increases.
Estimates are just that, an estimate. The actual job cost could be less than, equal to, or greater than the amount estimated.
Disputes:
- Customer dissatisfaction with a job will not be grounds for disputes in paying bills unless clear instructions from the customer were not adhered to. Customers, also, must pay attention to instructions from us, and we won't be liable for customers ignoring such instructions (e.g. that we need time to set up properly before we can film, locations need adequate lighting, we need to get mikes close enough, etc). We can't do a good job if you don't let us.
- Vague descriptions of job requirements, or, comments like, “I'll leave it up to you to decide how to do it,” will mean the job was completed to your directions, and comments after the event such as, “that wasn't what I wanted,” will be not be accepted.
- Later modifications to the job will incur all costs necessary to perform them, extra time or materials needed will not be free.
Customers should note modifying products can entail modifying more than just the portion required to be altered.
If the job was botched by my fault, accidents, or by uncontrollable external influences, my liability will be limited to correcting the fault (if it's reasonably possible), no other compensation is available.
Customers should understand that “live” productions are inherently risky (e.g. power or equipment failures can disrupt them). The only recovery option is to re-shoot. Complex productions should really be recorded studio-style, not live.
Video recording involves bringing in equipment and cables, customers must pay attention to where they're walking. We accept no liability for people tripping over things, etc., and we do charge for damage to our gear.
Cancellations/modifications:
You must make any cancellations or alterations before work commences, and with sufficient notice.
- Customers cancelling, or modifying, jobs will still be liable for all costs incurred up to the moment of cancellation, such as deposits, cost of any work already done, materials obtained that cannot by easily reused or returned, etc.
- Should the cancellation, or modification, be with short notice, lost income due to other job enquiries turned down for the same date(s), including wages to be paid to myself, or assistants who expected work that day, will still be payable by the client.
- Booking confirmation deposits are not refundable.
- Customers who disappear and become uncontactable after we have done production work for them, may find that copies of their production will be sold to the general public to recover our costs. The alternative is for us to take legal action.
Double bookings:
I don't take on overlapping bookings. If I'm asked to take on a job that conflicts with a prior job, I will refer the second client to take the job to one of my colleagues, or contacts, and the entire job will be handled by them (everything will be arranged directly between you and them, without me in the middle, according to whatever costs, terms and conditions that you negotiate between yourselves).
At times, I may take on non-overlapping bookings on a date, when I'm certain that both jobs are non-conflicting. However, if later on, a client wants to change the time of their job so that it will conflict with another job, they'll be asked to take their job to someone else (I will try to refer you to a colleague, or contact, but can't guarantee their availability). It's the client who changes the terms who gets to suffer the consequences, not the person who booked last.
Making an enquiry for a job on a particular date is not booking that date. If another client makes a committment to a job on that date before you do, they get the booking on that date.