Michael Moss Photography

Photographer reneged on agreement, placed unreasonable demands after initial payment; refused to refund when demands were flagged as not agreed uponPhotographer [redacted], recommended by friends who had engaged him some five years ago, had initially informed us he would charge us $999 for the shoot and about $500 for travel to and accommodation in [redacted] where our shoot in Sept 2014 was going to be. He instructed us to pay the $999 upfront, and give him a separate check for the flight and accommodation portion after he has done his research "as early as possible" and made those bookings. This was all in March 2014, documented in our email correspondence, which I've kept on record.Two days after we signed the contract and he received the initial $999 payment plus taxes, [redacted] became unresponsive. He did not reply to emails dated from March 14 seeking a video call session for further discussion of the shoot. He only responded once in May after the third email to say he preferred emails, and then ignored the next one, only reappearing in July, when asked how much to put down in the check for flight and accommodation. With less than two months to our shoot, [redacted] abruptly changed his tune, saying now that we, the clients, were responsible for those bookings, and demanding that he stay in a hotel that is "four stars or better", specifically, the [redacted] which cost $430 a night, and insisting we pay for all his cab fares. Even though there are four star hotels in [redacted] with rates starting at $200, he called $200 a night "unacceptable" and even rejected an option that was $350 a night.None of these new demands were stated in the contract we signed. The contract had made no mention of the type of hotel, hotel rates, or cab fares. Nor had we ever agreed to do the bookings he was the one who had instructed us to wait for him to do the bookings and send him a check after. We were shocked that he was informing us of these changes in plans so close to the shoot date. We have email correspondence that document all of these.Worse, we had been trying to reach him between March and July but he was the one who had been unresponsive since receiving our initial payment. When we raised these points to him that these demands had not been agreed upon and were a reversal of his original instructions, which we copied from previous emails to him he ignored us, insisting that we meet his new and unreasonable demands.We then asked him if we could cancel the shoot, seeing as how he was now imposing demands we had not agreed to, and how we were now unsure if he would spring further demands on us during and after the shoot itself. But [redacted] refused. He insisted there is no refund policy, and refused to acknowledge that the contract was moot if he was seeking demands that were not part of it at all.It has been an incredibly painful and frustrating time dealing with this photographer who is not only unprofessional, but also unethical. Had he bothered to respond to our emails between March and July, we could perhaps have closed an eye and tried to work in or around his new demands with more time, but as it is, it feels as if he planned to hold our $999 initial payment hostage, and make use of the fact that we have very little time to go before our shoot to coerce us into acceding to unreasonable demands. We are lodging an official complaint with the Revdex.com overseeing the area his company is located at, as we do not want others to fall prey to his conniving and legally questionable ways. We cannot see ourselves continuing to work with this photographer will be opting out of [redacted]' services and cancel the shoot. We are seeking a full refund of the initial payment made to him plus taxes (see next section).We would be happy to provide all our email correspondence and all the contract materials to the Bureau for your reference and investigation. Please let us know how to proceed.Desired SettlementWe are seeking a full refund of the initial payment we had made to [redacted], which was $999 plus taxes and "shipping", amounting to a total of US$1,081.43. As he has kept our money since March 2014, we are inclined to seek compounded interest as well, but will relent and simply seek a refund of the $1,081.43 payment. He has done none of the work that the above payment had been for the shoot has not commenced, and neither had he started planning. There was no itinerary put forth by him, nor any travel or accommodation plans made by him. He has essentially done nothing to deserve any payment.[redacted] has, in fact, cost us so much in time and money. We have spent hours planning on our end to make this shoot work. We have also purchased several items such as attire and props, as well as our own flights in preparation for this shoot, none of which we will be able to recoup. We are no longer based in [redacted] and had already purchased flights from [redacted] to [redacted] It is also too close to the shoot for us to seek another photographer on top of our busy schedules with our respective day jobs.He has caused us much grief and frustration that has taken an emotional and physical toll on us. We have been unable to get proper sleep over this, and have been constantly worried he would spring more unexpected demands on us out of nowhere, affecting our work performance and our relationships with our family members and friends. But as we do not want to waste even more time in litigation over these that may take longer to quantify, we will be focusing our settlement on the very simple fact that he owes us at least the initial payment in full, including taxes and shipping, of US$1,081.43, for having done absolutely nothing to merit any payment.Business Response This couple signed a contract that stated clearly, "no refunds" and that "our travel costs must be take care of".Our "demands" were simply to stay at a hotel that was nice and in a safe area because of the amount of valuable gear we carry around as photographers.We finally agreed to stay at a cheaper hotel and asked for our cab fares to be covered. Not too unreasonable I don't think.Also for the record we gave this couple a $1500 discount to help offset their travel expenses when they booked us and signed their contract.I"m sorry they feel the way they did but we run a business, not a charity.Consumer Response The photographer [redacted] still fails to understand that it is not about the amount, but about the way in which he conducts his business that is highly unprofessional.His demands were not "simply to stay at a hotel that was nice and in a safe area" but to specifically stay in a hotel that is "four stars or better". That is very, very different, and to conflate the two is quite a stunning feat. Is the photographer saying there are no safe and nice hotels below a certain price point, and that price is the sole determination of the safety of a location? That is absurd logic.It is also not entirely true that "we finally agreed on a cheaper hotel" he omitted the part where, when he finally consented to the [redacted] which we informed him was $350, he called that a "down grade". This despite the fact we were about to pay more than what he had thought The [redacted] cost ($320). We quote directly from your email:"Since we are down grading the hotel, I'm going to have to ask you guys as professional courtesy to cover my cab fares."He claimed in one email that $400 is too much, but then also went on to say that $350 for the [redacted] is a down grade with respect to the hotel (the [redacted] he had thought was charging $320 a night. Beyond the lack of logic in his reasoning, the bottom line is we did not have any obligations to provide a certain type of hotel for his stay, less so a hotel "four stars or better". These demands coupled with his unprofessional and contradicting manner, such as in demanding that we make the bookings despite having earlier told us that he would be handling that and getting us to issue he a check, were hard to ignore.From an email of his dated March 2:"The travel expenses are due when we have to purchase the travel. Basically, once you book and all that is official I will start researching the travel to book as early as possible. I will then let you know the amount and you can send a separate check!"As you can see, [redacted] instructed us to pay for the shoot upfront, and give him a separate check for the flight and accommodation portion. He said he would do the research "as early as possible" on flights and hotels and make those reservations after we booked the shoot. This was all in March 2014, documented in our email correspondence.With less than two months to our Sept shoot, [redacted] abruptly changed his tune, saying now that we, the clients, were responsible for making the travel bookings, instead of sending him a check after. In the four months from March to July, he had neither given us an itinerary nor made any other concrete plans with us about the shoot. He claimed after the dispute came about following his new demands about travel that he had given us a discount, from $2400 to $1000 for a 6 hour shoot. But nowhere in our earlier correspondence was this ever mentioned, and I can all of that in their entirety for any examination. It appears that [redacted] chose to put forth claims of the "discount" at a time convenient for him to use as leverage in gaining more out of a couple who had already been putting up with some of the most unprofessional antics seen in any service.[redacted] has steadfastly refused to refund us despite having done no work for this shoot. His argument is we cost him other business opportunities, and hence our payment, should payment for that. He cost us much more than business opportunities, but his worst damage is probably on his own reputation. Insisting clients pay 100% upfront for the shoot, then turning much less responsive after you've gotten the money; waiting till there is less than two months on the clock before the shoot to start changing plans and demands; leaving clients with little choice but to cancel or stick on with an unreliable and unreasonable vendor with little time to go that's quite a way to do business and get easy money. It is certainly the type of business anyone can do without. Final Business Response We understand that people go through tough times financially and that is our only reason to think this couple would try to get out of their contract.Unfortunately for us, we have lost business for the dates that this couple had booked with us turning away many potential clients for the specific days they had booked us for.It is because of this we regret we are unable to refund their money.It should be noted we repeatedly tried to make things right and provided them with a $1500 discount in order to compensate them for the travel charges that they agreed to cover anyway. We did not have to do this but we did out of our sensitivity to their situation.We can provide the signed contract and our record of emails as proof if needed.We wish this couple all the best in their future endeavors.