I am curious how others handle a situation like what I have. Sorry little long.

I had a client/business (who used me once before 2 years ago) reach out to me in September about booking me December 16th. I had it available and they reached out and wanted that spot. The specific contact person was the head of the HR department. Anyway, we had a phone call and some how wires on one side or another got crossed and after I sent an email titled "Magician Booking December 10th" and the first line of the email is "thank you for your booking, I will have you down for 12.10.23 at 6pm-8pm, with a contract with the booking date "December 10th,2023". I am not sure if I accidentally switched the date or the client did during our call but she printed out the contract, signed it, filled out the section for the address (which is right next to the date) as well as contact phone for the day of the event. Never once did the client say the date was wrong. They also forgot the deposit, so reached out in October with another email titled "Magician Booking 12.10.23" which also says "I wanted to reach out about your booking on the 10th of December. I have you down for 6pm-8pm. I received the performance agreement but I was just missing the deposit to have you confirmed for the 10th". LOTS OF VERIFICATION ITS DECEMBER 10th...

She paid it via a paypal request that I sent that also said December 10th, 2023.

Man, I was really convinced by this point I had a show on December 10th 6pm-8pm.

December 10th comes, I show up at the address 30 mins early (apparently the business owners house, not the HR person I have been talking to) and it is the DEADEST party I've ever seen. Nobody was there and house was dark. I rang the ring doorbell, double and triple my address. Its right. I call the number on my contract, no answer. I text it. No answer. I think "OK, last time it was at there office, maybe there is an address change for the event." So I google it and its 20 mins away and I go. Nope dead. Finally about an hour after my gig is sposed to have started I get a response "its the 16th... You got confused and got the wrong date..." I just sent her a pic of the contract she signed. She says, no I originally asked for the 16th.

So obviously this party ain't happening and I head my 1.5 hour drive home. I send an email the next morning basically saying, 'I'm sorry but you signed a contract with the date 12.10.23 and I am no longer available the 16th due to a prior performance and I do have to ask for the final payment'.

She responds that really, its both are faults but its ok, I can keep the deposit and they'll use me some other time and are willing to grace me with a new deposit when they rebook. I was pretty livid, they wasted my time, booked the wrong date highly requested date. The deposits purpose is that I turn down all future business for that date, and I have a late cancellation policy in my contract that says 20 business days. I fulfilled my end of the contract, they negged on theirs and I believe they have to pay considering the terms of the contract. If she wanted the 16th she had 3 months and a plethra of email and a contract to change it, but she printed and filled it out completely.

I really wanted to send a nasty email but I have a mother whos president of finance and a sister who does consulting in SEO, I asked what they thought. They made me realize I only communicated with the HR person, she will prolly lie to her colleagues and get rid of me to cover up HER mistake. They said, "expect a call the 16th where she asking where you are to pin this on you." So I sent an envelope via priority mail (with tracking) that contained an INVOICE (with an interest clause) the contract she signed directly to the head accountant. Arrived yesterday.

I am now supposed to wait 15 days, if I get nothing, I send again with accrued interest. I may end up in small claims court. Because I have a contract this should be rock solid, and because I am an individual and they are a company they apparently have to send a lawyer to represent they which will cost them more than just paying me...

What I learned:

1)For highly requested days, get full payment ahead of time. Its not that weird. They pay you and hope you do a good job, you don't do a good job and hope they pay you.
2)ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get that contract signed
3)Invoice, you can always charge interest designated by your state, but you can also put late penalties as well in your contract ($5 each day past due)

I figured I was building trust by doing a smaller deposit but really I was setting this up to happen. I have all 5 star reviews on a variety of sites, 14 years in and never had so many last minute cancellations or this sorta thing happen.

What do you all think?

Let's please help this guy with real insight and not just opinions and theories. This is important and is a serious business issue for him. I'm traveling right now and will offer my assistance soon. The workers here should be more than wiling to help.

Hey BK_Magician


I’ll let others with more magic experience than me answer, but from reading the first few words, I am curious, is it possible that you got the dates wrong, sent the contract with the wrong date, and now you’re saying they should have caught the mistake?

Not saying it's partly your fault, and maybe I am reading that part wrong. And I agree they should have caught it. But either way, if it were me, I personally would think this one through before doing anything to hurt a relationship with a second time client.

I do wish you the best with it.

Tom

Thanks for the detailed background of the situation and transaction, but it seems there is some you are leaving out.

Nothing in the correspondence you sent ever said the 16th, you yourself said I had a client/business (who used me once before 2 years ago) reach out to me in September about booking me December 16th.

She called and inquired about the 16th. It seems you are the one first using the December 10th date.

I know this sounds weird, but most people do not read the contact, performance instructions, or a rider carefully at all and certainly not as detailed as we would like and expect. Hence the Van Halen brown M&M story that is so popular as it was put in the rider for the sole purpose to know if the contract and rider were truly read and understood.

Also, did you ever contact the venue to confirm arrival and setup details? If you would have this would have come to light at that point. Also, did you call the booking contact the week before or earlier in the week of to re-confirm arrival and setup details? This too would have brought this to light.

When you have a system in place for the booking process, including the pre-production process, things like this are prevented.

Did you create the contract fresh from scratch or did you copy and revise a previous contract? Could the date have remained from the original contract if you did?

Do you have the Lead Sheet or notes when the booking came in? Can you refer to them? (this is why I have all of these documents in my Entertainer’s Business Toolkit e-book for just this purpose).

I would try to backtrack to figure exactly where and how this occurred. I hate to say this bit I’m betting it was probably an error on your behalf. Yes, they (or you) could have caught it on all of the correspondence, but neither of you did and it became an oversight.

Another issue here is we are responsible for conducting business properly. When they book us they are not just booking our performance but the business and process associated with it. This is why they book a “professional” rather than “Uncle Joe.”

It seems that this error started with you the way I see it.

It is unfortunate but this seems where everything went wrong and any miscommunication started.

I understand you are livid, but it seems this is primarily your fault which, while you may be upset and frustrated, it does fall on us as our responsibility. As I always say, how we conduct business is just as important as our show. It reflects our professionalism, image, first impression (in many cases), and our reputation.

This is also why the advice offered here needs to be real entertainment business insight and advice and not just opinions or theories.

Moving forward I would work to have a better system in place to prevent this and/or catch this if this was ever to mistakenly occur again.

I would be surprised if they pay the balance due if it was in fact an issue that originated with you and your confirmation mistake. Although I understand your anger, I wouldn’t pursue a small claims court filing either unless you can prove it was an error or default on their behalf and not at all you.

If this wasn’t you, having a proper system I place will still hopefully prevent this from ever happening again.

Also, consider the greater picture. They seem, at this point, that they are willing to accept at least a partial responsibility and offered you to keep your deposit AND are willing to (it appears) book you again with another deposit and payment in full. So the question I pose to you is by making this an issue are you preventing hundreds or thousands of dollars in future bookings with this client and continuing a business relationship? Something to really consider.

I've shared the story here before that I once booked a magician of ours that didn't perform a trick that he had on his demo video. Because of this it cost us $1,000,000 and we lost the client for good.

Yes, I get it you blew one of the four prime Saturdays in December and probably the year. And I get it hurts financially, and I get you are pi**ed, and everything that goes with all of this. But take a step back and look at the bigger picture form a business perspective. If you choose not to want to work with them, and want to remain steadfast that the fault was on their behalf, then do what you feel you’ve got to do.

It is really a decision you have to make, all I am saying is to make it from a business perspective and with an all-encompassing perspective in mind.

I've done thousands of shows, and whenever I send a contract (as a follow up to a phone conversation), I always put the day of the week (ex. Saturday), along with the show date date. I also put the day of the week in the subject line of the emails, along with the date. This is one small step that can help prevent a mix up of dates. Sunday, December 10th LOOKS DIFFERENT from Saturday, December 16th. Whereas, a 6 and a 0 can look somewhat similar, depending upon the font. So, a 10 could look like a 16 at a casual glance.

Also, I ALWAYS call and confirm a show a couple of days in advance (I tell the customer during the initial booking process that I'll be calling them a couple of days before the show "as a confirmation, to go over last minute details". If I have to leave a message, I ask that they call me back. I remind them of my arrival time, set up and pack down time, show start time, what I'm doing, how payment works, see if they have any questions, etc. During that confirmation call, sometimes I have to remind them of points in my FAQs, which is a document that I send to them and hope that they read (but they might not).

- Donald

P.S. Here's a question that I haven't seen answered... When they called you in September to book, did you write down December 16th, and then accidentally send paperwork with the other date of December 10th? (Are there notes in your paperwork of the correct date, as far back as September?) Or, did you only find out for the first time about December 16th on December 10th?

100% your fault for not touching base week of the show. That’s just common sense. I do that for a show that’s five minutes up the road let alone one that’s 90 minutes away.

This sums it up for me.

People make mistakes. If you were more understanding of this mistake you would have a had a customer for life. Now, by your chosen course of action, you most likely have alienated this customer, and you still may not get paid! Yes, you have the legal right to collect with interest, but following the letter of the law is not always the best thing to do in business considering the big picture.

IMHO it would have been far better to politely explain, especially because of the time of year, the importance of getting the details correct next year. And as I said, you probably would have had a customer for life, which is golden in this business.

I’m curious about your e-book would you mind letting me know how and where I can find it, I’d like to check it out. Thanks

Hey BK, I'm not a lawyer, but I do have some input.

You mention at the beginning that she called you for December 16th, (or
may have), that acknowledgment is inconvenient.

As Ken and others have pointed out, approaching this the way you have has a
high chance of souring the relationship. You mentioned you got a deposit,
assuming it's 50% is that other half worth losing a client perhaps worth
thousands of dollars?

I think the most important part is at the end, you say you have all 5-star reviews, are
you sure this amount of money is worth giving that up?

Being known as the guy that sues people isn't great for business.

Yelp: "I hired BK for my company party on December 16th, but he wrote down the wrong
date of December 10th on the contract. He shows up that day when there's no party,
asking where we are. I said dude, it's the 16th, you got the date wrong."

"I figure okay mistakes happen, but he sends me a picture of the contract, demanding
I pay the rest, I'm like no way! I'm already letting him keep the deposit for HIS mistake.

"So, he sues me, trying to collect that and interest, the judged laughed him out as soon
as he acknowledged it may had been his mistake. Anyway, don't work with him unless you like
people who get there early... 6 days early... and then sue you. 1 out of 5 stars."

Not saying that's how it would go down, and if I drove hours, I would be mad likewise, but
are you sure you want to risk spoiling your positive reviews over it?

Good luck either way.

No way! I'm almost certain he did not get a 50% deposit. He likely made the mistake so many performers do with repeat or return customers thinking "oh I'll only ask for a $100 deposit" or some smaller amount due to knowing and having worked for them previously.

This is always a bad business move. I could see this coming a mile away. I think this is why this stings so much to him, in part, because of this small deposit issue. At least he did have a contract.

You say you learned 3 things. I see far more lessons than that in this situation. If you learn them then this can be a worthwhile experience.

Take notes on every phone conversation and every interaction you have with clients and potential clients. Keep them as one file, but file each event as its own file within the larger file.

Get deposits that mean you’re happy if you get the date canceled. For me that is 100%. Certainly for Christmas this is true.

You need to have a better confirmation and booking process where all this is covered and there is no possibility of miscommunication. There should be more than place where this would be caught. Part of the service you’re providing, or in my view should be is the hassle free nature of what you do. Putting responsibility on them is an odd choice in my view.

That is a few lessons. Many more are salable.

As Danny mentioned, having an email go out before the gig is going to be really helpful moving forward. Getting your "pre-gig" funnels in place is really helpful.

I always have one automated in Mago titled, "We're 10 days away!" and contains the confirmation of all basic info, and requests for things like programs, floor plans, parking instructions, etc.

Superstars have agents and business minded people around them for a reason. But the average magician has to wear all those hats, and sometimes it’s hard to know when to switch hats and think outside your own circle. I have probably spent more time seated behind the business desk than I have spent standing in front of it. And I know from experience that the two’s priorities are not always the same. The businessperson behind the desk has many different things going on at once. When dealing with invoices, payrolls, inventory schedules, employee problems, budgets, and many more things; sometimes it’s best to leave the details up to others around you. His Mom and Sister were right that he was most likely dealing with another person. I think he could probably win in court but as others have pointed out, it would kill all future deals and maybe hurt in other ways too, sometimes it’s best to just count the loses and move on.

Tom

The truth is being a professional (part-time or full-time) performing magician encompasses all of this, like it or not. If you aren't willing to do this you shouldn't be a professional performer. Simple.

Bingo.

Oh you would be surprised at how many professionals are not professional at what they do. It is astonishing to witness the lack of professionalism displayed by many professionals across various sectors of the business world. I’ve hired many self-employed that did a good job, yet they lacked a lot as for as calling themselves a professional businessperson.

And maybe it's just me being ole fashion, but I’ve always been customer service driven and believed its more than just doing the job. I can remember preaching to my employees that they need to listen to customers with both ears. Because when you don’t, it’s easy to forget how important they are or even who the real customer is. Even today I am amazed how some businesses treat the customers. Still, like most customers, I rarely complain I just quietly start shopping someplace else.

Tom

What happened to this?

My father was right. He used to tell me that everything before the word but came out of the North end of a Southbound horse.

Then again he was ole fashioned and did what he said he would.

Hello all,

My first post in a number of years..
But I wanted to give a practical answer as well to help everyone out.
First, how much was the amount lost? My approach is for any lost payment $600 and higher.
If the other party fails to pay and you have exhausted attempts for recovery. Send them a nicely worded email saying you will be sending them a 1099 for the missing amount. Your accountant will know how to do this. You are a business and that's a bad debt. treat it accordingly. If they don't want to pay you then they can pay the IRS. Good luck.

Hope all is well.

He can’t even prove it was their fault. Your proposal is to 1099 them for what is most likely his mistake?

Nobody ever do that please.

And incidentally a contract is always construed AGAINST the person who drafts it. If they show up with a lawyer you will get nothing, lose a client and waste even more of your precious time. They most likely have a lawyer on staff so it costs not much more to send him to court.

Don’t even THINK of sending anything to the IRS. You may be hearing from them for decades after you do something like that.

Danny,
Maybe I misunderstood the situation. Doesn't he have a contractual agreement? If so and the service was rendered, then why not? And if he takes the loss with a valid contract after rendering his service, that only lowers his future worth.i just gave the perspective of someone who values his worth and work, but to each their own.