talkmagic.co.uk

Sorry Im having a rant....cos Ive had all my December Bookings canceledl me in the last hour..........BL*******DY MUGGLES

Im fuming.....

NON REFUNDABLE DEPOSITS

from now on in

The clause regarding deposits I have on my contract is this:

2. In the event of the PROMOTER wishing to cancel a booking any deposit that has been paid will be forfeit. If the cancellation is made within 14 days of the performance date full payment will be applied for by the ARTIST.

(Promoter and Artist are defined at the beginning of the contract)

I always take a 50% deposit before I will accept any booking.

Yeh I ususally agree something but this was through a friend and so I made the mistake of trust and have now lost alot of dolllars

Have had the same thing happen to me in past years....and like you, it is usually those that you "shouldn't" need an agreement with that come back to haunt you most....I now demand that an agreement is done and have varying degrees - depending on the size of the booking - of deposits, cancel times, etc.....but request it of all my bookings.

A simple way to get it done with out offending freinds, etc...is to have the service agreement/contract included in the "booking sheet" wich forces them to fill in venue address, approximate number of guests, etc, etc....put the blanks for the questions throughout the agreement and tell them to fill in all blanks and get it back to you....the one blank is for the deposit amount of % that they fill in, as well as a signiture blank. They always go through it to read it and find the blanks and read them to fill them in....they will usually just attach the deposit cheque and sign at the end of it all. Puts it into their hands rather than you asking for it.

I tell them that I do all my scheduling, planning, routine building, etc...from the forms so "please fill them in as fully and accurately as possible"

when I used to be in a band we'd always ask for a 25% nonrefundable deposit and if the venue cancelled on us with less than 2 weeks to go we'd charge the 50% of our fee. Cancelled with less than 24 hours notice and we'd charge the full fee.

50% in advance + (when travel is involved) proof of ROUND TRIP fair and acceptable accommodations on the other end, etc. Deposit is refundable (less 35%) within 30 days of making the booking but will not be refunded is less than 45-days away from scheduled date. The only exception would be "Act of God" which does show up every now and then thanks to weather or in one instance a major Earthquake and in another, the hotel burnt to the ground... (I really think I jinx things...)

With Act of God we encourage rescheduling and in most cases, will offer an extreme discount on the balance due or donate it in the name of the client to a charitable cause related to said incident. This has always proven a potent selling point.

Even with fundraising programs INSIST ON A DECENT DEPOSIT! Such groups are notorious for canceling and not letting you know. I insist on $300.00--$500.00 no matter what, which is held against ticket sales (which gives them incentive to sell seats vs. sit around thinking a few flyers and signs will bring the people in.

Anywho... that's how I used to deal with it all.

Great advice Craig!

.:Ham:.