La Bene Vita

Morons. I'm surrounded by morons.

I don't know if talking about it will make me feel better or worse. I'll leave the names of the companies out of the story until after resolution, at which point I plant to plaster the name of one of the companies across as many venues as I can possibly find.

We (MTMS  ) bought an advertisement. We've purchased print ads and Google ads, but this was an actual video commercial, slated to run for a number of months at a local movie theatre. It seemed like a good venue, since the people who go to movies are families with children, and teenagers. But the ad is very expensive, and we're inexperienced at this sort of ad.

Definitions:
"Production" makes the commercial.
"Venue" runs the commercial.
Zach is my marketing guy. He makes things look good.*
Chris is my finance manager. She pays the bills.*
Angela an MTMS site manager. She is my second-in-command.

*Zach and Chris do much more than this, but these are the functions critical to the story.

Summary:
Venue stopped into MTMS one day to drop off information and spoke with Chris. Venue is giving us a lot of perks to try this out, because they want to prove how much business it will give us. We have had minor problems with Venue, but overall, we like them. Production is a royal pain in the ass.

First Quote Iteration
Venue sends a quote to Chris: $3000 to run the ad for a period of time, plus $450 to make the commercial. We evaluate other options for making the video but cannot beat the price of $450. We agree to move forward.

Second Quote Iteration
Venue informs us that we misunderstood. $450 is the price to upload a commercial that we provide. If we want them to provide the commercial, the cost will be $800. Zach asks for confirmation that the total cost out of our pocket will be $3800, and that there will be no additional cost to upload the video. Venue confirms. Chris signs a contract and makes a $600 down payment to Venue.

Third Quote Iteration
Production is a third-party company secured by Venue, but we must sign a contract directly with Production. The contract arrives: $800 plus a $200 travel fee. Zach forwards contract to Venue with reminder that we confirmed a total cost of $3800. He follows up several times but receives no response for several weeks.

Michelle Gets Involved
I sent an email to venue asking why we have not gotten a response. Venue sends a long, very nice apology and explains she has been trying to reason with Production to agree to waive the travel fee, but Venue is inflexible. Venue offers an extra free month of run time. We accept, and Chris signs the contract with Production.

It's All About the Money
Production contract includes a payment schedule: a portion up front, a portion on the day of filming, and a portion upon delivery. Production asks for the first payment, and Chris asks for an invoice. After some back-and-forth and confusion, Production sends an invoice via PayPal ("request for payment") for the wrong amount, which Chris pays. Chris notifies Production that she will be out of the office, and that nobody at the filming site will have the means to make a payment on the day of filming. She requests that the invoice for the filming day be submitted early. No invoice is received on the requested date. Several invoice-related emails pass back and forth between Production and Chris in which Production seems to miss many requests and is generally lacking in attention to detail.

Ad Copy
Production writes the worst ad copy I have ever seen ("Invalid Item"  ). Zach, Chris and Angela agree. We even question whether English is this person's first language and send an email to Venue asking for the qualifications of the advertising company. Venue does not reply. Meanwhile, I poll my Writing.com friends to help with a rewrite, and we submit something much better to Production. Production agrees to use our copy.

Filming:
On the day of filming, Production arrives and spends several hours filming. She seems extremely friendly, and Angela and I feel bad that we questioned her qualifications. She is very efficient and flexible about the order of activities, and her cameraman seems to be very good at getting great shots. This is the company's one redeeming quality, and it's evidenced in the shots they ended up using in our final commercial.

However, some emails and payment information went back and forth between Production and Chris. I either was not copied on the emails or did not bother to read them on the basis that Chris is highly competent and doesn't need me rubbernecking her.

First Draft:
Production submits the first draft. The commercial consists of our ad copy spoken by one of our teachers, while scenes of teachers instructing our music students flash across the screen. The shots are genius, always showing the kids having fun and the teacher being very encouraging. Near the end, a "slide" (like a Power Point slide, just a graphic with information on it) flashes on the screen. The scene closes with a group of children and staff shouting our tagline, "You can't stop the music!"

Venue replies before we do and suggests that the slide is too busy. She suggests limiting the information to our two locations "Polaris Campus" and "Gahanna Campus", our web address, and social media logos. She also suggests changing the background from white to the tan color we use in our marketing. Venue reminds us that we only get one free revision.

Angela replies internally and says the slide is too boring. I no longer have access to it, but it was a white background with our logo across the top, and words in black listing our physical addresses, web address, and possibly some other information. Angela thinks Zach can make it much more attractive.

I reply to Production: "...we have all reviewed the video. We agree with Venue's suggestions, and we have no additional requests. Since we only get one edit request, can we see the "slide" before you incorporate it into the video, or just let Zach do it so we know we'll be happy with it on the first edit?" (emphasis added)

Production responds "...Please send Zach's creative content / image,  and we will incorporate it right away."

Zach sends this:

** Image ID #2007844 Unavailable **

Second Draft:
Production sends second draft. Like the first, it is submitted in the form of a YouTube link, posted in Production's YouTube account. I reply and say, "...we would like a copy of the actual video ad file. How do we receive that?" Production replies that they will send a CD and an electronic file.

I did not approve the revision, and in fact, did not even review it.

Production also sends an invoice. Chris asks if she should pay it. I reply that we have not received the final product, so hold off.

Deadlines:
Wednesday: I was at a funeral all morning.

At 2:30pm, I saw an urgent email from Venue stating they needed our final ad by noon or we would miss our deadline, and would I please follow up with Production. I apologized for the delay and explained I had been at a funeral and suggested for future reference to contact my staff for immediate replies.

At this point, I realized that I became the primary point of contact when I sent an email to Venue about their three-week delay in replying to Zach.

In the reply, I also copied Production (in addition to my staff) and asked if there was a reason for the delay. Production explained they were waiting for payment, and "The ball is in your court."

I replied: "Nobody made me aware that we would miss our deadline if you didn't receive payment yesterday. I'm very disappointed in this news."

Venue agreed to extend the deadline until the end of the day.

Production asked if there was any reason I could not make payment by the end of the day.

Disclaimers
Because my next response was the crux of the ensuing problem, I should explain that I never saw the contract, because Chris reviewed and signed the contract. 

Also, Chris requested that Production send all invoices and documentation of completion to her, and yet, once I got involved, Venue and Production kept sending things directly to me. And remember, our Production lady is a bit lacking in attention to detail.

Also remember, I had spent the morning at a funeral and arrived home to an email that indicated I'd already missed a deadline. At this point, I was headed out to work, and it was 3pm. One presumes that "end of day" is roughly 5pm, and I would be on the road for at least a half an hour. And, in breaking news, my Gahanna receptionist had just called out sick. I was supposed to teach in Polaris, so we were scrambling to figure out what to do about coverage.

I call that "frazzled."

My reply: "No, I can probably make it happen, but considering it's the beginning of the month and my staff all have high priorities on the 1st and 2nd day of the month, it's definitely not convenient. I think this is a very unusual business practice. Most of our vendors give us 30 days on invoices. We only just received the invoice yesterday. To require payment the same day as an invoice is issued is unheard of."

After sending the reply, I called Chris and told her to pay the invoice. We chatted briefly about our frustrations with Production.

The Nastygram:
At this point, if you're still with me, you might be interested in the whole reply by Production. I have included it below. Remember that I am her customer. If any of my staff treated a customer this way, with screamy all-caps and all, they would be fired.

I also can't stand all the "I pray" remarks in the middle of an obviously angry email. It's insincere and gives the church a bad name.

Nastygram ▼

I pray all is well. If you have reviewed your contract electronically and in PayPal, the terms are clearly outlined.
You can google or search standard business practices in this industry, and yes we require payment at various stages.
Furthermore, I am very taken by your misunderstanding due to the delay at the previous stage of $200.
In addition, Venue and I both clearly made you aware of times and the impact of delaying could have.

I pride myself on being VERY professional, and understanding.

We DO NOT operate on a NET any terms, and that is what we all have agreed to in this matter."

My business constituents all carry the same terms.
Now perhaps my expectations that you understood what you signed off on were that you were clear.

In over 20 years, I have not had anyone misunderstand and blame it on “UNSUSAL” business practices.

I pray that you take a closer look, as that’s why we do agreements.
Sometimes people may forget what they sign, and that’s understandable.

This is simply not a personal, but business matter.

The value you are getting carry’s a higher cost than what you have agreed to pay.
In an effort to further help you understand, I hope you receive this in a sincere fashion.

I take my work serious, and don’t pull any unknowns on anyone.

In closing, you delayed in each payment stage as well, and there seems to be a pattern here.
All clients which we have delivered on for Venue carry the same terms and have no problems paying.

Understand, the ball is in your court!

Very Sincere Regards,
Production

Luckily, I was busy with the reception problem and didn't see the reply until later. Meanwhile, Chris had read and replied to the email, and warned me that it would make me angry.

Reply from Chris ▼

As a reminder, I sent the email below requesting the payment invoices be sent to me so they could be paid in a timely manner.  I told you I needed to pay the $200.00 invoice early because no one at the shoot on Thursday would be able to make the payment for you..."}  You did not allow me to do that so you didn't get payment until I was back in the office.  Sorry if that was inconvenient but if you had responded to my request you would have been paid 24 hours early.

The agreement that I signed said:  50% Due at Delivery $ 400.00.  I was planning to pay when the ad was delivered. As far as I know the ad has not been delivered.  Again, I'm sorry if there is some confusion over this but I was expecting an email or some type of acknowledgment that the ad was indeed finished and delivered.  I have completed the PayPal transaction to make payment I hope we get our ad delivered in a timely manner.

In Gahanna, I update Zach and Angela. They state that they never saw the revised video, and I realize that I never reviewed it, either. So we watch it together.

OMFG, WOMAN!?

Right in the middle of the ad, we see this lovely slide:

** Image ID #2007845 Unavailable **

Are We Done Yet?
I notify Production that she used the wrong slide and referred to the email where she agreed to use Zach's slide. She referred to Venue's suggestions. This person is quite possibly the worst communicator I have ever encountered:

Michelle: "...we just realized that you didn't add the slide that Zach emailed you. We need that corrected. We made it perfectly clear that we wanted the slide that Zach sent you in the video."

Production: "Per the feedback and instructions Venue provided combined with Zach’s image sent below, What part of the instructions did not occur? We used the image Zach sent as shown below, and incorporated the color change. Which do you prefer now? We got instruction to change color in background to your color in logo. In either case, what do you want. Please send this right away!" (bold/font size are hers, not mine)

M: "Zach made the slide, and we wanted you to use it exactly the way Zach made it. Please correct this."

P: "Will do! Please confirm you do NOT want the changes you stated you agreed to from Venue on 8/28."

M: "We don't want any changes to Zach's slide, none whatsoever. We wanted it exactly as he sent it to you."

P: "Thanks! Updating!"

......now, who wants to bet that we get charged for a second revision?