For reference, I am a freelance photographer. The family I worked with yesterday has been a loyal client for 6 years now and are amazing, which is why I feel awful having to ask for more money but was underpaid by over $200.

Every year we do a 1-2 hour session, which we did again yesterday. However, my rates increased this year so when the mom began writing a check to pay, I misspoke and told her $225 (the price for a 30-minute mini session, not 2 hours). On top of that, she is old school so I always deliver their photos via dropping a flash drive off at their house vs my usual online galleries - so I add on a $25 fee to purchase the drive and for the travel expense. I mentioned the $25 add-on as I was telling her the new rate so she may have confused the $225 as already including the flash drive fee.

Here are the two opposing facts that are keeping me on the fence:

  • I did forget to disclose the increase prior to the session because I hadn’t even thought about it, so yesterday was the first she was hearing of it.
  • My rate was $300 for 1-2 hours before the increase, so she can look back at old emails and see the price before the increase - making it clear I did make a mistake. Updated rates are also on my public website.

So, what should I do and how should I approach this?? Or should I just bite the bullet and leave it be since they’ve been a longtime client and I didn’t inform them about the rate before the session?

  • Asleep_Onion@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I won’t repeat the advice about eating the loss, since that’s already been made pretty clear and you seem willing to accept that answer.

    I’ll just add one thing, you should consider the fact that the client might refer you to other people and mention how much they paid for it, causing those people to expect a similar cost. So you may want to consider letting the client know that you accidentally gave them a great deal by mis-charging them, and that while you are not asking for any additional money, please just keep the actual normal cost in mind when making any referrals or writing any public reviews.