Can you send an invoice for services you originally offered for free?
A man posted in the “Am I the ***hole” group, wanting to know whether he and his wife were wrong for sending an invoice for a service they initially were to offer for free.
Too Entitled or What?
So, the original poster (OP) and his wife own a printing company. His wife’s cousin was having a wedding and asked them to do all the printing jobs, including banners, guest books, signage, and life-size cut-outs.
The OP says that they gladly offer this service, free of charge, for their friends’ weddings and events. So, they had no problem offering this bride-to-be this service that otherwise costs a lot of money for any wedding budget.
The wedding is fast approaching, and the wedding planner reaches out to the OP, asking to have the items delivered by a specific date. At this stage, the OP and his wife have not received an invite to the wedding. He says he did not even know when the actual wedding date was!
OP’s wife texts her cousin to try and understand when the wedding was and if, for some reason, they missed the invitation. The bride-to-be’s reply was shocking, “Oh, we downsized the wedding, and we decided to have a close friends and family thing and that we don’t have space for you in the small venue.”
This hurt and insulted the OP and his wife, considering how much materials and time they had invested in printing items for this wedding.
The OP further notes that the bride-to-be and her fiance kept sending in tiny revisions, asking for samples, and resizing the items. You can only imagine how much time, resources, and effort went into all this before creating the final products.
They even delayed other paid orders and worked late because they considered the bride-to-be a close family and friend.
Frustrated, they decided to bill them and ask for payment before delivery. Still feeling kind, the OP says he was not looking to make any profit from this, so he just charged for the material used.
Threats Left, Right, and Center
After sending them the bill and asking them to pay before delivery, the OP says they have been receiving lots of threatening calls from the wife’s cousin, her fiance, the groomsmen, and even his wife’s family members, who doesn’t even know.
After all the harassment, he says he has been considering asking for the full price, not just the cost of materials.
He says he does not see why he should waste his time and resources on somebody who doesn’t consider them “close family or friends.”
Is he right to change the service from a freebie to a paid one?
What Reddit Users Had To Say
One commenter suggested that the OP’s wife should have replied, “Sorry, we had to downsize the discount to cover close friends and family only.”
Another one answered, “Yeah, I say go ahead and charge full price. Their behavior is straight-up tacky. NTA.”
Another Redditor said, “Or spell it out since this girl is not too bright. You downsized, and we are not attending; therefore, we won’t be giving a gift. Please pay for the materials. Because you are family, we are not charging you the actual cost, which would be X; if you don’t pay, we will charge full price and pursue the matter in small claims court.”
Seemingly, OP offers this service as a gift for weddings to close friends and family. It could be a good way for couples to save money on their wedding. It, therefore, does not make sense to offer this service to a wedding they would not be attending.
Do you think the OP was right to invoice the bride-to-be and ask them to pay before delivery? Are they wrong for shifting from giving freebies to charging for the service?
Read the original post here.
This article was produced and syndicated by A Dime Saved.
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Originally posted 2023-04-03 09:48:01.