"mr c deckard" wrote in message ...

here's my question to the panel: how realistic would it have been to
walk in to the mess of pitched up tracks and no tech and demand the
deposit back and cancel the whole thing?

Tough. Except for the mix days, the client had to work to pay the bills,
so thier schedule truthfully had little to no flexibility. Prior committment
is why the two of them could not afford to travel to Dallas.

i know the studio owner comped you a day, and the band would've been
out the airfare...

....And there were certainly no contingencies read into our agreement as to
what would occur in the event of a forced cancellation.

...and it's hard to walk away in the heat of the moment,

As it damned well should be. Pass up the experience to learn and whine
to the client instead? No way.... time for a rabbit from the hat and another
cup of coffee.

but talk about having the tables turned against you.

The odd thing is, that I see most of my mistakes pretty clearly now... but at
the time I was trying to be as efficient as possible. (We had not yet given up
on the owner of the facility actually managing to help us get started).

anyway, best of luck, david.

I'll wish thak luck on the client...

Believe me, we huddled up to make this "Quit now" decision several times,
and each time the owner would finally return from some 'errand' or other
reason to have dissappeared, and would swoon us into staying with another
phone call for help.

I had already established a good hourly charge in Dallas should we have
been forced to 'fold' on the spot, but the producer half of the client could
not come to Dallas for the mixes.

The deposit for the Montana room was clearly non-refundable.

--
David Morgan (MAMS)
http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com