Originally posted by blueeyes76
yes, i read further back in the thread, i guess i just don't understand how you can say those kinds of things can be avoided. when you hire a dj, you specify the amount of time you would like for them to dj (5pm - 8pm for example). why should he not book another gig for later that night? he only has an obligation to the first gig until 8pm. i don't see how that is unprofessional.
...and in jen's case...the reception started late...totally not the dj's fault.
You're partially right. You do specify the amount of time. However, the problem would have been easily avoided.
I never even said "one event per day". I said that the DJ could have given himself a little breathing room. With proper communication, they could have avoided any potential miscues.
The nature of the beast, that you're all missing, is that this isn't a cut-and-dry situation. It's very normal for DJ's to be asked to stay over. Anyone with any kind of experience or professionalism would have eliminated any possibility of misunderstandings by asking the proper questions of the client. Or, he could have simply said "Now, I do have another job at ___PM, so I have to leave at ___".
That way, the client wouldn't have even HAD the opportunity to ask for extra time. What they did was book it to get the money and move on. They obviously weren't overly concerned with customer satisfaction or they would have tried to work something out. They could have even called their agent, or another buddy, to see if they'd come out and do the rest of the time.
The DJ's I work with try very hard to get good reviews because they don't get the work if I get complaints. When you're in this "market", and you are overstretched, maybe you don't care about customer satisfaction. However, the comments aired by jeneisen are very typical of what happens. One person has a bad experience and it amounts to a "bad rep" for the performer. You should do everything humanly possible in your power to avoid these kinds of problems because they can come back to haunt you.
I'm in a much larger market, with much greater demand, and it's rare that I encounter these miscues.
I had a DJ who was asked to stay over a few weeks ago. They wanted two extra hours. He had given himself a two hour window to get to another gig. He offered the client one extra hour as a compromise and they were happy with that. On another occasion, a reception ran late because it started late. The DJ, again giving himself a window of time, had about an hour and a half to get to his next appointment. On that occasion, he called me, I called another DJ, and while one was tearing down, the other was setting up. The second guy got paid extra, which he then kicked back an equal amount to the first guy because he had the gig in the first place.
It's just not as simple as you're all trying to make it out to be.
As far as DJ Brown, I think we can all agree that each person is entitled to their opinion whether others agree or not. For me, I choose someone else, for you, you might choose them thats fine. I was just curious as to if anyone has had any bad experiences with anyone else so I wouldn't choose them. Thats all.
