Fee for providing lost images?

[haring]

Hey Guys! I am a wedding photographer. A client contacted me recently who apparently lost her wedding photos. I shot her wedding 9 years ago.
She asked me to find out whether I still have their images. It would take me a half a day to go through all the archives.
My question: Do you charge a fee for providing images 5 years after you shot a client's wedding, portrait session, etc?
If yes, how much and how do you explain the clients that a fee is involved...?

Thanks a bunch!
Otto, Miami

 

[ricohflex]

Finding the photos is a very simple task. Especially on a computer.
You already know the name of the client and the approximate time of her wedding photo shoot 9 years ago.
That narrows down the search parameters. It makes the search extremely simple. There are specialised search software.
Why would you take half a day to search? It should take 5 minutes at most to do a computer search. Actually only a few seconds.
And remember she is YOUR client. Out of the tens of thousands of professional photographers in the US, she chose YOU.
Does that mean something to you? I hope you realise that.
If you charge a fee for this, then you are not very smart. You seem overly calculative about money.
This is the time to impress her with AFTER SALES SERVICE.
If she is happy with your effort to help her, she may recommend you to her friends or relatives.
If you charge her for this, then it is the END of the customer relationship.
She will not come back to you again for other photo event occasions.
Unless you are the within the top 3 photographers in US, why should she after a money grubbing bad experience?

 

[haring]

I agree. It is always great to hear other opinions.... Thanks!

 

[Octarine]

If the customer has misplaced / lost a set of printed images then it would be open and fair to charge the costs (only costs) for reprinting. This way they will get the same quality as what you have initially delivered. Soft copies (USB, CD/DVD) should be free, it wouldn't look good charge efforts here.
In other words: the first impression matters, the last impression stays.

 

[haring]

Thanks so much!!!