What doesn't impress me...

You'd think that videographers that are employed directly by court reporting firms would have a decent grasp of what we do, but now I have to question that belief. Had one such operator last week who had problems with my audiotape backup. I trust videographers with my backups, so, as is my usual practice, I didn't run my own. The guy told me at the conclusion of the depo that he'd have to run it at the office and he'd send it right out. I said if he'd get it into the next day's FedEx and send it directly to my scopist, that would be fine. I even offered to put it on my FedEx account!

Three days later my scopist calls to tell me she hasn't seen the tapes yet. I call the guy up, and he informs me he was too busy to do it by the day we agreed to, but that they were going out that afternoon, which was a Friday. We discussed delivery options for Saturday, so I didn't lose a full five days of production time, but he didn't want to foot the bill for that. We agreed to send it out FedEx.

Now, when most people in the free world say "FedEx," that means get it to me next business day, not the low-rent, slow-boat method. Ever-lengthening story short, he sends it second-day FedEx, I guess to save the $3.00, so now the audiotapes get to my scopist a full week after I took the job. Bear in mind that counsel taking this depo was a client of the CR firm for which he works.

Well, we all know how this ends. The day the tapes finally get to my scopist is the day attorneys start calling looking for the depo. Those that know my bashful nature can surely guess what my response was when that call came in from the CR firm.

"A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him." - David Brink