# Custom requests in chat: price, limits, payment up front

> How to handle individual requests in chat: what they should cost, why they are always paid up front, and how to say no without losing the customer.

Source: https://impulse.management/en/blog/custom-requests-in-chat/
Updated: 2026-09-18

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**Short answer:** Custom requests are always paid up front, always at a price named beforehand, and always within the limits written in the briefing. Break any of those and you lose either the money or control over what exists of you. A clear no costs you no customers — a hesitant yes does.

## Why custom requests need their own rules

A video made for one person sells for a multiple of what ready-made content brings. That is why it is worth doing. It is also the part where most can go wrong: there is no preview, the customer has a picture in their head, and production only starts afterwards.

Three rules head off nearly all of the trouble.

## Rule 1: Always up front

Nothing gets filmed before it is paid for. No exceptions, not for long-standing subscribers, not for "I'll pay the second I see it."

The reason is not distrust, it is arithmetic: a custom is work made for exactly one person and sellable to nobody else. If it is not taken, the time is gone.

The wording is short and friendly:

> "Sure, I'll make that for you. It's $80, and I'll start as soon as it's in — you'll have it tonight."

No "unfortunately", no apology. Payment up front is normal in this business, and explaining it is what makes it look like it needs explaining.

## Rule 2: The price exists before the work does

A price named after filming is a negotiation — and you lose that one, because the video already exists.

What works is a small, fixed ladder everyone on the team knows:

| Type of request | What to expect |
| --- | --- |
| Photo to order | small amount, quick |
| Short video (under 3 minutes) | mid range |
| Longer video, saying the name | clearly above that |
| Multi-part series | per part, not as a bundle |

Actual figures belong in the briefing, not in a public guide — they depend on niche, reach and country. What matters is the structure: laddered, known in advance, not haggled over.

Surcharges are normal and should be named: faster than usual, saying the name, a specific outfit, longer running time. Naming them in advance is not negotiating, it is describing.

## Rule 3: The limits are set beforehand

This is the part that is about more than money. What has been filmed exists.

Every model's briefing therefore carries a list with three columns: **yes**, **yes if asked**, **no**. The last column is not negotiable and does not get moved "next time". A chatter who receives a request from that column does not check with the model — they decline.

What a refusal sounds like without the customer leaving:

> "I don't do that — but I know what you're after. What I can make for you is …"

A no with an alternative behind it almost never loses a customer. A no without one sometimes does. A hesitant yes loses control.

## What else helps in the conversation

**Name a deadline.** "By tomorrow evening" beats "soon". A deadline means fewer follow-up messages and more trust.

**Ask before filming.** Outfit, length, how they want to be addressed — three questions in advance save a re-shoot afterwards.

**Never resell something that was custom.** A custom that later shows up in the general feed turns a good customer into a former one.

**Write everything down.** What was ordered, what was paid, what was delivered. Across twenty running conversations that is not memory any more, it is a list.

## Who runs these conversations

In most cases the conversations are not run by the models themselves but by trained chatters. That is exactly what the briefing is for: it sits between what a customer wants and what a model does. In our training this is a module of its own — price conversations, payment up front, and the no that costs no customers.

More in [Working as a chatter](https://impulse.management/en/blog/working-as-a-chatter-for-an-onlyfans-agency/) and [Setting your prices](https://impulse.management/en/blog/setting-your-onlyfans-prices/).

## In short

- Payment up front, no exceptions, friendly and without apology.
- Price before the work, laddered, known across the team.
- Limits live in the briefing; the "no" column does not move.
- A no with an alternative almost never loses anyone.

## Sources

- [OnlyFans: Acceptable Use Policy](https://onlyfans.com/acceptable-use-policy)
- [OnlyFans: Terms of Service](https://onlyfans.com/terms)
- [OnlyFans Help Centre](https://onlyfans.com/help)
- [Section 184b StGB — what is never produced, under any circumstances](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__184b.html)
- [Section 311 BGB — payment up front is an agreement, not rudeness](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__311.html)