This weekend, I had a birthday party gig pop up at the last minute.

My DJ controller was in the repair shop at the time. Since I didn't want to spend a lot of money to rent or replace it, I thought I could just DJ off my laptop. I figured most people don't really care anyway as long as you're playing songs they like.

But then I realized I needed a mixer, so I bought a cheap one from Fry's, but the sound quality was so bad that I decided not to use it. So I rented a controller from Guitar Center at the last minute, but it died on me during the event, so I had to resort to plugging my cell phone directly into the speaker and playing YouTube videos off my phone the entire night. I was literally sitting on the floor next to my speaker and playing music off my phone the entire time. This is the worst technical malfunction I've had to date.

On top of that, the neighbors called the police and the sheriff showed up at their door.

I was so embarrassed about this whole thing that I didn't even want to charge them. They said they would still pay me but they haven't yet and I don't know if they're ever going to, but I'd rather lose that money than get a bad review from them. I was thinking of sending them an email to apologize and tell them they shouldn't feel obligated to pay me.

However, during the event, people were still dancing the entire time because my song selection was on point. I've done this enough times to have an idea of which songs work and which ones don't, so the dance floor was packed the entire time and several people complimented me. The client didn't seem upset and never complained but I was really, really disturbed by the whole situation.

What should I do now? Should I ask the client to pay me? Should I send them an email to apologize and tell them not to pay me? Or should I just leave it alone and not contact them any further unless they initiate?