Israel sounds brutal ... glad I'm not trying to do business there. The only time I ran into that sort of aggravation was for a major French client. Cordial socially, but not so much on the business end.It was the other guy that said they do nothing for the commission, not me.
What I expect from any client is: treat me with respect and civility, take responsibility for your own decisions, and pay on time. I don't think that is too much to ask. Almost all my clients do it naturally.
Again my experience with US and UK agencies was fine. In Israel I've had some bad experiences. I do think that charging 30-50% on media buy is a contributing factor to the organizational culture of this industry.
I have a problem with stylists - the only ones that exist here charge an arm and a leg and also give the attitude that goes with it. This is because they all work in the advertising industry. If I want good styling for less than $1000 a day and with no attitude, I can just forget about it.
Payments here in the US are on flexible scale. When smaller agencies produce larger TV jobs, 1/2 the money has to paid to the Production company up-front, and the balance before the images are released to the edit house.
I'm on a 30 day payment schedule with my clients ... but they are often quicker depending on their payment procedures internally. I just finished writing, shooting, and supervising the edit for three 30: TV spots and six 10: promo tags for a local client ... paid in full in 15 days. Fat vacation money!
Wedding, portraits and such are all paid up front before I do anything. I have a shoot coming up that requires stylists, and I just told the subject/client to secure the two stylists themselves after I approved the choice ... so the out-of-pocket cost is no issue.
Talent was always handled by the Ad Agency because most talent had to be SAG-AFTRA and follow their guidelines, which was then handled by a talent paying firm based on the media run.
Sorry for tagging you with the "do nothing" quote ... but what I said still stands, regardless of who said it.
-Marc