Listen up folks, this is the first hit on this company and I definitely forsee the complaints growing. W Talent in Salt Lake City is an unprofessional, pretentious, wannabe New York or Los Angeles based business but were not in LA, were in Utah for the love of gosh.
Before I get into my personal bad experience with them, let me give quick background on them. They run their bizarre business like that of a gym. You pay monthly dues (A huge down payment which Ill get into) and get a little key tag which you use to get into classes which help further your chances of getting and sustaining work in either the modeling or acting business. These classes are diverse, ranging from Yoga to advanced acting and runway to a fitness bootcamp. Their building is lavish, with a huge main classroom, a beautiful reception area, mini offices for consultations, a gorgeous patio.
I was quite impressed. W Talent made a good enough impression that I decided to sign with them; this is in spite of the fact, and not to shout but I will put this in bold to better state my point.
You never, ever ever ever pay an agency up-front fees to be represented.
The ridiculous Agency cost of photos, versus the price you would pay for finding your own, qualified photographer is usually a very substantial difference in price. But, of course, they are no different than car salesman and get you hooked with a good presentation by building value with you and why their photographer is the best and how going to any other photographer is silly. I will later get into how unprofessional my photoshoot was.
Ok, so. Against the better judgement of my lover who saw right through them from the beginning, In June, I agreed to pay for my photoshoot and a month-and-a-half worth of classes and find summer work before I had to go back to School in the Fall in Phoenix, Arizona.
So the rundown was $1300 for everything with $300 down and $87 a month for a year until the entire $1300 with interest was paid. I agreed, stupidly, because I needed photos and I liked the premise of the club feel where I could take several classes to enhance my skills as an actor/fitness model.
Everything is still fine up until this point. My new faces director, a cute blonde who I felt a good rapport with got me signed and set up for my photoshoot which took place June 26th. My photoshoot appointment was for 12 noon and I arrived 20 minutes early. When I arrived I waited around for twenty minutes before ANYBODY told me I had to go to the very back for hair and makeup. I just stood around until I asked someone where the heck do I go. When I peeked my head back in the hair and makeup area, the girl doing makeup said, We have another? I thought I was done for the day. Whoa, rude I tought. So I waited around for an hour while she finished somebody else then it was time for my makeup application which took her literally five minutes then it was hair time and the hair person rubbed some gel in her hands, threw it in my hair, and I was done. Okay, these are the expensive hair and Makeup people?
Its now 1:30 and Im expecting my first round of shots to be anytime now, since Ive been waiting around. No, fat chance. The photographer, Art director, hair and makeup person all decide to break for an hour lunch, where yours truly waits around some more twiddling his thumbs. So Im called at 12, and didnt get started until 2:30! Great.
So my photoshoot was done and they said roughly 3 weeks. I understood this wishy washy time frame, I felt this was a reasonable time frame to wait. Nope, Its OCTOBER 28th and I still dont have my photographs.
I called in mid August to inquire and they said the photographs would be ready by August 31st and no later. Hmmm, that never happened. I called again and they promised by the second week in September. Never happened.
Getting a tad angry, I remembered one of the names of a fellow who was in my photoshoot and proceeded to find him on Myspace. Gee, sure enough he had all of his photographs in his own MySpace album for the world to see.
Hmmmm, where are mine?
Fed up, I dismissed any respect I had for W Talent and any integrity I felt they had. I immediately called up Paramount Aceptance, their bill collector, and I cancelled Septembers $87 payment. So after $300 down, and two payments of $87 (July and Aug) I wrote a letter to them stating that they neglected their commitment to me to return my photos in a timely manner. I further stated that they could keep the photos and I want my contract void.
The photographer wrote a letter explaining how backed up they were, but he failed to mention why others in my photograph session had their photos.
I emailed Evan Walker, the CEO twice to resolve this issue, Ive heard nothing. What kind of business is this? If I was CEO of a company, (A legitimate one) I would care what my clients had to say about my company and their experience with it. If I couldnt take the heat, I would get out of the kitchen and not be CEO of a company. DO I enjoy conflict of any sort? Absolutely not. I was raised very LDS, and still hold LDS principals true to my heart, especially dealing with people; Enough is enough, however. Anyone reading this would agree that THREE months without my photos is absurd.
Ive never even met this CEO, Evan Walker. Hes passed me several times when Ive been in their studio and keeps walking. Other agencies Ive been with the CEO will pass me in the hallway and say hello, welcome to my agency, glad your with us. But no, the majority of the staff walks around with their nose in the air. The New Faces director, whom I delt with, and signed with, was more than pleasant, but then again, she was getting a commission, so again, where is the integrity of W Talent?
After raising a stink they said they were backed up and that my comp cards were on the top of their re-touching list and that within 2 weeks, I would have everything, and that they would even market me in Phoenix.
That was a month ago and now were going on over 4 months without my photos. Does this seem right or fair to any of you?
The atmosphere in W is extremely unwelcoming and pretentious, and as I stated in the beginning, this is Utah for crying out loud!
I feel that my self worth as a model/actor was compromised due to the individuals W felt were more marketable. They made this blatant by putting my photoshoot negatives at the bottom of the pile.
Im sure W has done a lot of great things for a lot of great people, but for me they have done absolutely nothing, and I urge you to do research on this company before you make the big mistake of signing with them.
Think twice before signing with them.
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