I met Dana at Girls Day Out in Las Vegas Nevada about a year and a half ago. She was promoting a modeling audition in our area and seemed very professional. I set up an appointment for my children and looked around on line to see if there were any complaints about them. I even called some of their references to make sure they were real.
I did not find anything negative and really, not much at all about them so I went ahead to the auditions. She agreed to sign on my two oldest daughters (ages 14 and 15 at the time) wanting to place them in the February show (This was approximately mid May). When we were discussing the financial aspect, I expressed my concern over the time frame and the amount of money she wanted.
She seemed genuinely interested in the girls and thier potential, she gave us several documents for obtaining sponsorships and I again expressed my concern if the sponsorships were not available fast enough. She said if that if we needed to, we could roll over to the October show and that would give us more time to collect the sponsorships.
I agreed and she asked for my credit card. I was hesitant as I use my credit card to pay my mortage to build up frequent flier miles and do not have much room on it. She reduced the down payment and promised that it was against the law for them to put any other charges on it without my express consent.
I read the documents and questioned her about the credit card portion. She stated it was strictly for thier files and pointed out that while it stated a due date for payments, it did not say I was specifically authorizing them to be made.
I signed the paperwork and my girls got ready to scour Las Vegas for sponsors.in June, they had thier first meeting with the rest of the group. They brought home all the paperwork and began making plans for who they wanted to talk to and began writing scripts.
The eldest of the two girls ended up going back east to visit her natural mother for the summer and was not at home. I spoke to a representative from WMTC and they stated that was fine, the girls could roll over to the October show.
A couple of days later I found out 1200 had been placed on my credit card.in a bit of a panic, I called the company back, emailed Dana directly and left messages with several people.
I was told it was a mistake, that they wouldn't charge anything else to my credit card and that we would work something out for the charges they had already submitted, the important thing was that the kids didn't get removed from the program. I asked for the charges to be reversed. She said she would see what she could do.
We emailed back and forth several times over the next month trying to work something out. It was a very desperate time for me as the company I work for was laying off 600 employees of which I was one.
I reiterated the fact that I did not have the room on my credit card and that it was used to pay my mortgage which I was now unable to do. This caused me to incur late fees as well as other bank fees and one heck of an agrument with my husband.
I explained all this to her yet again. She stated she didn't want to cause me to lose my house or cause any issues in my marriage and that we would find a way to work it out. A few days later while I was discussing the issue with my credit card company, I discovered they had charged my account another $ 605.
I called Dana back and requested they remove these charges. I said I would pay part of it and chalk it up to experience, but that I didn't feel I should have to pay approximately $ 2500 for my girls to spend 4 hours in 1 class.
She refused to answer any more of my emails and I did not recieve any call backs. I took it up with my credit card company and sent in a copy of all the paperwork we signed hoping for some relief.
By the October / November, I was able to get $ 1800 reversed leaving the original $ 700 (I did not dispute the downpayment) I had agreed to pay. I thought that was the end of it. I got rid of all the paperwork and deleted the emails. Christmas week, $1800 appeared back on my credit card from WMTC. This charge placed me 1200 over my limit, wrecked havoc on my credit rating, and cost me a second fortune in fees.
I called the credit card company who stated WMTC submitted paperwork stating that since a due date was specified, I was authorizing them to bill me if I didn't make the payments in some other manner and since no payments had been received, they were intitled to charge my credit card.
I fought with the credit card company and was still not able to get any response from WMTC or Dana West. Eventually, I cancelled the credit card for fear that WMTC would begin wracking up even more charges. I entered thier back on track program which entailed my coming up with half the balance of the overdraft and they would extend my credit to cover the difference and negate any further overdreaft fees.
I obtained a second credit card and placed my portion of the difference on it, but by cancelling my credit card and going over the limit, my finance charge went from 9.9% to 24.99% Then of course the finance charges were higher than the minimum payment and I am constantly struggling to avoid another overdraft.
At this time, I am still trying to pay this debt off, am selling my house to keep from losing it, and still never did get any further response from Dana West or WMTC, Inc. I gave up fighting it around January - then I found this site and decided to submit this travesty.
Ironically, while we were in her office, I commented that I was worried something like this might happen and she stated that since she is the host of a popular TV show and her name is well known that she would never take a chance on doing something that would cause any kind of negativity to be associated with her name or her company.
She is a very personable individual, and I believed her.in the end, she suckered me into ruining what I have worked so hard to achieve while teaching my girls that there is an ugly side to the business industry and that some people have no scruples at all.
Chris
Las Vegas, Nevada
U.S.A.
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