I took Mike's class Level I early this year and thought it was great. I have been out of the acting for a while and was fun to get back into it. All was well, however, when i signed up for Level 2, it was 8 months later. Not such a good experience.
I signed up with Mike's Commercial Class Level II and gave him a $40 deposit over the phone from my credit card. I took the first class and in an oversight, forgot to make another payment to him on that day which I didn't realize until he called. Was one of those things where your brain just thinks, i just paid $40 deposit so my next payment would be the second class. Even though i had been through the class before, my mind just had a complete and honest oversight. And that's the bare truth.
Mike called me on Monday morning at 8:29am and asked me about collecting the $45 payment from Saturday. His message was Hi — , it's Mike at Hey I Saw Your Commercial 323-939-4612, calling you about a payment, I need at least a $45 payment from you, you left a deposit of $40 for level II and I need at least a payment of $45,323-939-4612, please call me to make arrangements. Thank you.
I called him back at 6:30pm that same day (was sleeping all day due to an overnight shoot) to give him a payment and at the same time, saw that he had already tried to charge my card not even a half an hour after leaving the voicemail message. I was given no chance to call back and "arrange payment". My card had not approved it, thankfully. I found out from the bank that he had tried to take $170 the first time, and then ran it again for $50. (Neither of those payments were what he asked for in his message, the $45 amount due.)
In that conversation at 6:30pm that Monday, he said he is so used to being screwed by actors that he'll just charge the card he has. So I can only assume he does this to other people without telling them as well. I told him I would see if my bank would reverse these fees and get back to him.
The bank said i'd have to file an affidavit of credit card fraud. I left a message on Tuesday at 1pm and asked him to call me to discuss. I had not heard from him for 2 and a half days so I sent him an email to discuss our options of making this right. I was trying to be nice and give him the option of reimbursing me the fees so I did not have to file against him for credit card fraud. He chose not to address that issue in every email and instead, slandered my honesty implying I left his class without paying on purpose. I would never do that. I am the most honest person you will ever meet. You can ask anyone who knows me.
Mike was rude and talked about bending over backwards for people. Well he certainly wasn't bending over backwards where money was concerned. As long as you pay of course you're fine. But one moment of forgetfulness and he could care less.
I even told him that on his policies and procedures page he could write a statement that says, if payment is not received the day of class, then I reserve the right to charge the credit card on file. He said Actor's don't write my policies, I do.
If we all get together and sue him to get his credit card abilities revoked, he won't win in court. Just because you give a credit card for one payment, does NOT give him the right to charge it again, UNLESS he tells you he will do this somewhere.
It was jaw dropping at his immaturity. I chose not to respond to his last email. I have always felt that the person who has the last word, is the one who doesn't respond anymore. I don't need to correspond anymore to people who can not own up to their faulty actions. I owned up to missing the payment and explained it, he never addressed the issue of running my card without my authorization. All he kept saying was "you left without paying". Therefore placing blame anywhere but himself.
Bottom Line. It is illegal to charge a credit card without someone's permission!!
0 comments