Parents beware! Scooter's Fab Flashcast may be a scam service.
Through a Craig's List posting, we came in contact with Debbie and got an appointment at Scooter's Fab Flashcast office in Studio City.
We waited in the playroom, where we were being video taped for about an hour or so. At that time, I though they were observing our behavior to screen out difficult children and parents. Our child was having fun playing with all the toys in the room.
After a long wait, we were sent into Debbie's (Head Baby Scout) office where we were interviewed. She told us how the service worked and there is a one time upfront fee of $1500. This was a shock! In the information package they sent, there weren't any information about fees. I thought maybe they took commission from the booking. This is when the red flag went. When Debbie left the room to show some pictures to Carl (Carl Ken Carranza, CEO), that's when my wife whispered, 'I wonder if this is a scam?'. We knew we were being watched and recorded.
The casting call stated that they are looking for 20 new kids... 20 x $1500 = $30,000. Hmm, without other income sources for the company, will $30k cover all the overhead and payroll? Something didn't add up.
Next, we go into Carl's office where he is giving us the sales pitch. He tells us that we have a good of signing with an agent from his 'golden list'. He leaves the room saying the he wants to look at the video from the playroom. What he really is doing is listening to your conversations from the other room. He heard me saying "I don't make decisions on an empty stomach. Let's go get some lunch and talk about it."
Carl comes back into the room and we told him that we'll think about it. He says "why don't you go get some lunch and talk it over and call me back on my cell. I probably won't answer because I'll be busy. You have 'til 6 pm.
So I came home and started Googling 'scooter's fab flashcast'. I found PR articles (which they wrote themselves) saying they've been in business for 21 years and they are the number one entertainment service for young children and babies. I didn't see any negative postings but I was still skeptical.
I googled Carl Carranza and voila! He is a convicted felon for 10 counts of fraud for running the same business.
Read this report:
http://usacomplaints.com/reports/0/347/RipOff0347411.htm
TO BE FAIR:
I'm sure there are very small number of children who get booked through this service. Not everyone is going to get work in this very competitive industry.
If you are thinking about paying $1500 for their service, all you get is an agent from his personal contact list. There's no guarantee that having an agent will result in auditions or bookings.
It's like buying $1500 worth of lottery tickets; there's a slim chance of winning big but most likely, you will lose.
0 comments