I was driving home from work on Thursday and heard an advertisement on Y-100 for a chance for children to be the next Zack and Cody or Miley Cyrus etc. The Advertisement dropped names such as Dee Binder and indicated that she was searching for new talent. My son has been told on several occasions that he had"that look" and the "personality" for this type of work. So I figured, what the heck, why not take a shot, it would be fun for him and interesting to get some feedback.
We called the number and were told after describing our child that he sounds just perfect and he would be auditioning for 3 different entities, TRK, Disney, and Nickelodeon. Sounds perfectly legit... Right? Well we were told he does not need any professional pictures, just a body shot and a head shot and he needed to be dressed nicely. We showed up for his "Audition" and all we heard was a 2 hour long sales pitch. We were told by Kim Flowers supposedly the National director for JPR that this industry takes determination and how she was turned down hundreds of times herself and how her family spent over $100,000.00 on her with no regrets. She emphasized that they would be meeting with everyone, (but mostly parents) for 1-3 minutes because they know what they are looking for and that is all that was needed for them to make up their mind... Oh yes plus a "cold commercial" reading.
Well let me tell you, they barely spoke to my son, and were more interested in hearing about how we could pay them anywhere between $1,950 - $10,000.00 for their school to groom our child for auditions. She made a brief reference to this dee Binder and that was it.
The building they were located in appeared to be a location that was rented for the weekend... Very high class and impressive. Once I made mention that I was not looking to pay money to a school, I was under the impression this was an audition for dee Binder searching for new talent her demeanor changed, and we were rushed out of Ms. Flowers office.
I did some research on Kim Flowers and John Powers and have found all kinds of lawsuits, rip off reports as well as the fact that she nor JPR has any affiliation with Dee Binders ordisney, Nickoleon or any one else they purport to represent.
I think it is horrible to build up a young childs expectations of going to a real audition for even a tiny chance to get something out of it only to find out that they never had a shot to begin with because scam artists were just trying to get thousands of dollars out of hard working individuals.
Shame on you Y-100, a station so many floridians here listen to and trust. Shame on you for supporting this faulty advertisement and promoting people like Kim Flowers and JPR! Please reference some links below from others that were taken advantage of.
Http://usacomplaints.com/reports/0/322/RipOff0322945.htm
http://usacomplaints.com/reports/0/425/RipOff0425204.htm
http://usacomplaints.com/reports/0/211/RipOff0211548.htm
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