We were scoutedat the Scottish Festival in Westbury in early fall 2012 by two young women whosaid they were scouts and that our toddler daughter would be a great childmodel. They gave us a card and took down our information. We received a callwithin a few days to come in for an appointment. Since a number of our friendsand family members thought that our daughter would be a great child model evenbefore we met these women, we figured that there was no harm in meeting withthem. The waiting room was a mad house, tons of kids of all ages.
This was thefirst red flag, we felt like a number - it's definitely a high volume business - we didn't feel special. We met with a friendly but high pressure salesman whosaid that our daughter would be great for certain high end clients, showed us aclient list and said that we definitely get work and asked us to sign acontract with a deposit on the spot. We then were asked to make an appointmentwith a photographer, asked to come back to review the photos and then sign anagreement for on line promotion to agencies via gigacomps.com for up toseveral years. Thank goodness we chose the 6 month package for $500, the lowestone available, to test them out.
Scam tactics and loss of money aside (we should have searched the internetfirst before signing contracts, our fault), my main complaint with them at thispoint is that they have not done an ounce of work for their money. The firstweek, the threw us a few 'bones' and we got calls to be an extra on a TV showfor $85, excluding the agency commission, where you would have to wait aroundin NYC on the sidewalk for up to 12 hours or more. As any parent knows, it istotally unreasonable to ask a 2 year old to do this and would be abusive. Plus, if you leave early, you don't get paid. The next thing that happened was that Ireviewed our gigacomp model card and noticed inaccurate information that Iwanted changed, which impacts the database model search process when lookingfor eye color. After asking them 3 times to change it; they never did. They gotus one desirable modeling interview in 6 months and it was only because Icalled them to complain.
Finally, I have been trying to call them for over a month and all I get, nomatter what extension I dial, no matter what day of the week (they are nowclosed Mon and Tues), I get a voice mail that is full and can't get a liveperson. This is truly a scam! They have probably gone out of business or are introuble of some sort! I was hoping to atthe very least recover our investment with modeling gigs, but at this point, Idoubt that will be happening.
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