My fiance and I were looking for a little extra weekend work that we could do together. We thought it would be fun to do some work as extras on TV shows and movies. My fiance found this company, Universal Talent, in the newspaper offering work for extras. She called and scheduled an appointment to get a little more information.
Well, this information gathering session turned into a full fledged high pressure sales pitch. I will admit that I should have gone with her, but for some reason I honestly thought they would just be giving her information. Well, she was pressured into signing a contract with them and giving them $600 for headshots and acting classes.
Later that night we did some research on the company and found out that they had numerous complaints with the BBB and were featured on three different websites as a disreputable company. Obviously we were quite upset and set out to cancel the contract and get our money back. My fiance had not gotten the headshots taken and had not gone to any acting classes, so the company had not done anything yet for the money that she had given them.
However, they were unwilling to refund the money, because she had signed a "non-refundable contract". They said that the money was already spent on the photographer and the teacher of the acting classes. They must have thought we were idiots and we would believe them that the money was already spent.
When I read the contract, $500 of the $600 they charged was for the headshots, WHICH HADN'T EVEN BEEN TAKEN YET. They said they paid for the appointment already and the money was gone. I approached the photographer and asked him how much he would charge to make an appointment to take headshots and he said $30, so I asked Universal Talent to refund us the full amount less the $30 they were out for making the appointment with the photographer.
At this point someone named Joe, who works there arrived and started cursing me out. When I asked why he was cursing at me he replied, "because you are f*ing pissing me off" and at this point approached me in a threatening manner and was less than an inch from my face. Choosing not to engage in a fight with two men, one of which had 100 pounds on me, with my fiance present I decided to leave.
Only after we threatened to call Dateline NBC and call the police on our way out, did they agree to refund half of the deposit. I do not wish the hassle this company has caused us on my worst enemy. Make sure you do your research before you do business with any talent/acting agency.
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