My wife and I along with our 8 month old kid were shopping at the Woodbridge Mall on Sunday (Aug5th) when this lady approached us and asked us if we were looking for a modelling career for my son. She gave me a visiting card. A few minutes later she came by and asked if they could contact me and asked for my phone number. I gave her our home number, she asked me if she can get a cell phone number too. I gave her the numbers.
I got a call the next day, Monday. I couldn't take the call, they left a message asking us to call them back regarding my son's modelling career. I got 2 such messages by evening, so I called them up late in the evening, they set me up for an appointment at their edgewater office for Tuesday evening at 7PM (next day). I was asked to bring couple of identifications for my son and some photos.
I didn't want to cancel the appointment so drove with my wife and son to their office. I live in central NJ and it was 75 minute drive for us with the traffic. I was asked to fill some information about my son which we did. Within a few minutes a lady approached us. We made a friendly conversation with us, passed some nice comments about my son, took us to her office, she said she was the Director. She started showing us some photos of their child models and explained about all their models and what they do and other stuff.
She then asked me for two identification proofs for me and my son. I showed my son's passport and I handed over my driving license and the second one was my American Express credit card. She took them and kept them befoe her.
So far so good, She then put a paper before me that explains all the different photo shoots they have, I was not sure what do to, my son was becoming crancy as we had a long drive in the traffic. The expensive photo shoot was for $1500. She asked me which one I would prefer. My wife turned to me and said she don't want to do this as it is very expensive. The lady heard that and started convinsing us that it is a very good option and we should atleast go with one of the options and it will help our son's career and blah blah.
I wanted to get out of there but not sure how. I finally agreed to the $1350 option. She took my credit card in her hand and before she swiped it asked once again if we want to go for $1500 because its just $150 dollars more but will give more exposure with more shoots. I nodded my head not sure what to do. I always thought that we could cancel it if we didn't want to do it.
She swiped the card for $1500. She asked me what will be the right day for us to schedule the shoot. We said we were busy the next couple of weeks, so immediately she suggested why not on the coming Friday evening same time (which was like 3 days from that day). I was not sure what to say, now that we already committed to pay the amount, I nodded. She entered the date and time marked a few checks and told me that since we don't have much time for the shoot, if for some reason we can't make it for the shoot, she will post pone it without any issues. I thought that was reasonable and initialed at 2 places that she pointed me.
I was stupid not to read the paper and believed her that she was telling me everything that was on the paper. Well, there was this section at the bottom that talks about the cancellation policy which I didn't read. It said that there will not be any refunds.
I wanted to come out of the office as soon as I could as my son is becoming crancy.By the time we came out of the office it was about 8PM. After reaching home we started disussing and decided that we should cancel the shoot as it was very expensive and we didn't want to drive back there. It took us 1 and half hour to come back from edgewater with the traffic. We decided to drop off this modelling idea. It was too late that night to call them as they close at 8.30PM.
I called them up next morning at 9AM asking for the director that we met, she gave us her visiting card. They said she was not in office and asked me if I have any message for her. I told them that this was regarding the photo shoot appointment for my son. After an hour I got a call from a lady who said she is the manager of the person who I talked to the day before. I explained her everything. She asked me to go through the paper work and pointed me to the cancellation policy, that's when I realized that I was in trouble. She said she could postpone the shoot but will not authorize to refund the amount.
I said I don't want to postpone it and wanted a refund. She bluntly said she is not willing to refund it as I already signed the contract. She told me she was going to call me in the evening and will let me know what she can do. She called me in the evening (Tuesday) at 4.30 and said she can only postpone the shoot (which she already told me in the morning) and will not be refunding the amount.
I said this is not fair, she said she is being fair to me by postponing the shoot and asked me if there is anything that she can do as if nothing happened so far. I got off the phone. I got a call after 30 minutes from the office saying that the person is from customer relations department. He said that he could get me a refund of $750 dollars. I didn't agree with him.
I called up the credit card company and disputed the charge. They blocked the amount and after 30 days (just today, Sept14) I got the letter from them along with the copy of the document that I initialed stating that they will not be able to credit the amount. I called them up and explained them again, the representative reopened the dispute again.
I was searching over the internet to find out if I can get some help and came across this website. I hope I can get some advice or help to get my money back. I feel sorry for all the people who got rippedoff by this company.
Lesson learned, never initial anything unless you read no matter what situation you are in, even if you pay by the best protected credit card. I hope my experience will be a lesson for others.
Dharma rao
PISCATAWAY, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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