Our son has been active in schooling for Acting and my wife received a little Social Security money. See saw an application for a talent search and filed it out on the internet. We recieved a phone call from One Source Talent saying they would "interview" him at 7 PM on a day. My wife and I are both in wheel chairs and both have MS degrees, but we have no background in acting or modeling. Our first mistake was been trusting and expecting professionals to help and know the talent and modeling field.
We showed to the agency, our son filled out an application which said One Source has confidntial information and we are agreeing not to film or take pictures on the premise. I noticed there are ceiling cameras around every room. After waiting way past our appointment time, we were escorted to a room with a group of chairs and a tv. There were other people sitting waiting. After waiting for another half hour the supervisor came in turned the tv off and immediately stated all phones must be turned off, all children kept quiet and anyone not able to meet these requirments were to leave. She stated that One Source was a national agency representing a massive client base. She proceeded to ramble a group of movies and also stated that One Source placed all of the people in Fear Factor. I wish I had a hidden camera or recorder, cause I now don't believe they represent anyone. She talked very fast and stated that the feild used 98% normal people for commercials rather then "bomb shell actresses". She also stated that they train, and refer people to a vast amount of movies, tv, commercials and Chicago was the major print city of the country needing a more models and actors than what is now supplied.
Each person was called for an personal interview and told weather they would qualify or not, "she said anyone that was obnoxis or not highly interested would be immediately rejected since the agency did not want to waste their valuable time. Our son was called and we could not go do to the room size and our wheel chairs. He came out and had a card stating he was accepted, but must attend another interview the next day. My wife and I suffer from multiple conditions and like all parents wanted to help our son succed. We pushed our selfs to go to this meeting and pushed our selves to go the next day. We were now absolutely exhausted. We met the next girl and she "interviewed" our son. We brought some pictures that they had asked us to bring and she left with them. She came back in and stated that her agency was interested in representing my son as a model and actor. We would only have to pay $495 up front and an additional $39 monthly fee which gave our son access to their database for searching for jobs. My wife signed "on the doted line". She said they have training for actors and models on Saturdays. She took my son out for "comp" pictures, which would he could print out at home and present at auditions. We were told our son was now a "Talent", an real ego stroke. We were handed a group of papers and told our son had homework to fill out all of his interests and talents.
He was to report again at a specified time and date.
When we got home that night we were exhausted and happy. I laid against my bed and read through the papers. I found he was to report and be prepared to pay for a Professional photographer. They had a photographer that was "successful and used specifically by them". They had a website for the photographer which had very little information and a flashy video. I then started thinking, that from what I saw of this talent agency, no models were around at all, no actors or agents working during this whole interview process, in fact there were no professional studio facilities or any room for actors to train. Only the room that was setup to take masses of people. Now we were to pay more money and this was the first night for our "Talented Son". I then started plugging search key words into the search engines associated with One Source Talent and 'problem, complaint, I also looked up the Better Business Bureau which showed 45 complaints but no information. I then found this site and found a lot of unhappy people with the same story and more information of the scam we walked "rolled" into.
One Source Talent wanted us to pay by automatic withdrawal, but my wife and I have never trusted the automatic withdrawal setup for any payment and instead paid by check. I got on line and put in a stop payment for our checks and we went to our bank this morning to make sure there is no way the "talent agency" could find another way to take money from our checking account since our check had the account information. We have been assured by our bank since we wrote a check, and put a stop payment on it, there is no way for them to take the money. I also tried to find about canceling contracts, but found little information, other then we must notify the people by registered mail. This morning my wife wrote a cancellation notice to the local and cooperate agency that we do no wish to use their services, they have no provides services in the short time, and they would not receive payment. Now we can only wait for months and see if their agency can get around our bank account and with draw money.
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