Maria Cook of Premiere Productions Inc. Promotes herself as one of the nation's preeminent event and wedding planners. However, upon closer inspection you'll find out pretty quickly that Maria Cook is actually one of the nation's preeminent event and wedding SCAMMERS of all-time.
As the Owner and President of Premiere Productions Inc. Maria Cook operates an event and wedding planning company that has a training school for the aspiring event and wedding planner. But on the surface nothing about Maria Cook and Premiere Productions is as it appears.
I would NOT recommend Premiere Productions Inc. To anyone. We hired Maria and her team to plan every aspect and detail of our wedding ceremony. She asked for all deposits and payment for all of our vendors and her fees upfront. We didn't find out till later that she underbid to win our business and promised things that she was not capable of delivering. Once the actual quotes started rolling in we were asked to pay a lot more than we were quoted by Premiere Productions Inc.
On several occasions we requested a formal meeting with Maria and Tara at their corporate office, but they kept suggesting we meet at a hotel lobby or coffee shop. We also noticed that Premiere Productions has changed their corporate address 3 times in the last 12 months.
- 11400 Olympic Blvd. Suite 200. Los Angeles, CA 90064
- 520 Broadway Santa Monica, CA 90401
- 125 Montana Ave Santa Monica #208, CA
We also worked closely with Tara Ward at Premiere Productions Inc. Every time we would call Maria and Tara regarding the status and details of our wedding, we could not get through to them. Maria and Tara were very slow in responding to our emails too so we began to get nervous and starting doing our own background check on Maria Cook and Premiere Productions Inc.
We found a lot of bad reviews on the company and approached Maria about it. Maria claimed that the negative reviews about here and Premiere Productions Inc. Were false. However, our experience and concerns with Maria, Tara, and Premiere Productions were consistent with what other couples have complained about so there was obviously merit and truth to the negative commentary and reviews that we read.
It wasn't long before several vendors went around Maria and Tara by contacting us directly regarding deposits and payments for their services. That's when we discovered that Premiere Productions Inc. Did not send the vendors our deposits and vendors. We requested a formal explanation from Maria and Tara, however I could not get a prompt and straight answer from either one of them. Maria kept telling me that she was only an Executive Director and that she'd have to talk to someone from the Corporate Office about it. When I told her that we knew that she was the Owner and President of the company she withdrew herself from any further direct communication with us.
We had to get our attorney involved in order to recover some of our funds back, but Maria still insisted on withholding all of her fees for the planning services that she did not actually provide to us. It also took her a very long time to pay us back after we reached a settlement.
Maria was obviously sitting on our money and could not provide a timely and accurate accounting of how any of it had been applied towards our wedding. BEWARE of Maria Cook, Tara Ward, and Premiere Productions Inc.
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