Complaint Review: Kids.com Justourkids.com

Liz,

Let me break this down for you and everyone else. There is only ONE way a reputable talent agency makes money. It's by getting their clients jobs, of which they then take an agreed upon percentage of what the job pays. PERIOD! They do NOT charge upfront fees on the manner of what justourkids and other similar places do.

The company here gets $695 up front. That's an awful lot of money for some crappy web pictures, and the false promise of high paying jobs.

As for you, you are only helping to perpetrate the fraud. And no, I don't believe you when you say you don't get a cut from them. Just doesn't happen in my experience. Like they say, birds of a feather.

Patrick,

Just so you know, we receive absolutely nothing from kids.com except a referral for photos. We have no contract with them nor do we receive any money from them. This is all on a "gentlemen's handshake". As for the customers that they send us. They are charged a very small sitting fee ($20 - our standard fee for this is $75). The customers are not required to purchase anything from this sitting, but it is offered if they want it. We then prepare the photos for the web site and send them over to kids.com for posting.

We are award-winning photographers and we offer these clients high quality photos at a very reduced rate that they would not normally have access to. I know what you are thinking, why do we do this? Well, we all need to advertise our work and we have found that this is a way to advertise what we do. Along the way we have met some very nice people and have formed some wonderful relationships with these customers. They know that they are receiving a special price becasue of kids.com, but they will also come back to us as "regular" customers for other photographic needs such as weddings, communions, graduations, christenings etc.

BTW many of our kids.com customers get plenty of work as a result of being on the kids.com web site. We know this because they are the ones telling us about their jobs, not kids.com. When they come in for their photo updates, they bring samples of their latest jobs.

I know how you feel and I probably can't change your mind, but understand kids.com is doing nothing wrong and they providing a service for kids who might not normally have a chance to get work. Don't be so quick to judge lest you be judged.

I agree with you Patrick. Do tell us, Liz, what is your cut from them?? Not only do you make money from them, but we have to pay a sitting fee of (approximately) $21 every time we come in for pictures.

You're right that not every kid gets a job but do they mention this to you before you sign-up? Of course not! They don't even give us the chance to read through the agreement before they pressure us in signing it. Not that's a scam itself. Put yourself in our shoes. How does it feel to pay upfront this much money and not having one call from them in almost 2 years?

I did some research on this company already. Looks like Mr. Alfred Bagwell has some major complaints and violations against his predecessor company, National Talent Associates. Not only that, he's operating in a business in the New Jersey without a license.

Maybe that's why they are going under a different company name (kids.com, justourkids.com) hoping that no one would know? If parents out there did enough research, they will find out that paying fees upfront for services that's not even guaranteed is a total scam.

We are only trying to make other parents aware by making these postings.

Liz,

You know as well as I do that ANY agency that asks for money up front for "photographs", "web listing", etc. is a scam. Sure, they may get work for the odd kid here and there, but most of their business comes from selling this "scam" to as many parents as possible.

Tell me Liz, how much is your "cut"? Hmmm? Did you know that any REPUTABLE talent agency will accept regular photographs of kids? I can go down to Wal-Mart and get their $4.99 special, and use those pictures. Don't believe me? Well, it's true, because I have done just that (after being ripped off by an outfit here that works just like Justourkids and getting my money back). We had to put out $0, get that, ZERO DOLLARS, to list with this agency.

Again, any agency asking for $$ up front is a SCAM.

I have written before about kids.com, but have found that my rebuttals are never posted. Maybe becasue they speak more truth than the complaintants letters. I have also noticed that you people keep posting the same old letters over and over but under different names.

Let's start at the beginning, I am a photographer that does work for kids.com and I can tell you first hand that their kids DO get work. Understand, not everyone gets called, but all parents are told right up front that there are no guarantees. The initial fee that the parents pay is for their child to be posted on their website - this is normal and very routine in the world of the internet. If you want internet exposure you have to pay for the service, so they are doing nothing wrong or unusual. I myself pay thousands of dollars each year for all of my web links.

Maybe it's time to reexamine these complaints before posting "sour grape" letters that are totally untrue.

Now let's see if you post this . . .