Complaint Review: Model Talent Development

We were scouted at the Scottish Festival in Westbury in early fall 2012 by two young women who said they were scouts and that our toddler daughter would be a great child model. They gave us a card and took down our information. We received a call within a few days to come in for an appointment. Since a number of our friends and family members thought that our daughter would be a great child model even before we met these women, we figured that there was no harm in meeting with them. The waiting room was a mad house, tons of kids of all ages.

This was the first red flag, we felt like a number - it's definitely a high volume business - we didn't feel special. We met with a friendly but high pressure salesman who said that our daughter would be great for certain high end clients, showed us a client list and said that we definitely get work and asked us to sign a contract with a deposit on the spot. We then were asked to make an appointment with a photographer, asked to come back to review the photos and then sign an agreement for on line promotion to agencies via gigacomps. com for up to several years. Thank goodness we chose the 6 month package for $500, the lowest one available, to test them out.

Scam tactics and loss of money aside (we should have searched the internet first before signing contracts, our fault), my main complaint with them at this point is that they have not done an ounce of work for their money. The first week, the threw us a few 'bones' and we got calls to be an extra on a TV show for $85, excluding the agency commission, where you would have to wait around in NYC on the sidewalk for up to 12 hours or more. As any parent knows, it is totally unreasonable to ask a 2 year old to do this and would be abusive. Plus, if you leave early, you don't get paid. The next thing that happened was that I reviewed our gigacomp model card and noticed inaccurate information that I wanted changed, which impacts the database model search process when looking for eye color. After asking them 3 times to change it; they never did. They got us one desirable modeling interview in 6 months and it was only because I called them to complain.  

Finally, I have been trying to call them for over a month and all I get, no matter what extension I dial, no matter what day of the week (they are now closed Mon and Tues), I get a voice mail that is full and can't get a live person. This is truly a scam! They have probably gone out of business or are in trouble of some sort!

I was hoping to at the very least recover our investment with modeling gigs, but at this point, I doubt that will be happening.