Complaint Review: Texas Choice Pageant

Sandi Maxwell is a scam artist!

I initially put my daughter in pageants 5 years ago at her request. I had heard of Texas Choice Pageants though a Facebook Pageant page and advertised what seemed like amazing deals. The Sign up or "$25 get you started" sounds affordable but when it comes to the day of pageant there will be a balance fee that ranges anywhere from $50-$150. And if you want to put your daughter in optionals (OOC, Patriotic, Pink Wear) that is $25-$50, Best Smile, Hair, and Personality $10-$25, Overall $25-$50, wristbands $10-30. So when it is all said and done for a preliminary pageant you are looking to spend on average $200-$250. State $250-$350 and Nationals $500. And that does not include the hotel because she drags the pageant out over two or three days making contestants purchase hotel rooms so she and her assistant director Bethany can get free hotel rooms for themselves.

Now here is the kicker, if you chose to do the basic entry fee and no optionals you are guaranteed not to win. Sandi and Bethany hand pick the winners by who paid the most money in or if you are a relative of theirs. This past 2017 TCP State pageant the assistant director had her younger sister in the Young Miss division. Now each contestant was only allowed to introduce themselves for 20 seconds on stage or points would be deducted. The assistant director's sister was up on stage for 36 seconds fumbling on her words and her formal wear walk was terrible. But guess who still won Young Miss Lonestar? You guessed it! The assistant director's sister. Now if that was not bad enough, the sister was allowed to change and share a room with the assistant director and have access to everyone's scores.

Fast forward to Nationals this past weekend. (ACPP) There were three judges, one of them being the assistant director's (Bethany) and Young Miss Lonestar's mother. A contestant in the Mrs. Plus division had been a judge in the 2017 TCP State pageant and gave Bethany's sister low scores due to her poor performance. Remembering that the Bethany's mom intentionally marked the former judges scores low as payback.

TCP limited T-Shirts are a rip off. Sandi advertises for $20 that get you in all the pageants for free. Um no, not true. Sandi use to have pageants almost every month which made the T-Shirt worth wild but now she has drastically cut down on the number of pageants she is having. So that T-Shirt you bought you cannot wear it to Miss San Antonio or Miss Rampage or any ACPP pageant. So basically you bought it for State and Halloween. Oh and last year Sandi changed the T-Shirt right before State 2017 so either you purchased new shirts or tickets. Complete BS.

On average it will take you about 4 times to enter one of Sandi's pageants before you will win typically because there are about 10-15 girls/ladies who always win. (Funny because they cannot win at any other pageant system out there.) Yes Sandi's and Bethany's family and friends come first. Now if you are lucky enough to actually win at one of the TCP or ACPP pageants you are now obligated to make appearances, promote and donate to whatever cause Sandi feels she wants to that day. And stand the F by if you don't. You will be cyber bullied and threatened to take you title and banishment from the pageant system.

Now you have made it through an entire year with your title and compete for the "Community Queen" sash. (A point system made by Sandi, earned by making appearances and donations toward TCP. The point values change daily depending on her mood that day.) This past 2017 State Pageant a mother daughter duo competed for this community sash. Now if the mom and daughter are always together, have the same points and there are 4 sashes awarded to the top four queens how is does the mother win a sash and not the child? Does not make sense. Sandi and Bethany pick who they want to have what.

Let's be honest here, the sashes, trophies and metals are cheep. I have been to one of her pageants where Sandi handed out pieces of paper that said "Best Hair, Smile and Eyes." Yes a sheet of paper.

The most despicable thing I have seen yet was after Hurricane Harvey hit & many pageant families lost everything. Families contacted Sandi requesting a refund she said no. Instead Sandi used a horrible event as a money maker by saying that the victims have offered up their spots to whomever wants them meaning the deposit is waived. So disgusting. Even worse when a family came from Houston to the pageant after losing everything, a few pageant moms came together to get a small amount of supplies for the kids. Sandi called the family on stage, gave them the items and took all the credit. It could have been so easy to ask the ladies who bought the items to stand and give them a round of applause for donating the items.

Please people save your money and go to other pageant systems like (((REDACTED))).