- Report: #336568
Complaint Review: Be Productions (My Artist's Place) For The United Marketing Group - Emeryville California
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Be Productions (My Artist's Place) For The United Marketing Group
531-A North Hollywood Way #197, Burbank, California 91505 Emeryville, 94608 California, U.S.A.
Phone:
310-335-2550
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The United Marketing Group, Be Productions, My Artist's Place, Buzz Entertainment, National Entertainment United Marketing Group for Be Productions preys on innocent teens, college students, and moms to do their dirty scam work Emeryville California
I am Asian-American, and here is my story: the latest news scam in America, although from the hellish experience I was trapped in from May 1-4, 2008 - - my previous employee friends whom I had met on the job realized it was and still is the biggest marketing scam in the state of California that preys on teens, college students, and moms. Apparently, this has been going on for years! And the bad thing is, I got trapped in this job market. Please read all the detailed information below. Any help or contact information is greatly appreciated. Strangely, I read an article in the March 2008 issue of Smart Money regarding "Craigslist: Don't Get Ripped Off / On Craig's Watch" and 2 months later - - I bump into a scam job online.
Be Productions (marketing done through The United Marketing Group) places misleading advertisements when hiring new recycled employees weekly to do their dirty scam work passing out invitations to families in shopping centers and malls trying to recruit kids: PR Division has full and part-time positions in San Francisco bay areas for outgoing chit-chatters, professional presentable people to get kids into TV/film. 1) You dont get paid $30 an hour to start. 2) They lie about locations you can work at. Trick new employees to drive miles away spending $60 or more gas dollars of your own pocket money. You and other girls wait 3 hours at a meet spot doing nothing with no pay. 2 girls are grouped into pairs while one provides her own car to drive. Each grouped pair is given a drawn, unreadable map to drive to 7 locations out of county plus other surrounding cities that are too far away. Details in training are avoided and refuse to answer questions until youre at your location to pass out invitations. If 6 approved families dont come into B Studios, your gas money isnt reimbursed. You worked for free, wasted your time, and driving money. No men are allowed to be hired for this marketing job, only women; preying on moms, college students + girls who have no real income. You can only work hourly helping with screen tests at BE Studios if you're good at passing out flyers and willing to waste your gas money. I spent $100 of my own money to do their job and made no money. A big scam! I resigned on Sunday, May 4 of 2008 at the BE Studios when talking to Sheila who is the one in charge of the San Jose grouping of girls even though I expected to work in a local area where I lived. I would like The United Marketing Group tied in with BE Productions to reimburse my gas money. The United Group and BE Productions (Studios) displayed many deceitful, misleading lies online on Craig's List and left out massive details in training. Myself and many girls are upset. Others quit and refused to do the Sunday job because it consisted of more driving and more gas money. If you need proof, I can gladly provide gas receipts. I have already filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Please resolve this matter. My family and friends + the girls I worked with are highly upset of the fact that Be Productions works with The United Marketing Group in such scam manner.
What's even more freakish, after I obtained employment over the cell phone in less than 30 minutes when leaving the head office in Emeryville, California - - all girls were asked to bring in a photograph of some sort in order for The United Marketing Group to keep a file on each new candidate when attending the training seminar. So, I provided a duplicate of this same image I gave to Ashley Rose and Brittany on my resume - - the people who hired me. Naturally, I didn't think anything about it. Still, most jobs only snap your photo if you've advanced in a company, if you work for the Federal government, or for a business that requires a badge when entering and exiting the building, and so forth. But the weird thing is - - now that I do re-think this quirky case, I can only imagine how many pictures of innocent girls / victims they have filed away. THIS IN A SENSE IS kinda CREEPY! This business had no security when entering and exiting the studio. Before one approaches the front door, there's just a small sign on the glass door that states no pictures or cameras allowed, etc.
Sunday I quit. And that very day, my partner Marie and I realized Sheila (the leader of talent scouting in the San Jose region) - - she screwed up in her words to us while we were at the Be Productions studios on May 4th. Sheila had mentioned, "I have another training." Marie and I looked at each other with no surprises and correct in our thoughts, "this job was a d**n scam!" Because if The United Marketing Group only needed 12 - 15 people to exchange one's services for payment from the original ad online when we were hired - - what the hell are they doing having another training session??? Example: When Marie and I showed up on Saturday for the first time in San Jose at Starbucks Coffee (Coleman & Taylor - San Jose, 695 Coleman Ave, San Jose, CA 95110, 408-293-2362) meeting point, we met a group of girls who were not in our training conference. So, the whole thing was fishy and the entire clan of girls were puzzled except for the employees who had managed to stick with the craft for a few weeks. That was strange in our eyes.
If Craigs's List and others can crack down on this marketing scam, this would be great! The United Marketing Group holds training every week at BE Productions for My Artist's Place (http://www.myspace.com/myartistsplace). And we (my friends and I who resigned from this mendacious job) all think it's done at every single studio. There's only 4 that exist on the www.gonnabe.com website that is in the state of California: Santa Ana, San Jose, Emeryville, and San Diego. Marie and I were group interviewed on Thursday at 12pm with at least 30 women. I bet you 100% if anyone were to go investigate this phony job - - you walk up to the BE Productions studio / building in Emeryville, California and sit tight in the parking lot - - you'll see a bunch of girls hanging outside (or in the lobby / waiting room) who are new candidates trying to get interviewed - - and will all probably get the job without knowing it's a scam and will be separated into groups at far away locations to do their dirty free work without realizing - - the company wants you to do even more driving with your car than what was mentioned in the ad by using your own pocket money at the last minute in areas not listed or mentioned in training. Namely getting girls to drive their vehicles to other cities and out of the county - - which is totally misleading in the advertisement + interview + training. Moreover, they lie about the locations you choose to work at, which made it stressful for many in the mix-matched groups who met for the first time on the job. Basically, it was a rushed training. Altogether, training takes place on Friday around 11am and lasts 3 1/2 hours. Then they split the training group into 2 clumps: example, Marie and I were sent to San Jose, California; the rest of the girls in Daly City, California. NOTE: All meeting points ... once hired, finished training, and prepare to do the talent scouting ... seem to take place at a Starbucks Coffee location every Saturday. Although in training, they said sometimes hotels and recreational centers may be used. Additionally, if you were to go investigate the Be Productions studios on Sundays, especially around 2:45pm - - you'll see a bunch of new candidates on the job (but not being paid to attend the screen tests). Thing is, this is the end of the show! Meaning you'll see some girls quit, or you may notice there are barely any females; meaning THEY QUIT the night before!!! If the $75.00 ad is being placed on www.craigslist.org/ on Mondays, then it gives a certain amount of time for people to call and leave messages stating they desire the job. 3-4 days later, a quick training session takes place. Then all the chaos starts and many girls / women quit. We're recycled trash but making money for them (using our own cars, our own gas money and yet we don't get reimbursed if we don't meet the 6 family marker, which seems impossible when out on field work). And The United Marketing Group and BE Productions is sadly working together. Many of us want justice!
Mila Monster
San Francisco bay area, California
U.S.A.
Be Productions (marketing done through The United Marketing Group) places misleading advertisements when hiring new recycled employees weekly to do their dirty scam work passing out invitations to families in shopping centers and malls trying to recruit kids: PR Division has full and part-time positions in San Francisco bay areas for outgoing chit-chatters, professional presentable people to get kids into TV/film. 1) You dont get paid $30 an hour to start. 2) They lie about locations you can work at. Trick new employees to drive miles away spending $60 or more gas dollars of your own pocket money. You and other girls wait 3 hours at a meet spot doing nothing with no pay. 2 girls are grouped into pairs while one provides her own car to drive. Each grouped pair is given a drawn, unreadable map to drive to 7 locations out of county plus other surrounding cities that are too far away. Details in training are avoided and refuse to answer questions until youre at your location to pass out invitations. If 6 approved families dont come into B Studios, your gas money isnt reimbursed. You worked for free, wasted your time, and driving money. No men are allowed to be hired for this marketing job, only women; preying on moms, college students + girls who have no real income. You can only work hourly helping with screen tests at BE Studios if you're good at passing out flyers and willing to waste your gas money. I spent $100 of my own money to do their job and made no money. A big scam! I resigned on Sunday, May 4 of 2008 at the BE Studios when talking to Sheila who is the one in charge of the San Jose grouping of girls even though I expected to work in a local area where I lived. I would like The United Marketing Group tied in with BE Productions to reimburse my gas money. The United Group and BE Productions (Studios) displayed many deceitful, misleading lies online on Craig's List and left out massive details in training. Myself and many girls are upset. Others quit and refused to do the Sunday job because it consisted of more driving and more gas money. If you need proof, I can gladly provide gas receipts. I have already filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Please resolve this matter. My family and friends + the girls I worked with are highly upset of the fact that Be Productions works with The United Marketing Group in such scam manner.
What's even more freakish, after I obtained employment over the cell phone in less than 30 minutes when leaving the head office in Emeryville, California - - all girls were asked to bring in a photograph of some sort in order for The United Marketing Group to keep a file on each new candidate when attending the training seminar. So, I provided a duplicate of this same image I gave to Ashley Rose and Brittany on my resume - - the people who hired me. Naturally, I didn't think anything about it. Still, most jobs only snap your photo if you've advanced in a company, if you work for the Federal government, or for a business that requires a badge when entering and exiting the building, and so forth. But the weird thing is - - now that I do re-think this quirky case, I can only imagine how many pictures of innocent girls / victims they have filed away. THIS IN A SENSE IS kinda CREEPY! This business had no security when entering and exiting the studio. Before one approaches the front door, there's just a small sign on the glass door that states no pictures or cameras allowed, etc.
Sunday I quit. And that very day, my partner Marie and I realized Sheila (the leader of talent scouting in the San Jose region) - - she screwed up in her words to us while we were at the Be Productions studios on May 4th. Sheila had mentioned, "I have another training." Marie and I looked at each other with no surprises and correct in our thoughts, "this job was a d**n scam!" Because if The United Marketing Group only needed 12 - 15 people to exchange one's services for payment from the original ad online when we were hired - - what the hell are they doing having another training session??? Example: When Marie and I showed up on Saturday for the first time in San Jose at Starbucks Coffee (Coleman & Taylor - San Jose, 695 Coleman Ave, San Jose, CA 95110, 408-293-2362) meeting point, we met a group of girls who were not in our training conference. So, the whole thing was fishy and the entire clan of girls were puzzled except for the employees who had managed to stick with the craft for a few weeks. That was strange in our eyes.
If Craigs's List and others can crack down on this marketing scam, this would be great! The United Marketing Group holds training every week at BE Productions for My Artist's Place (http://www.myspace.com/myartistsplace). And we (my friends and I who resigned from this mendacious job) all think it's done at every single studio. There's only 4 that exist on the www.gonnabe.com website that is in the state of California: Santa Ana, San Jose, Emeryville, and San Diego. Marie and I were group interviewed on Thursday at 12pm with at least 30 women. I bet you 100% if anyone were to go investigate this phony job - - you walk up to the BE Productions studio / building in Emeryville, California and sit tight in the parking lot - - you'll see a bunch of girls hanging outside (or in the lobby / waiting room) who are new candidates trying to get interviewed - - and will all probably get the job without knowing it's a scam and will be separated into groups at far away locations to do their dirty free work without realizing - - the company wants you to do even more driving with your car than what was mentioned in the ad by using your own pocket money at the last minute in areas not listed or mentioned in training. Namely getting girls to drive their vehicles to other cities and out of the county - - which is totally misleading in the advertisement + interview + training. Moreover, they lie about the locations you choose to work at, which made it stressful for many in the mix-matched groups who met for the first time on the job. Basically, it was a rushed training. Altogether, training takes place on Friday around 11am and lasts 3 1/2 hours. Then they split the training group into 2 clumps: example, Marie and I were sent to San Jose, California; the rest of the girls in Daly City, California. NOTE: All meeting points ... once hired, finished training, and prepare to do the talent scouting ... seem to take place at a Starbucks Coffee location every Saturday. Although in training, they said sometimes hotels and recreational centers may be used. Additionally, if you were to go investigate the Be Productions studios on Sundays, especially around 2:45pm - - you'll see a bunch of new candidates on the job (but not being paid to attend the screen tests). Thing is, this is the end of the show! Meaning you'll see some girls quit, or you may notice there are barely any females; meaning THEY QUIT the night before!!! If the $75.00 ad is being placed on www.craigslist.org/ on Mondays, then it gives a certain amount of time for people to call and leave messages stating they desire the job. 3-4 days later, a quick training session takes place. Then all the chaos starts and many girls / women quit. We're recycled trash but making money for them (using our own cars, our own gas money and yet we don't get reimbursed if we don't meet the 6 family marker, which seems impossible when out on field work). And The United Marketing Group and BE Productions is sadly working together. Many of us want justice!
Mila Monster
San Francisco bay area, California
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Scott0424
San Francisco,California,
U.S.A.
Be Productions/My Artists Place is a Con read my Report: #442621
#2Consumer Comment
Mon, April 13, 2009
After research,including on the President of Be...or My Artists place,as my sales slip said,these guy's are a Con. How do you explain them closing all their Northern California offices and not telling ANYONE! I have been in contact with a parent had the same stuff happen to them. We were promised at the time of signing something that did not happen! I have been in contact with my CC company to refund my money (good thing I kept my e-mails as proof) based on services not rendered! Do the homework..they set-up shop,go after people,then shut down and move on. Anyone interested in a Class Action against these thieves can feel free to contact me ([email protected]). Report them like I did..BBB,The Attorney General as well contact the people their web site says they do business with-G4,WB,Six Flags,Channel 50-let them know if they are "doing business"with be,as their web site states..you will not watch or do business with them!
Anonymous
Alameda,California,
U.S.A.
Total scam
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, March 25, 2009
I too, have been ripped of by The United Marketing group, or The P.R. Marketing Specialists, as they call themselves today. This is not a job that I would have ordinarily got myself into in the first place, but with the desperation in this economy and my rent payments coming up I was desperate for a job. Me and all the other girls I started with have not gotten paid and it is long overdue. They owe us nearly $1,000 a piece for all the families we got to attend the screentests and hours worked at the tests themselves. I have called all the contacts I have several times, with no response. One girl who started a few weeks before me got paid $20 (she was owed over $600). Me and a group of girls plan to take aggressive legal action to get the money we are owed, because we cannot afford to have all our hard work over several weekends unpaid. I am from the Bay Area, but will certainly drive down to LA to meet with the head of the company, Vester, and get the money we are all owed. This is absolutely ridiculous and I feel ashamed to have ever been a part of such a horrible company. The kids are asked to pay thousands of dollars as well to become a part of the company, per the knowledge of several families I sent to the screentest and have since kept in contact with. This alone is information alone should be enough to make anyone not want to work there.
Jason Sullivan
Burbank,California,
U.S.A.
BE IS A SCAM.
#4UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, January 06, 2009
The United Group is indeed outsourced by Be, but none the less, Be is STILL A SCAM. I work for Disney and was told about this company at which point a friend and I decided to attend a screen test. The entire process is horrific and not legitimate at all. It's basically like attending a time share sales meeting. "OH HERES A FREE TWO NIGHT VACATION, NOW LET'S SELL YOU SOMETHING!". Yes, the "screen test", if that's what they want to call it, is free, but it's only done in order to find out how much money you make and who they can sell to. I'm pretty sure they try to sell to everyone. This company is a fraud and news about them is quickly traveling around town within the industry itself thanks to some insiders who care.
Behelpedme
San Jose,California,
U.S.A.
NOT TRUE. BE PRODUCTIONS IS NOT UNITED GROUP
#5Consumer Comment
Thu, July 10, 2008
Hello...all this information about Be productions is not true. This program has nothing to do with United Group Scouts. They are just a company that they use to help them scout kids. Be productions actually produces shows and helps kids get started in the entertainment industry. Do research on how to get your child started and you will realize that Be is the ONLY company that will prodvide everything you need AND is reasonable in price. Most people have no idea how the entertainment industry works and if you did you would know you dont just walk into an audition and become famous, there are a lot of steps and requirements and Be will help make it sooo easy for you.
