Complaint Review: Marc Schechter Atlantis Studios - Boca Raton Florida

I too had send a cashier check to IMC pictures and never heard from them, the Christmas in July never happened, I lost $3000.00 dollars. they claim that a new owner too over the company and the editor took off with the hard drive that had all the infomercial on it.

I resend all the clips for them to download, come to find out they were just buying time and never contacted me again. they dissapeared. Elizabeth Hart is a snake dont beleive a word she says.

IMC pictures is a scam, the employees at IMC pictures are Marc Schechter, Elizabeth Hart, Joe Morgan, Britney Anderson, Louis Pitts. Scum bags. I dont know how they sleep at night after ripping off hard earned money of people that trusted them.

Joe Antouri

FITGUM

Unfortunately, this scam is still alive and well. I was also a victim of this small business fraud. 

I was contacted by Shyla Marx of IMC Pictures to film a segment for a "Spring Showcase" segment which would be on several subsidiaries of HSN and aired to 22 million people. I met with producer Lou Pitts and administrative aide Britney Anderson and host Elizabeth Hart several times to talk about the segment. 

The segment was produced, but was of extremely poor quality. I was told the segment aired on HSN subsidiaries and monitored my website analytics for changes in traffic, and there was none. The segement was actually never aired.

All emails expressing my concerns have been either ignored or disregarded with "we're not responsible for sales". I paid $4000 for nothing. This company is not only misrepresenting itself as an HSN subsidiary, but they are scamming people out of their hard-earned money. 

I have filed reports with the BBB and the Florida Attorney General in the hopes that these scammers will get the justice they deserve. 

Marc Schechter called us back and said he would air the commercial.  He sent us a new taping of it.  I will keep everyone posted on the commercial and it's airing.  When it airs as promised THIS July AND November (we were promised two airings last year for our troubles) I will write a further detailed report on how everything went.  I am counting on the morals, words, and honesty of both Marc Schechter and Elizabeth Hart, praying they will follow through this time.  I am not able to remove this post, or I would, so I am writting this to let all know I am being promised they will get my commercial aired (as promised above.)  Stay tuned.  Being a business owner myself I know your reputation is all you have, I pray that I get to give Marc Schechterand Elizabeth Hart with IMC Pictures rave reviews!!!

 IMC Pictures, of Boca Raton Florida (Marc Aaron Schechter was a contact) has taken our money!   My company paid IMC Pictures $4,000.00 for an ad, also not aired!  He and the company stringed us along for a while, then just stopped responding all together.  So very scandalous and immoral. 

I am posting this in hopes that others learn from our mistakes.  I will keep searching and posting on every site I can, across the US to help others.  Today I have posted my story on over 20 blogs, praying people will be scammed again.  I am a very small home business and the $4,00.00 was way more than I had to spend on this ad, but with Marc's and that of the other employees at IMC Pictures promises, I believed, my bad!

Shame on you IMC Pictures and everyone involved (below) for not giving back the funds in full.  Do know, your ways will not go unnoticed and I for one will not stand by and just "let it go." (Employees working on our ad for Christmas in July from IMC Pictures: Marc Aaron Schechter, Paige Parker, Doug Shaffer, and Elizabeth Hart)

**please note that we have proof of all via emails, phone calls, mailings, etc.

This thing is over, I've learned a lesson and moved on. However I can't let Schecter's rebuttal go without making the following final reply of which you the reader can judge for yourself. For a start, what else is he going to say to protect his business. He makes out I threatened physical violence, well if that's the way I solved problems, it would have been over a long time ago. Second, I never emailed 15 times a day, I have more important things to do with my time. Third I do Celtic and Tribal jewelry not Celtic Biker as he called it. he wasn't complaining when his staff loved the free pieces I gave them. Now let's very briefly examine his sales strategy, quoting from his contract. You're segment will be aired to 22 million households nationwide OK that's a lot of households, let's blow off 21 million and say they were sleeping, that leaves 1 million, out of that 1 million let's say 250,000 people saw the commercial and let's say out of that, maybe 5,000 people showed a passing interest. Out of that 5,000 let's say 100 people ordered something, Well, there's my $5,000 back, I would have sucked it up and said at least I got my money back But to not even get one sale. This guy didn't even have the intelligence to set me up with a fictitious sale or at least have someone call up and say, I saw your ad on TV. End of story, I would have had to say, OK at least the ad is running. Now in his rebuttal he says I'm disgruntled. I agree with you there Schecter Then he has the nerve to blame my jewelry and said it wasn't fit for home shopping when 70% of home shopping is for jewelry. To quote Schecter when he called me your jewelry is unique and original and perfect for out segment Now he's saying it's not suitable for Disney Channel. Also I asked for the names of the 8 other guests on the segment so that I could contact them and gauge their level of satisfaction. He refused. As an added footnote let me assure you that despite the fact that we're in the worst recession in living memory for most of us, my business is booming. Mainly because I don't rip people off and I give great value for money. I challenge Shecter to prove that I threatened his staff in any way. Joe Dunne Celtic Craft Jewelry. Hazlet NJ

OK, you paid this guy $5,000 to produce an ad for you. How did you pay him? Usually the producer of the commercial will air it for you for final approval. If you like it, you pay him/her the money ( Make SURE you get a receipt!) and he signs a release stating that he/she relinquishes all copyright and ownership rights to the commercial --that is, if your people through about this. If I were you, I give limited permission for him/her to allow let him/her put it in his/her portfolio to show other prospective clients if it turned out really well. It would also be free publicity for me. Hell, I would even sign a release to put it on You Tube like everybody else --and Sammy Stephens who owns a furniture store and put his ad on You Tube has become an overnight celebrity. OK, now with commercial in hand --DVD or VHS Tape --whatever format you have --you go over to the television station where you want the ad run. This will be a local televisions station that may be affiliated with NBC,ABC,CBS, Fox, Warner Brothers, whatever... When you get there, you contact what is known as an Advertising Account Manager and THEY ---not your commercial producer --- will quote you the rates you have to pay them to air your commercial and late nights are usually the cheapest. You might have a star like the Sham Mu commercial, who knows... And you will sign a contact with them telling them that you will pay them so much money to air your ad st certain times. All the producer is supposed to do is to make a creative product advertising your company and sign over the rights to you and you pay him or her money for it. YOU DO NOT PAY WITH A CHECK THAT WILL BOUNCE or with a credit card that you will dispute the charges ----UNLESS YOU THINK THE COMMERCIAL REALLY SUCKS! He or she should have let you see the commercial FIRST because you will be paying your money for it. YOU DO NOT PAY YOUR MONEY UP FRONT UNTIL YOU ARE SATISFIED WITH THE COMMERCIAL! Anybody who pays before they see the finished product is a FOOL. And anybody who insists on payment up front and does NOT show you the finished product is a Sleazeoid who maybe needs to try another line of work. Maybe they would insist on a retainer in order to rent camera or editing equipment that they don't have to make your commercial but that is rather iffy and usually done in small shops. You DO know enough to insist on an itemized bill. Sounds like to me that neither one of you people knew what to expect. You should have just gone down the street to your local newspaper and had their people make you up an ad. They almost always let the customer see what it will look like and then they will get your signed approval to run the ad and bill you later. Much cheaper than TV... And then, there is always You Tube where the WHOLE WORLD SEES IT. It's free to post but you have to have an advertising product. If you don't like the job the professionals at the ad agency did, make your Own commercial... Get some family member to make a video about you talking about why people should shop with you or something...

This complaint lacks any merit or credibility. After numerous phone calls and emails, this client simply could not understand why his Celtic line of "biker" jewelry did not do well in a home shopping forum and wanted someone to blame... anyone besides his jewelry/products. So he became angry, threatening and started to obsessivelymake allegations that the show could not have aired, which was absolutely not the case. We have been airing The Showcase Series for years on America One and are still airing there today. There were 8 other guests on the same show, and this is the only client complaining. This client was so convinced that the problem was on our end and had nothing to do with his product not being marketable to a home shopping television audience, he started acting crazy and threatening, calling and emailing the company up to 15 times per day, with numerous threats of physical violence to employess of Atlantis. This client appeared on camera at our studio, met our staff, received a finished copy of the work and all airing logs. Last, Disney.com was a repeat guest featured on the same show. It is absolutely ridiculous to allege that Atlantis said we would be airing his Celtic biker jewelry on the Disney Channel....