- Report: #586127
Complaint Review: Planet Pictures - Van Nuys California
Reported By:
malbertson -
San Carlos, California, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Planet Pictures
6859 Louise Avenue Van Nuys, 91406 California, United States of America
Phone:
818-344-9100
Web:
www.planetpictures.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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Planet Pictures A Very Bad Experience Van Nuys, California
My experience with Planet Pictures has been a nightmare. Understand how their model works. They sell packages of your film or TV show to buyers for an agreed price. Planet then invoices the purchaser who pays them directly. Planet then takes out their commission and then writes their own check to pay you.
In the spring of 2009, Planet informed me they had run into "financial difficulty" and could not pay me a significant amount of money I was owed for the sales of my TV program.
They brokered a separate deal with a TV network in the UK in order to pay me, but that company has disappeared and not paid what I am owed. Despite repeated offers of a payment plan or settlement of their debt, Planet has refused to pay me the money they chose to keep from the sale of my program.
I have been forced to hire an attorney to try and recover my money. I am not the only producer who has been caught up in this problem with Planet Pictures.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Planet Pictures
United States of AmericaOutcome of Arbitration
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, October 03, 2012
Planet Pictures began in 1987 to provide a means for documentary and factual TV program producers to sell their programs to broadcast buyers all over the world. We make no charge for our services unless we are successful on behalf of a producer, in which case we deduct a portion of the money we have raised and pass the rest on to the producer. Depending upon the program and anticipated size of the market, Planet typically pays producers anywhere from 60 - 75% of the funds generated. Producers take NO FINANCIAL RISK whatsoever. Planet Pictures bears ALL COSTS of marketing, promotion and sales, passing most of the proceeds it generates on to its clients. So we are providing an additional source of income from programming that's already completed and is typically sitting on a shelf somewhere, collecting dust. This is what we have done very successfully for 25 years. During that time, we have represented hundreds of program producers and sold thousands of hours of their programming to TV buyers in more than 80 countries around the world. Throughout our company history, we have been involved in EXACTLY ONE CASE where a lawyer was hired in a dispute over payments. This is that one case.
However: In the contract we sign with producers to represent their programs, it is mutually agreed that if a dispute arises which cannot be satisfactorily resolved between us, then it will be submitted to the American Arbitration Association for an independent decision and that decision will be legally binding upon the parties. This is the single case in which that means of reaching a decision has ever been used during our 25 years in business. Not only is this a completely impartial process, but we even accepted the choice of the complainant as to specifically which arbitrator would make the decision!
On September 24, 2010, arbitrator Richard Marks writing on behalf of the AAA, issued the Award of Arbitrator, as these decisions are called: "All amounts sought by [producer's company name] in this Arbitration are therefore denied and verdict is hereby rendered in favor of Respondent [Planet Pictures]." The full cost of the Arbitration, as well as attorney fees, was then payable by the organization that filed this Ripoff Report.
Disputes CAN happen in life and in business. Luckily, in our business, they have been exceptionally few. In the case of THIS dispute, an independent legal judgement was rendered and it is 100% in favor of the position of our company on this matter. So this case is definitely closed. And it certainly was no ripoff.
