Complaint Review: Urban Talents - Salt Lake City Utah

     The more I hear and learn about Urban Talents in Salt Lake city, Utah; the more I realized I got scammed. I am a 19 year old girl who just turned 19 and just got out of an abusive relationship. I just got two jobs and am trying to save up to get back into college. When I heard about this online, I thought why not give it a shot because I'm ethnic and have always wanted to give modeling a try.

     I'm not model skinny and I'm only 5'1, so I didn't feel confident that I could make it as a model; but when I went in to talk to Camilla and Haley they seemed very nice and encouraging about my looks. They said I could easily make back the money I put in by scouting and making $50 per 25 people I refer to Haley and I get put on a mass email list for the tons of jobs they hear about each week. 

     I went in by myself, just moved to the state and don't know anyone out here, so I thought this would be an awesome opportunity to make some money to save up. Camilla kind of pushed the contract, seeming very genuine in trying to help me and I told her all of my difficulties above and I thought I was signing with honest people who are working in the best interest of their clients. 

     But once I got home and called my mom, she did more research on the company and found many reports, claims made against them, and bad reviews on how this company is a scam. So I looked more into it and since they wanted $750 for the workshops I wanted to get out of the contract right away so that I can honestly say I did no work or have no ties with the company. I emailed one of the directors and got no reply, I called the scouting agent Haley who texted me from her personal phone number but she never called me back or replied to any of my texts. Then I called the office and got put on hold for Haley 3 times and they hung up on me each time but I kept calling back until finally the person in the office just waited on the phone and gave it to Haley, who once she got on the phone had a rude tone and was not the nice sounding girl who was so encouraging only a few days before. She quickly just said I can't discuss this with you since I didn't make your contract, not even trying to hear me out when you could clearly hear in my voice that I was upset and just said but I'll get Camilla for you. I was then put on hold again for a while for the 4th time when I finally got to talk with camilla. When I told her how I felt rushed and didn't realize what I was getting into she was like "well your situation hasn't changed since you were here less than a week ago, so there's not much I can do since you signed the contract". So when I asked her if there was any way I could terminate the contract and just pay half of the $750 since I haven't even got booked for jobs or gone to any of the "supposed events" or workshops that the $750 was for, she was like no the only possible way around this is through Bret one of the owners to have final say. So she put me on hold again, while I was basically in tears for another 10+ minutes until finally very rudely and sounding pissed told me the only way they'd be willing to settle the contract is if I paid $500 very soon. 

     So after talking with my mother we aren't going to comply with them and I canceled my debit card, and if they come after me for $750 for a contract where they scam young innocent girls into giving them money for a business that isn't ATA licensed and very unprofessional and has so much evidence against how unfair and unlegitimate their business is, then I guess I'll have to hire an attorney. But seriously don't sign the contract, from all I've learned real agencies and agents get paid when you get paid so they don't ask for $700 - $2000 just to get you started. Supposedly the way they buy all their fancy BMWs and new stuff that they brag about is by scamming people into signing a contract where they pay all this money upfront and then most models don't even get work. They talk about how they have a famous photographer who's actually inhouse with just their agency and not famous at all and feed you a bunch of lies even when they know you probably won't book any jobs.

     I regrettably made a horrible mistake and from a young girl who knows what it's like to barely have food and have been homeless, even though $750  might not seem like so much, it's a lot of money when you can barely support yourself. That is why if you're too naieve and nice, and try to believe that most people are good people, you get taken advantage of like I did. You'd like to think people treat you how you'd treat others, but money obviously corrupts people into shady jerks who don't care if they ruin peoples lives. Please be careful, I hope this helps future clients from being scammed.