9/19/08

Well it looks like there still at it and I thought Karon learned her lesson

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I answered another add on Craigs List for Acting a...":

Reading this website made me feel somewhat like a fool because I experienced the exact same thing you have written with Karon, John and Richard. Here's my $0.02.

Karon - never met her. Don't think I ever talked to her. Traded some voice mails and a few e-mails, but that's it.

John - IMO, sleazy. Didn't trust him. Gave his "personal" cell number because people are less likely to "flake out" if they have that contact. Never trusted him. Same story… check the BBB, call around. We did check the BBB – there was nothing really, and checking around resulted in not much.

Richard - seemed like a nice enough guy. Shoot was OK, pictures were OK. Artistically they were nice. Technically, nothing to be amazed with. It sure didn't seem worth $800.

What gets me about this whole thing was the story was the same for everyone... gotta have you as a client... special deal on photos - only $795... never hear from them again. Then the hard sale on the $25/month website came… “you won’t get jobs if you don’t have our website…”

Our shoot took place right away and we were told it would be 6-8 weeks before the comp cards were in. That put us around the holidays. We waited until mid-January and called only to be told (by Karon’s front desk person) that Karon would call back. Karon never called. We called one to two times a week for three weeks. Each time, “Karon would call back.” Then the front desk person (Haley?) said the cards were lost and they’d get back to us.

After two months of this, the next call was simple: “Money back by the end of the week or we go to the AG and the BBB.” That got a call back! We were told the cards had to be reprinted since the wrong name was used on them. We said we didn’t care… it had been six months and we never heard from them so other plans were made. They didn’t deliver in a timely manner, and we want a 100% refund.

Karon initially refused to refund anything, so I filed a report with the BBB and the AG. After a couple of phone calls from each, Karon agreed to pay the whole amount (she initially offered her portion – Richard had to get paid). We said pay all or we take her to small claims court. We paid her $795, so $795 was due back.

She caved and said we would have our money in two weeks. In the meantime, the BBB and the AG called and asked if the matter was finalized. I said no because I didn’t have the check yet. I said if they call back in two weeks and I have the check, I would agree. Since I didn’t trust them to deliver anything I wouldn’t sign off until satisfied.

A week later the check arrived and it cleared!

I should have realized when the contract was a copy of a copy of a copy, missing portions, that this was a bogus setup. Also, when I tried to get information on anyone and there wasn’t much out there it should have been a red flag. We went into it knowing we could lose $800, but fortunately, we did get our money back.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad to have found your blog. We paid Karon Shea $795 for our comp cards. They said that they had an agreement with Family Fun Magazine to have these cards done at this price with Family Fun's photographer. Come to find out, Family Fun never had any such agreement with Karon Shea. They're using Family Fun's name to run their scam (at least in our case). I also found out that they never sent our comp card to a certain client of theirs, so I'm wondering if they have sent our cards out at all to any of their clients. I would like proof of this. John Wood also told us not to tell anyone how much we paid for them. It took 4 months to get them and that was only after I asked to speak to the printers myself, then all of the sudden they were done in a week. I spoke to the photographer who did our pictures and found out that his shoot and photos only cost $250. I also found out that the cost for the printing is about $99 or less because the agency sends them in to them in bulk. There is a huge overcharge here. From the beginning everything they told us was based on lies. I was wondering how to get in touch with other parents who have been through the same thing. We tried to get our money back through the attorney general and Karon refuses to give us our money back still.

Anonymous said...

This is my second post, just want to give an update. I'm happy to say that we did get our money back in full for our comp cards. I put in a complaint with with employment agency (Commonwealth of Mass.) and we didn't even have to go to the hearing. Karon called and we settled over the phone.