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To Whom It May Concern:
My experience went something like this...
First of all, they insist that both parents attend the initial
meeting. In hindsight, I believe that this is to eliminate
the "let me go home and discuss it with my spouse" excuse
for not signing on.
Then you get to the meeting and they begin by telling you how
selective they are, and how so many kids are eliminated because
of this, that, and the other thing.
And then you find out that they would love to sign on your
perfect little angel.
They offer two different programs.
The "standard program" requires no money up front.
The parent is responsible for, among other things, having professional
pictures taken every 6 months for 5 years and maintaing a website
with pictures and biographical info, listing kids.com as the
contact agent.
With the "full service" program, you pay $595 up
front and they will arrange for having pictures taken every
6 months for 5 years, and they will put your kid's picture
and biographical info up on their website. You also have to
pay the photographer a $20 fee each time you go for pictures.
With each program, they get a 15% commission. The contract
states that you can cancel in writing within 3 days.
So, even though we were a little skeptical, my husband and
I decided to sign on because we figured that we could get out
of it with no problem should we change our minds.
Long story short, we decided to cancel and sent our letter
within the appropriate time.
The director called to find out why we wanted to cancel, and
I told him that we had decided against it. He gave me a little
bit more of a sales pitch, and when it became clear that I
wasn't going to budge, he SNAPPED at me "I wish you would
have told me this at our meeting. It would have saved us both
a lot of time. Good luck. CLICK!"
The jerk hung up on me. Up until this point, I was still
wondering whether I was doing the right thing by canceling.
After his unprofessional behavior, I know I made the right
choice.
Oh, one more thing, during our meeting I asked how many
of their kids actually get work. In retrospect, the guy
talked around the issue for a good 5 minutes, and I never
did get an answer!
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