Elen's Kids Modeling and Talent Agency

Elen sent response via mail

Elen's Kids had requested both my husband and I come in with my son for an interview. We then signed a contract for $599.00. NOWHERE IN THAT CONTRACT DOES IT STATE THAT WE ARE NOT GUARANTEED ANYTHING. I have a copy of everything I have signed. He has not been casted or anything and we were promised the moon and back. I am demanding a refund because Elen's Kids are a scam.

Review: On 4/17/12 we contracted with Ellen's kids as they said they would represent my child as an agent and market him for television, modeling, print, etc. To date they have not ever sent him on a audition or anything else. I believe they misrepresented themselves to us in saying that they have gotten jobs for other children and that my child had the looks and personality to make it. However, they have never done anything for him to promote him. We have never gotten a call for auditions, etc. I do not recommend Ellens Kids as a reputable agency.Desired Settlement: $599.00 refund requested due to not meeting their contract requirements.

Business

Response:

We understand the frustration parents have in this industry. Contrary to what [redacted] claims, her son was submitted. Kids are also selected from headshots. We to request updated headshots every six months. [redacted] hasn't updated in 2 years. No child would be selected based on that old a photograph. The mom JUST emailed us her personal photo to use. Don't understand her finally providing a current photograph then placing an invalid complaint.

The complaint is invalid.

Review: I registered my son with Elen's Kids at the beginning of this year. At this initial meeting my husband and I paid the initial fee (which seemed awfully high but we honored the agreement and paid it in full without hesitation). Since that time we have only received information for 2 auditions. For one of those auditions we received the wrong address. Had I not looked up the address myself the night before, I would have missed the audition completely because I was not given the updated address until well after the auction had concluded. On July 8th I received an email regarding an upcoming promotional shoot. I responded that same day and asked what the date of the audition was as I was only given the date of the shoot in the email. I did not receive a response so I sent a follow up email on July 14th. I still did not receive a response so I sent 2 more follow up emails on July 31st and August 8th. I finally received a response on August 8th saying that they attempted to call me and left a message. When I responded via email asking what number they called and left a message, they did not advise. I was never left a message on my cell nor on my machine at home. I asked if they could please respond via email to my concerns expressed in my email and was told that if I wanted a response I needed to call their office that following Monday as they found it difficult to respond to my request via email stating it was "like a test". I am extremely disappointed in the way my concerns were handled, or rather, lack thereof.Desired Settlement: I am requesting a refund because the services I paid for were not fully met. I was treated with extreme disrespect and not given the courtesy of a simple response to concerns I had regarding mistakes they made. Again, I would like a refund for the fee I paid as I no longer wish to retain their services and believe they did not fulfill their obligations. I almost missed one audition due to being given the wrong address and missed another completely because I was never given the audition date.

Business

Response:

On March 1, 2014, [redacted] came to the Elen's Kids offices seeking representation of their son, [redacted] A 5 year agreement/contract was signed. Part of the agreement provides professional photography. The [redacted] have taken advantage of this service, as provided for in the signed agreement.We understand how parents can be anxious and frustrated that their child is not requested more often for castings/audtions or bookings. However, it is made very clear in the signed agreement that Elen's Kids does not guarantee employment for any child.[redacted] has been on several castings, as [redacted] has noted. Due to [redacted]'s frustration, we offered to SPEAK WITH HER directly to help advance [redacted]'s (their son's) opporunity. For what ever reason [redacted] has refused to have a direct conversation. The only person being hurt in her refusal is her son.Our offer remains. The contract is valid and has been adhered to by Elen's Kids and services utilized by the parents. We only hope that the parents see fit to have a verbal conversation about their converns. There are no refunds.

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

To begin, I want to make it perfectly clear that nowhere in my complaint did I state I was "anxious or frustrated" that my son has not been employed. I understand that per our contract, Elen's Kids is not responsible for "guaranteeing" employment. I also wish to address their mention of the professional photography service we "utilized". While this service is mentioned in the contract, there is also an additional fee which gets paid directly to the photographer. We paid said fee in full, so I don't know why the business is even mentioning that as a service utilized when we had to pay a separate fee to the photographer himself. The business states that my son has been on "several" castings, however, I would argue this is a complete misrepresentation of facts. He has been on two casting calls, not several. Furthermore, while they did offer to speak to me if I called them, I specifically asked for a response to my concerns via email. All of my communication with the business since signing the contract has been via email so I do not understand why now all of a sudden they are refusing my request to continue this method of communication. My concerns were clearly outlined so there should have been no issue in responding to these simple questions and concerns via email. Finally, the business states that the contract is valid and has been adhered to by Elen's Kids. I would argue that this is not the case. The contract (attached) states that Elen's Kids does not guarantee employment for any child. As mentioned above, I did not complain about my son not having been employed. My complaint stems from the legitimacy of a business that has not provided information for castings for my child's age and/or size. We signed a contract in March and since then have only been informed about 3 castings. This seems extremely low for a so called legitimate business. Furthermore, as mentioned in the contract, Elen's Kids is responsible for "providing directions to all job assignments". For 1 of the 3 castings we received information on, I was given the wrong address. The address was not corrected until after the audition was complete. Therefore, as mentioned in my complaint, if I had not researched the location on my own the night before, we would have missed the audition since we were provided with an incorrect address. For another of the potential castings I received information on, I was never given the address nor the date of the audition. I was sent the information about the shoot to which I responded saying my child would be available the day of the shoot and I asked what the date of the audition was. I was never given this information. I followed up several times and was never given the date nor the address of the audition. Please see attached evidence of said communication. This presents a clear breach of contract by the business. As such I am requesting a full refund as the contract that we signed was very clearly breached by the business.

Regards,

Review: The company did not pay for the work of my son, [redacted] on Dates From [redacted] 2, episode 3. He was owed for 3 days work, $100 per day, plus expenses such as tolls to NJ.

Then he was booked on two other jobs - for the first they failed to tell us the date to show up so [redacted] missed the show. They booked him for a commercial but took him off the job because I complained about nonpayment for [redacted].

In a recent email the owner threatened me that it would be detrimental to [redacted] career to report it to the Revdex.com>Desired Settlement: Payment, as agreed.

$1000 total for [redacted] and the 2 missed jobs.

Business

Response:

Elen sent response via mail

Business

Response:

See attached

Review: In November 2013, my family paid (up-front) this company approximately $1200.00 to manage and represent my children for modeling and acting. To date, we have only received a "go-see" within the past four (4) months. "Go-Sees" are open to the public and do not require a representative agency. Upon asking for my money back via e-mail, I received a forwarded e-mail for a go-see wherby we were advised that my son was submitted; then we never heard from them again. According to the interview and their website, they are supposed to "submit' children for jobs in print, television, film and stage, but I find that they simply place the child on the website with no further work being done. Moreover, the website is poorly maintained and disorganized; the site fails to respect the criteria pursuant to height, race, age... and upon entering filters, the webpage states that there is no information available. However, in clicking an ethnicity, the site will pull all people regardless of further specification, which requires that any company seeking models must search through all the people. Companies will not hire the kids with an onus of searching for people; to me this dissuades companies from hiring their clients. Furthermore, it has also come to my attention that it is illegal for agencies to take money up-front and that any payment is to be generated through commission based on actual work. The company required that we sign up for a custodial bank account to discourage the abuse of a child's money, yet this company has done just that. The services for which I thought I was paying for have failed to come to fruition and could have been invested elsewhere. It was my intention to have the children have fun with this experience, but they have been denied such an opportunity.Desired Settlement: We simply request a full refund, as the company misrepresented their services with no evidence to prove that they have conducted any business to justify $1200 of labor.

Business

Response:

We know how frustrating it is for parents waiting for their children to be hired/booked or be called for a casting call.

The casting calls our kids go to are NOT open to the public.

It was made very clear to the parents that there are NO guarantees. There are 3 children that we represent from this family. Only 2 were paid for, one was gratis.

Also, it is very legal in NJ for parents to pay a costs for photographs and inclusion on our website.

This family is part of Elen's Kids, and will be on our roster for 5 years. Their kids HAVE been submitted for opportunities. We are NOT the final decision maker, but try very hard for all talent to get opportunities and will continue to do so for the [redacted] family children.

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

It appears that the only time we receive "go see" requests is when a complaint or an inquiry into the practice is made. The business claims that the $1200 they received from us pays for pictures, but upon going to the photographer, packages for pictures (or even different poses for the purposes of creating a portfolio) are not provided. Each time the client sees the photographer, the client must pay a sitting fee. The digital photo is then sent via e-mail to elens kids and the photo is then uploaded to the website, what exactly does the money pay for? The pictures that were taken by the photographer were so rushed and are literally a zero sum cost to him. He just took a series of snapshots, chose the best picture out of what was taken and sent it to the company. Due to the poor quality of the photos, I asked if I could take my own pictures of the boys and forward them accordingly and this practice was not discouraged, so again, if I can take my own and better quality photos, what does the $1200 pay for?

As for claiming the baby as being represented gratis, there have been no calls for babies, which throughout the interview I was informed was a desparate need of the industry. My frustration is not that we are not getting hired, but that very little work is done to demonstrate that the cost of labor is anything beyond putting my kids on the website.

Regards,

Business

Response:

We do understand parents frustrations.

If parents are not happy with the result of the photos retaken, we will gladly incur the cost of redoing the photos with another photographer.

Parents can always provide their own photos, they are not required to utilize the photographers with our program.