Trans Continental Talent AKA Options Talent Group AKA Emodel Trying to Hide Again!?! Deceptive company pulls it again! Orlando Florida

Just to correct the post from the other day. In my scatterbrained frenzy to type that all out I made a slip. The head of customer service is Nina Gummer not Gomez. I had a few different people in my mind at the time and accidently put a couple names together.



Now, for those who do not know there is a new company out there which is owned by the same old crowd from Emodel and Options. It is Edge Talent or Edge Sports. Pearlman is not involved with this company but you can believe that every shady character from Options is involved.



For former employees out there: Dave Elliott, Senior VP of Sales, is gone. He was terminated a few weeks back but was given the last few weeks to tidy up things. It seems that back in 1995 they (Alec DeFrawy and Dave Elliot) were both charged with several federal crimes. Alec according to the records plead guilty to bank fraud and few other charges. Dave Elliott actually served time for their offenses. Oh for those out there wondering about the origin of Alec. His real name is Ayman A. El-Difrawi.

Well, I have read most of what is on this site about Trans Continental aka Options Talent Group aka Options Talent aka Emodel and the list goes on. I am employee of the company in its corporate office in Florida. I have been in several positions which has given me the opportunity to see and hear many many things.



I must say that the site in theory is a wonderful thing. The industry as a whole could benefit from such a service if it was on the up and up.



Unfortunately Trans Con...Options is far from being on the straight and narrow. The deception and lies go straight to the top of the company.



Most of the people you would ever deal with if you called or contacted the company are good people who are simply doing their job with the answers and information we have been provided by management.



There are so many things wrong with the company that there is no good place to begin. You can start with the pay cut that employees have had to take recently. 25% of 3 pay periods so that the company could afford to merge with Perlman's Trans Continental company.



There is a major shortage of money in the company and so many reasons why. One reason is that they pay the sales people on graduated scale to the point that some "talent executives" or "directors of new talent" are paid as much as $90 per enrollment.



A tangent here for any potential talent out there...do not listen to what these people call themselves..."talent executive" "director of new talent" or anything else...it makes no difference.



They are sales people and they are surrounded in a room by 30 to 40 other sales people. They care nothing about whether you make it in the industry or not. They care about numbers because their job depends on them "closing" a certain percentage.



And now back to reasons for a shortage of money. Who knows what the upper management is paid but I assure you that they are overpaid. You have VP's that have no real skills or qualifications in the industry but because they have been with the company since its early days they are now Vice Presidents or in management somewhere.



Then there is the issue of the enormous refunds the company has to issue. The company just started in August to refund any money to people who have enrolled. Basically anyone who signed with the company prior was just ripped for the enrollment fee plus the monthly maintenance fee. Anyway so they start refunding enrollment fees to people in August and now in October they are just now getting to the people who are to be refunded from late August.



Basically people are having to wait months for their $595.00 which took all of 15 seconds to charge to their credit card. So there is not enough money to pay back the refunds which are due to people and that is why they are so behind on them. They have to balance the number so the place doesn't go under. In weeks that employees must be paid do not look for many refunds to be completed.



Other losses of money come from the company's pathetic tracking systems. The credit card charged fees are pretty well accounted for but if someone has paid by Check by Phone for either enrollment or the monthly 19.95 the company has no real records of it. It is rather pathetic that a customer has to fax in proof the check cleared or their statements showing where they have paid the maintenance fee.



Recently there was a trip to Cancun which people paid anywhere from 1800 to well over 3000 dollars to attend. There were hundreds of people that were not provided there ticket information until the last minute and then a good lot of people who were never given their information in order to go. These were people who paid a ton of money to go and they were cast aside in the final days so that employees that were attending the same event good get their tickets booked.



The department that handles these events were so cowardly that management had to have another department handle the tremendous task of dealing with the calls and doing emergency bookings for tickets. Here is the real kicker...those people who did not get their tickets will not be offered a refund. They will be denied and offered future events in exchange like the Orlando Fashion Rock event happening early next year. Nevermind the fact that people paid for a service and it was not rendered. Nevermind the fact that the prices are not even comparable. The Cancun trip was priced anywhere from 1800 dollars on up and they are selling the Orlando event for 895 dollars. That is a huge difference that those people will get sucker punched with when they attempt to get a refund. Of course no one will tell them the price difference.



Then there is the other trip that was to take talent to an event to London. It is not happening. It has been postponed indefinitely and there will be no offer of refund to these people either. The cost was similar to that of Cancun but it matters not to Trans Continental aka Options because they have the money and it was spent long ago.



Attention to anyone signing up. You will be told that you have a 3 business day right to cancel. That is true but what may not be explained to you in great deal to you is that is 72 business hours from the time you attended your open call. It is not 72 hours from enrollment. There are people everyday who enroll and are not eligible for a refund even if they changed their mind 10 minutes after signing up. The "talent executive" or whatever they refer to themselves as will mislead you and as of recently the people in "account services" aka "confirmation" are not mentioning the actual date you have until to cancel. Look out. If you want the service then good for you and there are some actual benefits to it and for some it works really well. If you are not sure or are changing your mind remember you have 3 business days from Open Call to cancel. Your letter must be postmarked by the 3rd day otherwise you will not be eligible for the refund that will take 2 months to get. A phone call or an email will not suffice. Send your letter certified mail to the Client Services Department aka Customer Service. Put your letter to the attention of Nina Mason aka Nina Gomez the wife of one of the vice presidents.



Other things to look out for with this company:

the magical unexplained early billing that occurs. There are tons of people that are on payment plans who get billed 10-15 days early without notice even though they were told at the time of enrollment they would be charged on such and such a day.

Early monthly maintenance fee billing. They tell you that they bill you at the end of the month. Forget it. They bill whenever they want.

Billing of the maintenance fee in the first month. No such thing as the first month being included in the enrollment fee.



One note to pay real attention to is that the "talent executive" or "director of new talent" has no real training in the industry. Sure there are the exceptions: former models or hopeful models but for the most part these people who walked in off the street to the infamous "Dream Job" posted on Monster.com Of course with the Trans Con.. name change the job is now being title on monster as "the best and the brightest"



Notable names:

Joe Gomez, Vice President

Armand Kulpa, Vice President

Tom Weinard, Senior Vice President

Alec Dewfauy, who is the mystery man

Lou Perlman, Chairman



Note: contacting the BBB does nothing people. You have to take it a step further than that. Find other ways of letting your situation be known if you have been wronged.

I cannot believe EModel has changed their names once again! A year ago, they were Emodel but changed their name to Options Talent now they are Trans Contin- something. I just discovered that today when I notice someone applying for a job and I perused the site. I almost fell out of my chair when I realized that they were at it again. What a sick shame! Get a life!

I was wondering how many people here are aware there are postings here under 'Options Talent' as well. Rather than to enter 'Emodel' as the company, enter 'Options Talent'.



There are things people need to know. They are all pertaining to the same issues.



Please do not disregard these posts. They all point to some extremely serious implications.



How perfect. To attack us at our 'vanity'. Come on gang, Where does the money go???? It is a sick and tangled web.



Do your OWN HOMEWORK!!! Do not remain ignorant. Don't just look at the surface. Look deep below. Even I, just doing an internet trace, an ordinary person, can figure this one out. It doesn't take a rocket scientist.



Unfortunately, even the majority of the employees HONESTLY didn't/don't have a clue. They saw the opportunity to be employed in a glamorous position. They didn't bother/want to know the background of the company they were now employed with. Who wants to have to go back out and pound the pavements for a ten dollar an hour job again? So they stay---for whatever reason.



Again, RESEARCH for YOURSELVES. Do NOT just believe someone else's word. You will then know and understand the truth.



And above all, never abandon your morals and ethics.