New Faces Development Center, Inc Took our money, we cannot contact them, voicemail is full Hicksville, New York

In 2010, my daughter was scouted in the Queens Center Mall. A woman took our information, told me my daughter was pretty and a few days later we were called for an interview. While waiting my daughter was given a form to fill out about her facial features and personal interests. She was there with my husband and waited a ridiculous amount of time before she was called in for an interview. Once they called her in they told her she was pretty, and she like other kids they showed her in a magazines and happy letters could be successful. A few minutes later, the tall woman who I believe is named Jennifer pressured my husband into buying a package of photos. Right after he asked to see the prices, him and my daughter left.

The next week, my daughter and I went to their development center. We were told my daughter could easily get a job for Nickelodeon, but needed to get her portfolio first. They pressured me into buying photos by asking my child if she wanted to be a model or not. We paid about $500 the week after for what were said to be "professional" headshots and bodyshots. That same day my daughter took pictures, Leah did her makeup.

The week after that we came in to view the photos and find out how to get them to companies we were brought into a room with a tall african american woman. She took some of my daughters measurements, and when my daughter asked if we could select the photos that are used to contact companies she said she knew the right image to give, she then randomly selected 4 photos on the computer while we watched. She spoke to us about these packages, composite cards and online posts on gigacomps. We were very hesitant that we would get any acting or modeling offers at all. She told me my daughter had more of a chance because she is white and they don't have many white customers, but we were hesitant. That's when she invited James in, he came and began to try and persuade us to buy the biggest package they offered. He showed us a list of companies New Faces Development had connections with, that list included many popular companies such as Vogue and Children's Place. Then he brought in statistics showing the number of people that received modeling or acting jobs thanks to them, it showed a 10 percent increase from 2007. (In 2009 it showed 80%) The manager James did not listen to our concerns at all, instead he pushed the largest package on us. He claimed having composite cards or a gigacomps account for 3 years rather than 6 months would increase our chances greatly, that I was sure to make money. That day we paid $2200 with credit card plus $45 for copyrights and left, my daughter's photos were placed online.

We've been updating pictures annually. We accepted some offers to interviews, but never received phone call back. We are still under this three year contract and recently tried getitng in touch with New Faces Development to look for offers. We called last weekend and today and the same message was recorded, we were unable to leave a voicemail because it was full. Online I read that gigacomps is closed through a website called "CitySearch". I then tried to log on my account, but the page gigacomps.com did not even open.

We aren't sure they even exsist anymore, we are still under contract and want our money back. This company made many false promises. The only thing they have succeeded to do is waste our money and get my daughters hopes up. For this money we paid we deserve a chance to at least get offers ourselves, but how can we when they treat us this way?