Premiere Productions Inc. Maria Cook Premiere Productions Inc. Training School for Event and Wedding Planning by Maria Cook is a SCAM and fraud Los Angeles, California

Please beware of Maria Cook and her company Premiere Productions Inc.

Maria Cook and her business partner Michelle Farrell have been operating a bogus event and wedding planning company and training school in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco under the name Premiere Productions Inc. Their website is www.premiere-productionsinc.com

Premiere Productions Inc. places false job ads for Event and Wedding Planners on Craigslist and job boards all over the Internet on a weekly basis. Whenever an applicant responds to their bogus job ad, they will receive an invitation for a phony job interview. They conduct fake job interviews in conference rooms that are rented by the hour in an office building or high rise tower. That is the reason why you won't find Premiere Productions Inc. listed in the building directory. However, they will tell you that you're actually interviewing at one of their corporate offices which is a complete lie. It's a classic smoke and mirrors trick. If you go and visit the building and address listed on their website you will not find Premiere Productions Inc. Check out the small business license and registration for Premiere Productions Inc. and you will see that it's registered by Maria Cook to a residential apartment in Santa Monica.

Unsuspecting applicants are asked to bring their resume and references to the interview. However, they don't even bother reading your resume or checking any references. They may even ask you to fill out a phony personality test that's impossible to fail. Regardless of your work experience and qualifications they will kiss up to you. They will comment on how you are a perfect fit for the company and how you have the profile, skills, and personality to be a successful event and wedding planner. They prey on young, inexperienced, and unemployed women who are looking for an honest job and career in a bad economy when a good job is hard to find.

Maria will have someone call you the day after your interview to follow up. You will be asked to pay for Premiere Productions Inc. anywhere from $3500 [Gold Package] to $11,000 [Double Platinum Package] for basic training. However, the ads they place on job boards do not mention anything in regards to paying for training. Maria will promote use of the catchphrase "Earn while you learn" to mislead you into thinking that you will make all of your money back plus a lot more while you are being trained which is totally untrue. Maria will try to steer you towards paying for the $7,500 and $11,000 training packages by telling you that you will learn more trade secrets and earn even more money. She will try to you to pay as much as you can upfront and will even ask you to consider taking out a bank loan to finance the cost if you can't afford to pay in full. If that doesn't work then she will offer to work with you and setup a payment plan so you can pay her installments.

If you do fall for her elaborate scam she will ask you to sign an agreement that indicates payments are non-refundable to prevent you from chasing her down. You will also be asked to sign an independent contractor agreement that includes a disparagement clause so that you can't write anything bad about Premiere Productions Inc. on the Internet when you finally discover that it's all a major scam.  

The training program is a complete joke and fails to live up to the hype. Regardless of whether you pay $3,500 or $11,000 the entire training curriculum and program is 1 class a week that meets exclusively online through a webinar format. There is absolutely no direct contact or face to face interaction with the instructor Tara Ward. There is no classroom training because they don't even have a real office to meet. There is no hands-on training at all. The level and quality of instruction is terrible and you can tell they are completely faking it. Phone and email communication are especially poor. Every once in a while, Maria will send everyone an individual and personalized email telling them that she hears from Tara that they are doing a great job to keep folks motivated.

Dont be fooled. Most of the time you will feel completely lost and wonder what's going on because there is very little communication from Tara or Maria. You will get very little response when emailing or calling either one of them directly especially after they have collected payment from you.

Premiere Productions Inc. masquarades itself as an Event and Wedding Planning company, but as others have noted it's just a front to recruit for their Event and Wedding Planning school. Bride and couples who have hired Premiere Productions to provide event and wedding planning services have also been burned very badly based on the complaints online. Ask them to provide you with a list of happy clients and brides. They can't because they don't exist. This company has dashed the hopes and dreams of many people.

While in training they will give you a flashy title like Consultant or Event Producer to make you feel important. As you might imagine the turnover rate for training program and school is high. A lot of people will suddenly disappear and drop out after they realize they've been ripped off and scammed by Premiere Productions Inc. and Maria Cook. Don't expect to have a job with Premiere Productions Inc. at the end of the 12 weeks of training. Don't expect to have made any money during your training because you won't make a dime. The training is a complete waste of time and money. You won't learn anything of value.  

If you approach Maria with issues, concerns, or complaints she will tell you that she will address it with corporate. She represents herself as an Executive Director at the company. If you ask her if she is the President and owner of Premiere Productions she will flat out deny it. However, Maria promotes herself as the President of Premiere Productions Inc. on her very own LinkedIn profile and other self promotional literature on the Internet. If you ask to speak to her supervisor she will give you the runaround and intentionally avoid your emails and phone calls at which point she will hide behind her attorney. Instead of working with you to understand and address your concerns, she will try to turn everything around on you and blame you for their failure. Everything about Premiere Productions Inc. and the Event and Wedding Planning school was totally misrepresented by Maria and her team of employees.
 
There are a lot of negative comments circulating on the Internet from unhappy brides, couples, newlyweds, job seekers, students, etc... that have been taken advantage of and ripped off by Maria Cook and her company Premiere Productions Inc.

Run a Google search on the keywords and phrases "Premiere Productions Inc. Scam" or "Maria Cook Premiere Productions Inc." or "Maria Cook Scam". Enclosed is a sample of the results that may come up.


 (((links redacted)))

As others have cited, Maria Cook and Premiere Productions Inc. are associated with Michelle Angeline Farrell who is a very well known scam and con artist in the event and wedding planning industry. Michelle Angeline Farrell's alias at Premiere Productions Inc. is Angie Shelly.

  (((links redacted)))
  http://www.ripoffreport.com/Wedding-Services/THE-PLANNING-HOUSE-L/the-planning-house-llc-the-le-6dc73.htm
  http://www.ripoffreport.com/wedding-services/the-planning-house-t/the-planning-house-the-tosca-bc4m6.htm



Given the severity and volume of complaints against her, it wouldn't surprise me if Maria Cook tries to register and operate a similar scam under the name of different company in the near future. Now that the public is on to her scam, Maria may even alter the angle and dynamics of her rogue business model so watch out.

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.