W Talent They don't want to turn you into a model, they just want you to join their gym! Salt Lake City Utah

Let me set the stage for you. You are looking to either start your acting or modeling career. You hear that W Talent is holding open auditions. You go to their offices with several other would be hopefuls. You all meet in a large room plastered with modeling pictures in the next room you can see backdrops with camera lighting equipment and right in front of you, you see a fashion runway. This was the scene that my fiance ran into when she first went to W Talent.

After a big pep talk by several talent scouts who later turn out to be just very good salesman, you are called back in small groups to take photos. With music blaring you can really get caught up in the excitement! Then its off to the runway walk. With speakers blaring you strut your stuff on the stage. You feel like this is the real deal and you can really be a model!

Next you are called back individually to meet with the car salesman... oh I mean talent scout! In our situation my fiance, myself, and our daughter sit down with 3 of them. Boy did they really turn it on! Telling us how beautiful my fiance was (this is very true by the way) how much potential she has, and out of everyone there how impressed they were with her! By this time we were all smiling from ear to ear. Because she hadn't been modeling for years they couldn't just send her out for auditions though... she would first have to "learn" how to become a model.

Luckily W Talent teaches you "How to me a super famous model!" Now because they do this you have to pay for their services. Oh and also you need pictures... but only by their in house photographer. We were told that she would need at least 3 months of classes before she would be sent on auditions.

Next thing I know we are giving them my debit card and spending $300 for three months. After that they would charge my card $95 a month. We were leaving for vacation the follow week and Matt (our salesman) told us she could start when we come back. When we get back into town we stopped by their offices to find out what classes she needed. Matt wasn't there so the receptionist gave us a schedule.

Only problem is this schedule has a million classes and no direction. My fiance tried calling Matt for direction as to what classes she should take but he was never in. After leaving several messages she just decided to not pursue things with them. If they wanted her so bad then why wouldn't they even call her and let her know what you do.

3 months passes and not one follow up call, email, or letter. Then my debit card gets charged for the monthly renewal charge for $95. My fiance calls, leaves a message to have someone call her... no return call again. I get involved and call the office. One of the talent agents Elizabeth answers the phone apologizes for no one getting back and promises to have someone call me and fix everything. She was very nice and very professional.

At this point I thought not a big deal, someone will get back with me. They will apologize, and refund the money, since she never attended any classes and never had any direction or followup. Three days later still not a return phone call. I call again and again Elizabeth answers. Says they are in the process of moving offices and she will ask again for someone to call. 3 more days... still no return call.

Finally I call again and Elizabeth says she is so sorry no one has called me back and promises that someone will call. Finally later that day their account lady calls me and I explain to her what happened. She tells me that Matt the talent agent that signed her up no longer works for them and that he quit shortly after my fiance had signed up. That explains why no phone calls back from him.

I explain to her that at this point we feel like it was wasted money and we simply want a refund. She tells me that we signed a contract and basically we were paying for a gym membership. Now I workout at Lifetime fitness, by far the nicest gym in Utah and I pay $60 a month. So basically we haven't been paying for her to develop as a talent, just simply paying them a service fee and probably Matt's commision.

After talking for after 30 minutes she says its not their job to follow up if people are attending or not. I would think as bad as they seemed like they wanted her they would have been calling all the time to check up on her! Even a phone call after the first month to see how things were going would have been great.


Since this ordeal we have learned several things... #1 W talent is a gym not a agency, #2 real agencies never charge you anything, #3 they are only looking to make money on their "gym" memberships. When talking to the accounting lady she fully admitted they dropped the ball. In fact she offered her 4 free months! We have absolutely no interest in being associated with a company like this. If they were any type of company with ethics they would simply refund the money.

A real talent agency would never force you to do business with them! In my conversation with the accounting lady she kept comparing them to a gym. If I'm paying $95 a month for a gym membership then I think they could return a call, place a call, or acting like they even cared. If you are looking to get into the model or acting business stay away from W Talent!!!!!!

They are great salesman but they are looking to make money from you, not make money with you! I hope by writing this it saves even one person from signing their "gym" membership! If you want more information please feel free to email me at (((redacted)))

Bamboozaled
Draper, Utah
U.S.A.

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