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Report: #1416474

Complaint Review: ArtistPR - Los Angeles California

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  • Reported By: Simon — Burbank California United States
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  • ArtistPR 7190 Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, California United States

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ArtistPR is in the business of selling you information to become YOUR OWN music PR person. They do not really provide any individualized PR services, despite their claim that they work for you. They claim to have a 30 day money-back guarantee. Good luck trying to figure out that maze. They make it as hard as possible for you to contact them within that 30 day period. They do that so that you end on the hook for the $300 you paid. I think they then try and get you to sign up for a monthly service fee some people, saying that it takes time to get feedback from the music industry. From what I read, little - if anything - is done for you. I never got that far into the process, and I'll tell you why.

Like everyone else who has fallen for this scam, I was drawn in with one of their online ads - the kind that has a video touting their services. I was suspicious of ArtistPR but the money-back guarantee made me sure that I'd be able to stiff out a scam if it was one. And I did.

The claims in the video are lies. They claim they will provide you with professional representation to the music industry through press releases, radio placements, interviews, placement in music publications etc. In their materials they quote musicians who supposedly have benefitted from their "amazing" work. The implication of the presentation is that they have a staff that are working tirelessly to promote your music for you. I Googled one of the acts they like to quote in their promotions, and found that they have not released any music since 2012. I'm sure if I dug deeper into their supposed clients I'd find that they are either no longer actively making music or that they are completely fictitous. How easy is it to set up a "web presence" for a few bands, simply to make up ficticious quotes? Even if they were real, a couple of hundred bucks for a positive quote? Not a lot to pay to give a scam the appearance of legitimacy. I'm theorizing here, so if I'm wrong I'd be happy to hear about how ArtistPR actually helped real musicians achieve real success.

Once you sign up and pay about $300, the only thing they do is draft a press release based on the information you provide. Basically you do 75% of the work with this information. I was emailed a press release for my band which seemed like it was written by a 12 year old. I replied to this email by asking that they have another swing at it. In all they had three attempts, each version was equally bad, despite my suggestions. I ended up writing the whole thing and telling them to use my version instead.

I then checked out Ripoff Report. Honestly, I wasn't at all surprised that ArtistPR had been reported on this site.

I tried to log on to their "premium members" web site so I could check out the procedure to cancel so I could get my money back - which I intended to do if I got nothing useful from ArtistPR, but I couldn't get onto the site using my email address. I sent them several emails asking for help but never received a reply. I tried calling their phone number. They have a few options on their voicemail which all end up asking you to log in to their web site - or email support "and we'll reply promptly". Well, I sent several more emails to their support address. No response.

Within a week I received an email inviting me to a "webinar" hosted by someone named "Patrick". Out of curiosity I signed up. The video started, with the superficial appearance of a webinar, but immediately I was suspicious. There was a small window which seemed to be a list of participants waiting for the webinar to start - with 90 or so attendees. The "webinar" claimed there was only room for 100 people. The video started (the webinar was apparently full, with 100 "attendees") but it was clear from the audio edits that this was NOT a live webinar. The supposedly live "messages" section (for attendees to comment) contained positive, excited words from several "attendees". I noticed that none of the names associated with these canned comments matched any of the names in the "attendees window". Sloppy! So I knew immediately that this was just an "up-selling" pitch from ArtistPR. After the initial presentation, the voice in the video asked for questions from the attendees and, not surprisingly, softball questions appeared in the comments window and the voice dutifully responded to them. I was able to make comments in this window but not surprisingly, the voice only picked up on the other questions - since this was all pre-recorded.

An hour or so after the big sell - a pitch for a $475 package of self-promotion materials that they claimed had a value of almost $2,000 - I received an email from "Patrick" pitching the books and a set of educational DVDs mentioned in the fake "webinar".

By this time I was completely convinced that this company was a huge rip-off. I had Googled the address that they claimed was their physical address of their Hollywood office - just a few miles away from where i live. I thought that if I couldn't contact them for my refund I'd just go down to their office. Looking on Google Maps I saw that there wasn't even a building with that address on Sunset Boulevard!

So I replied to the email from "Patrick", telling him what I thought about his video that masqueraded as a webinar. I also reiterated my dissatisfaction with ArtistPR's attempts at writing a press release - and that my many emails to their "support" people remained unanswered.

I guess THIS email got their attention. The very next day I received an email saying that my membership had been cancelled - although I hadn't specifically asked them to do that. I then noticed that they hadn't mentioned anything about a refund in their goodbye email! I suspect that they sent this email so I would assume that I'd be getting my refund and let the 30 dyas expire. Of course, I didn't fall for that either... I sent another reply, telling them that I expected a refund within 24 hours or I would file a complaint with Paypal (which I used to purchase the membership) - and that if I needed to getting my refund from Paypal, that I would try and get Paypal to ban their company from taking payments via Paypal.

I'll be awaiting their reponse with low expectations. I'll add an update once the whole issue is resolved and I have my refund.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/12/2017 11:47 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/artistpr/los-angeles-california-90046/artistpr-artistpr-is-not-a-pr-company-los-angeles-california-1416474. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
1Author
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#2 Author of original report

Thanks for the info and confirmation of my suspicions

AUTHOR: Simon - (United States)

POSTED: Monday, December 18, 2017

Thanks, Bruce. The guy contacted me again a few days back, claiming that the promised refund didn't apply to the "services" I paid for but telling me that he'd issue a refund if I didn't get the results I expected. He claimed that he'd get reviews for my latest album and that if I gave them more time that they'd soon appear. Well, since your reply I certainly am going to follow up and file a report with Paypal.

 

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#1 Consumer Comment

Patrick is John Mahoney and not very good at disguising himself

AUTHOR: Bruce Cotter - (United States)

POSTED: Sunday, December 17, 2017

Sorry to hear about your experiences with John Mahoney. John Mahoney is Patrick. He's been running this game for years now. I honeslty am surprised he hasn't been shut down yet. He absolutely hates dealing with musicians. He gives too shits about your career. He is in survival mode and does this for the money, not out of service and love for his work or as a calling. He cares about cocaine, women, drinking and not having to put alot of time or energy into doing anything truly meaningful. Prior to this, he was selling video content for the adult industry. He's been known to backstab friends and in fact, takes pleasure in seeing them get fired or go through difficult times--especially if he is jealous of them. The guy is a complete hot mess. He laughs about how stupid musicians are for needing his help in the first place.

He boasts about not cutting them off when they try to engage him in personal conversation that does not result in a sale. Honestly, he's a pretty miserable guy who hates his life and occupation. He needs prayer more than anything. But in the meantime, karma and justice is a very real thing and he needs to be held accountable for his wrongs-even if he never intended to purposely cause you harm. Howwever  in John's case, he really doesn't give a s**t about you. He doesn't lose sleep over whether or not his services are helping you. He looks for quick fixes and easy way outs to make money. He will put work into a scheme but not into anthing meaningful. His database is a joke. ArtistPR got started while John was working for another company --a modeling/tv agency that represented clients.

He spent six months of his time there while on the clock and on their dime, copying their database and stealing their info. He was motivated by greed and jealousy and sadly, it looks like same old John Mahoney is still up to the same old tricks. He can be fun to party with if you're into that sort of thing but sadly, that's where the connection ends. There's no real loyalty to his so-called friends. He got one of his friends fired and took pleasure in doing it. But enough about his flaws. Let's focus on how you can get your money back! Justice must be served!  His company is no longer even active. He is operating under an LLC that is currently in default with an expired business license. He shouldn't even be doing business. Here is the link to prove that: http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/PrintCorp.aspx?lx8nvq=FI3CWuqSGOavZXqABd9Khg%253d%253d&nt7=0

His company was an LLC called SPG Artist Media that was doing business (DBA) as Artist PR and incorporated in Nevada. The corporation is NOT an active corporation and is in default along with an expired business license. Just show paypal the link above and be sure to show them all the other links about the complaints on him. If they google ArtistPR Scam or ArtistPR reviews a bunch of links will come up. They will shut him down and refund your money. I would also contact your credit card and issuing bank of the debit or credit card you used through PayPal and let them know the same thing: you were defrauded! PayPal is very, very concerned about not being used as a vehicle for these kinds of shenanigans. And as for John, best thing you can do is pray for him and always trust your gut about things. Best of luck, friend!

And to John Mahoney--what comes around goes around buddy! You should have known better than to betray a friend who was always there for you and think that I wouldn't find out. 9 lives, baby. 9 lives!!

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