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Report: #1502347

Complaint Review: Characters for hire - New york New york

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  • Reported By: Beatrice — United States
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  • Characters for hire 1440 broadway 3rd floor New york , New york United States

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Instead of having someone reach out to me to talk it over, They threatened me saying if I dont take down my review they will take legal action. (Saying things like "you are making things worse for yourself" and "just trying to protect you").
As a result, its going to add me to the "end of the list", delaying payment for another 6 months - which i expected to be battling for payment for months after I worked for them, since its happened before. They are constantly finding ways to avoid paying
THIS COMPANY FORCES YOU TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW IN ORDER TO GET PAID.
I see their workers writing positive reviews pretending to be customers! They are extorting positive reviews (which is ILLEGAL), and threatening people to take down their negative reviews.
They call my review "fake" because it is negative, as they are doing with every other negative review you see below.
(A quick Google search shows a bunch of complains about how this company doesn't pay)

This is my HONEST review:
To start off, They didn't want to hire a covid compliance officer at their last event I worked for them.
I CAUGHT COVID because I was perhaps one of three people in that crowded event that took covid seriously and wore a mask. Now I am quarantining and I've lost alot of work. And will continue losing work cause tests can show up positive for 3 months





Very sketchy company because they refuse to answer phones! They communicate through text only, so they can easily dodge you.
I've literally watched them dodge my phone calls (for months), I've watched their clients call them countless times with no response (after they paid), I've watched them dodging actors phone calls cause they've abandoned them at events that were in middle of no where.

When you are helping their event they are SUPER responsive. When the event is over and its time to get paid, thats when they avoid you. They started ignoring my messages. And when they do respond they say "ill get to it tomorrow" or "ill get to it by the end of the week" and it never happens. (Thats IF they respond). Excuse after excuse. So much empty promises, its so disrespectful.

I've worked for them on several occasions, which turned out to be very unorganized... and after the events its an EXHAUSTING BATTLE to get paid every time. Its extremely unprofessional how they handle the situations.

I tried calling them and it goes straight to voice-mail. This one time I actually reached a human, I explained my situation and the poor kid didn't even know how to handle it, his response was "I'm sorry.... I just work here, I can't help you, try hanging up and calling back", which I did and they dont pick up. They ignore your messages for days, weeks, months!

Since December 2019 I've been waiting on payment for MONTHS, they have given me bounced checks, countless promises saying theyll get to it by end of day, and I think they finally paid me (after I've harassed them) in august, I believe. I had to resend them my invoices because they aren't keeping track (they forgot to pay some of them, and I had to resend the ones they haven't completed).
One of the workers I know, they hired him again and they haven't even paid all his invoices either, like they completely forgot about it.
But its desperate times and we, as entertainers, want work, but they shouldn't be promising things they cannot fulfill, and they should be ashamed for scamming talented people of their jobs. So many folks who worked for them have not gotten paid. Its so shameful!

They came back saying they have hired more help, and have a better system and the problems won't happen again..... theyre still happening! They're avoiding me still when I'm asking them about payment.

I will be filing a report cause this is EXTREMELY unprofessional.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/27/2020 11:21 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/characters-hire/new-york-dont-pay-ignore-use-1502347. 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:
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#3 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Michael Sarnoff is a booking agent at Chracters For Hire

AUTHOR: Dave - (United States)

POSTED: Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Michael Sarnoff is a booking agent at Chracters For Hire according to https://www.today.com/food/no-food-served-wedding-etiquette-t257805. Also Disclaimer message. My accusations against Chracters For Hire and others are true and details my review and opinion of the company, which is simply mentioned on a website or page, similar to public reviews but more focused on them. This is also made for entertainment purposes as well. My review is true. However if things do change i will cooperate with any of their requests. Also i have not been offered any incentive or payment from the business to write this review as it has been voluntarily written.

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#2 UPDATE EX-employee responds

new review link

AUTHOR: Hangy - (United States)

POSTED: Tuesday, March 30, 2021
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#1 UPDATE EX-employee responds

This is all true, i was also a character for them years back

AUTHOR: Hangy - (United States)

POSTED: Tuesday, March 30, 2021

I am a former employee as well with them. They are pure jerks, attitudes. Far as fake reviews goes, i believe they are doing that to hide the truth while also violating the federal law that they mentioned to you. They did try to not pay me, fired me, and caused issues all day,felt rushed, never helped us remove make up. As far as being a character in times like this, you have a right to wear a mask over the costume. They took it away endangering you. You should consider calling some lawyers, and consider a lawsuit or possible class action lawsuit others can join. 

ANYONE EXPERIENCING ANY ISSUES LIKE THIS PLEASE DOCUMENT YOUR EXPERIENCE. 

Up to you to remove reviews when and if they pay you. 

I recommend you find their BBB page on bbb.org and post a review there. We need these kind of reviews on other pages they have to get us heard. 

It is recommended to do anonymous reviews like i did, if possible changing names on existing or new ones going forward. 

Following are other reports of issues:

https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/characters-hire-llc-owned-run/manhattan-payg-class-act-hot-1493318

https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/characters-for-hire-nick-sarelli/new-york-ny-10018/characters-for-hire-nick-sarelli-breach-of-contract-by-not-paying-me-false-accusations-1474781

 

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