Interface Talent Network LLC

Those folks that stop you in the mall and say, ""WOW! your child is gorgeous.."" (well he is!) and then they try to convince you that he should be a model or on TV (well, duh! of course he should! he's gorgeous!) - but most of us know its all a scam! So then why do so many people fall for it? We all want a shred of hope that there is something better for our kids, and of course most of us feel our little angel is the most handsome/nicest etc, but its just evil to play on that hope the ""poor"" parent has (and I mean ""poor"" both in terms of economics as well as in terms of pressure to do better for your kids). These people in the modeling Kiosks are just trying to make a buck too - but how can they live with themselves and sleep at night?!?! So much information online about tricks, scams, and high pressure sales by them once they get you in their web of lies... just say no! But I think a part of getting it to stop, is the malls not giving them space!!! Just wrote the letter below to the Kiosk leasing VPs at two of our nearby malls (i live in Norwalk CT - so you can guess which malls...) to whom it may concern: I am writing this in regards to the tv auditions/modeling agency booth kiosk at the mall - there is a ton of information available regarding complaints of this same company under different names (interface, Industry Models & Talent Studios) and they also at some of your other CT and New Jersey mall locations. This is an organization with well documented complaints to the Better Business Bureau and the Departments of Consumer protection. The are primarily a SCAM company that lures parents into their offices and corners and cons them into paying $500-$1000 or more for photo packages in the hopes of getting their children into modeling. These companies have a tiny percentage of ""clients"" that they occasionally can pass off to real agencies so they can then claim to have success stories - but the majority of their services are of the bait and switch nature and are deception based with the only intent of parting consumers of their money for little or nothing in return except frustration and dashed hopes after being scammed by a con-artist. And this should be no surprise to your company as it is all old news, complaints against these companies are very well documented and available online and elsewhere - and yet your malls continue to allow these SCAM artists to corner large numbers of your more naive customers. And although they may be getting through a loophole by no longer being legally allowed to speak to or get personal contact information from underaged children without a parent present, they have no hesitation to coax or pressure a parent in front of a child who has a hope of a career in TV or modeling. The perception we, your customers, have of your malls is that you are guilty by association for helping these horrible companies to take advantage of us and our children! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE break your leases with these companies and remove them from your malls. I beg of you to remove these types of flim-flam scam artists from your malls. This soils the reputation of your company and you will lose consumer trust and dollars by allowing these people retail space in your malls. Thank you for your consideration of this request. more

Like you have said, I would not of rated one. I am 15 and just recently got called three times telling me they want me. I have read your reviews and I guess I will not pursue this rubbish any longer. Thank you very much. :) more

Since my son and I were to Natick collection,and we gave our contact information, we have received 4 calls to confirm the sunday appointment. I thought that it was a litlle bit strange for a serious company. Then, I went to this website to read the reviews. I was surprised of the comments, and I would like to thank those people who wrote then. Thus, when they called us 1 more time we told that we were not anymore interested in their interview... more

I am another Mom who is being forced to at least give a one star rating...Interface has been calling me & my husband non stop since we signed up at a kiosk in the mall for our daughter.\r 90% of the calls have been automated but today i was finally called by a human being whom I told that i am no longer interested...15 minutes later another rep calls, annoyed i asked to have my number removed & after giving my info, she responded ""it was impossible for us to have called you since we don't have a record of your number."" disgusted by her response & POOR customer service i asked her how she thinks i got their number in the first place, & she hung up on me!! As my blood started to boil i called back again & asked for a supervisor whom also hung up on me! Sadly i called back one more time to speak with the ""supervisor"" & it was no surprise that she didn't pick up her extension. INTERFACE have you ever heard of caller ID?!!\r Bottom line BEWARE! more

The Citysearch people are requiring me to give at least one star to Interface but I would give them no stars for being a scam company. We are fairly educated, savvy consumers but boy did we get scammed by this company. Someone approached me at the mall and said my son was very cute and if I was interested in getting him into modeling they would contact me. Being a new and proud mom I set up an appointment and that's when the whole thing went to hell. They had us come to their office in Framingham which looks like they can be out of there in 24hours notice. There were so many people like us with kids, mostly new-immigrants (like us also) and they told us how they were looking for diverse kids for modeling jobs. They had us meet 4 different people - scheduled a photo shoot with us for about $450. We came for the photo shoot - there were again about 20 kids being shot in the same space - our photographer was new and had no idea what he was doing. They took a few pictures... which turned out horribly (and listen - trust me when I say this I'm not just saying this because he's my son - my kid is pretty cute) and scheduled another meeting to come and see the pictures and meet with a ""Marketing Director"".... We come again for another meeting and they lost a whole set of photographs. So they sign us up for a second photo shoot! We went again (yeah at this point we're big dumb dumbs) and have our son try on 3 different outfits and get more pictures done. Then they have us meet with the Marketing Director who sells us a 3 year contract for $1800! I tell her that's not for us but she keeps talking... at this point my son is crying, we've been there for 3 hours (just waiting around) and I tell her that we'll sign up but I will call her to downgrade us to a 4 month trial period the next day. I call her first thing in the morning - they tell me she's not there.. but tell me to call back on Monday... I call back on Monday and they take down my details and say they will take care of it. I call back in a few hours and ask if they need anything else from me to get my money back - they say no need for anything - we can proceed and they are working on your refund. I call almost everyday and get the royal runaround and then I get transferred to their NJ office where they tell me they can't refund my money because I never sent in a certified letter!!! This is after I specifically asked 3 people at the Framingham office (a Madison, a Jeanette, a Erica) whether I need to give them something in writing?!! My lawyer is writing up a letter so I can get my money back but I want to warn everyone not to get sucked in like we did. Go to a legit modeling agent directly to do this. I actually called two reputable agency based in Boston and asked them if they had heard about Interface. One said no, the other said that they send all ""stacks and stacks of composite cards that we just trash"".... I wonder how much money Interface has stolen already from MA residents. I ended up calling the mall to let them know and they said they have also received many complaints from people. Hopefully we can get rid of this parasitic company from MA (its already blacklisted in CT).... more

Never sign anything until you find out everything you can about sso called Talent Agencies. They will scam you out of thousand of dollars with no results. There are plenty of reputable Talent agencies in the Boston area, but understand even they can not make promises that your child will become a star. Clients choose people specifically for what their needs are. It's not always the blonde hair blue eyes they are loking for, and it is highly competitive. Go for the experience of the audition and tell your kids not to get their hopes up but feel good about giving a great audition. if they get the job thats a plus! more

We were approached at the North Shore Mall in Peabody, Massachusetts. ""Oh your son is so cute, he can be a model!"". So I got all excited thinking here's a break, we can have some fun and make some much needed money. They called up the next day to set up an appointment at their offices in Framingham. This morning, I was picking out pictures to bring. Went online to see if I could find any information on the company. Boy am I glad I did. I found lots of information about how they basically make you pay for expensive photo shots, and that's that. I am cancelling the appointment. Thank you to everyone who has posted on this company!!! more

STAY AWAY!!!!!!!! This company will take your money. They have taken my for thousands of dollars. If you don't believe me just call any legitimate modeling agency and ask them what they think of InterFACE. Buyer beware! more

My 16-year old daughter was contacted by this company via phone and encouraged to schedule an appointment to ""evaluate"" her ability to be on camera. It should be noted that my daughter is a model. The company rep stated that the company works with ""300 directors and producers"" in the acting and modeling industry. My wife got on the phone and agreed to schedule an appointment. The following day I went online and researched the company, finding MANY negative comments. Including an undercover investigation from Inside Edition. I contacted the company and left a voicemail indicating - very simply - that we were cancelling our appointment and I also asked the company to remove my daughters information from their database and to not call her again. Not more than 15-minutes later the company called her again and left a voicemail (which I have saved). The caller stated that ""we had wasted their time"" and that ""they were going to report my daughter to the ""300 directors and producers"" that they work with. It should be known that I cancelled my daughters appointment 1.5 hours before she was scheduled to be there. The company's intentions are very clear to me. more

This outfit is a total scam and has the worst business practices ever. We signed a contract and an hour later, after reading all the horror stories about the company, we decided to cancel the contract. They are making it as difficult as possible. Not sure if I'll ever get that $750 back. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS! Check Better Business Bureau -- they have an F rating. That says it all. more

Please be aware. This company is a complete scam. They scout ""talent"" in the malls and prey on the kids 18 years and younger. The scouts are young teenagers that know nothing about the industry nor the company. They approach parents and tell them that their children are cute. Once they sign up, interface will harrass with phone calls. The family will come into the office to meet with a director. They will be put under a high pressure sales pitch and literally forced to purchase a photoshoot. These photos are of the lowest standards. The best part is once someone pays this money and goes through with the shoot, Interface will never contact them again. \r \r If this was a reputable talent agency or company, the talent that they are interested in will not have to pay money up front. \r \r Interface judges their clients on how much their parents spend, not on their actual talent.... \r \r Do your research, they have changed their name several times, have tons of complaints and negative feedback, and have a terrible rating with the Better Business Bureau.... Stay clear of this company!!! more

I will say I agree with some of the information that was posted here. I went through the process, was approached at the mall and told once i got there that my son was the cutest thing in the world, which of course is what i think, lol. they then told me about the photoshoot which is extremely overpriced but I will say after paying it and reading posts similar to this i thought i was a silly fool but i did the pictures the same day so i could not get a refund if i wanted to, then you have to go back and find out about the fees for marketing which is in addition to the costs that you already paid for the pictures. so i paid for the smallest amount of marketing since my son was so young and while i thought i was being scamed i figured that i already paid that much money so whats a little more, if i'm gonna be a partial fool i mind as well be a complete fool. I am sure most of you are thinking you stupid fool, well thats how i was feeling a couple days later. but to my surprise about 2wks later i was called by a actual agency who only gets paid after my son gets a job and they get 15% and i get the remainder 15% of the remainder has to go in an account that i cannot touch and my son cannot touch until he is 18y/o, and about a wk after signing with them he was sent on 2auditions, 1 for toys r us and one for huggies. he did not get either job but just being sent made me feel happy about my decision to deal with the overpriced company interface. All of this took place Nov 2010 and just this month Jan 2011 he was signed through another agency through interface. I agree with posts stating that you do not have to pay to get signed with an agency but I tried very hard to get him signed without help and was consistent but nothing happened and signing with interface showed results I feel very fast. I will say i think they signed almost anyone and that I believe there are tons that may never get signed but at the end of the day its still the look that the aspiring model has to get a job because you either have it or you dont. And also they have so so many fees that arent told up front so they make money off of ppl paying for pic and then quiting because of the extreme additional fees. Also the make up artists and hair stylists as well as the photographers are ok, not the absolute best because my son had even better pictures when i took him to picture ppl as far as lighting and poses. And at the time my son was 8months so he didnt even utilize the make up and hair stylists. So now you have ppl that say its a scam and some that say its not i will be honest and say some of those that say its not seem to possibly work for the company maybe but I promise I dont and thats why I went into so much detail because I want you to see a possible postive outcome although I still think it was to much money and not enough info upfront but thank god for me that my son has been signed to 2 agencies from them and prayfully he will get more auditions and land a job. But regardless I can say I am happy bout my decision to deal with them because without them he would never have these opportunities at this current time. more

So.I received several calls from interface and kept ignoring them. Finally, I gave up and decided to pick up their call. They asked me if I was interested in modeling and I said yes. After that they scheduled an appointment for me and I had to go with my mom since I was only 18 years old and you had to be older than 22. Before my mother and I went she asked the girl on the phone if she had to pay anything. The girls response was no. So, my mom said well than maybe this is a legitimate modeling company. Finally we got there and we were asked to enter this room where a guy asked me alot of questions towards modeling. He lasted 55 minutes just talking about how perfect I was for modeling. He said I looked mix with white and black and that it was uncommon for a Latina female to look the way I did. He bragged and manipulated me into agreeing with him while my mother opposed of it. He kept asking my mom if she was serious about the idea of me modeling, she said yeah. Than, the SCAM question came. Without telling my mom that this company required a HUGE amount of money he simply took out the money packet. My mom froze for a minute, and he said quickly said ""so which one would you like"" .she said ""wait a minute, before coming here I asked the girl if I was going to be charge something and she said nothing at all. The guy than said, o well shes wrong. My mom said, well than I need time to think because you guys are requesting a high amount of money. The guy said ""theres nothing for you to think about. Right that moment.....I knew that this was a scam. Why the hell would they pressure people. My mom deposited 50 dollars rather than the 1750 dollars so they could leave us alone. She called the next day to get her 50 dollars refunded and they lasted one hour trying to change our minds over the phone in lowering the actual price. I said O MIGH GOD.....NO just give me a refund and cancel her photoshoot. If you did not cancel your phoroshoot in less than 3 days you were to PAY 100 MORE DOLLARS/. Finally, my mom and i CANCELED everything. This company is WORTHLESS. i HATE THE fact that they wasted my moms time. I wish they knew that one day they will be caught!!1 more

I'm writing this letter now while I should be preparing my sermon for tomorrow. They roped my wife and I into signing up our daughter. It is VERY expensive but they sell you on the longevity, how slow a process it is, etc. Basically if you really believe that you or your child has talent, you do NOT need to go through this sort of firm. Go to an actual agent, you should not have to pay for anything up front. If the agency doesn't think you or your child has potential, they'll say no. And while that may hurt your ego, at least they wont lead you on just so they can take your money. Interface wont turn down anyone that can pay. My wife and I justified every red flag that we saw because we thought our daughter has some talent and potential. They knew EXACTLY what buttons to press to make us go forward. They played to My ego, to our love for our daughter, to everything. And then the one guy tried to play off the fact that I was a pastor, he said that I should sign up to be a model and this last time they even went so far as to suggest that I should sign up because I can do ""voiceover"" work...basically we got played, and now I'm scrambling to run to the post office so that I can send an overnight certified letter to cancel this in my very short 3 day window. Id say, ""if you had money"" go right ahead and sign up. But when I think about who I saw when I was there, there really weren't a lot of well to do people. People with resources KNOW how the industry works and they would just go to the agencies themselves, just as anyone should. When I took two seconds to google this firm, check out reviews, and then thought about the process, I am SO GLAD that my three days aren't up. I wish that I could go back down there, and tell all of the families there, that they are being played. I would have never thought this could happen to me, but it did. I'm so glad its not too late to fix it. We already lost some money on the photo shoot, a lot actually. But at least we got a great bunch of photos for our daughter. But its time to pull the plug now. Stay FAR FAR AWAY! more

Last year i was at the milford mall and was approached by a girl from the interface stand askng me if i would be interested in modeling. i was curious, but also sceptical becaue ive heard alot about modeling scams. they set up an appointment with me a few days later. still being uncertain and slightly uncomfortable that i might be getting into something weird i asked my boyfriend to come with me. we sat in the waiting room for almost 2 hours b4 they called us into a little office. the guys first sentance was that he wanted to offer a modeling job to my oyfriend also. then he asked us if we were serious about persuing this. i felt a little shy and said i dont know. and he said well if u dont know, your wasting our time and we should end this now. i said i felt uncomfortable bc i didnt think i was the model type and i had no idea how it works. thats when he explained the whole thing. that we have 2 set up a photo shoot and told us the prices. i was feeling a little pressured. he showed us pictures of other people that they helped get modeling careers. my boyfriend said it seemed fine. but i was still not sure. he said it was a one time offer and i figured what the heck i guess il take a chance. he charged 1 thousand to my credit card. 800 of it was for my photo shoot. 2oo was for my boyfriend. they also charged his credit card 100. and made him sign something saying he will pay the remaining 500 the day of the shoot. he said it was a one time offer. i felt pressured and signed the contract. the whole way home i felt like i might have made a big mistake, while my boyfriend kept convincing me it was fine.\r \r i got home and i sat down and read the whole contract word for word and discovered that i had 3 days 2 cancel by sending it in writing by certified mail. i googled interface and read all the complaints. i also went to better buisness bureau to learn that it got an f rating. i immediatly got a pen and wrote a letter to them to cancel the contract and sent it out the very next morning, which was day 2. as a precaution i called my discover card to notify them of the situation. they said they probably wont be able to do anything but as long as i canceled within the terms of the contract i shoudl be fine.\r \r fortunatly, about 2 weeks lateri was refunded the entire 1000 to my card.\r \r i told myself that i would never again sign amything under so much pressure withought being able 2 have a chance to really think about it. more

We were approched at six flag for modeling. We live in Boston, after two weeks of getting phone calls we decided to and drive for 3 hours. I asked over the phone if there is any money involved and they said no. First day, this representative talked to my 8 years son and get him so excited about it and showed us ali price list for the photos shoots that the cheapest was 1175.00. we took it and pay with my credit card. Secon time we go and take the photos and they ask us to come back next day, i have to live work and everything to go back. 3 day, when we go to see the fotos. they ask for 45 dollars for a copy of the photos and ask for 800 the cheapest one to advertise his pix online, the prices go up to 3000 dollars. So mad, i asked since the begining and nobody tell u anything until its to late. All they want its your money, averytime you go there, there is always something to pay. Unless u can affort it and you are willing to pay THOUSANDS of dollar, them go. GOOD LUCK more

my 3 children and i were approached by interface reps at six flags for modeling and talent. i filled out the info card to receive information about their company. i received a call from interface the very next day 7/14/10. i completed a phone interview with employee JESSICA answering numerous questions about my children. jessica stated that the company was very interested in meeting my children and that i would need to bring 3 photos of each child and music for the child interested in singing on friday 7/16/10. our appointment was scheduled for 2pm...we sat in a waiting room till 3pm. the director Dana Corbin then brought us back to her office. She gave a very good pitch in regards to the companies success with talent bookings with their services. she was very personable however very persistent. She spoke with my children and stated she was excited to bring all 3 aboard. at this time she pulled out the package sheet for photos needed to get started. the lowest priced package was $575 per child...they had packages the cost as much as $5600 i explained to her that it would be impossible to swing the lowest package for all 3 kids. she then said we should start with my oldest child (14) and that she would do the $875 pkg for the $575 price, and that she would do a payment plan. of course this conversation is taking place in front of the kids making it difficult to say no. My oldest child was very excited so i agreed to take her offer. at this point we have been in her tiny office for over an hour with an excited 14 yearold... a very active 7 yearold and a cranky 3 yearold. Dana then pulls out the paper work and schedules the photo shoot for august 13th. the front page of the paperwork shows the photo package the photo shoot date and the deposit amount. Dana explains in detail to bring lots of outfits for this shoot. ( while she is talking about the shoot) she has me initial to the fact that i understand that i must call a week before to cancel the shoot and that i was authorizing an additional $100 payment to be charged to my card on 7/28/10 and that the balance would be due day of the shoot. ( this entire time im holding my cranky 3 yearold ) she took my credit card and processed the payment. we then left for our 2.5 hr ride home. I had some unexpected expensive issues come up so i decided i would cancel this appointment. i called interface 8/4/10 to try to cancel and have my money refunded to me. I did not think this would be an issue because it was more then a week notice. The customer service rep (Rodriquez) tells me that i only had 3 days to cancel and that a week noticed is needed for a shoot reschedule, and that all cancellations must be received by certified mail. This absolutely was not explained to me at all. I pleaded with them to please refund my money seeing how they have not rendered any services. She told me that i initialed the service agreement and that there is nothing she will do and that their agreement is always explained in detail. I did initial it, however not to what was being described while i was initialing as well distracted with the children. I asked (rodriquez) if the interviews were taped, she said that all interviews are taped.I asked that she please review the tape and she would see that there was no explanation of cancellation policies....as well as no explination of other fees and loss of money listed in the fine print of their ""agreement"". She said that it is what it is and my money would be on account with them when im ready to set up a photo shoot. I need my money and no longer want to do business with this shady company. I feel no services were provided there fore my money should be returned to my children and i. more

My wife and I got their application business card size at Six Flags, MA. It was Saturday, 09/19/2009. The application shows 5 check boxes: Modeling, Singing, Dancing, Acting and Other. My 7-year-old daughter is a singer. My 14-year-old son is a piano player. I filled out the application checking off ""Singing"". I had just signed up my daughter. They called us 4 days later to set up the appointment to see my daughter. I asked them questions like: ""How much will I have to pay?"", ""Will she have to perform to you?"". The representative (""B"") answered saying it was free and that the interviewer would explain everything. Well, at that time, we were really happy. Even though it was a long trip. The appointment took place on 09/26/2009 (Saturday). Believe or not, everyone woke up at 5 a.m. We left home at 6 a.m. Brockton, MA to Norwalk, CT (177 miles - 3 hours). Representative made sure to let us understand we could not get there late. We also would need 2 forms of ID. They were late 15 minutes. My daughter's interview started at 10:15 with interviewer ""M"". What a 'SCAM'. He was capable to convince us my son could also be in. After being there listening to him for over 15 minutes and seeing books and books of pictures, I finally asked him about the cost. Then, ""M"" pulled out a price list which starts at $550.00 for 1 picture (8 by 10, I think). And the highest and the best package for $5,500.00 . And If I included my son, I would only have to pay for $11,000.00 (only!). The real things was that I had signed up my daughter (a real singer) to sing and not for modeling. He offered $300.00 out of his pocket. Then, he tried to play with my feelings by saying: ""Don't tell me dad you will not do this for them after driving all the way from MA to CT?! My answer was very simple: Yes, I will. And I would do it again. I would go to Texas if needed to. But I will be more cautious. Your people should at least save us time, gas and money by answering our questions properly when asked over the phone. You and your company should at least take in consideration those ones out of the state. ""Ok, dad. Let's do it this way: I will give you 3 days from now so you and mom can think about it. But I will at least need your credit card information to process this ""order"". If you don't call within 3 days from now, the money will not be refunded."" I said no. No way. You will never get any other information from me. And we are out of here. So, people, just be very careful. This ""INTER FACE TALENT NETWORK"" is a real scam. I have already contacted ""CT Best Business Bureau"" and they asked me to call a Attorney General office. It's such waste of time. The company should be shut down. Luckily, in spite of spending money on clothe, gas and food, at least they didn't get any money from me. more