Characters For Hire

ive been fighting to get paid since 2020, and im not the only one. This company has consistent payment problems, and they are the most dishonest company ive ever dealt with.

-their jobs are usually fun but very disorganized.I've completed services for them, and afterwards they disappear.

They'd give excuse after excuse, changing their stories. 7 Months go by, and im still chasing after them for payment. This is a pattern behavior. (and violates the Freelance isnt Free act)

-They dont answer phones.

They stop responding to texts. endless Broken promises. constant runarounds.

-they put my life and my health at risk so they can make money. They promised me they would take proper precautions, and failed to carry out their word.

I ended up getting sick, and lost 2 weeks of work. they blamed me for it. I still haven't gotten paid for that job

-After being ghosted and ignored, i left an honest review about the alarming business behaviors, and how i wasnt paid. they IMMEDIATELY message me saying "you have 24 hours to remove your review or we will sue you for defamation lawsuit".

thats illegal. I told them i'd remove my review when i get paid, they still refused.

-Publicly, they change their story - saying i didnt sign "IRS papers". On phone, they tell me in order to get paid i have to remove my review and sign an NDA (thats illegal. Consumer Review Fairness act says you cannot hold payment hostage, you cannot punish people for speaking up).

-They blocked me after ive been requesting to get paid.

-I've sued them, they do not show up to court (bailjumping - criminal offense).

Judge ruled in my favor, they still refuse to pay. They attempted to vacate the judgement - twice. but that would require them to come to court - which they dont do. This is still ongoing to this day.

They DRAG it out.

- They went out of their way to make a fake account and post a negative review on my companys page about me, posting lies that i can disprove. THATS actual defamation. Im not the only one they did this to.

-After speaking up, i found several people who have eventually gotten paid or still never got paid (after 10+ years), along with other alarming experiences they shared. This company still has not paid them, even after several years.

Some tried sueing them, they still do not pay.

-I sent them to collection agency, who responded saying that they currently have 3 clients complaining about Characters for Hire, who arent paying anyone.

-i found that they are forcing people to write reviews in order to get paid. And they are threatening people to remove reviews that they do not like. Or they claim every negative review is fake. The people who do write a positive review then later say that they will never work with them in the future.

-this company has been banned from websites such as Mandy.com, Backstage.com, and more.

Theyve also been sued by Disney.

-they sent a lawyer to scare me, but when i showed the lawyer that i have evidence for everything i wrote, he eventually gave up.

This company lies ALOT, and i had to disprove lie after lie.

This company still owes me around $3800, according to the judgement. And im still waiting to get paid, as they continue dodging court and finding different excuses to avoid payment.

please know your rights.

1) Speaking up about alarming business behavior is NOT illegal, as long as its true.

2) manipulating reviews is scammy behavior, including forcing people to write reviews, with holding payment due to reviews, threatening you to remove review, making fake accounts to post reviews on your company, paying cash for reviews, etc.

3) Failure to pay people within 30 days of completed services goes against Freelance isnt Free act.

this company should be called CHARACTERS FOR LIARS

Beware of this scam company.

Ive watched them screw over so many people, to the point where I was told there is a Class Action Lawsuit in review, that they have been banned from websites due to their rude behavior and consistently not paying people.

Here's my experience:

I worked VERY hard, jumped through hoops, and went out of my way to help their events run smoothly. I helped them make a TON of money, and they found every excuse to avoid paying me AFTER the event was over.

They put a deposit down on the agreement.

When the event is over, time to get paid, a common practice they do is they start ghosting you. Getting paid was ALWAYS a HASSLE. At one point i had to wait 7 months (bounced checks and 84 excuses later) to get paid.

The last few jobs, I was ignored for weeks and unpaid,I posted a review about how i didnt get paid for work I've completed. They immediately messaged me saying I have 24 hours to remove my review or they will sue me for defamation.

That is ILLEGAL.

On the phone, they told me in order to get paid i have to remove my review AND sign an NDA (contract saying I cannot speak ill of the company).

Knowing they have a history of not paying people, I said "pay me and I will remove my review." They refused (while screaming at me), they shut the door to my face and refused to discuss further unless I have an attorney (thats $500/hr, does Characters for Hire wanna pay for that or can we discuss like mature adults?)

On the public review, their response is "its illegal for us to pay you without filling out these tax forms". (Does your team know that an NDA is not a tax form?)

They have paid me in the past, but all of a sudden I posted a review and suddenly they need these "tax" forms?

Then they changed their story again, claiming I've harassed them. Is asking for payment considered harassment nowadays?

When I call to resolve things, not only do I get hostility from the manager (Kevin). I would remain calm, but he kept calling me a liar, not letting me speak by consistently talking/yelling over me, and then immediately hangs up on me (this is NOT the first time I received this behavior when trying to resolve things).

Kevin requested i sent him paperwork, and I found out he blocked me minutes after he told me to email him (thanks to Mail Demon). There was NO attempt to resolve this.

Theyve done this to several others. They threaten people to remove honest reviews, and force people to write positive reviews in order to get paid. (They quadrupled in positive reviews during the year of covid - when we aren't supposed to have events.)

I have filed a court order, I am suing this company for:

-not paying me for services/materials I have provided for their events

-They put my life at risk (and others) due to their negligence and broken promises.

-following illegal practices

They have failed to show up to court TWICE.

I have texted and emailed. multiple times. No response.

Messaged through their website, no response (besides the automated email saying they received my message). Their phone company doesnt accept private callers (Theyre very open about how theyre recording peoples IP addresses, prosecuting for impersonating, spam bots restricting them).

I have requested to speak with the legal team for 2+ years, with no success, and NOBODY knows how to reach this legal team.

Not even Kevin.

The Peoples Court even reached out to me, regarding this case.

However, they could not get a hold of them nor their consent to showcase this trial publicly.

Court papers were served to their address, however as many times Ive tried to find an address, they refuse to give it to me. Their address online are fraudulant.

Kevin said that THERE IS NO ADDRESS FOR THE COMPANY, meaning there is no way for them to receive paperwork regarding law suits.

The law says Every state requires that a company's registered agent have a physical mailing address in the state where the company is registered.

So if they claim they do not have an address, they are doing work illegally.

I do not support companies who take advantage of people.

Freelance Isnt Free.

Pay Your Workers.

#FreelanceIsntFree #CharactersForHireisaScam #ExposingCharactersForHirid

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The company, Characters For Hire LLC, is scamming people and doing illegal activity. I have done a lot of services for them including makeup, purchasing costumes, wigs, props, rental cars, etc (after their approval), worked under unsafe Covid conditions (came down with Covid 3 days after working their crowded, indoor, unmasked event, where they had no Covid regulations, regardless of their promises to have them in place).

They have paid me in the past, but it was ALWAYS a hassle as I had to reach out to them about getting paid properly and fully for months.

When it comes to payments they have delayed my checks for up to 9 months, dodged my messages and phone calls, they have constantly and purposefully miscommunicated regarding jobs and payment, they encourage people to write reviews in order to get paid, and bully people to remove their negative reviews. When I wrote a review about my experience and how I haven't gotten paid (because they've been dodging me, can't even call them), their immediate response was "You have 24 hours to remove this review or this will be turned into a legal matter" in a text message.

They have told me that in order to get paid for work I have already completed, I have to sign an NDA equivalent (to shut me up), and remove my review about my experience. I refused, and they denied paying me for work I've already done 9 months ago. This activity is illegal, and they have done this to several people (among other unprofessional stories I've heard from other experiences).

All stories are the same - getting paid/reimbursed is a nightmare. There are several people i know who share many similar stories about this company - such as being left stranded in middle of no where, the company making fake yelp reviews against their contractors, and more horror stories.

people have sued them for not getting paid.

They are taking advantage of artists with their shady behavior. I was told they have gotten banned off of websites because they don't pay their contractors.

P.s They have been sued by Disney for using licensed characters, and they continue to use themUSTuust

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.