Watchdog - Dodgy Entertainment Agency
On Watchdog tonight there was a report (here on the BBC website) about the dodgy dealings of an entertainment agency based in Birmingham. They were selling children’s entertainers and magicians who never turned up. Customers subsequently had trouble getting refunds.
I haven’t heard of this particular agent but I have heard many other horror stories of agents swindling both the public and entertainers. There’s always an article about some agent ripping someone off in the Equity newsletter.
Thankfully, I haven’t had any unfortunate dealings with agents - but I suspect that’s because I don’t deal with them very often! Most of my clients have cut out the middleman and come to me direct through my website.
The only problem I’ve had with an agent is one who has lifted (without my permission) all the copy and photos from my website and is using it on his site. I’m not sure yet what to do about it, as it appears the only harm he’s doing is copyright violation, but that pi**es me off quite a bit, so I’m going to get some legal advice.
I’ll keep you posted…..