BackstageReviews 291

My daughter and I were in New York 4 years ago. My daughter was told by her college professor to check into backstage.com to look for auditions while we were in New York for the week. My daughter used the backstage.com service and then cancelled that same month. We have never been back to New York and have had no use for backstage.com. Unfortunately, I am not always diligent at checking my credit card statements until just recently. Backstage.com has charged me $149.95 every year for the past 3 years without my approval despite my daughter cancelling the very month she used it. BE AWARE! If backstage.com has your credit card number they may continue to use it. Please don't make the same mistake we did. Do not cancel by phone... keep proof of your cancellation and make sure you watch your credit card statements. I have a feeling that we are not the only ones that have been a victim of this practice at backstage.com!

EDIT** Backstage did the right thing and chose to honour my refund so I have amended my review from 1 Star to 4.

I needed assistance with simply requesting a refund for one month's subscription and was met with rude customer service and a robotic-like tone stating, 'our terms of use do not allow for it', it's a simple customer request and should be honoured, 'Ben' also rudely responded at one point sarcastically to my request with, 'alrighty', he was quite condescending and dismissive. They should step up their customer service levels and just do the right thing and honor a refund if the customer did not use the service.

Literally any other casting site is better than Backstage. Actor's Access is amazing and so is Casting Networks- they have legitimate projects, they check who's posting beforehand and their customer service is truly helpful. Backstage allows projects that have not been checked yet to publicly post. I've had so many unprofessional experiences and interactions on Backstage and since sharing this with more people, have been told by those more experienced than me, that Backstage is a total waste of time. I think it used to be good back in the day, but now it's associated with non-professional postings and roles. They also automatically enroll you in a following year after signing up, just like a really bad gym membership, whereas after each year, Actor's Access does not charge you, they contact you to let you know your year is ending and to see if you would like to renew. You can find the same postings and better on AA and CN.

I am a full time actor and performer with approx. 19 years of experience. Signing up for Backstage last year was one of my first times trying a "paid" site. After a full year of applying for jobs via Backstage, I can honestly say I did not get booked for a single one. A few weeks ago I was checking my monthly credit card statement and noticed a charge from Backstage for $150! I was very surprised and called and emailed them immediately. I did not know I was automatically set up for auto renew. Ok, I get it... a lot of companies do this sort of thing. I don't agree with it, but it is what it is... They told me I had 10 days to cancel and that the 10 days was up. They NEVER sent a single email, txt, mail, etc. receipt after charging my card so there was no way (until getting my cc statement) that I could have possibly known. I kindly explained that multiple times and gave them every single opportunity to do the right thing. The customer service manager, Richard Burridge, was dismissive and said I had logged into the account after the renewal. Of course I did! First off, I was looking for their contact info to cancel, and secondly, I thought it was still my first year and did not know they had charged me $150. I kindly explained that I did not get any value the first year, so I would never have renewed, and that if they would have sent me any kind of receipt at all I could have easily called within the "10 day" period. Again, I was extremely kind in my communication to Richard and gave him every opportunity to make things right. I'm sure I'm not the first or last person this will happen to, but if my honest review can help a single actor friend, I hope it does! Beware of these dishonest business practices!

Be careful when providing your credit card to this website. They will continue charging renewals at higher prices. Their refund policy is made in such a way that by the time you see the transaction in your credit card statement that you can't ask for refund. They will charge a full year at $165. They totally rely on this as part of their revenue system. They make a living out of scamming starving artists.

Now let's talk about the website: the design is flawed. Looks nice but the navitation is all screwed. After each time you apply for a role, be prepared to having to browse all the way from the start adding the filters because this website is just not designed for someone to apply to multiple roles. Once you apply for one role it is almost as a check out. You have to go back again to the "search function" enter the filters and jump all the pages till you reach where you were in the beginning.

Most ads are for student productions. Lack of professionalism is to be expected. You will rarely find an actual role, for an actual production. It seems that this website is for productions that can't get actual talent and are looking for unpaid actors.

Our company has been using Backstage for years. We hire actors and entertainers of all types to do our product launches in major worldwide retailers. Out of all of the talent sites, we get the best candidates and best customer service from backstage. I highly recommend backstage for not only talent, but for anyone looking for the best talent all over the country. It's definitely here. Thanks backstage for helping us find the best talent possible.

I appreciate the swiftness in which Anna resolved my issue! Below I have attached our chat so you can see how great she was for yourself!

I signed up for a year subscription and I applied for about everything possible. Anyone who contacted me back, either for an audition or an extra roll, always canceled last minute which isn't backstages fault but when I contacted customer service to let them know that I was getting absolutely no use out of the website and wanted a partial refund (because I know they do monthly plans for people) they absolutely refused to give me a dime back and said that they sent an email prior to my renewal which is hilarious because I never had a renewal in the first place as this is my first time signing up for backstage so not only does their customer service not know wtf they're talking about but it looks like I'll have this worthless subscription for a whole year (first, only, and last year). I will never be coming back to this website again and I am unfortunately out $100. Thanks Backstage!