StarNow.co.ukReviews 98

Prompt, considerate and helpful assistance and refund by Mattheus. Thank you very much for your help.

Absolutely hate the update. They have made it so much harder to use the website. It used to be so much easier to manage, but now it's just mind-blowing (and not in a good way/). It is like the old saying "don't fix it if it's not broken". I don't mind if there was a little of change, but it is literally like nails against a chalkboard. All old messages have suddenly appeared, and can't be deleted. When searching for castings, I would use the method of viewing and once applying for said casting, it would get archived ect... But again, this has changed and is so much harder to manage.

I guess it's time to find an alternative (simple) casting site for my daughter and me.

Please fire your web developer, they have done a terrible job of making the website user-friendly.

Do not sign up because when u try unsubscribe they will block u I will be reporting them to trading standards

Shocking company. I had a starnow and a mandy account before they merged. After the merger, I couldn't get into my starnow account, so I emailed them about trying tonsort it out. They were no help at all and in the end, they decided that my 'email tone' wasn't up to the terms and conditions, so have deleted my account and am not allowed to open a new account. How can you even tell someone's 'email tone' is wrong enough to cancel an account!

I am not sure why there has been a change to the profile but the old StarNow profile was much better. I cancelled subscription to Backstage because I did not like its layout, how it posted jobs and it seemed more geared to the American market which was very confusing to me.

I hope StarNow eventually returns back to its old format. I am really confused about this whole thing. Also my media is deleted along with my credits which does not even make me want to sign up just to start all over again.

TERRIBLE! I've tried contacting them about removing my account and data on their email *******@starnow.com they state on their webste is their customer service and after waiting a few days the profile is still not removed. Their link to remove your profile: https://www.starnow.com/confirm/profileremoval/. Is conveniently broken and says 'Oh shoot! This probably isn't the page you were looking for...' as the page is not active. TERRIBLE company. TERRIBLE. AVOIDDD!

They have had a new update that took days. Since then I am unsubscribed according to them (should be active until July). I will NOT be reviewing.

5 Years of data deleted, all past entries and updates removed.
Interface is now fundamentally broken.

I have never spoken to anyone from this company all done by email and your getting closer what you want to here is what they give you. There is no sign of work and a phone call wouldn't go a miss money is all they care about. I'm apro member of the group so still nothing but it's OK I'm getting closer never would I recommend this company to make a cup of tea well worth the lost time and Money NOT Keep your money in your pocket don't waist you time in trying to better yourself..

I have canceled my membership in October 2019, yesterday (3 of may 2020) I was checking my bank account and noticed that STARNOW started charging me for "upgraded" membership since January 2020, and so 15.99 per month. They just take your money even after you cancel membership and so 3 months after? They are liars and selfish money takers. Please put your hands away from this dodgy company guys, trust me! They just charged me more then 70 pounds even after my cancelation last year. I do not understand how they could do it. I will fight for my rights.

I subscribed to Starnow as an extra for a trial period of one month and subsequently after a few weeks realised it was a waste of money and attempted to cancel before the end of the month. I didn't read the clever misleading small print and assumed that my cancellation went through only to discover that the scumbags had stolen money from my account the preceding months after. This is during the covid 19 pandemic when there wouldn't be any work anyway. They prey on naïve people who don't always read the small print and only offer a postponement instead of a cancellation clause. Be warned keep well away from this low life conning organisation they just want your money by any means and scams.

I felt compelled to write this review to warn others to be careful with the reoccuring payment structure.

6 months ago I paid £29 to starnow for a 6 months membership for my daughter. I have rarely used her profile and so to be honest totally forgot about it until I see a payment of £29 has been taken out of my account a few days ago for membership renewal.

I contacted them to advise that due to the covid situation I would like a refund as had no idea that the account was set up by them to auto renew every 6 months, I didnt complete a direct debit for this new payment.

They refused a refund and
I explained I felt this unfair because you should warn people payment will be taken from their account and secondly with the current covid situation there are no jobs to cast for so paying for a non existent service. They refused even a small refund.

So basically I just paid starnow £29 for absolutely nothing. And theres nothing I can do as their terms are no refunds.

My advice is if you do join up to star now make sure you go to settings and turn off reoccuring payments. Or email them and ask them to take you off auto renew payments. You could end up paying for years and not even realise it if you dont check through bank statements.

StarNow what happened to this amazing site? Used to be so easy now it's full of restrictions and zero success stories

I remember in the year 2015 you could contact talent by simply messaging them by pressing the message button, now when you press message StarNow wants you to pay credits? It's a restriction for talent who aren't rich or earning a good amount of money. Basically starnow is now a money making machine who doesn't care about talent's success instead they don't care about the lower class anymore.

You pay 9.99 for month and get nothing special just able to apply for castings, again in 2015 it was free to apply to unpaid roles, but you had to pay 9.99 to be able to apply for all jobs and yeah now it's not the same.

You pay the 9.99 and you still can't message talent, I made so many friends in 2015 by messaging talent, collaborating on projects. Now starnow wants you to post a casting ad, however you get the same old talent applying and the new talent are restricted to apply for unpaid stuff, so they need to bring back messaging, they need to stop asking for money about applying for unpaid work and create a balanced website how it was in 2015. No restrictions and yes they can increase the price to 11p/m if that's what it takes to make it the best site for talented people. It's a one because starnow didn't listen to our advice for years, yet their excuse is to pay staff, they could easily do that with ads, and not restrict us

Anyone with any acting dream worthwhile of fulfilling will stay away from this pretentious garbage!

Claim to just be a listing website yet march on about the place dishing out 'pro' tags only to certain members to who we are suppose to believe are actually worthy of the tag? Fair! (Not!) Pay to get in touch with members? Seriously? Pay to apply for jobs? What a joke! But it's ok, because they just act as a listings website right? What arrogant, obnoxious liars!

Having deleted me and blocking me from ever using them again, presumably because I voiced displeasure in what was actually at the time a 100% polite but yet still unhappy approach (heads up people, you suck up to these snowflakes or they lose their rattles!) I asked for an explanation. Shock horror, I didn't get one? I try apologising to these babies for whatever I did to cause such "upset" and they don't want to know!

Starnow? More like Soft now! Not one person running this trash is even in the shadow of a star and until I get my explanation and reactivation I will carry on disgracing and slandering this pretentious tripe for all that it truly is!

I was on starnow year ago I created few account s because they kept deleting my account I made new Email plus sign d up with them I uploaded my photos and they deleted my account over and over so I used my other email to join again same again deleted by them then they told me if I join they would report me that's bad website and that's wrong what she said and sent me bad email link I wont forget that I help this out year s ago and this is the thanks you get deleted and get told never come back again what kind of website so call ceo says that to anyone thing is there is scammer s on there I Noticed when I used to be on there they don't care all they care about is money of people who pay membership s fact

I've worked on multiple jobs that were advertised on StarNow that I haven't been paid for. Their customer service team (who are appalling at their job) claim to contact advertisers who don't pay, but contacting them doesn't help, as contact can just be ignored.

There doesn't seem to be any legally binding contract stating that advertisers on StarNow have to pay the people they choose for their jobs, as long as StarNow have their subscription fee from you, it seems as though they couldn't care less if you get paid or not. If you complain to StarNow about this and no conclusion is reached, they will just go ahead and delete the profiles of the members who haven't paid you, which in turn deletes their original adverts, leaving no proof they posted on the website, it deletes your applications, leaving no proof you applied for the jobs they posted and it also deletes all the messages you had with those members, therefore completely getting rid of any evidence you ever had any contact with the advertiser.

All I'm trying to do is make a living doing what I love, but there are people out there running websites like StarNow who are destroying the industry.

No doubt somebody form StarNow will reply to this review with an "apology" urging me to contact them regarding this issue even though I've contacted them about it several times and they've made it perfectly clear that there's nothing they can do to make sure their advertisers pay.

EDIT:

The below is my response to StarNow's reply to this review:

"We're sorry to hear you feel this way, and very concerned about your understanding of StarNow."

If you're sorry, then refund me the £150 I've lost using your website.

"When we receive a complaint about a member or a listing, we take it very seriously. We investigate and take appropriate action, which may include removing them from StarNow."

Like I said, when you do that, it removes our message history, deleting proof that they gave me a job in the first place therefore I can no longer contact them to chase up payment.

"We do this to keep StarNow a safe, enjoyable place for everyone, and to help stop issues such as non-payment from happening."

It doesn't help, it makes it harder. Instead of removing them from StarNow, stop them from posting jobs, then I'll still have proof they gave me work and I can still contact them.

"It's important to remember that StarNow is primarily a listings service, not an agency."

I know it isn't, I didn't say it was, I've been using it for three years, I'm well aware.

"The StarNow service doesn't include negotiating rates or contracts, or processing/chasing payment for jobs on your behalf. As such, we don't take commission from members on jobs booked, and are able to keep our membership fees to a minimum."

Again, I know, I didn't suggest otherwise.

"Your membership fee contributes to the employment of a team of people working hard to create a valuable community this work includes building and maintaining a website, sourcing and vetting casting calls and moderating content."

People advertising jobs on your website are supposed to be contributing to my employment, but they're getting away with not paying me.

"I hope this extra information helps you understand our position, and I trust you understand we are a reputable business providing a service we are very proud of."

This extra information has been useless, I've still wasted £150 using your website and worked 4 days days that I won't get paid hundreds of pounds for. You shouldn't be proud, you should be ashamed.