561-338-7475

The company is NOT legitimate.

Quick Recap of the Scam, though it should sound familiar to most of you:

1) "Producers", who are really telemarketers working off a list (they've never heard of your company nor care) cold-call you. They use poor Hugh Downs' name and 'documentary for Public Television' in order to get past PR and marketing people and directly to the CEO or President.

2) Read a script where they first ask you questions about your life's work, feigning interest and mentioning a fictious "national audience" in order to inflame your passion. The trick is to get you imagining a PBS-style documentary.

3) Tell you the 3 places this documentary airs
 A) Public Television. (The truth is they mail these poorly made infomercials to hundreds of PTV stations, hoping they air. A very few do, most don't. And if you ask for a precise time or city a PTV station will air it, they dance around telling you "it's impossible to know", then follow that up by tellig you it airs hundreds of times. It doesn't.)
 B) On the Internet. (The Truth is they post it on YouTube. Ummm, anyone can do that for free. And attach it to an email blast that would cost about $500 if you did it yourself. There are plenty of companies that do these blasts for you, especially in the 'one-time shot" form. So you could do this yourself for $500 or less. And keep in mind the poor quality.)
 C) My personal favorite... on primetime, national TV. (The Truth is they send these poorly made infomercials to CNBC, Fox, etc., and hope they play it. That's why they show you POST-AIRING AFFIDAVITS and not the media buy itself. They don't buy the time. It costs the networks nothing to air these things, so they might have thrown one on at some point at on a Saturday night dead-zone. Point is --- there is an infintisimal chance it will air at all, and no chance at it airing the amount of time they say. It's the semantical game of "Distributed to." That's why they provide POST Airing Reports.)

4) They'll pressure you with some fictious deadlines (usually 4 days from the time of the call), when they'll send you a packet of fluff.

5) They'll call you back, usually with a "Vice President of Programming in the CLOSER ROLE, telling you that you have to move on this today and so forth.

Sound familiar? They've been running this scam under different incarnations for years now. Check the links I provided. They are helpful. And the fact that they keep posting nonsense here, as well as a Bartlett's-worthy post from their lawyer, should be more damning against them than anything I can tell you.

Stay away from these guys! Good Luck!

Priceless.

Cowards at the New York Times and Consumerist?

There's comedy... high-comedy... and anytime a lawyer representing a telemarketing scam quotes Teddy Roosevelt!

Thanks for the laugh!

I got a call from these "Heroes of Hope" producers last week.
Found this post before I called back just to hear their sleazy pitch.
What a waste of time.
How can these people continue to operate?
"Beware" is right: while it may not be technically illegal, it takes a certain class of cretin to prey on small companies trying to make a difference in the disabled community.
I'm calling the Florida Attorney General's Office tomorrow to see if there is anything they can do.
Will keep you informed. A collective complaint may be needed.

Rating: +1 nonprofit - 23 Jan 2009
My organization received the same call and opportunity. I did bring this to my President's attention albeit a bit late.  We have already signed on and have sent in our production expense and organizational information.  I I also brought our concerns up to our Producer and she assures me everything is above ground.  We have a shoot scheduled next month. We are/were excited about this.  I'M hoping for the best, and will keep you posted.
Reply  
Rating: 0 RR - 23 Jan 2009
I'm curious - in your contracts, are you guaranteed placement / distribution of the show on television, and if so, on what network and in what time slot. My concern was that they get you on the hook for a production, which may very well be legit, but can't actually place the show anywhere on TV or place the show on a channel without good reach and/or in a poor time slot . I hope that's not true for your organization's sake.

Placement on the internet shouldn't be one of the choices, at least not at the fees suggested in one of the earlier posts.
Reply  
Rating: 0 nonprofit - 27 Jan 2009
RR

Yes we signed a contract,"Production Authorization", that stated all the commitments for both sides.  Placements are to be guaranteed and we will get post airing reports from all the airings we receive.  The networks are flexible to my understanding and everything is prime and peak time.  We had the same concern about a 6:00 am time slot and was assured, as the contract stated, everything is a prime or peak time slots.  We were most interested in the footage and e-mail format to get a message out.  The company has an A rating with BBB so we are keeping positive.  I have not heard or found any negative information regarding a organizations experience with the program as of yet.

hope this helps.



As you can see this is my third post.  We just had our shoot.  The Field Producer/Director Jen was extremely professional and a pleasure to work with.  She had everything very organized.  The lighting was exceptional, as I have experience in this area.  I will send them a letter on my letterhead referencing the fact.  I am looking forward to seeing our first edits.  I don't understand all the post here, but it does seem someone has a personal agenda as the company has stated to me.  Why would someone post, much less visit here that has had no contact or experience with the company?  Again, I brought up the airings to Jen, though I'm more interested in the footage and the e-mail, and she confirmed we are guaranteed the number of airings stated in the contract.  I also contacted the Palm Beach Phone commission and they were aware of the company and everything was fine.

Yes I have worked with organization. Very high quality production and a pleasure to work with.  Saw my segment air nationally on CNBC at approximately 9:30 pm eastern time. Also aired regionally as guaranteed.  Going to get a lot of use out of the footage and segments released to us.

I am still waiting for my first edit, but I received an email on an airing that is taking place tomorrow night on the 28th nationally at 7:56pm eastern time on CNBC.  They said it is on Fly For Good and it could take place anywhere within 10-15 minutes of the slotted time spot.

Has anyone who has made a contribution to this Blog ever actually worked with this media company? It appears that we have a variety of people who want to be heard and believe it to be very important to share their opinions about this company. The information that is being provided is presented in such a way that would lead one to believe that the company's legitimacy is in question. There are a number of contributions from a number of bloggers, many providing negative information. Is this information coming from parties that have firsthand knowledge through an experience with this company that did not go well? This would be important for me to know, all considering that I may have an interest in pursuing this opportunity. I have witnessed trade libel first hand and therefore don't believe everything that I read on the internet. According to the BBB, this company does a lot of business that equates to a number of stories/ business relationships each year and still they have an A- rating. In addition, after calling the Palm Beach County Film Commission, I discovered that they are looked upon with good favor and are recognized for producing excellent quality educational programming. After further investigation, it is confirmed that indeed Mr. Hugh Downs is the Host of their series on Public TV. After a long conversation with their distributor Pat Wilson at American Artists, I discovered that American Artists has been distributing to Public TV for 44 years and are representing the media company. They distribute to all 355 Public TV affiliates and a majority of those affiliates are actually requesting the programming from them. With all of this information in mind, It's hard to imagine that the negative contributors to this Blog, who are not in favor of this company's business practices have information that could take precedence over the credible information that I've discovered in my due diligence. Not to mention, it is appearing to me all the more that several of the entries on this Blog that are not favorable to this media company's business practices seem to be coming from a disgruntled employee. It’s evident that there seems to be a personal attack on this company. If this is true, my reasoning is to disqualify that type of information because I realize that there is wrong motive driving the contribution of information. Anger has a way of distorting reality and especially if projection is in the equation. It's noticeable that certain bloggers are putting in way too much effort to get their point across or cause some kind of sabotage to this company's business. Do you give the benefit of the doubt? Is this the case or are these comments being made frivously with no authentication? The irony behind all of this is that being skeptical but logical as I am, I took it upon myself to contact other media/advertising companies to see if indeed I was really getting the right amount of media for my money. Let me put it to you this way, if you have any doubt about the value that you would be getting as a result of participating in this series, call for yourself. You will be blown away. I called a variety of ad agencies and media companies, different sizes and locations. The figures that were coming back my direction for the services claimed in their Project at a Glance were no less than $350,000 plus. I must admit, I was a bit surprised. Nonetheless, very true and you should check for yourself. With all of this information in mind, I intend to proceed with this media company’s project. I will keep everyone posted on the outcome of the program. Best

I agree with you. It does not seem like the complaints that are highlighted here are from actual clients. I've read a number of these blogs and it seems like they are from people and companies that received a phone call about their program and had suspicious thoughts and concerns before doing any quality homework or due diligence whatsoever. And, I would not consider "reading a blog" quality due diligence. If they are a legitimate company this type of blog could be devastating to them. This "beware" character is obviously a disgruntled former employee. Anyway, I would visit their facility or speak with some actual clients before making a decision.

The company is NOT legitimate.

Quick Recap of the Scam, though it should sound familiar to most of you:

1) "Producers", who are really telemarketers working off a list (they've never heard of your company nor care) cold-call you. They use poor Hugh Downs' name and 'documentary for Public Television' in order to get past PR and marketing people and directly to the CEO or President.

2) Read a script where they first ask you questions about your life's work, feigning interest and mentioning a fictious "national audience" in order to inflame your passion. The trick is to get you imagining a PBS-style documentary.

3) Tell you the 3 places this documentary airs
A) Public Television. (The truth is they mail these poorly made infomercials to hundreds of PTV stations, hoping they air. A very few do, most don't. And if you ask for a precise time or city a PTV station will air it, they dance around telling you "it's impossible to know", then follow that up by tellig you it airs hundreds of times. It doesn't.)
B) On the Internet. (The Truth is they post it on YouTube. Ummm, anyone can do that for free. And attach it to an email blast that would cost about $500 if you did it yourself. There are plenty of companies that do these blasts for you, especially in the 'one-time shot" form. So you could do this yourself for $500 or less. And keep in mind the poor quality.)
C) My personal favorite... on primetime, national TV. (The Truth is they send these poorly made infomercials to CNBC, Fox, etc., and hope they play it. That's why they show you POST-AIRING AFFIDAVITS and not the media buy itself. They don't buy the time. It costs the networks nothing to air these things, so they might have thrown one on at some point at on a Saturday night dead-zone. Point is --- there is an infintisimal chance it will air at all, and no chance at it airing the amount of time they say. It's the semantical game of "Distributed to." That's why they provide POST Airing Reports.)

4) They'll pressure you with some fictious deadlines (usually 4 days from the time of the call), when they'll send you a packet of fluff.

5) They'll call you back, usually with a "Vice President of Programming in the CLOSER ROLE, telling you that you have to move on this today and so forth.

Sound familiar? They've been running this scam under different incarnations for years now. Check the links I provided. They are helpful. And the fact that they keep posting nonsense here, as well as a Bartlett's-worthy post from their lawyer, should be more damning against them than anything I can tell you.

Stay away from these guys! Good Luck!

Here's a good way to start on you due diligence with these scammers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/us/16pitch.html

http://www.edelmandigital.com/blog/2008/08/ex ... ytoplay_pr.html

http://floridapayforplayexposed.blogspot.com/

And, for everyone reading this and all the people at Vision Media Television/VT Media/Giving Back Series/Heroes of Hope/National Business Report... or whatever they are calling your scam these days:

The information that I provide comes courtesy of someone who worked their for a short period and was diguested by their unethical practices. They way they preyed on small companies and laughed at those for signing up. The background information I provide in the links comes from places like the NEW YORK TIMES and THE CONSUMERIST... hardly entities which fall under the category of "disgruntled employees." I'm just trying to help people from falling for this scam. Check my other posts for names to google. And just remember:  Where there is smoke...there is fire.

Look alive -- These people have gone so far as to change their phone number.

Be on the lookout for calls from  (561) 826-0770.  What does that say about a company who has to change their phone and company name?

One more thing I just learned:

They use umbrella "shows" where the telemarketers can focus on a particular type of business. For example, some guy might be doing a "series" targeting surgeons (after all, surgeons have money and, typically, egos) called THE CUTTING EDGE. But even THE CUTTING EDGE series (which, as we know by now, is not a "series" at all -- just a fishing hole for these people) falls under their "NATIONAL MEDICAL REPORT".  They compartmentalize so if one vein of their scam is illuminated, they can just shift down another vein without having to start over. But, they do often have to start over -- hence the various name changes of their "media company."

So -- some of their umbrella "series" are:

NATIONAL EDUCATION REPORT
NATIONAL BUSINESS REPORT
NATIONAL CULINARY REPORT
NATIONAL MEDICAL REPORT
ECO-PLANET / NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT

and some subsets to that are:

GIVING BACK SERIES
HEROES OF HOPE
CUTTING EDGE
HEALTHY PATHS
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
etc etc.

And this is just recent. Check the links I provided for more background.

Once again -- I hope this helps.

Not only have they changed their phone number -- they've also changed their name again!

It's now VT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

New Name, Same Old Scam.

Add that name to the list. For other incarnations, check this link.

http://floridapayforplayexposed.blogspot.com/

You must be extremely bitter to make this your life's ambition. We would be more than happy to discuss your problem with our company if you contact us. If you are willing to meet with us you can avoid future litigation. We realize that you want to avoid identifying yourself, but I can assure you that we are very close to obtaining your IP address. I can also assure you that we will file a lawsuit against you personally when we identify you, if you do not contact us now to discuss your issues with our organization. This is not a threat, its a promise. Unfortunately, the internet and blogs like this one provide a place to hide, but the time for honoring yourself on this blog will soon come to an end.

I got an unsolicited telephone call about my work with autism and I dont even work in the field! I asked the woman where she got my name and she couldn't even say! I was highly suspicious and never called them back. Someone once told me that the best way to make a decision is to ask yourself "will this complicate my life and is it worth it?"

They gave me the name of someone who was supposedly the producer. I googled him and found a very nice website with no contact information. The site shows a nice family picture but with no contact info it is suspicious. Yes it says the site is still underconstruction but so is that dream about a space station on the moon... and anyone can find the number to NASA!      

If this is a fake it is really one rotten apple becuase autism is such a devastating condition for families to cope with and people who are trying to help them are often working very long hard hours, very little pay, and great at emotional expense to everyone involved. If you work for this company and you are taking money from these hard working lovers of humanity I place a gypsy curse on you and you will recieve very bad luck from now on until you stop. .

the lady said the proucer was john vazios i put his name here so if people google that name they will find this

This company LIES:

From the Offical PBS FAQ: http://www.pbs.org/aboutpbs/aboutpbs_faqanswers.html


" Q. Does PBS have any affiliation with programs produced by Vision Media Television (or VM Television)?
Q. I've been contacted by a TV producer who claims that he will feature my company in a national public television program in exchange for a fee. Is PBS aware of this?
A. A number of businesses have contacted PBS to ask us about our relationship with the producers of various television programs carrying titles such as Giving Back, Learning About, and The National Report Series. According to representatives of these businesses, the producers have offered to feature the representatives' businesses in a television program and indicated that the program will be made available on national public television. Based upon representations made to them by the producers, the businesses were led to believe that the producers were associated with PBS and that PBS intended to distribute or otherwise endorsed their programming.

PBS wishes to clarify that it is not associated with and does not endorse, distribute programming for, review underwriting for or otherwise have any business relationship with the following production companies: VM Television, Vision Media Television, Paradigm Media Group, PMG, PMGTV, Infinity Media Group, Roadshow Productions, Family Television Studios, United Media Communications Group, American Review TV, Business Break TV, Event Media TV, or Global Television Studios. PBS does not oversee the production or distribution of any programs associated with any of these companies.

If you are solicited by a production company that claims or implies an association with PBS, please notify PBS at http://www.pbs.org/aboutsite/aboutsite_emailform.html . "

I question the validity and professionalism of *any* company that provides a FAKE website front.  If you go to their website, none of what you see is real, it's just one big picture of a website, rather than an actual website.  Such a thing earns doubt and disdain.

Scripted post! :D

Did you notice when you visited that the website doesn't work?  It's not a website it's a *picture* of a website.

This is priceless.   As one of my old law school professors was fond of saying, "He who lies down with dogs is bound to get flees."    Mr. Levenson (Esg. no less)   Must have quite an itch by now!