wedding leads: scam masters top 10 list

[Mali Aber]

- marthastewartweddings.com
10/10 of her wedding leads were phony. she probably picks up random female names off the phonebook.

- allwedding.com (recently partnered with the davidsbridal.com): just 1 response for the 315 leads.

that only bride who responded asked if we charge travel expenses for her location 300 miles away. (we will go anywhere for good money! we dont charge if the project is big enough. when bride counts every penny - we surely charge for the transport).

- mypartyplanner.com.
paid listing $30. did get just listing for that money. if i wanted to put my logo in the listing, they charge $300/y.
they sent me "link exchange request". asking me to put their link, and when they see i did it, they will put my link on their lousy website.

list of internet scams is longer, but lets hear about your experiences about false bridal leads and directories.

[Mali Aber]

any comments welcome. do not afraid, i do not bite.

wedinglenox.com, Respond.com, and eventective.com aggressively offer and mailbomb with their wedding "leads" but it seems that they are not any better than above mentioned proven garbage.

at least, those "companies" could show some decency, and directly ask for $20 or $50 donation, instead of selling unusable garbage, when one has to spend 3 days sending emails in order to conclude those "wedding leads" are either false or probably (ab)used thousands of times (by desperate wedding video guys).

and at least, what is the purpose of martha stewart wedding site? to get martha more $$$. by spinning the whole thing of advertising our wedding websites. we put some money into advertising, we put a lot of efforts to design and maintains our websites, and martha stewart and similar "wedding leads" sites spin everything upside down: instead of brides dealing directly with the photo/video guys, martha sell wedding leads, so 50 or more video guys compete over 1 lousy bride. who couldnt care less for the quality work. they usually care only about prices. period.

parasites like martha stewart wedding leads website do not produce anything, do not create, do not even make anything valuable or usable, but simply skim on the top of other people sweat and hard work.

what is common in today's "economy". whole bunch of "managers", "businessmen", "experts", "analysts", "consultants", "brokers", "agents" and other con-artist parasites.

only good thing what shed some light at the end of the tunnel is that those parasites are about to exhaust the host, and host is likely to die soon. what we can read in newspapers and see on every tv nowadays.

[Mali Aber]

and another comment about the brides nowadays:

since "economy crisis" was officially declared worldwide, brides are almost impossible to say goodbye to their dollars for the wedding videos.

on the other hand, they do not hesitate at all to spend more and more on the gold, on the dresses and on the lousy flowers, what die anyway 12-18 hours after the wedding.

reason is very simple: everyone sees big diamond ring. or mercedes. and everyone knows how much does it cost to have shiny.

but no one know how much brides paid for their wedding videos. what is perfect place to SAVE, what has religious meaning in todays "economy". invitations to save save save everywhere around us. but morons do not get the real meaning - spend spend spend.

so, brides are very very glad to save couple of hundreds on wedding video. because the can not save on the wedding gown or reception, since vendors charge fixed rates - no bargain, no deals no discount: $70 per seat+. since food and drinks have their price (and vaue) even in this "economy" turmoil. people have to eat.

if only videoguys would not lower the prices to the absurd, thing would still work somehow. but so many videguys out there work for peanuts and for next to nothing. undermining themselfs at the end and destroying the everyone else in this business. what is probable cause of this whole "economy" thing: to leave millions of worker to compete and struggle for couple of dead end jobs, in order to survive.

[Jason Robinson]

I feel your pain. I have participated in several of these link exchange web sites. Most of the ones that deal with leads only are pure crap. I agree. Either the prospective clients that use them are lazy and never return my calls (I have wasted $20 or more on them), or the leads are fake. However, the one I did use was kind enough to refund my money after I reported the leads as fake or unresponsive (I can't remember which one it was).

I have obtained almost 90% of my bookings because of clients finding me via google. Now I don't have the slickest of flash uber-designer web sites, but I think my product sells itself, especially when compared to my competition in the valley, who had pitiful video samples, and a horribly outdated website until I cam on the scene.

Since then, his website has been updated and his video samples have been removed.

So.... the reason I am posting this in your thread is that a good product will sell to the people that want a good product. Yes you have to be seen above all the crap vendors with single cams, or industrial cookie cutter productions.

Now.... as to this post and why you haven't seen many responses..... generally on DVInfo it is best to participate in many posts to build up a small amount of a reputation before starting a flame-fest topic like this one (which I must admit, your choice of words is not exactly neutral).

So don't expect too many replies simply because of hte topic and because of your new status to DVInfo.

Participate! Reply. Ask questions. Answer Questions. This is a great forum. As your post count rises and your reputation does with it, then you will find that other professionals may be more willing to reply. Though, until there is a private section of DVInfo, don't expect the real candid posts about third parties.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Jason Robinson

...until there is a private section of DVInfo

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. Coming up pretty soon here.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. Coming up pretty soon here.

Hehehe. I thought my trolling might get your attention. No worries. I know you are working on it.

[Mali Aber]

hehe, thanks for kind reply and the warm words of comfort.

i have sent total of 517 messages to the "leads" without a single response. so it must be scam.

i really did not mean to make career as a participant in any discussions, but just to share few thoughts with the others. and maybe to read of some of the other similar problems in this crazy business of wedding videos.

so, let me share with you few calls i have received.

-hi. can you shoot my sons wedding, almost 16 hours?
*yes, i can do it. what is your budget?
-oh, we are poor refugees, please dont charge us more than $1000.
*ok, sure. how many guests do you have on the wediing?
-500+
*why do you have 500 guests at your wedding if you are poor refugees?
-khhmmmmm, hrrrrk, fart, spit, burp...

-hi. do you for charge travel expenses from chicago, il to indianapolis, in? (200mi)
*no, i travel for fun, and i am in business of srvicing, funding and financing your weddings for free.
-how nice from you. i have sister she needs video too.

-hi. we want 4 disks, total of 8 hours of wedding video, but not to be boring.
*i cant do that. but maybe fransis ford coppola can. he is specialist for longer forms. (he directed godfather I and II, 2 movies x 3 hours each= 6 hours, and its not (so) boring, considering its probably the best movies ever made (according to some sources)).
-where can i find him? and i want childhood montage included.

[Jason Robinson]

Great stories (and sad ones). Check out this video which references some of the same problems.

Vendor & Client Relations

[Don Bloom]

I also receive many leads from many of the web sources out there and while I have booked 1 or 2 I agree it's not really any cash outlay for those sources so I use the free listings that are available and only reply if the lead appearsto be something I might want to pursue but even then it amounts to 1 email-if no repspone, I don't pursue it. However I don't really think they are fake leads.
As for people being "cheap" yeah probably but it doesn't do any good to rant about it. That's the way it is here in Chicagoland. For a major market with the population of about 9 million in the 6 county area we are one of the least expensive markets around the country. Go figure!
The average price of video here is about $1500 to $1600. For such a large market with the large number of weddings I believe it's dispropotionately low. Of course the average wedding here is about 25 to 38 thousand, including the flowers and limo ;-) I agree with you about that. Rent a stretch Hummer and it'll run you about 1500 to 2000 and in 2 weeks you'll forget the ride but that's what they do. No way to change that.
Now having said that, I have done weddings here that were well in excess of $100,000. I emphasize well in excess of.
I guess the point is build a business based on quality work and keep your pricing competitive and don't worry about the peoplethat can't afford or don't want to afford you. They will always be there but so are the people that want a good quality creative product and are willing to pay for it.

[Mali Aber]

another day, another scam.

georgestreetpv.com had an ad like they were hiring the shooters. i applied, but was not hired, because tim muller (owner?) wrote to me that they only hire HD shooters. he also suggested that i get 2 HD cameras in order to get hired by georgestreetpv.com.

2 HD cameras are going for like $15k.

recently i referred a customer who wanted HD to them, because i thought they are really shooting in HD. au contraire: bekah mayer told him they shoot in SD only.

very smart move from georgestreetpv.com. not only they did not hire me for couple of lousy shootings a year for $300 each, but they tried to set me back for $15.000 to purchase HD cameras that no one is using and benefiting from them.

think about that: be aware.