Backstage

I subscribe this website. They said it's 6 months for free. After like 3 months I unsubscribe because I did not like it that much and I after another 3 months I was charged on my bank account £20. When I asked for refund as I already cancelled this and that it does not make sense to pay for something when I am unable to get a job as it was during lockdown they refused to refund me. I WOULD NEVER EVER SUGGEST SOMEONE THIS WEBSITE!

doesn't "ficore" rate inclusion as well? The oh-so-prominent "transgender" option really makes the case on its own - we all get it - you are open-minded, tolerant and inclusive. But us "ficores" are not on the list. That's tough. When they filter for "non-union" my profile doesn't come up. Nice. If I list as non-union I'll be passed up on the union searches. Nice again and the transgender community is very grateful. Got it.

On June 12 I was billed by Backstage for the annual membership. However, in March I had went on the website and turned my auto renew off. After being billing, I went back to my account to see my auto renew was STILL ON! I was charged the annual membership of $149 and never received any email receipt regarding this. I contact their customer service today on June 30, just 18 days after the payment. They continued to tell me that I was past their "10 day" grace period and no refund could be issued. I was even okay will settling for a pro-rated 11 month refund. But they still said that was not possible. Not to mention I have not used their site in over a year... This is very sketchy that I attempted to turn the auto renew off, yet it was still on. And what kind of company doesn't send a receipt after a payment is made? If I had received a receipt I would have cancelled right away and fell in the "10 day grace period". Instead I happen to look at my statements and see this just 8 days after the "grace period." This is no way to conduce a business ESPECIALLY admits a global pandemic when so many of us are hurting for money due to loss of jobs. When they say "its not possible to issue a refund" this is a lie. It is possible, they just don't WANT to. With just a couple clicks they could issue a refund or partial refund. BEWARE of Backstage, not only did I get ZERO jobs from this service, but their business model seems to be setup to auto withdraw funds and have people forget about their membership. I have not experienced customer service this poor before.

I had a subscription for 2 months and I've tried to cancel my subscription multiple times, and have not been contacted so am unable to. Backstage never got me any jobs and the ones that did contact me wanted me to pay them for the privilege of working with them!

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.

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!!

I am not pleased with this website. It seems as the majority of casting calls I've seen on this website for the past year are nothing but scams: improper grammar, strange word choice, etc. I just don't trust any casting call I see online. Which is why I am going back to college to take actual IN PERSON classes and not put up with this online nonsense anymore.

So we went to one class, did nothing for us. They snuck in an auto-renew on the credit card. I called the DAY I got the statement and they said SORRY you needed to call within 10 days (of course planned perfectly by them since the statement in monthly and didn't even show up within 10 days of the charge.) Pretty much just an unethical company that preys on people assuming they wont read fine print.

Awful, scammy website! They got mad at me for not paying for my casting call. I had created it before backstage charged money, and was never informed I needed to start paying. They refused to hear my side. Asked for the help person's full name/reference id because of their service, as all they did was continuously lie and trying too hard to look like they were in the right. Never responded to. Unprofessional

Backstage fooled me once, but a second time, they won't. While I was a paying member, I got a few invites to audition. When I realized membership wasn't worth it, I decided to cancel at the end of the period I signed up for. Once I wasn't a member, my email was filled with invites! I mean, several every week compared to one or two in a month. I believe that Backstage somehow "promotes" your profile while you don't pay to get you to come back. Once you pay, forget about it! Sorry, I'm not biting again!

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.

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.

They don't verify that jobs posted on their website are legit so you end up applying to more scams than real jobs. Their customer service doesn't care that scammers now have all your personal information and they're extremely rude.

Make sure you read the fine print on auto renew! My daughter got 2 leads and one guy wanted to meet her at a Starbucks. Very shady! I was charged the following year for the renewal and I tried to cancel. Can't get anyone on the phone but someone emailed me. Because it was after they charged my credit card it was basically tough $#*! we got your money already! Its too late to get a refund but we can cancel your subscription. Which they did. They canceled it but kept the money. I have never had a legitimate company cancel my subscription and keep my money. Beware!

It's a bit expensive, considering the use of the website by the casting agencies is very limited. I feel like many casting directors do not go through this websites messaging service when you get call backs. I've received one call back and it was via text message to my personal number. I had to download the sms and it would not download and no one answered the number it was from. It was also in a group message so I had all these people texting my phone.

I just realized I was still being billed for a Backstage.com subscription I thought I canceled 2 months ago. You can turn off Auto-renew, but your subscription apparently remains active. The final cancellation page seems to be designed to be misleading. After you choose "Turn Off Auto-Renew" in your Payments, you go to a screen with 2 buttons: One is bright blue and says "Wait, I want to keep my subscription!" and the other is grey-- it looks greyed out, as though it has already been clicked by default. This the "Turn off auto-renew" option. EVEN AFTER YOU TURN OFF AUTO-RENEW, Your account is still active. You apparently have to call or write a support ticket which they say in the Terms, but isn't apparent when you stop your auto-renew. This is likely why so many people think they have canceled and are surprised to find charges showing up on their credit cards.

Backstage has tricky ways of making sure they take your money monthly. I never set my account to auto renewal and all of sudden when I canceled my account it got set to auto renewal. Made no sense. I hadn't used the site in over a year and they told me try don't give refunds on monthly charges.

Please read reviews before purchasing subscription to this site. I have not received any auditions on his site...same listings posted on other sites Ive been called in for. customer service is horrible, they are only interested in getting your money. BeWARE of this SCAM site.

I had a years subscription to Backstage and got a few gigs that made it worth the subscription. The only negative that I found was that their was more posts for Theater, short films and student films then anything else. I think because of other subscriptions like Casting Networks and Actors access Backstage needs to offer more or lower their subscription cost.

It a good site to gain experience but most jobs are not paid. It is no good for people looking for jobs on crew like make-up because you still have to put in your head shot and playing age, even though it is not relevant to you. I'm very disappointed because it could be so much better if done properly. I've asked them to close my account. I hope they can do that right!