Brief Summary If You Don't Have Enough Time To Read My Whole Complaint: I fell victim to Penguin Book Writer's deceit after paying them $5,000 for a full range of book writing services, which they completely failed to deliver. They lured me in with promises of professional assistance from nominated NYT authors, creation and refinement of my book outline, and editing services, but none of these materialized. Their refusal to refund my money, despite a clear contract clause guaranteeing a 100% refund, was just the start of their manipulation and lies. The team assigned to me was ineffective and dishonest, not contributing to the development of my book's plot despite my detailed guidance. The situation worsened when one of my assigned writers falsely claimed she newly discovered and was suffering from ovarian cancer as a tactic to extort more money from me and even compromised my financial security by holding onto my credit card information without my consent. Their behavior included threats, harassment, and an odd offer of their personal information like social security numbers instead of video calls. The entire ordeal was a series of unfulfilled promises, manipulation, and unethical practices, leaving me confused and betrayed… Read below for more details.

Unfortunately I believed in Penguin Book Writers, why wouldn't I? They make it seem like they're related somehow to Penguin Random House LLC. This tumultuous journey started on July 20th, 2023 when I accepted their Premium Package for $5,000, this included; a nominated author, creating/updating the outline, completing my book of around 400 pages as per the requirements/outline, adjust the layout and presentation for the publishing standards, unlimited revisions, a dedicated team of expert writers (two others besides the NYT author), complete ownership rights, editing, proofreading, and formatting.

None of these came to fruition. It makes me nervous cause how much of my book is really mine? They violated everything why wouldn't I believe they would violate the complete ownership rights or try to steal my ideas?

Quote from the contract, "… The Client shall pay the Service Provider the requested amount as $5,000 upfront for the services listed in Section 2. If the client finds the services to be unsatisfactory, they can claim a 100% refund at any given point, which shall be processed in 24-48 hours…" - This is far from the truth, they will continuously harass and try to manipulate you into staying. It's nonstop manufactured lies and if you don't believe them you'll get bizarre combative responses from them.

They assigned me to a three person team which quickly crumbled into two under a week. The meetings from the start were very rushed and always cutting corners to end it early. There was no help when it came to building a plot based of my very detailed characters and background stories including everything you can imagine, up to 20,000 word count for all of them put together. They didn't have any clue on the direction of my book, I asked them to watch certain movies and shows and just read a glimpse of certain books so they could understand the style and tone I was going for. I also offered to watch these with them so we can watch as a team and it wouldn't feel like i'm burying them in assignments, I wouldn't ask anyone to do anything I wouldn't do myself so I was happy to join! Make it a little watch party. Which they agreed to do in the beginning before signing any contracts (these weren't out of nowhere requests). They did none of that, in fact they lied to me numerous times about having done such and I would ask them literally just the basic premise of the plots and it would be dead silent after that. Nothing ever went anywhere, I asked for refunds at least twice at this point and I was always promised a better outcome. I had to frequently accommodate Samantha Hayes schedule as if mine didn't matter, she was sick more than 5 times and had multiple family emergencies all at the times when I had assigned something for her to do. They were masters at having me chase for my refund and holding it over my head, literally holding $5,000 of my hard earned money hostage.

Then came Haley Stringfellow's biggest lie yet, her fake diagnosis for her ovarian cancer. This was simply a ploy for them to have more time with my book and to pull at my heart strings for their next hustle, she offered me a $10,00 dollar contract (it could've been more but this was around September and so many lies I just couldn't keep up with) that promised to have my book registered, copyrighted, audiobook, and more. Around this conversation she let it slip that they still had my credit card on file and I can get it done immediately which worried me. I didn't specifically give them my card information how do they have it (16-digit card number, date, name and CVV number)? I entered it into an online payment third party trusted application. First of all a few of the things they were charging me for I could've done for 30 bucks with simple research and registering my book properly with the government. She was making it seem like if I didn't get this offer now my book was at risk of getting stolen, because she didn't trust the editors at the "business" she worked for. My idea was so good it was worth stealing apparently… She then offered to pay 50% of it out of her own money cause she believed in my project that much… The catch is I would have to pay her under the table and I need to keep my mouth shut about this because if anyone found out she would lose her job and be homeless with her little sister while slowly dying from ovarian cancer on the street… I felt bad for her I even considered doing this in order to help her gain more recognition in her company. I then googled everything she offered me, and finding out that almost everything she offered me could be done by myself with just a little research.

So I called Penguin Book Writers to really get the ball rolling on having the third person on my team that was promised so Haley wouldn't have to juggle all this work and then go to her treatment afterwards. They had no idea what I was talking about in fact they were shocked, they let out that she doesn't have ovarian cancer… I was shocked because I literally sent Haley so many options like American Cancer Society and Meals on Wheels that offer great help for people fighting cancer (I use to volunteer at these places, I knew they were amazing). At this point I was so upset and everything started making sense, I didn't want to believe she was uncharging me but it clicked immediately that she was and she used her fake cancer diagnosis to get me to sign which I hadn't. At this point I contacted Samatha Hayes who acted as if she didn't know that Haley was doing any of this. I didn't care I just wanted my refund but no she held on it for WEEKS until I called her. I didn't want anything to do with them they had me begging in email and on text and on phone for my money at this point, I was literally groveling for my $5,000.

They had convinced me she had no idea Haley was doing this. I was convinced that she went rogue; they threw her under the bus and claimed to have done a thorough investigation and apologized. I gave them another chance, not like I had a choice let's be honest, I didn't have a choice and I was forced and tricked into staying.

From this point on there still was nothing like they promised, it got so life draining that I took a break from them, clearly knowing I wasn't going to receive any creative help from them. I did extensive research on my own, watched so many movies and shows gathered a lot of data I needed for my book, created a whole outline by myself, created a stable plot by myself, and timeline. I came back later with my improved self done outline and timeline, we went over it all; the ideas they had were laced from mine. Let me explain. When I would come up with an idea on the spot, Samantha would interrupt me and finish my thought as if she came up with it. This happened so many times, a few times she caught on her own and gave me a shred of credit. She did this with Rachel Brown's ideas (none of them fit into what I saw for my book, it was all generic ideas and it was draining to sit there and pretend they were good) but I had to defend my book and tell them every time they came up with something generic that "These are amazing ideas, but we need to stay on the topic of my book, let's try and come up with more good ideas that relate!" (I sandwiched their feedback because they couldn't handle criticism, they would shut down and it would be a one way conversation until the meeting or phone session would end). They kept trying to involve a murder in my book, they couldn't see the difference between 13-Reasons Why and my book and that was a big part of the problem. They never understood or saw the vision, they kept trying to involve a cheesy murder and who done it? Factor in it.

There was even a time where they finally wrote my prologue and I was very impressed! We read it together, and the big red flag appeared; they couldn't even pronounce the words that "they" wrote… I recently had this hunch to check if there was any AI help in it… There was, almost all of it was AI generated. This made me think. Who is this person I'm working with? Because Samantha Hayes books were not AI generated, in fact she had best selling books that were written by a human. When I did more thorough research on Samantha Hayes I discovered that she wrote a lot of her books before ChatGBT was a reality. She's the real deal. She been on Dancing With The Stars, she's still an active successful writer with a brand new book that just came out! She advertises her book through personal videos she post on her instagram and other platforms. I recently reached out to her and her team, i'm crossing my fingers she responds cause no one deserves their identity to be misused. So after finding out that I am not talking to the real Samantha Hayes, I immediately messaged "Samantha Hayes" and asked if we could have a one on one video call just so I could personally verify and feel better about who I'm working with plus we could build a stronger connection during video calls so she could see how physically disappointed I am with my face expressions…

"Samantha Hayes" freaked out, she then went on this verbal rampage that "How could I ask her to do a video call? I have trauma from video calls and cameras", but that was not before she tried to bait me into answering her why I wanted to. She knew… She definitely knew… You see I made the mistake of letting them get to know me (so this book could be better), they knew about some of my trauma and family I've lost to cancer because it runs in our family. She then admitted on the phone call that she had done nothing but still wanted me to trust in her process… I was done at this point, I had support with me in the room and I just kept asking for a refund. She went ballistic and then asked me for the reason of the refund so she could pass it forward to their complaints department (I don't now what they called it but it doesn't exist and you'll see soon why). I told her and then hung up, their complaints department reached out to me and then proceeded to ask me why. This happened around 15 minutes of them trying to confuse me. I made a compliant to BBB which made them furious. I asked if I could record our conversation he agreed. It was about 5 minutes of him giving me a fake address and asking me why I made a complaint to the BBB as if I hadn't told them 20x already and they haven't read it on the BBB's site. At the end of the call he threatened me in retaliation of the BBB complaint, and proceeded to tell me he never threaten me? I have a recording "Josh Baker" (his "name").

After countless emails of me saying refund me they then proceeded to get Rachel to take over his position? So she's a writer and handles complaints? From my experiences they have switched positions a few times at this point, apparently you can be anyone at any moment if it suits them… She then proceeded to harass me even more, telling me I need to get on the phone with her and explain the reason for the refund so they can process it, as if i haven't already… They did this the other times I requested my refund and once they get me on the phone they would make a bunch of promises that never came true, not happening this time. In email, she proceeded to tell me that I had destroyed "Samantha Hayes" mentally by posting my experience on BBB. Rachel said "Samantha Hayes" was emotionally destroyed by me and she had this big public speaker job for their business that she couldn't do cause I brought up her trauma by asking her for a video call, Rachel Brown's Email 1-31-2024 "…You have fked her mental health and her confidence because now everyone is talking about it…". Wouldn't there be cameras there? Rachel was spilling the beans on "Samantha Hayes" mental health as if HIPAA laws don't exist or matter, she even said "Samantha" doesn't know I'm telling you this! Besides the point, they then offered me their social security numbers and ID cards, saying that I should've asked for this first before requesting a video call… Email from Rachel Brown 1-31-2024 "…When you asked about our identity, we could have provided you with our social security or ID cards; however, you were just emphasizing on a video call. It just doesn't sit well with me…" She also said "…We even decided 5 chapters in the book outline and even wrote 2 chapters for you where you clearly said I knew you were talented Samantha omg! QUEEN…" thinking she's using my words against me with that compliment I gave them. In reality I should have complimented ChatGBT.

At this point it was apparent that their emails would be nonstop as long as they still think I'll fall for it… They really wanted my $5,000 in fact they went so above and beyond gaslighting me it seemed like they truly needed my $5,000. I have now made a full report on them to my bank, disputing this charge with all and every proof I have available including the recording. They have taught me never to believe in anyone, thoroughly and I mean thoroughly research people including BBB reviews and multiple other reviews. I will have them sign a NDA next time even though contracts meant nothing to Penguin Book Writer it still means something to the law and so does there contact. In their minds they are keeping my money although it's wrong and totally against our contract. But I'm confident my bank will see through their scam especially with all my proof I have to offer. I suggest you don't work with these people, find a trusted company do your research and never give money first without meeting the author and verifying. It's exciting to get a book written and these people preyed on that, on top of my other vulnerabilities. I will be making a full report to FTC as well and definitely view other options moving forward cause I definitely have a significant case and I am worried that people will fall for the same trap I did.