Starnow falsely accuses you of things without any evidence and refuses to accept when they have got it wrong. Very poor treatment. Not professional when they feel the need to make things up about people.
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!
The site started off as a great platform to get work but not so long ago it started charging you for a refund because they debit your account automically. This is stated in their Terms and Conditions but I still see no reason to charge people for refunds when you shouldn't automatically be charged when your subscription ends. I deleted my profile with them immediately after that.
Hi Chris, full memberships have a recurring fee. Details of our recurring payments system can be found on all our payment pages, and you would have also received an email with the same information from the payment provider when you made your first payment. You can cancel anytime and if you request a refund there is an administrative fee of 2.50 - is this the charge you are referring to? If you would like to discuss this further please email contact@starnow.com.
Prompt, considerate and helpful assistance and refund by Mattheus. Thank you very much for your help.
It is great for those who need to collaborate to gain experience. Its not so great to earn money but it really helps those aspiring creatives connect with each other.
Thanks for the feedback Anouska:)
Cheers, Kalista
StarNow provided me with the opportunity to change my career from teacher and marketing professional to Model and actor at 50 years old. Through StarNow I've appeared in magazines, music videos, films, joined model agencies and worked on major campaigns. I would highly recommend them as a way of promoting yourself and making connections in this industry.
Thanks for the great feedback Antony!
Cheers,
Kalista
We needed actors for our band's music video in Australia. Starnow was awesome to find talent. We interviewed everyone on skype. Found 6 actors we thought were awesome. Hired them, shot the clip. All worked out perfectly :)
Thanks for the great review Brett!
Now I'm writing this in response to all the negative reviews I've just seen on here. I am astounded. I am a jobbing actress and over the years I've had a lot of both paid and unpaid acting jobs via StarNow. I can only say that this site works if you put in the work and do quality applications and apply for jobs every day, not just one film role now and then but every day. I am even wondering if the negative reviews on here are being written by rival casting websites? My name is Theresa Roche, please Google me - it will prove I am not a member of STarNow staff. The site works if you work at it proactively - if you are not applying daily for multiple roles then no, you won't get cast. Don't blame a good resource for actors for your own laziness or, I hate to say it, unsuitability for a role you have fancied yourself perfect for. Rejection is part of the actor's life but successes are within reach for those prepared to work at it.
Thanks for the great review Theresa! You are right, our most successful members are the ones that are pro-active on site. We have sent you an email with some news- we hope you have recieved it.
Thankyou so much for the excellent customer service. Star now had helped me cancel my membership, issuing a refund and getting back to me so quick. I'm very impressed with the customer service of this company and I really appreciate your help. I will continue to give you guys good recommendations.
Thanks so much for your feedback Debbie, glad you had a good experience using the site. All the best!
Cheers, Kalista
Gave in to barrage saying how good premium membership is and paid for full service. Lots of rubbish, nearly all agents do not reply to listings and most listings for work are utter tripe.
So many duplicate entries under different areas 'Musician Needed in Oxford" Musician needed in London. So on.
Maybe its better for acting professionals?
So sorry to hear about your experience Steve. We're making some changes to the site to help improve message response rates, so watch this space. Please don't hesitate to get in contact with us by emailing contact@starnow.com if you have concerns about a particular advertiser.
I encourage you to continue to apply to jobs on the site, you never know when a great opportunity will come your way :)
I love StarNow, and part of that is because you guys take such care to design a mutually valuable user experience. I promote it all the time on that basis -- StarNow beats the hell out of signing away ones entire career to a single gatekeeper agency.
I believe StarNow is strongly positioned to make important beneficial changes to the way the talent finding industry works, and to combat the exploitative practices of many agencies. There is so much work to be done to level the playing field to allow fair treatment for honest work, and by evaluating feedback like mine on transparency for the talent community you demonstrate that StarNow has talents' best interests at heart.
Thank you for acting on my previous feedback on enforcing fee disclosure by fee-charging companies, and for evaluating my UX recommendations for disclosing fee-based work at the "first look" level.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback Michael, we're so pleased you're happy with the site:)
Cheers, Kalista
I owe Starnow so much as it carried my full time job the last 3.5 years. I've done my fair fair share of free work, but I think starnow is a matter of persisting. You take the good with the bad.
Point is, there are so many great opportunities on here. I've also used it to find actors of my own for various projects/
Thanks for the lovely feedback Joey! We hope you continue to use our site for years to come!
Cheers,
Kalista
Starnow is an incredibly simple and all inclusive service that brings together people from all corners of the artistic world. I started off 3 years ago with a profile and a few pictures, and after hours and days of diligent searching and carefully thought out applications, i started getting jobs. I got an audition for a recording studio which later offered me a recording contract through starnow, my whole band and all the backups i found o starnow. Most of the venues, all the photographers, festivals, promoters. All from an app on my phone.
Well worth every penny and i rely completely on it.
Wow! Thanks for the awesome feedback Sophie. We love hearing success stories like this:)
Cheers, Kalista
A former actor myself now film director I can appreciate the challenges and struggles of really talented performers battling to get signed up by an agency and get work. Starnow provides that platform for all talented individuals with the right to engage in work in the entertainment industry without any discrimination and is the way forward to opening up a world of opportunities to emerging talent. For media production houses Starnow facilitates collaboration between professionals and talent directly in all areas of media and so far has proved to be the best go to site for sourcing temporary crew and principal talent for our productions. The best form of representation is yourself. Thanks to Starnow that is now possible for any talented individual out there wanting to break into the entertainment industry. Highly recommended!
Just wanted to say thank you and how surprised I was that you picked my daughters photo for the staff pick this week. I am hoping that maybe Grace will perhaps catch the attention of a casting agent as being an actor in Perth can be a bit tough so any extra help for her at the beginning of her career is fantastic so once again thanks so much Star Now
No problem Trish! We're glad to hear you and your daughter are enjoying using the site:)
Cheers, Kalista
Got charged a recurring payment 6 months after I signed up and completely forgot about. They dont send reminders! I requested a refund and cancellation within an hour of the charge. Got a generic response saying it was not possible. I asked to speak to a manager and gave them my phone number (as we cant call them). Finally the CCO emailed be back. I found her response to be partly irrelevant, passive aggressive and sarcastic. She invited me to email her back if I had any further questions, which I did, requesting a refund out of courtesy and good business practice. No response. To me, this is basically theft. Dont use this company which you cannot easily contact and has zero respect for their customers.
Hi Dane,
I've just responded to your latest private message on Facebook and other SiteJabber reviews with the below:_____________________________
I can see that you’ve made multiple posts across social media and SiteJabber – I’m sorry that you do not agree with our refund policy. As Stephanie, our Chief Customer Officer explained to you, our payment and refund process is completely within legal requirements and we will not be issuing you with a refund for your most recent payment. The information about our recurring billing is on the payment page, our site terms of use, on the account settings page and on receipts that are emailed after a payment made. Information about our refund policy is also available to view in our terms and conditions at any time http://www.starnow.com/help/terms.aspx
As the information is clearly visible both before and after subscribing with us, we will not be able to communicate any further regarding this dispute._____________________________
All the best,
Kalista
I cannot recommend Starnow highly enough. Since joining just under a month ago, I have secured two professional band auditions, and found other opportunities as a composer that I wouldn't have come across had I not joined. There are plenty of quality jobs on the site. It really is great value for money, and can take your career to the next level. It works... I'm a happy bunny!
Wow! Awesome to hear about your successes so far Nat! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review:)
Cheers,
Kalista
Scammers, who use people to post positive reviews for them. These crooks are at the lowest end of the agency ladder do yourself a favour and go with a reputable agency that will work for you and not just rob you.
I've been registered with StarNow Australia for a few years, in addition to having an agent. I work professionally, predominantly as an actor, and have secured a number of roles through StarNow. In fact the highest paid television commercial I've done was through a StarNow ad. I'm also a producer and casting agent, and I have secured actors easily for my productions.
Thanks for taking the time to write a review! It's awesome to hear that you've had a great experience using StarNow as both a casting professional and talent.
Cheers,
Kalista
I uploaded 3 songs to my Starnow profile & paid my subscription fee on March 1st.
When I did a search for my profile the next day, it stated "This member does not have any audio tracks."
I emailed them to say there was a fault, & also asked for their phone number.
I received a standard reply from 'Renee' saying "it can take 24 hours to embed and show in the talent directory search. Please let us know if it is still not working after this time."
So I did.
I emailed back saying it's still not working & can someone please contact me. I'm still waiting for a reply, and my profile STILL says there's no audio. It's been a week now & they've got my 30 quid. And there's no phone number to call. (Very convenient.) I feel ripped off.
Appalling service.
Hi there, so sorry to hear about this! Can you please send me a message with your membership details (your email address would be ideal) so we can look into this and fast track fixing this for you?
Cheers, Kalista
Overview
StarNow.co.uk has a rating of 2.9 stars from 98 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. StarNow.co.uk ranks 32nd among Acting sites.
Business History
The goal behind StarNow was to connect talent with casting professionals, and allow them to apply to castings. Fast forward to today, and StarNow is the leading auditions and jobs website for actors & extras, models, dancers, photographers, crew, stylists, and musicians. Pretty cool for an idea that stemmed from helping a mate land some work!
The boys brought in a team of brilliant minds (if we may say so ourselves) who have helped grow StarNow to over four million members worldwide. We work with some of the industry's top players, with dominant market positions in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, together with a growing market position in the USA, Canada, Ireland, and South Africa.
We're building the best talent community on Earth, and we'd love you to join us and be a part of it!
- Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members
- Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members
Hi Mark,
I’m sorry to hear you feel this way. I have followed up and can see that our Customer Success Manager, Renee, has communicated with you in full on this.
All the best,
Maddy