This is a letter I sent to the "CEO" of A&R Select about 4 days ago(I got sucked into it embarassingly enough about a month ago) ....The "CEO" has yet to respond...

Hi Mike,
In this following complaint I don't mean any disrespect to you or your company, I just simply feel I need to report the activities, or lack there of, that have come along with my A&R membership. Any qoutes I have used from your reps are direct, I have kept all of our emailed conversations. I feel now that I may not be the best fit with A&R Select.

My name is Robert Lyon. I signed up for your service with A&R Select on 6/20/07. I paid $399.99 for a 1 year membership. I was very pumped about joining your team because of how great it sounded and because it is a great idea. Unfortunately so far, I feel I have spent more time and money than I feel you guys have on me. The truth of the matter is, I haven't received one service out of your catalogue this month. I did receive a bio though, which consisted of 17 sentences, 3 misspellings, and 2 sentences that didn't make any sense. One day after I had received that bio, you confirmed to me via email that you had received my cd in the mail for review. That was great. I waited until the 10th of July and received confirmation from my rep, that their review of my cd was finished. He asked me when I would like to be contacted and I gave him a few spots throughout the day I would be free because of my appointments and other various obligations. No call that day, but receieved an email the next morning saying "Sorry I got your email too late, its been crazy. is tomorrow good??". I thought, no biggie, everyone gets sidetracked sometimes, so I told him it wasn't a big deal, im free everyday so just give me a call. Once again, no call, no email the next day, nothing. I just figured he forgot or whatever....I'm a very patient person, so I just waited. No more emails, no calls. So July 20th rolls around, and I decide to email Joe again, asking when we can get this going . But, from a customers point of view I really didn't want to, or think I should have, but then again I did spend $399. He responded, "Monday email me and I'll go over everything with you that day. I have everything finished and i am ready. just email me as a reminder in the morning and we'll be all good. Thanks!". This email astonished me and made me really angry. First of all, I know he's ready, he's been ready for 2 weeks, second of all, the customer shouldn't have to remind the professionals they are paying to do their job, I've been reminding him for weeks!! I thought then with that email, I had had enough, and that I was going to do something about it, but I decided to cool down and respond back by saying, "Yah Joe, I'll do that. Thanks, Robert". I'm on vacation this week, so once again I am free every hour of the day to talk as long as I please. So I woke up that Monday morning 3 days later, and give my rep, a simple little email reminder for his day, thinking that we'll finally talk and we can put all this junk behind us. No Call Monday. I get back from the beach at around fourish to see that I have received an email from Joe at 2:20:07 PM, stating "Robert, okay cool, Im pretty packed today BUT I'll give you a call tomorrow so we can do this! that cool?". I emailed back saying, “yes that’s cool", but I thought what a joke. Today is tomorrow, and its 3:52 PM. Joes hasn't called me. I feel I'm out of reminders for Joe, and a little depressed at how this is all working out.
Once again, I'm sorry if I'm coming off disrespectful to you Mike; I know that you haven't wronged me in any way. I just know that you’re the CEO of this company, and I would appreciate my money back because of the reasons I have stated. As a customer, I feel like I have made a $399 donation to your company without your professional services being provided to me in any way shape or form. And as of 2006, there is nothing in your Terms of Agreements that would reject me, or make my request for a refund unreasonable.

I'm sorry for inconveniencing you with all of this.
Thanks for your time.
Robert Lyon

I aslo attached this letter to my rep, who immediatly called me that night, very very sympathetic. But luckily I did get them to say that they would give me half my money back. But I still have yet to see it in my account.

Now I don't want to pass judgement onto a business that might have all the right intentions in mind, A&R very well could become a great asset in the music industry and just conducted themselves poorly with me. But as far as I'm concerned, it was very scammish and it was something in my life that I definately could have done without. The experience was a quite embarrassing and humiliating one. I'm still kind of depressed. haha

But I take my experience for what it's worth....
A few good lessons or two to learn:

***Always know who your dealing with, do research, ask around, don't just jump into (or feel pressure on the phone) something like that, especially if they are asking for money up front.***

some embarrassment, and definately some good laughs.
But You Guys are all friends here in the Just Plain Forum and I just wanted to share my experience with ya'll

Hope it Helps

Robert

[url]http://www.myspace.com/robertlyontunes[/url]