yes, we too have been waiting a year for the indie compilation- no reply from our emails or phone calls now for a few months. We have been scammed. The young men Tauranga

I am very sorry to hear that. Now that I am a major squeaky wheel, Brendan has emailed me just today to say they cut staff in half so things have been hard, but my project will be finished. I'll believe it when I see it.

We payed to be on the 'Rise Up' Cd that came out in March…

Back in October 2009 Quickstar sent us an invite giving us week's notice to be on a 'save the Earth' type of Cd. We decided to jump on it, but out of nowhere before even sending anything the project was cancelled. We forgot about it and moved on. Two months later in December they invited us again under the same circumstances. Again giving a just weeks notice to submit materials I quickly sent payment and everything else on January 1st. A few months following I get a 'bot' invite for the same Cd. lol. I sent a reply l and got no response. If that weren't enough I received a 'Comp Card' speech email telling me they are switching to 'Comp Cards' how its better than the product I was expecting. No. I was pissed and politely asked for a refund as I wanted what we agreed on. I was told they would follow through and the 'card' was “just an option.” Believe me it was not an option on the email. Anyways they respond quickly and said my band would get everything Quickstar promised. Well…that same day I got on Amazon only to find out you can download the compilation, but my band is not on it!!! Nor do I have my Cds. I have been leaving messages and emails that are being ignored. You know, my band Pending Portrait worked with them in 2008 and they came through with the Cds and electronic distribution. Pft… Times up. I have gotten nothing but bullshit. I am tired of the silence and lies. I am filing with the BBB.

Who do I contact in Prickstar to talk with at least someone?

At this point, if they will not resolve this with you directly, the BBB will try to contact them for a resolution. This is the link for complaints: https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx
Please file for the good of all of us who are working with them. I've talked to a lot of musicians who are experiencing problems with them, and have been ignored by their staff. Sadly, a lot of musicians just take it. I hope this will not be the case.

At this point, if they will not resolve this with you directly, the BBB will try to contact them for a resolution. This is the link for complaints: https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx
Please file for the good of all of us who are working with them. I've talked to a lot of musicians who are experiencing problems with them, and have been ignored by their staff. Sadly, a lot of musicians just take it. I hope this will not be the case.

[...] I know a little more now. See here: http://www.havenyates.com/blog/?p=166 Share/Bookmark var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="A Call For Healing"; [...]

Well, this was an interesting find. It at least makes me feel “a little” better that I am not alone–that sounds bad, sorry! I was on the compilation prior to “A Call For Healing” called “Unified By Grace”. It did take quite a long time for the process to be completed, but it was, finally. I was then asked to participate in this “follow up” project, “A Call For Healing”. I think this was a great idea, and since things went well the first time….well, I felt OK about it. However, I sent my project, my money, and all the info back in October, 2009. I have heard very little since…I can't even connect to the info that they sent verifying info for everyone on the CD. I've been contacted by someone else on the project asking for advice, and we have both contacted Quickstar on numerous occasions with no response. And, as I have heard from other artists, I also received an invitation to be on the same comp by a different person, for a different song, clearly worded by someone who had no idea that I was on the first comp. Every email that I have received from them have been the exact same lame emails I received the first time around. I also had the only song on my compilation on iTunes that was “high popularity” for months(there are 2 others, now). I live in Canada, but being from the States, I had a TON of people purchase my song, since I couldn't get them CDs easily. I have never received the monetary compensation they have laid out, and I have no way of proving how many sales for my song there have been.
Anyway, that being said, doesn't really help you except that it re-instates for you that you are not alone with frustration as well. So, I guess here we all wait….together.

You can contact me @ http://www.myspace.com/dustywebermusic if you have any questions or, I'd appreciate it if you ever hear anything more! Good luck!!

I have been urging other artists involved who aren't getting through to Quickstar Productions to use the BBB complaint line here: https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx
They should be able to help get a resolution, or if nothing else, help others to steer clear. Last time I checked, Quickstar Productions' A Rating was bye-bye. Thank you for taking the time to validate my complaint with your experience, and thanks for leaving a link to your myspace. I would love to hear from others on your project and I encourage them to contact the BBB as well.

Since all of us who are involved with Quickstar Productions have essentially the same complaint, I am posting mine so perhaps some may use it as a template you can copy and paste, then customize to your needs:

My Complaint

I paid $165 dollars in the end of November 2009 (I can produce a copy of my check) for 50 physical copies of a CD compilation project I agreed to contribute to entitled 'A Call For Healing.' I was promised 50 physical glass mastered audio CD's containing all songs included in the compilation, which I may resale at any price. In addition, Quickstar Productions agrees to digitally distribute the compilation to 300+ online retailers to pay the participants in the project 50% of all royalties after $10 dollars. Quickstar also promises to send compilation participants royalty statements twice annually.
Quickstar Productions states on their website that the typical turn-around on a project like this one is 3 to 5 months once all artists are on board. Due to a lack in customer service from Quickstar, I am unable to tell at what time exactly all artists were on board for this project. I sent 2 or 3 emails, and left voicemail for Phillip Petty (my project manager) inquiring as to the progress of the project around the month of January. On the 7th of February 2010, I contacted Brendan Bosmans, who sent me an email by the following day containing the track listing.
Therefore, I know for certain that all artists were officially selected and paid for the project by Feb. 8th 2010 at the latest. By their stated estimation for project turnaround, I should expect my CD's by July 8th at the very latest. On June 8th, I had still received no update on when to expect my shipment, so I emailed my contact at admin@quickstarproductions.com inquiring as to an ETA on the project. I had heard nothing by the 10th, so I forwarded the email to Brendan Bosmans and asked him, and also called his extension during business hours and left him a voicemail. After hearing nothing by the 12th from Brendan or the first contact I had emailed, I sent another email to all listed email addresses at the company, imploring someone to respond. By the evening of the 14th, Brendan had responded that they've had cutbacks, but the project will be completed. He still hadn't provided an ETA, which was my initial inquiry days ago. I have since sent another email to all provided contacts requesting my project completed or my money back by August 17th, 2010. That email was sent on 06/17/10. As of today 06/22/10, I have heard nothing.

My Proposed Settlement

I am seeking 50 physical retail ready glass mastered audio CD's containing all songs tracklisted on the compilation I agreed to appear on, or a full refund of $165 I agreed to pay strictly to cover the cost of those physical CD's. I expect either settlement by Aug. 17th 2010, which is well beyond the projected time for project completion. I will also expect the digital distribution agreed upon, and once the compilation is available online, I expect two royalty statements per year, and 50% of digital sales after $10, as long as this compilation is available for digital purchase.

Send your complaints here: https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx

Before contacting the BBB, you may try Brendon at Brenden@quickstarproductions.com
443-552-7058 ex. 301.. Sometimes it takes a few days, but I have always heard back from him eventually. Some artists are complaining about not hearing back for months, and I think the same would be the case for me if I hadn't contacted Brendan. I'm gaining a small ray of hope from Brendan's last email back, and from one of the recent compilation participants who has received CD's. I heard back from Poetic Reasoning who has received CD's, but it is too early to see about royalties. Check them out here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Poetic-Reasoni…

Okay, it is good to know the reason- understaffed. I bet that they are getting a huge number of emails every day… Oh well, i have enjoyed listening to your music while I write this!
Thanks for being the squeaky wheel…

Anna

There are other issues with companies they outsource to as well from what I've heard, which is what spawned cutting paid employees, leaving owners only. If you talk to anyone who worked with Quickstar Productions in 2008, they all say they got their CD's in a fairly reasonable amount of time. It's the mid to late 2009 projects that are having all the problems. If you're having trouble hearing back, email Brendan; he's always eventually responded to me. I will always update you here with my experiences as well. I feel a little better after communicating with him. Thank you so much for listening to my song while you write!

” I am sorry for the confusion. Their is multiple volumes of the same project. We do different regions and styles on each one. You are still very much on the project! We have had some staff turn over. I am very sorry for the trouble it has caused. But we are still going to get the project out and are very much in business.
If you have any concerns or need to talk to some one directly please contact me anytime. We really appreciate your business. I know that your experience has not been good so far, but we will make it up to you. Please accept my deepest apologies.

Take care, Brenden”

#2nd email a few days later

“I am very sorry about the delays on the project and I understand why you are upset. I feel that I should give you some background as to what the problem is. Quickstar presses its CD?s with a factory in Canada called CD Man. We had to pay upfront for the order which was normal for our relationship. We have been using them for the past few years with no issues. We placed a large CD order with them. It seemed to be taking a while so we contacted them. We got back a response from their lawyer stating that the company was in bankruptcy and that we could make a claim.
We found out that we were one of many businesses owed money and that our chances of getting anything back were slim. So just like that we lost $70,000. We have filled for the bankruptcy proceedings but we are not guaranteed to get anything back.
Needless to say this has seriously hurt the company. We have been trying to recover. We made a lot of changes. The first thing we did is eliminate all owners pay. I personally have not been paid anything since Dec. 09. We also cut staff. We are trying to do everything we possibly can to stay afloat.
We are a LLC so legally we can close up shop at anytime. But morally we have made a commitment to our customers to get them their product. We are not going to give up. Please bear with us while we try to recover from this serious hit.
I have included the original email we received from CD Man below where we found out that they went out of business with our money:
Please note that MagpieRadio Corp. has closed its doors
and all operations in Canada and the U.S. has ceased.
The assets of all previous orders are no longer available.

The CDman.com domain & 1-800# have now been acquired by Reel Pictures San Diego
and will accept new orders only. No warranty, liability or assets have been transfered to
RP San Diego.

We do apologize for the inconvenience. We uggest that you prepare these projects for
re-printing with another vendor.

Credits and refunds may be made in writing to:

MagpieRadio Corp.
4794 west 6th ave.
Vancouver, BC, Canada,
V6T1C5

* Please note that ReelPictures has no knowledge of the previous orders and will be
unable to assist you in any missing discs.

http://www.QuickstarProductions.com
Brenden@quickstarproductions.com
443-552-7058 ex. 301

“MONTHLY SPECIAL: 1000 Retail Ready CD's for only $899!”
Ask me for more details!”

Why would we file with Canada? Quickstar was in charge of the operations and our contract is with them… Plus what about the electronic distributions? What blame Canada too? What is this South Park? Come on.. They promised a a product and did not come through…

I had asked for a refund because it just was not happening. I wrote:

“This is unacceptable. I paid 185.00 for a specific product of 50 compact disks. I was happy to sign up with Quickstar this second time around because you were offering Cds…not comp cards. I am not interested in an other product at this time which is why I went with your company.

I wanted Cds. I just got back from a nice vacation only to find your lengthly explanation and no refund link. I do not accept this change in our agreement. Please refund my payment. Thank you.”

I was told it was all going well but slow and not to worry. I waited so a second time I requested funds be returned to my card:

“Below you will find a previous message showing a payment to your for 'Rise Up' in January. I submitted materials in a timely matter Quickstar placed and have attempted to contact Danny Bryant for months. Failure to complete the company's end of the contract is clear. We have not received the Compact Discs or your promise of electronic distributions. I see the CD we were going to be on was released March 2010 and is out for download. Pending Portrait are not on it… I am filing a complaint with the BBB.

You know, I was contacted twice about this project. Oddly enough each offer gave my band only a window of a week to reply and yet months later I get your 'comp card' speech offer. I wrote back straight away and after mentioning that we just wanted the deal we paid for, Quickstar quickly assured everything was fine. This was not the case, sir. Your company have ignored my calls and emails through and through. These practices are unacceptable. Please refund my money by Monday June 21st 2010. I have bills to pay. Thank you.”

Now it appears as if they knew what was happening and still asked for payment. Why collect money from bands when they knew the ship was sinking? Shameful… Is their version of a clean get away just a series of whining and complaining emails, I think not. They took my money and Quickstar believes its not their legal obligation to refund it. Really?

I received a similar email. What Brendan sent is supposed to be a copy of the email Quickstar Productions received after losing an order to CDman, due to bankruptcy of its former Canadian based owner MagpieRadio Corp. So now Quickstar Productions, it appears is signing on as many new artists as possible and having them pay up front to fund old overdue projects. So you can't have a refund because your money is already spent on somebody else's CD's that were who knows how long overdue. So, yeah, Quickstar isn't asking you to file with Canada. They are asking you to wait indefinitely with no clear time-frame or deadline in sight. I'm watching people who are ahead of me in line to get an idea of what the wait might be for me, because all I hear from the company is “We will finish the project.” So, how long has it been for you guys again? Like, over a year? That's a long time to be out $185.00 .

Thanks for digging so deep and so hard on this bro. Let's ban together and pray for justice on this though. Neglect is barely grounds for mercy if you ask me. Especially when we're all a bunch of poor musicians trying to make a living. This is just wrong. If they were just honest with us in the first place, things could probably be different.

I heartily agree. The impression that is solidified by the neglect is that Quickstar Productions could care less whether the project is successful or not. While a very insignificant portion of their profits are made on digital sales, most of their money is made by our up front investment, which goes well beyond paying for production costs. That is why they have the myspace spam bots. It's all about the volume of those up front investments. They have very little interest in their artists after that. So, yes, they say they are morally obligated to deliver, but it wasn't a very moral business model to begin with. If I'm ever on a compilation again, it be either one that pays contributing artists to join, not vise versa, or I'll just arrange a group CD order directly with some bands I'm connected to. Thanks for commenting. I'll keep praying something worthwhile comes out of this.

There are a lot more comments by artists going through the same thing on this thread:
http://forums.myspace.com/t/3804489.aspx?fuseac...
I'm sad to see it is this bad. Many of them have seen nothing after well over a year.

hey man. i paid to be on vs. the world, vol. 14 i think, last october. The first two weeks they were very helpful. someone always answered the phone, and my emails were replied to in a timely fashion. The last update i got was in march when they said it would be a couple more months. now its august and no one is answering the phone, or email. i even faxed them and got no reply. I found your blog today. We have got to find a way to do something about this. There has got to be a way to let people know about this. I cringe to think that they are getting some other young musicians hopes up and taking their money so that they can maybe pay for my cd's.

Please file a complaint with the BBB. I did it, and saved all my info so others can have an easy time doing it too.

First, here's the link to file with the BBB: https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx

And your experience is so similar to mine your complaint will probably look a little like the following – you may copy paste, and edit to your personalized complaint:

My Complaint

I paid $165 dollars in the end of November 2009 (I can produce a copy of my check) for 50 physical copies of a CD compilation project I agreed to contribute to entitled 'A Call For Healing.' I was promised 50 physical glass mastered audio CD's containing all songs included in the compilation, which I may resale at any price. In addition, Quickstar Productions agrees to digitally distribute the compilation to 300+ online retailers to pay the participants in the project 50% of all royalties after $10 dollars. Quickstar also promises to send compilation participants royalty statements twice annually.
Quickstar Productions states on their website that the typical turn-around on a project like this one is 3 to 5 months once all artists are on board. Due to a lack in customer service from Quickstar, I am unable to tell at what time exactly all artists were on board for this project. I sent 2 or 3 emails, and left voicemail for Phillip Petty (my project manager) inquiring as to the progress of the project around the month of January. On the 7th of February 2010, I contacted Brendan Bosmans, who sent me an email by the following day containing the track listing.
Therefore, I know for certain that all artists were officially selected and paid for the project by Feb. 8th 2010 at the latest. By their stated estimation for project turnaround, I should expect my CD's by July 8th at the very latest. On June 8th, I had still received no update on when to expect my shipment, so I emailed my contact at admin@quickstarproductions.com inquiring as to an ETA on the project. I had heard nothing by the 10th, so I forwarded the email to Brendan Bosmans and asked him, and also called his extension during business hours and left him a voicemail. After hearing nothing by the 12th from Brendan or the first contact I had emailed, I sent another email to all listed email addresses at the company, imploring someone to respond. By the evening of the 14th, Brendan had responded that they've had cutbacks, but the project will be completed. He still hadn't provided an ETA, which was my initial inquiry days ago. I have since sent another email to all provided contacts requesting my project completed or my money back by August 17th, 2010. That email was sent on 06/17/10. As of today 06/22/10, I have heard nothing.

My Proposed Settlement

I am seeking 50 physical retail ready glass mastered audio CD's containing all songs tracklisted on the compilation I agreed to appear on, or a full refund of $165 I agreed to pay strictly to cover the cost of those physical CD's. I expect either settlement by Aug. 17th 2010, which is well beyond the projected time for project completion. I will also expect the digital distribution agreed upon, and once the compilation is available online, I expect two royalty statements per year, and 50% of digital sales after $10, as long as this compilation is available for digital purchase.

Also, if you are actively posting new songs on myspace, you will be contacted by Quickstar Productions again regarding one of your new songs. We all need also to write detailed abuse reports to myspace, to make sure their profiles keep getting taken down.

I've also dedicated a couple more pages to Quickstar stuff here:

http://www.havenyates.com/blog/?page_id=198
http://www.havenyates.com/blog/?page_id=211&min...

[...] New Compilation CD Posted by: havenyates on: November 23 2009 • Categorized in: Haven Yates Music UPDATE Aug. 20th, 2010 : I still have not received the CD’s Quickstar Productions agreed to send me within 3 to 5 months. If you are considering working with Quickstar or Distrophonix, please read this more recent blog first http://www.havenyates.com/blog/?p=166 [...]

i filed and got the exact same copy and pasted reply from quickstar explaining the cd man issue here is my response to the BBB:

I find this response to be completely unsatisfactory. What Quickstar Productions is failing to understand is that they have acted unethically and borderline illegally. They are “robbing Peter to pay Paul”. The point of all this is that if Quickstar Productions would have been HONEST from the beginning none of this would be an issue. If the owner hasn’t been paid anything since December of 2009 because the business is collapsing and theres even a slight chance that these compilations might be in jeopardy, after his wife, the participants of this project shouldve been the FIRST to know. Instead he chose to lie, deceive, and ignore us.

If the owner would have been HONEST from the beginning, not only would he have my understanding, he would have my support. Myself, and I’m sure some of the other artists affected by this, would’ve gone to bat for him, testified and given statements about the impact of this situation to help his litigation with the company that shut down. But at this point, since he has simply fed me lie after lie after lie, why should I believe that he is telling the truth about any of this? As far as we know he’s laughing on a beach in Tahiti sipping drinks with umbrella thingies, laughing at all the schmucks he has conned. All I’m saying is Quickstar productions has consistently lied up to this point. Give me one reason why I should trust you, Quickstar? You took my money and then stopped answering the phone and email for SEVEN MONTHS! I should not have to file a claim through the better business bureau to find out what your excuse is. And what about the other bands that don’t know any of this and haven’t filed a claim with the BBB? They are still 100% in the dark and are still where I was two weeks ago. Frantically dialing your phone number over and over again, trying each extension, praying someone will pick up this time to let them know their hard earned money hasn’t been stolen.

In his response, the owner of the company acts like he should be patted on the back for “not giving up”, even though technically he could close up shop at anytime. Well he will not get my pity, and I’m not going to bear with anything. If he would’ve been honest from the beginning the direct opposite would be true. The last time I spoke on the phone with him, he acted like he couldn’t understand why no one would answer the phone. He made up some story about their email accounts getting messed up. And then my favorite part, WOULD NOT give me a date for completion. He said “things like this take time”. He refuse to even give me a vague idea. What he could’ve said is “The reason I can’t give you an exact date is because … “ and then explained what happened with his pressing company. But he CHOSE to LIE! To speak calmly and clearly and tell me something that WAS NOT TRUE, or even CLOSE to the truth!!! Therefore no answer he responds with will be satisfactory to me unless it contains a date that I will receive my CD’s or a refund of my $175. I don’t care what is happening to his pay or his company at this point. Because of his dishonesty he doesn’t deserve my concern. But he does need to take steps to let EVERYBODY know whats going on. Not just the people who file a complaint with the BBB. I want quickstar productions website to announce THE TRUTH to everyone who is getting the runarouind right now and doesn’t know why. Then and only then will I be satisfied.

I cannot tell you enough how much I absolutely LOVE this response of yours. You have very well summarized how we all feel, and I appreciate it SO much. Incredibly well spoken – you really hit on the heart of the issue. If you’ve got the time, the folk on the myspace forum would be very interested in hearing that as well:

http://forums.myspace.com/t/3804489.aspx?fuseaction=forums.viewthread&PageIndex=1&SortOrder=0

Again, thank you for sharing that here. It really made my day, that I am not alone in this by any stretch, but there are actually quite a few of us putting heavy pressure on Quickstar to do the right thing.

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