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.
There are several different services to become members with to support your acting career. Hands down i really value backstage for the insight and range of industry news and information. It seems as if any question or concern you have has been or will be addressed by a knowledgeable team member. Thanks for the help and the advice backstage!
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!
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.
Hi London,
Thank you for your feedback - we apologize if you were unhappy with our service.
I just wanted to clarify a few things about scams.
In 2017 almost 40,000 casting calls were posted on Backstage, and only an extreme minority (~1%) were possible scams, all of which were removed within a few hours of going up. When a casting call is posted on Backstage, it's automatically labeled as being an un-reviewed 'Instant' item with a scam-prevention warning. Then Backstage's team of casting specialists check every item for authenticity, at which point potential scams are promptly removed. Additionally, Backstage carefully monitors for suspicious site activity and examines feedback from the acting community to identify and eliminate any potential scams that may have slipped through the cracks. Backstage is successfully used to cast more than 100,000 legitimate roles every year, and has been the most trusted name in casting for more than 50 years.
If you are interested in learning more about our scam-prevention process, we'd be happy to discuss it at customers@backstage.com. We'd also be give you any other feedback or help regarding your subscription.
Great site, defiantly worth using for castings if you are are in the US. Unfortunately I am not, so I requested to cancel my membership. Expecting difficulty (which is usually the case with cancellations) I got a friendly and understanding response from the team and full refund.
Will carry on using the free subscription but gutted I can't utilise it's full membership cause of being UK based.
As a producer rather than an actor, this website used to be amazing until recently.
Customer service WILL NOT respond to you. If they send you an email asking something, they'll pretend that they never saw your response. It seems like a big mess, where multiple people are sending you emails, but they never go back and read the whole conversation.
If you're someone looking to cast people for a job, Backstage is not the site to use.
Hi Jimmy, I'm sorry to hear that you've had an unpleasant experience using Backstage. We're disappointed to hear that you did not hear back from our Customer Support team, as we pride ourselves on answering emails within 48 hours - even with a busy workload. Can you email us again at customers@backstage.com with the subject line 'Sitejabber' so we can investigate further and resolve this issue for you?
I cancelled my yearly subscription of £35 last september, received no confirmation of this, then woke up and was charged £101. This is theft and i will be taking it further up the company and as a police matter if not sorted. I have tried to contact all customer services but nothing, i have even put a dispute in at the bank. This site i did not use at all, hence me cancelling my subscription, then charged £101 for another year when i only paid £35 originally. This is disgusting
Hi Maria, can you send us a private message with your email address so we can check and see if your email was received? Please note that if you do not receive a confirmation email after you turn off the auto renewal on your subscription, that means your subscription was not successfully cancelled. In the future, please contact us immediately if you do not receive a confirmation email so we can investigate further. As long as you have contacted us within 14 days of the charge, please rest assured that you will receive a full refund.
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.
Hello Dwight,
I'm sorry if you were disappointed with your time at Backstage. We offer subscriptions that auto-renew like most subscriptions nowadays. We also email all Annual and Semi-Annual users a month before their renewal, letting them know it's coming up. If you'd like to email us at customers@backstage.com we'd be happy to review your request.
Best, Anna
They have alot of castings but it's mostly unpaid student films and short films. A good way to build your resume up but after a certain point I dont think you could get much out of backstage. They also have commercials, ugc and some modeling opportunities but I noticed that the people who answered were very flaky. Not to mention that there's loads of scammers on there and they raised their prices to. So you expect me to pay $200 a year for your scammy casting calls. Yet I can just pay $68 for the year on actors access where I can get real auditions for TV shows and movies and no scams. I literally delt with over 3 scammers on backstage casting, one of which was sexually harassing me. And these people really think they're crappy casting website is worth $200? Okay.
Hi Emma, we appreciate you taking the time to leave us a review. We're sorry to hear that you've had a mixed experience using Backstage. Please note that we pride ourselves in responding to and reviewing all complaints about unprofessional job posters or potential scams on our platform. If you have not reported these users to us yet, please do so now by emailing customers@backstage.com. Unfortunately, no matter which platform you use, you are likely to encounter possible scams due to the nature of our industry. Backstage is committed to protecting our users and have implemented several new security measures to continue to ensure the safety of our users. Please feel free to contact us directly if you have any other feedback and concerns - we're happy to help!
Backstage has furnished a plethora of VO jobs, but their range of jobs offered is too wide. I'm an 86-year old man, and my voice can pass for 45 years up, but I get constant calls for women, children etc. I spend at least an hour a day searching through leads that simply do not fit my voice. Then Backstage shows me a disclaimer saying my age range (45-86) does not meet the requirement of the VO submitted. They should apply the parameters more closely to mine.
Hi David! If you're receiving casting alerts for notices that don't pertain to you, it sounds like you don't have your saved searches set up with specific filters in place. Please reach out to us directly at customers@backstage.com for assistance, and we'd be happy to help!
Overview
Backstage has a rating of 2.7 stars from 288 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Backstage most frequently mention credit card, free trial and last year. Backstage ranks 5th among Talent Agency sites.
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Hi Ady,
I'm sorry to hear that you encountered a scam on Backstage. We take the safety of our users seriously. When a casting call is posted on Backstage, it's automatically labeled as being an un-reviewed 'Instant' item with a scam-prevention warning. Then Backstage's team of casting specialists check every item for authenticity, at which point potential scams are promptly removed. Additionally, Backstage carefully monitors for suspicious site activity and examines feedback from the acting community to identify and eliminate any potential scams that may have slipped through the cracks. We also recently implemented a more secure background check system that we hope will track anything that was missed due to human error.
Please email us at customers@backstage.com and we'd be happy to investigate this for you further! - Stephanie