Mandy.com Reviews 940

Mandy blows your hopes up like a balloon, only to pop it as you apply for a job. There's a catch, you have to pay!
Guess it ain't a charity, but they already take monies from the fees you receive. Now, they want money too, for having you on their books.

I have received incessant amounts of email from this awful organisation that keeps on sending me not relevant news that as an emails about jobs that I have absolutely no interest for and I have signed out of I will be taking them to court if they continue to bombard me with spam, despite having unsubscribed.
Noah

website is the worst thing i have ever used

Such a shame. This company can improve by going back to how it used to be, several years ago. I did not renew my annual subscription this August because paid jobs were mainly 'brand ambassadors', workshop leaders, performing arts school assistants, Christmas and party characters - and increasingly technical jobs such as make-up artists and, oh my word, content creators. What about acting jobs in theatre and film? Not much of those. Although I am not currently an upgraded member I still follow the jobs on Mandy, in case I should be enticed into paying a subscription again.

I was charged for an annual premium performers membership in January this year. Subsequent 'monthly' payments were then taken without my permission as my card details were logged. I can't apply for any 'jobs' as the site tells me I need to 'upgrade' (how much more upgrading after 'premium performer' is there?) no one answers emails - the email they give you doesn't appear to be manned. I will be contacting trading standards/police if I don't get my money back and card details removed from the site.

Two stars for the free premium trial. Got a handful of leads but as nobody has replied it is hard to tell if Mandy is malfunctioning or it's just rude millennials. Regardless, 20 quid a month is a lot to pay for watching tumbleweed blow across the prairie.

My experience matches those described in the other poor reviews; I wish I'd not renewed my membership - it feels a waste of money. There have been many regrettable changes to Mandy in recent times. Very low paid jobs are listed on the paid jobs board, not the opportunities board, and there's no clarity/standard being upheld about what constitutes a paid job. Many non-acting jobs are listed when you search for acting jobs. There's no longer any way of telling if your application has been viewed or is under consideration and I have no idea why that function has been removed. If you contact customer services with queries, all that comes back is standard 'fob off' messages. So many fellow actors report the same thing. I'm not getting straight answers, it's not acceptable and I will not renew my membership.

Don't waste your time and money.

This is a subscription service, but it's the lowest of the low in terms of opportunities and success rates.

Many of the jobs are unpaid or low paid - there is no vetting or quality checking - which is what you would expect from a paid site.

You also have an incredibly low chance of actually securing any work. You will waste all your time doing bespoke auditions. When you do receive a response to an application, they frequently state that they have received over 350+ applications per role within 24 hours.

I know acting is a very competitive industry, however this site offers none of the services/vettings of a paid site, so you might as well use the numerous free to join sites.

Honestly, save your time and money.

A complete waste of money and time.
I have a good CV with plenty of experience (20+ years) and own professional camera and sound kit as well.

I have been applying to countless jobs every week, as soon as they come up online, jobs that I am qualified to do, even the very low-pay jobs I have been applying to, and nothing. Mandy feels like a ghost town. Dodgy. Yes. There is also no way to know the status of the application because they removed that feature.
I wrote to them and they wrote back with something about them using some old code... excuses to me.

Atrocious website. None of the jobs are vetted, you are constantly offered unpaid or sketchy work. I also constantly see open casting for projects, where they ask you to audition before they have even seen you. meaning You spend hours filming and auditioning for projects just to be able to press the 'apply" button. In most cases, you are not fit for the role at all and they wanted someone who looks completely different but you didn't know that. So many actors have asked the website to start vetting casting posts and to get rid of the open-casting feature to no avail. And to top it off they got rid of the "Application seen" feature. Now you have no idea if your video was seen at all or you wasted your time. Horrible website. It used to be so much better, now unusable.

I am a Voice Artist with 9+ years experience and have worked for 100's of well known Companies across many different industries. I subscribed for 2 years to Mandy and applied with personalised samples as requested, generally the same day the opportunities were advertised and never landed one job through them.
On digging a bit deeper, it's no wonder - they have thousands of Voice Artists chasing a handful of opportunities each time and often your submission isn't even listened to due to the volume of responses. Not only this but the majority of the opportunities are noticeably lower rates of pay than the industry guidelines. It is a race to the bottom in terms pay levels and how low you are willing to accept!

I would steer clear of Mandy and focus on nurturing your relationships with individual companies and maintaining industry rates. Mandy must be making a fortune eagerly accepting people's subscription monies but offering consistently poor opportunities in return.

SAVE YOUR MONEY - DON'T SUBSCRIBE.

I used to love this site but since the merger with Backstage it has really gone downhill. They keep randomly rearranging my profile and they bombard me with jobs that are not relevant for my casting type. Not sure I will renew my subs if this continues.

Mandy have quickly become an industry joke since the takeover by Backstage. Casting Call Pro ( their previous name) provided a decent service, regular paid work and importantly, the ability to see which employer had viewed one’s application. That facility has been removed along with quality paid work, professional communication and customer service. After twenty years, I have cancelled my paid subscription.

is allowing NMW on actor website actors can not work fom a minimum national wage , as theit job is saltuary and also need preparation , so is it not just a day you turn up, that is why most of now days production doing rubish job!! underpaid evem crew . when managing directors or people in th pannel get the real salary !! i am ending in food bank despite work and refusing job doesnt even paid then traveling !!! is a shame!!!

Used to be the number 2 casting site behind Spotlight, but has been on a steady decline since the name change from CCP. Features removed. The quality of jobs posted has diminished.

Backstage has killed casting opportunities!

I'm not sure what the plan was with amalgamating all 3 websites and companies, but the outcome is an industry ruining and opportunity killing platform that isn't helping anyone.

Low/No pay and sub EVEN MINIMUM WAGE jobs being posted. No safety or support for performers using these platforms at all.

AVOID AVOID AVOID.

Echoing what many have said; the rot initially set in when Casting Call Pro became Mandy and the site has completely collapsed since with merger with Backstage.
Dreadful job adverts, no scrutiny, no proper pay, features that have worked for over 12 years now removed for no reason, no communication from the owners/developers, all they want is your subscription. AVOID.

If I could give ot less than 1 star I would.

When Mandy seperate from Casting Call Pro and Voices Pro, it was fine.

When Mandy took over Casting Call Pro and Voices Pro, it was still fine.

When Backstage (Starnow) took over Mandy everything went to sh!t.

After being Premium Member for many years, I refuse to give Backstage/Starnow (its no longer Mandy) any money for an increasingly p!ss poor service.

From Hero to Zero.

This was an easy to use site that had jobs selected to the individual. Since the merger with Backstage, you get bombarded with any job that happens to be signed up by an unwitting employer - roles for women, dancers, 20-30 year old when I am male actor / voiceover artist and 64…and so it goes on.

You used to be able to see if your application had been viewed and if you were ‘under consideration’. Very useful for the user. This was removed because the platform had out of date IT apparently we were told and was to be replaced with new features. None have since appeared.

What was a great site is now a waste of space on the internet. I would like a refund on what I was promised against what I have paid for.

I have cancelled my membership and my advice to anyone is avoid this disorganised and sloppy site.

Just another echo of all the recent dreadful reviews. I cancelled my paid membership back in November because since the takeover by Backstage this site has absolutely gone to the dogs. Disgusting, insulting rates of pay allowed to be advertised, user functionality lost with endless excuses why but most importantly the jobs themselves are in no way worth the (high) subscription fee. SEN teaching assistant, Quiz master, FOH roles....I could go on. Barely any proper, professional acting jobs any more. Just exploitation, incompetence and a total absence of customer service.

I've also noticed they regularly misleadingly advertise % discounts off an Annual Subscription (desperate to claw back lost business) where the actual end discount is not what it appears in the headline. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY.