Hi everyone,
Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn't, but i have been very silent on the board lately. While it would be off topic to say why (and i am not ready to talk about it), i still wanted to comment on this particular post due to the serious nature of it.
So for a start i want to say that even tough i never been someone to book "often", having maybe 3-4 bookings at Xo maximum per years (with 1 or 2 indies and maybe 2-3 in other agencies), i never noticed anything or was told anything in regard with this article. I did had SPs ocasionally mention other clients bad behaviors to me, but i never heard of bad situations with the agency itself. I asked a few times the SPs i saw if it was good in the agency and they always answered positively.
I met Uncle Sam a few times but it was very long ago, before he started the agency (in the old GTs). I did exchanged messages over the board and by email after, but thats it. He was always nice to me. I am not saying this to excuse him or anything, but simply to say i couldn't had any hints of any issues.
That said, i am not naive and obviously over all these years with all these different women, its bound that not everything would be sunshine and rainbows. Now i understand the moral dilema of "agencies vs indies", both from different clients AND indies perspectives, and it is a very slippery slope to go and i fear no matter how i try my hardest to present it, i am bound to displease someone. I did try during my years to stay away from the "underbelly" and anything that looked too shady. The reality tough is that there is bad stuff happening on both agency and indy side. There will never be a 100% safe and "ethical" way to operate in this business as a client. I know that from certain Indies point of view(i am not gonna name anyone) they have their way to operate and they consider this the ethical way, but i never hidden that i do have issues with certain parts especially when it comes to clients forfeiting all their "protections". So even not taking into account the disparity of cost between the 2 "formats", it may simply be easier to book in agencies for certain clients at certain times.
Personally i had already decided to take a break from most of the hobby unrelated to this article because of "other stuff" (that i may or may not talk about at some point) so it won't really impact me on the present. But it will pick my curiosity to follow this... Will this lead to a huge shake up in the business or will it be another C-36? I don't know. Time will tell.
With that said, stay safe everyone.