For nearly twenty years, Characters for Hire ℠ has provided live event entertainment to thousands of clients across the United States, including major corporations, venues, and private individuals. We understand that many people research companies online before doing business, and we want to address some serious misinformation that has been circulating about our company and its owners.

Ongoing Defamation Lawsuit

Characters for Hire ℠ and its owner have filed an active defamation lawsuit in the Connecticut Superior Court against an individual who has been publishing and amplifying false and misleading statements about our business and our family.

To protect the integrity of the legal process, we will not identify this individual by name here or debate the case in detail online. The specific facts and evidence are being presented in court, where we will prove that many of these statements are false, defamatory, and highly misleading.

What’s Happening Online

Over the past 4 years:

• A Certain individual has created and promoted online pages and posts accusing Characters for Hire ℠ and its owner of being a “scam” and suggesting that we do not pay people.
• Some of these posts go beyond criticism of the business and target the owner’s family personally, which is not normal or appropriate in a business dispute.
• Complaints that were already resolved between Characters for Hire ℠ and the original customer or performer have been copied and reposted on social media and other sites without any update, creating the false impression that they are current, unresolved problems.
• A number of negative comments circulating online come from performers who were influenced by these posts and assumed they would not be paid, even though our records show that many of them ultimately were.

In other words, what you see on certain pages is not a neutral, balanced picture of our company. It reflects a coordinated campaign by a small group of individuals who strongly disagree with us and are now defendants in an ongoing defamation case.

About Review Platforms and Section 230

Many of the negative comments appear on websites and platforms that we do not own or control. Under federal law (often referred to as “Section 230”), online platforms generally decide for themselves what content to keep up or remove. In practice, that means:

• Almost anyone can post comments or reviews on those platforms,
• Businesses like ours cannot simply log in and take them down, and
• Even when we dispute the accuracy of a post, the final decision about removal usually rests with the platform or, in some cases, a court order.

We have reported false and misleading content to various platforms and provided documentation where we can. However, we cannot guarantee that every inaccurate or defamatory comment will be removed, even when we strongly dispute it and are litigating it in court.

Our Track Record and BBB Accreditation

Despite the online campaign described above, our real-world record remains clear:

• Characters for Hire ℠ is an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau, currently holding an A+ rating.
• Over nearly two decades, we have successfully completed thousands of events nationwide.
• We work with a large network of performers and vendors and pay in accordance with our stated terms and payment cycles.
• Like many companies in the live events industry, there are occasional administrative delays or disputes, but those are the exception, not the rule—and we work to resolve them.

We are NOT a scam operation. We are a long-standing entertainment company that is currently involved in a serious legal dispute and payment disagreement with an individual who has chosen to take their grievances online in an extreme and misleading way.

How to Evaluate What You See Online

When you search our name, you may see:

• Anonymous or one-sided posts on social media and niche review sites,
• Old complaints that have since been resolved, but are still being reposted as if they are current, and
• Statements that present disputed allegations as if they were established facts.

We encourage you to:

• Look at a range of sources, including our BBB profile and reviews on mainstream platforms.
• Consider the overall pattern of thousands of successful events versus a relatively small number of vocal detractors.
• Reach out to us directly if you have questions.

If You Have Questions or Concerns

If you are a client, potential client, or performer who has concerns about something you read online, we invite you to contact us so we can respond based on actual records and documentation:

Characters for Hire ℠
Phone: (212) 365-5566
Text line: (646) 355-8855
Email: [email protected]

We are committed to addressing legitimate concerns in good faith and to defending our reputation, our family, and our business through the proper legal channels, not through online arguments.