Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Vanishing Crossroads

Crossroads Review, formerly found here, has vanished.  As has their Facebook page and Google + profile, which at first suggested a deliberate disappearance. At Crossroads, paid reviews cost $50 and review blog tours ran $200-$700.As far as I can determine the site operated from late 2011 until early this month.

However, the main person behind Crossroads seems to be Jessica Porter, whose twitter account is still posting as of today and states "At the moment Contessa at the Crossroads is down so please find us over at The Witchy Contessa!"  Authors looking to follow up as to when/where/how they will get what they paid for should  monitor the new site "Witchy Contessa".

My advice to Jessica would be: if someone has paid you hundreds of dollars, it is wise to send them  updates and explanations about outages immediately to avoid suspicions that you might have cut and run.

UPDATE:
Given the comment below, it seems according to one author she did in fact deliver neither a tour, nor a refund.  You can't cancel a service and keep the fee.

20 comments:

J kelly accinni said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Emily Veinglory said...

So she is in fact a thief. Thanks for the update. It looks like I need to make a 'bewares' list for review sites now, not just publishers.

J kelly Accinni said...

Just to update you, Emily. I just recieved an email from Jessica Porter after telling her we would see her in small claims court. (She lives 2 hours from me, what luck) She now claims she has "sold" the business. I don't know what she might have sold as all her sites are closed down. This is the entity she claims I must deal with now. Frishawn.WTFAreYouReading@gmail.com As far as I know, they have no obligation to me nor I to them. We will just have to sort it all out in small claims court, the old fashioned way. Thank God, she lives so close. Kelly

Anonymous said...

Anonymous12:19 AM
I wanted to make a post here as I have toured with Jessica. She is a wonderful person and will help you out with anything you need. When I toured with her she has three forms going. One of which is above. Yet when I toured with her this time she only had one form to fill out and it was this one. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1PMBD9A0m3cSok3Macz0cr__ve3WkNAyjrPVCRw1jwu8/viewform and I booked my tour back in January of this year. But the two forms you have aren't even the right ones. Also to your other post. If you go to the WitchyContessa site you will see the link to her Facebook page. And her google+ is not gone. She just changed the name to include Brooke to it. Since you can only have one on each site. The tour info that was on her site before blogger deleted it my mistake did say that there were no refunds. Just as the form does.

Anonymous said...

This post and its comments need to be deleted. This is a flat out lie and you were not giving the complete issue.

Anonymous said...

I don't like to get involved with spats between authors and bloggers, but I have never heard of Jessica nor Brooke being dishonest. There has never been a complaint of her not delivering and it can really hurt their reputation. It has come to my attention that she has spoken to the author regarding a refund and in turn, the author was being unreasonable. Please have this post removed. This just seems like they are out for blood.

Anonymous said...

I am very disturbed that the owner of this site would post two things that are very untrue without contacting the tours for their side of the story. I har toured with Jessica for three years and she has been nothing but helpful. This post is nothing but a lie. And I am in full support of Jessica Frishawn and Brooke. I have spoke. With Jessica about this issue and have found that she did offer a refund but the author (I use that term loosely) refused it as Jessica would have to pay her back in payments. She doesn't make anything from these tours. She is just trying to help out self published authors like myself the chance to get our books out there. So posting things like this. Like she is charging an arm and a leg for tours is not true. She does so much to make sure that people see the tour page and making sure everyone posts. She does everything herself. She even made me a site back before my book was picked up by a publisher. So this post needs to be deleted because it is false and a lie.

Anonymous said...

I have also worked with Jessica on multiple tours without any issues. She did everything she promised and more.

Emily Veinglory said...

I have looked closely at this post and see nothing incorrect. Perhaps persons seeing something correct could be more specific.

The forms I posted were taken directly from the correspondence between the author and the tour organizer.

Anonymous said...

Here are some things that are wrong:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ContessaAtTheCrossroads
Google +: https://plus.google.com/101171438433619697519/posts

Anonymous said...

I have reported your site and this post to Blogger it is a flat out lie and you are only posting half of what happened. You have no right to post about something that you didn't even have a hand in.

Jessica Brooke said...

I was debating wither or not I wanted to comment. But after emailing you personally to talk about this issues with no reply. I think this is more along the lines that you are friends with the author. So you as stated by so many others have no right to post things about a situation that you didn't even deal with. I offered to give her a refund but she refused. That is not my problem. I have let EVEYONE know that the site was down due to bloggers issues with spam. And that my other site will be posting all the tours. So this is going to be only post to this thread. And when and if I go to court I will be more than happy to show this to the judge.

Jessica Brooke said...

I also wanted to thank all of those have come here and posted in support of me Brooke and Frishawn. Thanks.

Jessica Brooke said...

O one more thing. The most expensive tour I have EVER DONE was $400.00 so whom ever told you 7 was wrong. And most tours are around $50.00-$200.00

Emily Veinglory said...

Hi Jessica, I have not received any emails from you. I took the pricing from packages offered on your former website (accessed using the the internet archive).

Emily Veinglory said...

p.s. the author in question was unknown to me until after I made this post.

Jessica Brooke said...

I sent you an email via what's listed on your site.

Jessica Brooke said...

Well then the archive is wrong.

Anonymous said...

I have been watching this post all day and I must say if you are telling the truth. And you and the author are not friends. Then why in the world would you post something about people you don't know. For someone you have just met. What proof were you given of this incident? Because now you just look stupid.

Rayna said...

Wait, as bloggers, we're supposed to charge for review and tours? wow, I didn't know that. I have been doing wrong for years then. Can I ask if there was a written contract? And can emails be used as a legal document? Because if so then I think I will have to start doing that to protect myself and the author.
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