Hired them and paid 25k retainer with the understanding that we could look at 6 months and see how its going.

6 months in we had gotten some placements but mostly in off-target magazines and verticals that didn't do us any good. Agreed to the pay schedule but politely called and said, "hey, the placements we are getting are meeting your circulation guidelines but not our target... let's call it quits and refund what is left in our retainer- 12k out of 25k." Got shoved around until we got to Michelle, our business manager person who said, "after review, we will issue no refund. The remaining 13k has been spent securing future placements."

No future placements occurred.

Got my atty involved who said, "yeah, this is a contract with venue of minnesota... you'll have to pay 10k to go collect but you'll win."

I wrote it off.

Advice- DO NOT sign a contract with them with venue anywhere but where you are. They were well aware I would have to spend more or equal to what they kept to collect. Shame on me for signing the venue. Shame on Lonny et al for not doing the right thing when we politely just wanted to cancel and leave the bill where it stood.