r/todayilearned • • 4h ago

TIL that in 2020, Justin Montney lost his fiancée, Alexis-Athena Wyatt, in a car crash. When he attempted to get a refund from the photography company he had hired for their wedding, they not only refused but released a statement mocking him.

https://people.com/human-interest/man-claims-wedding-videographer-mocked-him-refused-refund-fiancee-death-car-crash/
11.5k Upvotes

764 comments sorted by

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u/DubWalt 4h ago

And that is why that company folded. That and the massive investigation the Internet unleashed on the owner.

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u/PokemonSoldier 3h ago

Yeah turns out the owner, shocker, was NOT a good person. Some time after this incident he was arrested on I think fraud charges so...

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u/Prometheus2061 2h ago

Following massive international public backlash, Copper Stallion Media deleted its social media pages and deactivated its website. Investigations by local news stations quickly revealed that the company was tied to Jesse John Francis Clark. Clark was a notorious serial wedding scammer who had previously fled Massachusetts after being ordered to pay over $500,000 in judgments for defrauding dozens of couples under various company aliases.

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u/PiddlyDiddlyDoo 2h ago

Jesse John Francis Clark

Pray tell, where is Jesse John Francis Clark at right now in life? The serial fraudster Jesse John Francis Clark.

Edit: https://wikitia.com/wiki/Jesse_John_Francis_Clark

Holy shit this guy is a sociopath

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u/StrongEggplant8120 1h ago

He runs a new company as ceo. The company is called flash house media and operates out of las vegas. Probably a place with lots of weddings and temporary visitors, maybe lots of temporary visitors getting married in las vegas and unfortunately easy victims to a scam like that. Once they leave las vegas wihout the product they might not be able to do anything about it legally?

https://about.me/jessejohnfrancisclark

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u/heff17 1h ago

Of course he proudly touts AI bullshit in his about me.

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u/Hybrid_Johnny 2h ago

Never trust a man with four first names

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u/Aleph_Red 1h ago

Yo, let's not normalize wikitia as any kind of reputable source. It exists solely so exclusively "verified editors" can write up vanity pages "free of scandal or clickbait", i.e. Jesse John Francis Clark can write his own page about how he attended both Harvard and Yale and community college.

Here's a snippet from their front page: "Unlike any other Wiki platforms, we believe that just negativity or controversial content are certainly not a notability criteria for a page, which has recently garnered lot of attention. These days, mostly hate crime content is highlighted and not the positive work of individuals."

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u/REDDITATO_ 1h ago

Thanks for the heads up about that site. They caught me slipping with how much it looks like Wikipedia and I was wondering how the hell no one had edited that masturbatory nonsense to include some shit that matters.

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u/TomaszA3 3h ago

I don't even know why evil people don't just pretend but rather outwardly tell everyone they are trash human beings by doing stuff like this.

I mean, it's not even hard? It's so easy it makes me think he wanted to ruin the company.

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u/EnduringFulfillment 3h ago

Because part of their evil is causing pain and distress to other people. Mocking him was probably fun for them.

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u/gl00mybear 2h ago

Even though Jesse Clark has been arrested, the two websites he set up to slander Justin are still up and running. Not sure if anything can be done to get justinmontney.com and justinmontneywedding.com taken down.

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u/BattleBull 2h ago

One could DDOS them to run up operational costs. Where is a LOIC when one needs it...

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u/Chimie45 50m ago

justinmontney.com is just a generic SEO spam page but justinmontneywedding.com seems to be a mail-order bride blog? Insane.

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u/FILTHBOT4000 2h ago

That, and sometimes the mask just slips.

You can fool some people some of the time. You can't fool everyone forever.

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u/ashgs872tbhjs 2h ago

Obviously not relevant, since in this analogy it didn't "slip". They gleefully threw the mask into the sewer and then headed to the local news station to do it on camera.

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u/Ucscprickler 2h ago

This explains the majority of supporters that Trump still has left. "He's ruining the country but I like that he calls his opponents names and openly mocks them."

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u/redgroupclan 2h ago

Spite drives a LOT of people.

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u/ShinkenBrown 2h ago

"They're not confessing. They're bragging."

They think they have a position of power and they don't expect to be checked on their use of that power. They're giddy that they can use it to do whatever they want and they're happy to share how happy they are about that with the rest of us.

They expect the rest of us will either think it's cool and want to be like them, or will have no power to stop them.

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u/alienangel2 2h ago

There are a lot of people whose approach to "should I do it or not?" is just based on "Can anyone stop me?"

That's why they are willing to get on tv and tell the most outrageous lies, because in their view it doesn't matter if everyone knows they're lying, if no one can actually make them pay for what they did, then they won, and everyone else are suckers for being taken advantage of. And they will brag all day about how they pulled one over on the suckers.

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u/Knife7 3h ago

People like that don't inherently think what they are doing is wrong and so they don't wanna take responsibility for their actions or admit fault.

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u/ParanoidAgnostic 3h ago

Few people believe that they are evil. What we do is justified in our own heads. It's very likely that this asshole was arrogant enough to assume everyone would applaud him for it.

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u/Flat_Sea1418 3h ago

They were hoping they could just grunt

bUt cOnTrAcT

Out of their mouth hole

And they get to keep the money.

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u/GalakFyarr 2h ago

They probably could have, if they hadn't made the response so callously disgusting.

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u/thescarlettflame 3h ago

What I hate most is there were more than likely a few that did

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u/remotectrl 37m ago

I think, more accurately, that bad people just don’t worry about if they are bad. Morality is not a concern.

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u/AriaTheTransgressor 3h ago

If you're not evil, it's easy to be not evil. If you are evil, you don't know what actions are or are not evil.

They are pretending to be good, they just don't know enough to know that things they see as good are evil.

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u/xchngboredom4argumnt 3h ago

Easy, with a broken moral compass you don’t know what’s right and wrong. Hence, his little message mocking. In his mind he was not only justified, but in the right.

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u/WhenThatBotlinePing 2h ago

I mean many, maybe even most of them do pretend pretty effectively. Why do you think so many of them go after high-trust roles in society like cop, priest, cub scout leader etc.

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u/Parametric_Or_Treat 3h ago

Evil isn’t rational or smart or competent. 100 years of movie villains plus the odd dictator with his goons dressed in Hugo Boss have us convinced otherwise. But there’s no such thing as “smart” evil. Not that we hear abut anyway…

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u/Laiko_Kairen 2h ago edited 2h ago

The reason why Mrs Umbridge in Harry Potter was so unnerving was because of how real it was

Just petty, shitty evil for no purpose other than to amuse herself, with the idea that they deserve it for some offense done long ago, over some grudge held way too strong and way too long

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u/clubby37 3h ago

Evil isn’t rational or smart or competent.

No, sometimes it absolutely is. We're mostly hearing about the stupid evil, but that's just because smart, rational evil keeps its mouth shut.

Not that we hear about anyway…

Oh, sorry, you did actually get there. Nevermind, I guess.

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u/Still7Superbaby7 3h ago

How you do anything is how you everything.

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u/LoserxBaby 2h ago

Looked up a guy who yelled “Look me up. I’m worth more than the next ten years of your life. Look me up!” as he was escorted out of the store I worked at because his credit card declined. He was under investigation for tons of shady things like fraud, wage theft, and false imprisonment when he locked an employee in his business. Some of these people are just monsters who are certain they’re right

ETA- he was escorted out for his reaction to his credit card declining

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u/Croquetadecarne 3h ago

Jesse John Francis Clark, life sure is a bitch, huh?

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u/lyndsayj 2h ago

His name sounds like a mnemonic to remember Bible gospel authors

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u/Blandish06 2h ago

That's my name to! Whenever I go out, the people always shout

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u/CalmBeneathCastles 2h ago edited 1h ago

"Public professional registries and business profiles previously listed a "Jeremy Corbell" as a videographer or entity associated with Copper Stallion Media. However, investigations into the company revealed deep connections to a man named Jesse John Francis Clark. Clark had a history of legal trouble regarding fraudulent wedding photography services in other states before operating under the Copper Stallion name in Texas."

Evidently this brought his empire of lies crashing down after he was convicted of defrauding 150 other couples, who came forward after this story went national.

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u/Dickgivins 3h ago

It’s always the people you most suspect.

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u/GonzoVeritas 3h ago

He operated at least a half-dozen companies and used several aliases. Most people he scammed outright, collecting money and never providing services.

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u/crichmond77 4h ago

Oh well good. 

They completely deserve it and 110% brought it upon themselves for no real reason than greed and a basically sociopathic lack of empathy

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u/ThaLunatik 3h ago

Did they fold? Their last post on Facebook was May 2025 saying they were moving to Ohio. Wouldn't surprise me if they rebranded in the hopes of flying under the radar of their bad rep.

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u/noh2onolife 3h ago

He's got another scam company. 

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u/ThaLunatik 3h ago

Scammers just can't help themselves 🤦.

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u/_steve_rogers_ 2h ago

They even made TWO websites with the guys name solely to mock him and said then posted again on what would have been his wedding day saying they hope he sobs all day. How fucking evil do you have to be?

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u/BaldBombshell 3h ago

He ran to Ohio and opened up shop there.

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u/apeocalypyic 3h ago

Ah, ohio. Americas ohio

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u/tyleritis 3h ago

The above-ground pool of states

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u/audiate 3h ago

Good. They deserved it

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u/baroncalico 3h ago

The People’s Justice

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u/mrwildesangst 4h ago

The owner was a genius because not only is the company now gone forever, this idiot was exposed as a scammer who’d been arrested in Massachusetts for scamming dozens of couples, having multiple fake identities and multiple shadow businesses. Imagine being a criminal con man and deciding to go massively public and say shit like we hope you sob and cry on your wedding day to a man who just lost his fiancée. A real genius I tell you

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u/BravoLimaPoppa 3h ago

Never learned that you can be an asshole, you can be a crook, but can't be an asshole crook.

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u/yogy 2h ago

It's an extension of the "commit only one crime at a time" principle

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u/caribou16 2h ago

Unless you also rape children, then you can be president!

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u/REDDITATO_ 59m ago

I've met a lot of crooks in my life. Many of them are assholes.

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u/mrwildesangst 3h ago

And it is an important thing to learn 😂

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u/MenaceMinded 3h ago

And he maintains a Facebook page under that business name trolling people over what he did to this day

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u/mrwildesangst 3h ago

There’s just an impressive amount of loser energy going on

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u/MenaceMinded 2h ago

It is surprisingly common with these types. A local guy who had just retired from being an one man operation for some type of trade under his own business was caught saying something transphobic, so he keeps his Facebook business page up just to post transphobic stuff and upset people.

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u/ChadPoland 3h ago

Sounds like a Crappy Netflix Documentary coming soon

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u/mrwildesangst 3h ago

Don’t put that out in the universe bro 😭 you know they’ll do it.

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u/[deleted] 2h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Electronic_Tap_8052 2h ago

the company now gone forever,

small businesses that don't own any assets aren't worth anything. they just start new ones.

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u/Bamboominum 4h ago

"Life is a bitch, Justin," a statement on the website reads.

"If something should ever happen and the wedding is canceled, like in this scenario, we keep that money as liquidated damages as there is a likelihood that we will never re-book that date with someone else," the statement continues.

This is the problem with people 'in power' or have all the money (at the time). They believe they can just issue a reply, regardless of its inanity or irrelevance, and move on.

But this guy lost a wife. And grief is a funny thing. People start looking for something to do for some form of satisfaction--like going to the press. And, soon, lawyers.

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u/According_Ad7926 4h ago edited 3h ago

"Today would have been the day where we would have filmed Justin and Alexis' wedding in Colorado Springs," the company wrote in a since-deleted message, according to the screenshots. "After what Justin pulled with the media stunt to try and shake us down for a refund, we hope you sob and cry all day for what would have been your wedding day." "Sorry, not sorry," they added, according to the screenshots.

WTF is wrong with these people

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u/dihydrocodeine 3h ago

Obviously sociopathic. That is not a normal human response. 

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u/According_Ad7926 3h ago

Not just a sociopath, but a criminal as it turns out. Look up “Jesse J. Clark wedding videographer”

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u/Sudden-Storage2778 3h ago

I just did and saw this article! The guy is a sociopath and a criminal!
https://www.telegram.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/05/29/convicted-wedding-videographer-formerly-of-charlton-refuses-to-issue-refund-after-brides-death/1126054007/

"In addition, Clark was permanently barred from operating similar businesses as well as from soliciting or accepting deposits from consumers or offering his videography services for sale in Massachusetts."

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u/PiddlyDiddlyDoo 2h ago

Here he is now, run a crypto scam / bio pharma scam company: https://wikitia.com/wiki/Jesse_John_Francis_Clark

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u/BeansArePastaSauce 1h ago

So do we really think this guy went to MIT, Yale, and Harvard?

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u/hexagonalwagonal 1h ago

Look under the Certifications section, then you'll get it lol.

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u/REDDITATO_ 55m ago

Even in his own puff piece he writes that he attended a specific course at each, he was never a student there lol.

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u/ExplorationGeo 29m ago

Why not? I went to Harvard, Yale and MIT.

It was a really great couple of weeks touring some campuses to visit their planetary science departments, but I wasn't paying for anything so that probably made it even better.

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u/jedadkins 1h ago

maybe for a weekend

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u/zeothia 1h ago

Bruh did he write his own knockoff wiki page 😂

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u/nearcatch 1h ago

Wikitia is a paid wiki that only allows edits from verified editors. It’s basically a haven for paid PR pages that would never be allowed on Wikipedia. That’s why his profile there doesn’t remotely hint about what an asshole he is.

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u/TroyMcClures 2h ago

I love that for him.

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u/miniguinea 3h ago

Jesus. Those people are sick in the head.

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u/According_Ad7926 3h ago

Turns out the guy was a convicted scammer named Jesse J. Clark. He owned a bunch of shell wedding businesses and pocketed hundreds of thousands from clients without providing services. A real piece of trash but fortunately he’s been worked over by the legal system since then

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u/0---------------0 2h ago

Video report on the scammer here: https://youtu.be/eLkyjC2s150

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u/PaulTR88 4h ago edited 3h ago

Colorado Springs is full of assholes

Edit: they're Texans (granted so is half of Colorado Springs, so eh)

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u/pegaunissus 3h ago

The company was from Texas, not CO Springs

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u/mcauthon2 3h ago

they know. They just really don't like CO Springs

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u/thesimplemachine 3h ago

The videography company was actually based out of Dallas, Texas, and the owner is from Massachusetts, but your point still stands.

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u/Sudden-Storage2778 3h ago

OMG, this guy was barred from conducting wedding photography in MA, so he started soliciting business out of state? Am I reading this right?

https://www.telegram.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/05/29/convicted-wedding-videographer-formerly-of-charlton-refuses-to-issue-refund-after-brides-death/1126054007/

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u/djgoodhousekeeping 2h ago

I mean yeah of course scamming outside of the state he's banned from scamming in is his next move lol

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u/naranghim 3h ago

the owner is from Massachusetts, but your point still stands.

He's living up to the "Masshole" nickname.

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u/redvsblueheeler 3h ago

Something all these places have in common tbh.

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u/Carbonatite 3h ago

It is, but this company was based in Texas.

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u/kung-fu_hippy 4h ago edited 3h ago

Hell, people do a lot worse than ruin your reputation and/or sue you.

And this isn’t me advocating violence, I absolutely don’t believe that’s a good response to even this kind of evil nonsense. But it amazes me that more people don’t consider that a small portion of the population is about a single straw away from doing something insane and violent. It’s probably best not to go out of your way to be that straw.

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u/Rrrandomalias 4h ago

This. People don’t consider that not everyone considers legal remedy the only solution.

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u/ididwhatwhiledrunk 3h ago

Somebody mocked the death of one of my best friends on the internet. In my grief I made it my personal mission to ensure every business contact he had, and even his mother knew how he was acting in the internet. I can certainly see how someone would go further

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u/cIumsythumbs 2h ago

In my grief I made it my personal mission to ensure every business contact he had, and even his mother knew how he was acting in the internet.

How did that go? What kinds of responses did you get?

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u/djgoodhousekeeping 2h ago

Yeah don't just leave us hanging after a prologue like that

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u/ididwhatwhiledrunk 1h ago

His Mother didn’t really say much, and the only real consequence I know was that he lost a subcontractor or two job as a plumber.

He ended up deleting his comments mocking him and then his Facebook.

Sent out lots of emails, didn’t really hear back. Probably ended as only a minor inconvenience to him. At a certain point, I realized sending the emails wasn’t making me feel any better, just keeping me angry.

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u/lenswipe 3h ago

Not saying he would do this, but especially someone with nothing to lose

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u/PopcornSuttin 3h ago

And losing your fiance to only have someone make a post like that in the internet would be more than 1 straw for me

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u/PsychoticMessiah 3h ago

If the dude used an insanity plea, I’d buy it.

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u/Specific_Ad_2533 3h ago

Like I Said to a coworker once:

"Uh Dustin? That guy Just wants a day Off for a funeral. Maybe give him that BEFORE I have to Plan yours?"

(Bro honestly Said to a grieving son He Had to "think about approving this unexpected TO"... Like My man...)

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u/BookkeeperBoobs 3h ago

Yeah . Like if I made a comment like that I would want my kids to be accompanied by security all day at school.

Lotta psychos out there who won’t just tolerate that’s

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u/distortedsymbol 3h ago

big reason why i don't support small business by default. sometimes the "small" business act like the local lord and pull this shit, sometimes they're only small compare to mega corps and live in their million dollar house while paying 7.50 an hour with no benefits.

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u/aquintana 4h ago

I had never seen or heard the word ‘inanity,’ until now! Thanks for the new word!

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u/Inside_Dimension2319 3h ago

I remember when I was young and first came across the word “inane” in a book and I thought they had just misspelled “insane.”

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u/Initial-Web2855 3h ago

I’m a retired jeweler, we had this happen once to a lovely couple that we were building rings for. We refunded the fiancé in full with our condolences, even though it cost us a couple thousand dollars in loss. It’s called the cost of doing business- your reputation means A LOT. And sometimes doing the right thing will cost you, but it’s still the right thing to do.

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u/TLOU2bigsad 2h ago

I’m curious (not judging either way). Did the surviving fiancé still get/want the rings? I feel like I’d be torn between wanting that last piece of our relationship and not being and to handle it.

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u/rainbowgeoff 4h ago

Whoever runs that wedding company is a massive piece of shit.

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u/asphaltdragon 4h ago

Ran* that wedding company. They're gone now.

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u/Medical-Button-5493 4h ago

They likely started a new one under a different name.

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u/Soggy_Dimension_5771 3h ago

They're still posting on Facebook under their old name. I just saw a post they made a week ago

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u/DangerousPath1420 3h ago

What’s the new name?

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u/PsychologicalRole238 3h ago

Flash House Media in Las Vegas

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u/Ofreo 3h ago

Read the article linked and click the sites. They are active and using his name. Idk nobody seems to have done that and just assumes the company went under. Even if the actual company went under, dude seems to have found something he thinks is worth using his name on and doesn’t show any remorse or fear.

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u/Endiamon 3h ago edited 3h ago

You found an active business using Jesse J. Clark's name?

Or did you misinterpret the sites the wedding company set up for the victim as part of the wedding photography package, which are now just SEO garbage?

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u/pbghikes 3h ago

You're killing me smalls

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u/mrwildesangst 4h ago edited 3h ago

The cherry on top is that the idiot was a con man who’d been arrested before for running a multitude of wedding related scams.

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u/rainbowgeoff 4h ago

Funny thing: I found a Worcester, MA newspaper article about it nearly the same time I got your notification. He looks like you'd expect.

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u/chockfulloffeels 3h ago

He’s in Worcester? I just want to talk to him

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u/mrwildesangst 4h ago

God he does

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u/DaConm4n 4h ago

Probably slicks his hair back real nice and does sloppy steaks with the crew.

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u/sultan_hogbo 4h ago

Copper Stallion Media burned down. He’s ass-out, works with his brother now.

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u/KennyP0wersMullet 4h ago

I used to be a piece of shit too

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u/smb8235 3h ago

Who? Julie Kate and Trey Campbell who own Posey Meadows in Texas? Who are currently suing a distraught bride who lost her husband 7 months before their wedding. Julie so callously told the bride she can change the date of wedding (like if she found another groom) and refused to give back the almost $16,000 deposit, then filed a lawsuit against the bride for the remainder of the contract.

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

[deleted]

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u/paulsoleo 4h ago

Good, that’s exactly what they deserve

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u/yolonaggins 4h ago

Pretty sure that's a fake page. The actual company went under

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u/That-Shop-6736 3h ago

I had a small home business when my mom died suddenly in a car accident. I was late remitting the taxes I had collected and received a stiff penalty. I submitted the penalty along with a note explaining my mom had died and I had overlooked the deadline as a result. They sent me a refund along with a condolence letter.

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u/funkmon 3h ago

Holy shit the IRS?!

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u/wowthatsucked 2h ago

The IRS is honestly a real understated success story. They used to be terrible and abusive towards taxpayers, and there were reforms started in 1998 that drastically improved how they handle customer service.

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u/rizaroni 2h ago

I can vouch! I had to pay like over $1k in taxes, which I did not have. They let me go on a payment plan of just $50 a month. They will ABSOLUTELY work with you as long as you stay in contact and don't ignore it.

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u/Czar_Marvel 4h ago edited 3h ago

I knew her. This was a massive and unforgivable scandal at the time. Still is. It's bizarre to find this on r/todayilearned.

We went to a smaller college and it was such an interconnected place. Her passing threw everyone I knew off kilter. She meant a lot to a lot of people.

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u/Prometheus2061 3h ago

On May 23, 2020—the day the wedding was supposed to take place—the company, Copper Stallion Media, posted a photo of the couple on Facebook with the caption: "We hope you sob and cry all day for what would have been your wedding day. Sorry, not sorry."

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u/pwolf1771 1h ago

Taunting a guy who lost his fiancée on his would be wedding day is so fucking unhinged 

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u/similar_observation 1h ago

I'm reminded of that one small town that had a town asshole who would terrorize the people there. Robbing locals, threatening witnesses, molesting children, shooting dogs, and burning down houses.

And the police couldn't do anything because the town asshole would simply threaten the town and witnesses. People got fed up.

So one day the sheriff just said he was going for a drive between certain hours and the town asshole was somehow murdered in front of dozens of people and yet there was only 1 witness.

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u/french_snail 1h ago edited 58m ago

And they witness was his wife (whom he started grooming when she was a teenager)

Edit: it’s worse, he threatened her parents into allowing the relationship while she was 12 and he was 35 by burning their house and killing their dog. He had his first child with her when she was 14 

Edit 2: she escaped to her parents new house after giving birth and he tracked her down, kidnapped her, and then burnt their new house down and shot their new dog

Holy shit 

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u/poppy_inmy_hair 57m ago

Yep. Kenneth Rex McElroy was shot in broad daylight in front of half of the town of Skidmore, MO. He racked up multiple felony charges (including rape and assault) and was out on bond for shooting a 70-year-old man. McElroy was found to have been shot by two different guns in full view of an estimated 30+ people. Local law enforcement and the FBI investigated his death and NO ONE came forward as a witness. The guy was an absolute scumbag.

Edit: spelling

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u/wkearney99 2h ago

I'd be driving over with a shotgun if someone pulled that shit.

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u/AntComfortable5970 1h ago

You know, in many situations, you can at least understand how someone in the heat of the moment could do something wrong and think they were in the right in their own mind.

But with something like this, there was no way in hell they didn't know they were doing somerhung just beyond the pale cruel. Disgusting.

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u/ClaraInOrange 2h ago

Deranged

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u/Sorry-Claim-2990 1h ago

Holy shit, these people need psychological help.

That is not something that a sane and well-adjusted person says to someone who just lost their partner.

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u/sati_lotus 3h ago

Today I read this on the same day as the guy trying to find a private cinema to have a final viewing of a movie with their dying mother.

One cinema said it would cost over $1000 and that would be non refundable if she did not live long enough to make it to the scheduled viewing.

Guy found another cinema who did it for less than $300 and gave them free popcorn and a beautiful memory of their mum.

Does not cost these businesses anything to have some decency. You're not always yelling into the void - sometimes there's a person there.

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u/RShini 3h ago

and often doing the right thing is beneficial to the business - people remember the good thing and tell people about it.

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u/arkofjoy 3h ago

It is like the "anti-chewies" business model.

For anyone not familiar with these guys, when you cancel your order before your pet dies, they send you flowers and iirc, shipping labels to donate your leftover food to animal shelters.

This guy could learn from them

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u/BigSuhn 3h ago

Chewy sent the sweetest card to us when my old girl passed last year. Made me cry, but it was something I've never personal experienced from a company. That's why I still make all my pet related purchases through them.

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u/GonzoVeritas 3h ago

He has a long record of scamming people, and generally being an asshole. He served time for one of them.

Before he was convicted in Massachusetts, the attorney general’s office said it had received more than 100 complaints from consumers who either gave Clark a deposit or paid in full for wedding videos that were never delivered.

In 2013, a Suffolk Superior Court judge ordered Clark to pay more than $136,000 in restitution to more than 150 couples, and $370,000 in civil penalties and fees.

In addition, Clark was permanently barred from operating similar businesses as well as from soliciting or accepting deposits from consumers or offering his videography services for sale in Massachusetts.

When he violated the order, Clark was sentenced to two months in the Worcester County House of Correction.

At that time, the assistant district attorney had asked for a sentence of 2½ years, but Clark’s lawyer told the court that his client suffered from mental health issues and was not being properly treated.

After it ran a story about Clark refusing to refund the fiancé, ABC News of Denver said it was contacted by dozens of people from across the country who said they were scammed out of money by Clark.

Clark had a storefront at the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley in Millbury and operated several online websites. The videography business was known as SureShot Videography, In Focus Studios, Magnolia Films, Wedding Filmology and Wedding Avenue.

Clark had used the aliases John Francis, Jaie Hart and Michael Collins.

source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette

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u/SonOfElroy 3h ago

Wow having like 5 aliases… this guy just can’t get along w anyone!

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u/melitini 2h ago

OMG There’s a wedding venue,
Posey Meadows, just outside of Austin, TX that is currently doing this to a woman whose fiancé died 7 months before their wedding day. The couple had put down a $16k deposit. The mom of the late groom requested a refund and the venue not only refused, sued the widow for the rest of the money!! Article.

It gets worse. This is how the couple that owns Posey Meadows represent themselves in the community.

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u/stryker_cast 3h ago edited 3h ago

Horrible. They probably could have given a refund, posted about and got another booking.

Instead they looked like unprofessional goblins mocking a man in mourning.

Hope they went out of business.

Edit: WOW, real scum of the earth

"Investigative reports revealed that owner Jesse J. Clark had a history of questionable business practices. In 2013, the Massachusetts Attorney General sued Clark for taking money from over 100 couples and failing to deliver wedding videos. He operated under dozens of different business aliases and entities across multiple states"

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u/markthedude 3h ago

Real name, Jesse J. Clark. That’s the videographer. He’s scammed many people, been to jail and somehow it’s all just a little more than a slap on the wrist when he keeps doing it. He’s a real piece of work.

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u/SuspiciousCricket654 3h ago

Screw some of you and your warped sense of what you think is getting ahead or “that’s just the way the world is” shitty take. The poor dude’s fiancé fucking died. It’s a very rare occasion that a wedding business would have to do something like this. He already stated in the People magazine article that the other vendors gave him a refund. This photographer was just a lowlife who only cared about money, and descended to the status of scumbag by making sarcastic comments. The business 100% deserved to fold.

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u/CFCYYZ 4h ago

Adding insult to injury. Copper Stallion Media can look forward to dismal sales.

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u/ohnoabanagain 3h ago

Do you want to kill your business because that's how you kill your business. I've seen several businesses go under for far milder customer attacks. 

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u/MisterSlosh 3h ago

Could easily slap out a corporate copy-paste and be done with it, keep the money, lose nothing. 

Could turn it into a massive good feelings crusade, return the deposit, and promote individuals to a charity or donation for the dead wife and get a huge volume boost to your brand.

Instead they got folded like a fucking fool for being a pointless dick that took the full wrath of the Internet and lost everything.

Genius.

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u/omgwtfbbq0_0 3h ago

>A Texas based company

I just read about a Texas wedding venue that not only [refused to issue a refund after the groom died](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/woman-fianc-dies-months-wedding-130000382.html), they’re now countersuing for not paying the remaining balance. What happened to southern hospitality, jfc

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u/pwolf1771 1h ago

Taunting him on the wedding date is so fucking unhinged. All of this over $1800 people are so disgusting 

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u/axon-axoff 3h ago

Holy shit. Their response goes WAY beyond sociopathy. The article just gets worse and worse.

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u/elpierce 3h ago

Word on the street is that Jesse J. Clark is a rotten piece of human shit.

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u/Inamoratos 2h ago

Someone named Jesse is a douchebag?!!? Weird!

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u/TRoosevelt1776 3h ago edited 3h ago

https://wikitia.com/wiki/Jesse_John_Francis_Clark

Is this the same guy? Trying to advertise himself as a AI expert now?

EDIT: Im pretty sure it is. Photo of him in court in handcuffs looks like the photo on this page. Hes now claiming to be an AI expert and Hemophilia advocate.

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u/wiibiiz 2h ago

Oh yeah, it's a whole mess. I have severe hemophilia and I've spent a frankly unreasonable amount of time tracking Jesse John Francis "this fucker's got four first names" Clark's exploits in that community. He's prolific when it comes to pulling these tricks and he's always searching for new markets to expand into where there's lots of naive money sloshing around. The wedding photography con was obviously his most high-profile scam and the one that put him behind bars for a bit, so I'm always surprised when it floats to the top of the internet and I'm reminded that he's even mildly notorious to people outside of the insular bleeding disorders world.

Fun Jesse John Francis Clark fact of the day- one of his fraudulent startups (I think a gene therapy one???) put up a job ad for a corporate chauffeur. Given the timing of the ad, this was almost certainly because Jesse lost his license for missing child support payments.

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u/furgle 4h ago

This is why I’d never be successful in business. I would console and refund. I hate this world

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u/mickelboy182 4h ago

I mean, you are far more likely to have success by doing that. This company folded.

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u/ReasonableEmployee41 1h ago edited 1h ago

Seriously! I remember when I was sixteen, I got a job at a chain store and had an AMAZING manager who genuinely cared about people, customers and employees. He was the very first person to give something away for free, come up with a game that used a little extra resources— anything to bring a smile to someone's face. And we made BANK during that time. Customers loved us so much. Coming to our store was a guarantee you wouldn't just be leaving with goods, but a smile on your face.

He was so successful they moved him to less successful branches to try and boost their revenue. With his absence, we got a slew of new managers, all determined to make sure they were following company policy to the letter, with absolutely no grace (aka WEAKNESS according to them) allowed. Under their rule, our revenue tanked, then tanked some more, until it tanked even further!

It's why I like to tell people; you should care about people. You should have empathy, and recognize you're a part of a society. But even if you don't,.even if you're a sociopath who only cares about yourself, you should still be good to others because that is the quickest and easiest way to find benefits for yourself. (Hopefully for us all, that will include the benefit of realizing you don't want to be a sociopath.)

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u/Slobbybagel 3h ago

My family has a wedding based company. This exact situation is why we take a small deposit on booking and then the full amount 3-4 weeks out from the actual wedding. Something happens? No problem here's your 400 bucks back. Still haven't paid us a week out? A quick email saying "have a great wedding we won't be there" always secures payment. Alot of vendors (caterers)take the full amount up front and live off of that chain of payments, but if there is a break in the chain you are in a world of trouble. A few years ago there was a local disaster that caused the cancelation of a bunch of weddings and a ton of caterers folded because the money that they were expected to refund was just long gone. Its a foolish business practice especially when your business is based on something as fickle as relationships.

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u/Malphos101 15 3h ago

Its SO common for so many small/new business owners.

NEVER TREAT YOUR INCOME AS YOUR PROFIT!

"It aint profit till its covered by 5 more transactions and paid off 4 debts."

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u/LunarPayload 3h ago

This is why a lot of small businesses can't pay employees 

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u/Flat_Sea1418 3h ago

It’s probably why the photographer in the story refused to do the refund. They probably didn’t even have the money anymore.

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u/serious_sarcasm 3h ago

This is why escrow accounts are mandatory for some professions.

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u/robot_guiscard 3h ago

This moron ruined his business over $1800. You're better at business without even trying.

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u/Radiant_Client1458 3h ago

People overstate how evil you have to be to make money, plenty of people would return the money in this circumstance. It’s not like it’s a common scenario that would cause you to constantly lose money.

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u/kung-fu_hippy 4h ago

You say that, but I can’t believe this has been good for their business. How many people did Justin or his friends/family know that might have been getting married at some point? How many people saw this story in some fashion and chose not to hire this company?

Sure, they’re up the price of the wedding shoot, but they’ve almost certainly lost much more in future business.

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u/Eborcurean 3h ago

The business was trashed. They doubled down into more trollish behaviour, said they were moving to Ohio and haven't existed in years.

Am sure the owner is now doing something, but that company went down the drain.

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u/globalgreg 4h ago

You’d do better than them. They folded due to the backlash. Issuing a refund would have not only been the right and kind thing to do, it might have gained them business, not lost it.

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u/Churchbushonk 4h ago

Yep. Bet you would have lasted longer than these people.

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u/lexhph 3h ago

Perhaps, but that would have been the right move in this instance anyway

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u/bigfatfurrytexan 4h ago

You’d probably be successful after you be who you seem to be and people love you for it

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u/EnvironmentalWin1277 2h ago

They had a business. They made a choice to destroy it. I actually like the ability of the internet to do this, before it just didn't matter if you acted like an idiot. Now it can matter a great deal.

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u/Hopeful_Ad_7719 1h ago

>"Life is a bitch, Justin," a statement on the website reads.

>According to screenshots shared on social media, after the story was published, Copper Stallion Media used Facebook to post an insensitive message that mocked Montney on the date that was supposed to be his wedding day.

"Sorry, not sorry," they added, according to the screenshots. The company's original social media pages have recently been deleted.

Even if keeping the deposit is the correct business decisions, openly, repeatedly, mocking a man who's lost his wife in an intentionally hurtful manner is a *great* way to rile up a lot of antipathy for your business.

It turns out Karma is a bitch too. Good luck digging out of a pile of 1-star reviews: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/copperstallionmedia.com

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u/TheElPistolero 3h ago

You are the owner of the company, you have the power to break your arbitrary contract. If you don't and claim that your hands are tied you are an asshole.

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u/CaptainHappy42 3h ago

I had forgotten but now very much remember this. Almost couldn't believe the cruelty. Glad that POS got his comeuppance.

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u/PrinceCavendish 3h ago

what the FUCK!? what kinda fucking psycho...

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u/chromeled 4h ago

how the fuck did I miss this? what a comically evil thing to do oh my god

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u/ManamiVixen 4h ago

If I recall correctly, something similar happened after the Titanic. I believe the families of the musicians that died, were sent bills from a menswear/clothing store for the lost tuxedo suits that they rented for the voyage.

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u/OllieFromCairo 4h ago

It should be noted that the same guy had to pay a different couple $500,000 for just fucking off with their wedding videos and was in Texas for this event because he moved halfway across the country to escape the bad press.

https://www.telegram.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/05/29/convicted-wedding-videographer-formerly-of-charlton-refuses-to-issue-refund-after-brides-death/1126054007/

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u/Neb-Nose 3h ago

I handle crisis communications for a living and it never ceases to amaze me just how stupid people can be.

And thank God for that,too, because it keeps me employed.

I'm not even going to get into the morality or legal ramifications of it. Just purely from a business standpoint, there is a 0% chance this photography company made out on this dispute. The only question is, how much did they lose?

And then to mock him on top of it because you're mad that he took it to the internet? This business owner is an amoral moron.

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u/StrongEggplant8120 1h ago

He runs a new company as ceo. The company is called flash house media and operates out of las vegas. Probably a place with lots of weddings and temporary visitors, maybe lots of temporary visitors getting married in las vegas and unfortunately easy victims to a scam like that. Once they leave las vegas wihout the product they might not be able to do anything about it legally?

https://about.me/jessejohnfrancisclark

Maybe if anyone can we should do some digging and see if hes even marginally a better person?   Maybe we could remind him of the last time ?  Maybe drop some messages on fb las vegas or something. Ive got doubts coz he calls himself a "ceo" which is obviously bs. 

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u/YikesTheCat 1h ago

"Once you have their money, don't give it back"

First rule of acquisition.

This fella has the lobes for profit.

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u/Ff7hero 1h ago

The name of the company, which belongs in the headline and post title is Copper Stalion Media.

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u/Goodwill_Hunting 2h ago

"Today would have been the day where we would have filmed Justin and Alexis' wedding in Colorado Springs," the company wrote in a since-deleted message, according to the screenshots.

"After what Justin pulled with the media stunt to try and shake us down for a refund, we hope you sob and cry all day for what would have been your wedding day."

Ho. Lee. Shit.

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u/NotRidingKeys 2h ago

uh wtf? The owner of the photography company still maintains 2 websites using Justin Motney's name to literally mock him.

One of them is about how to plan a funeral and the other is this sicko literally pretending to be Justin and writing articles from the perspective of teaching sex tourism after his wife died.

Ya some people gotta just go.

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u/Educational-Cow-5989 3h ago

Oh dang I went to college with him, I remember when this happened

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u/l3rN 1h ago

If I saw this guy assault the owner, I wouldn't have seen anything.

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u/ZamaTexa 2h ago

Something similar is happening in Texas right now.

‘Unjust and ghoulish’: Wedding venue keeps nearly $16K after groom-to-be dies, then countersues fiancée

https://www.ksat.com/news/ksat-investigates/

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u/Nervous_Insect5976 3h ago

Don't let making a buck get in the way of being a human being. It was an extreme situation and making it right by giving a refund is just the decent thing to do. And looking at it business wise, you get more good will and positive business for doing it than keeping the money or by acting like a ghoul. You give me my refund, you have a customer for life. I'll always recommend your business, I'll write a glowing review, I'll push you on social media, I'll tell my friends and family.

It's short sighted and cruel.

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u/GamingWithBilly 2h ago

Just a reminder that weddings suck so much.  The vendors suck.  The rental venues suck.  If you pay their premium price they treat you like royalty, but if you ever try to cancel or get a refund they treat you like scum of the earth.  That's why I always liked home celebrations more.  

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u/millahnna 2h ago

Oh I remember this. There was some stuff in comment threads back when this went down about the owner scamming videographers and not paying them. I have no idea if anything ever came of all of that part though. One commenter brings it up here but there was a lot of chatter about it in Facebook groups I was in at the time too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/weddingplanning/comments/gp9lyz/is_anyone_else_following_this_copper_stallion/

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u/LoamyLoamisLoamy 2h ago

Did he think that people would see that and think "That's who I want photographing my wedding"?

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u/Complete_Entry 1h ago

Why does People magazine use the fictitious business name instead of naming the actual douchebag?