Thread: Positive Experience with Nationwide Singing Telegrams

I'm not sure if anyone else here has worked with this company before, but I wanted to give a shout out that they are extremely professional and trustworthy.

They advertise Belly Dancers as well as singing telegrams on their site, Nationwide Singing Telegram Company - (866) 504-8863 (the cheesy photos hurt my eyes, but the copy is very nice IMO). They called me to see if I would be interested in doing a local birthday party a couple of days later. I was a little leery because they don't do deposits, instead paying you in full after you call and tell them the gig is complete. But seeing as I haven't had a paying gig since October, I was willing to take the chance. The person I talked to there was very pleasant and professional, and clear about the details of the job. They paid my my regular BellyGram rate, and just plopped their fee on top of that and had the client pay them in advance with a credit card.

I called them on Saturday night after I completed the job and asked that they send the check out Monday morning. I went by my PO Box today and there it was, in an envelope postmarked with Monday's date.

So if you get a call from Nationwide Singing Telegrams, I would recommend working with them. If anyone has any other information, good or bad, to share please feel free to chime in.

Cool!

When I first read the subject, I thought to myself, "Hmm - when did nationwide insurance start doing singing telegrams".

LOL

I have worked with them a handful of times in the past. The advantages are that they're pretty chill people and tend to give you just a few days' notice, so you only take it if it's worthe your time. Plus, they tell the client you need a w/e hour window for showing up, so if another show runs late it's no big deal. They don't pay my usual rate, unfortunately, but the payment is always reliable and the gigs are easy. Any time I've asked for more money, they've either thrown it on top of the client's fee or just told me, very understandingly, that it's just not in their budget.

How do you get hooked up with them? Do they just call you out of the blue? Or can you join their list or something?

lol! in Parties/Corporate Events > Costume choice, you find this as one of the options:
Hairy Fairy Godfather *
*Hysterically funny male in tutu, feather boa, and wand, will make your wishes and dreams come true

..l;,..l;,..l;,

I've worked with them a few times. They just called me out of the blue. If you go to their belly dancer page they say shows start at $175. While that's lower than in my region- that's actually pretty good for some areas. That they see belly dance as worth something makes me happy. :) I always just let them know my rates and they let me know if it's in the budget. The check has always arrived quickly.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

How do you get hooked up with them? Do they just call you out of the blue? Or can you join their list or something?

I think you can call and tell them you want to be added to their database, in case they get a call for a Belly Dancer in your area. They didn't have anyone from this area in their database so they just started calling dancers they found online. They did tell me that I'm now in it, and I'll be the first one contacted for any future gigs that might come in.