Description

I searched online for a publishing company for my book and found Instant Book Publishers online. Upon viewing the website, a chat box popped open and I was connected with an agent by the name of Jeff Anderson. He gave me information via the chat and then he asked to call me for more details. I gave him my number to call and he called using the number 1 914-775-8699. We spoke on the phone about further publishing services and project details. I proceeded to agree with the services that were promised and he sent me a link through the chat to make my payment. I completed my payment, and he scheduled a call for me to speak with my project manager assigned to my book (12/5/25 @ 12pm CST). I never received a phone call, so I called Jeff back asking for answers. He stated that the project manager was in a meeting and couldn't make the call. I then rescheduled a call via Jeff for Monday (12/8/25) for the project manager to reach out to me. I requested a confirmation email from Jeff to show that the meeting was schedule but never received it. Shortly after ending that call with Jeff, my project manager, Joe Brendon, called me using the phone number 1 914-505-9257. He didn't acknowledge that he was calling almost 3 hours later than my promised call time, but apologized when I brought it up. I began getting suspicious and asking more questions after noticing that he, Joe, sounded a lot like Jeff. I asked the names of the individuals who would be on my project team. He stated that Frank would be the editor, Jimmy would be the Proofreader, and Emily would be the designer. I then requested that he email me a confirmation email with all the individuals CC'd on the email with the next call time on Monday. This took him several minutes (5-10) to compose. I noticed that his email included his first and last name, but none of the other individuals had last names on their emails. This made me more skeptical, so I began researching more. I requested that Joe send me an email, confirming all the services and guarantees that Jeff had sent me via the chat initially. He complied but the services and guarantees did not match up, so I mentioned that. He didn't explain well why they didn't match but just kept promising that everything would be fine and they had the individuals to get the job done right. At this point, I had done more digging on the company. I checked with the BBB for their company name and nothing popped up even though their website claimed to be accredited through the BBB. I googled the address and only found that it was literally located on the street and not an actual building claiming the company existed. I checked their social media links. FB wouldn't load. Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn all had the same photos/posts with only 1-2 people following and little to no engagement noted, and the Youtube link didn't even open anything (not even Youtube). This was enough information for me to realize that this was a scam/fraud and that I needed to get a refund, if possible. When I asked Joe for a refund because I was not 100% satisfied with the customer services and promises at this time, he tried to persuade me otherwise, telling me he would "do something for me". I refused and demanded a refund. He argued back and forth with me and even claimed that my "$299" was nothing to them because they deal with so many payments a day. I stated that he was being rude and unprofessional and demanded my money back again and again. He stated he would put in a request for the refund but that I would have to wait for someone to call me back to confirm why I wanted a refund. I demanded that my money be refunded immediately or that I would report his company. Then I mentioned all the things I had discovered about his company being not authentic and a scam. His response was defensive, and he had no answer as to why the company was not discoverable on the BBB. He also tried to blame me by saying, 'then why did you use our company if you knew all this?'. I again stated that I wanted my refund immediately or that I would be reporting his company and calling my bank to dispute the charge. He made more excuses and complained about me being impatient and ridiculous while talking over me. I stated I would be reporting him and calling my bank and then proceeded to hangup the phone. Total phone time was 43minutes and 50seconds with this individual. Website: https://instantbookpublishers.com/lp/publishing-lp/ Other Website (from LinkedIn link): https://instantbookpublishers.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/instantbookpublishersus Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/instantbookpublishersus/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/instant-book-publishers