Our Disappointing Experience with Michelle Pitcher and Real Good Videos
We hired Michelle Pitcher with Real Good Videos to produce a project, but the experience was anything but “real good.” After paying our initial deposit in August 2024, what was supposed to take 4-6 weeks dragged on until December 2024. When we made the final payment, Michelle Pitcher refused to release the video until the credit card payment cleared her bank—a highly unprofessional and unnecessary delay.
She justified this by claiming a history of customers canceling payments, which now makes perfect sense given the poor experience we endured. Updates from Real Good Videos were scarce, and we had to constantly chase her for progress. If we hadn’t stayed on top of her, I doubt the project would even be complete today. She blamed delays on revisions, but the truth is, this was far beyond normal iteration. Her promise that it would "be worth the wait" fell flat.
To add insult to injury, Michelle Pitcher demanded an additional $200 for the project files, something that is customary to include with delivery. While we eventually received the video, the process with Real Good Videos was disorganized, riddled with additional costs, and far from professional.
We initially planned to award Michelle Pitcher three larger projects after this one, but we’ve since awarded them to someone else. Based on our experience with Real Good Videos, I cannot recommend working with her.
Reply from Real Good Videos
We also had a negative experience working with Bill Kimberlin from CrushTeamAI.
We initially took up the project as a referral and gave them a generous discount because they were a startup with promises of multiple video projects.
The initial project scope was discussed with Bill's CMO and Project Manager and all expectations were left in writing as they signed our contract.
They were strict on their budget, but set on having a complex race car animation scene in the beginning. We created multiple scenes to do this in 2D animation (to match their budget) but they didn't like any of them and they wanted an immersive race car experience.
To accomplish their wishes, we would need to incorporate 3D modeling and animations which their Project Manager eventually requested for us to do after over a month of back and forth.
Because of the 3D animation, it extended the delivery time and cost which I had mentioned to Bill's Project Manager who confirmed that it was okay to increase the budget and time frame for their video.
The video was completed in the time frame that was projected for a video of this complexity and length. Bill started managing the project towards the end of the process after his CMO and Project Manager stopped working for him.
He was in a hurry and not very respectful or understanding in our communication. He commented that I wasn't updating him when in reality, I was updating him immediately once we completed each step of the process. All of his emails were responded within one working day in an organized fashion.
After we finished the video, I sent him a preview of the video and the final invoice but he neglected to pay it so I ended up waiting almost a week before he finally made the payment.
In the end, he asked for the project source files which was never included in the initial scope of deliverables which is why there was a small additional charge requested.
We had already given him a significant discount on his animated video and were not willing to provide additional services and deliverables free of charge.
We deeply regretted taking on this project and working with Bill Kimberlin at CrushTeamAI because after going above and beyond to create the video like they wanted and giving them a great deal, he treated me very poorly.
I would highly recommend for any freelancer, marketing agency or contractor to think twice before working with Bill Kimberlin at CrushTeamAI and I have learned that it is crucial for us to better vet our clients before agreeing to work with them.