Who is behind Copper Stallion Media? Wedding videographer outlet refuses to give groom refund after fiancee died, taunts him & now threatens to sue Justin Montney Colorado man.
The fiancée of a Colorado woman who died in a February car crash says that not only is the wedding videography service they’d hired refusing to give a refund, it’s also threatening to sue him.
Justin Montney told KRDO that they paid a $1,800 deposit to Copper Stallion Media for a wedding video – only the ceremony never happened because his fiancée, Alexis Wyatt, of Colorado Springs, died.
Montney asked for the money back only for Copper Stallion to refuse, insisting that the deposit was nonrefundable.
Montney in turn left a negative review for the company on TheKnot.com, a wedding-planning website.
Copper Stallion explained that non refundable deposits are ‘the industry standard,’ and that the outlet had to ‘block that date off in our calendar so no one else can book that specific date.’ The outlet maintains that two videographers had been booked and were counting on the paycheck.
Smear campaign: ‘Life is a bitch, Justin.’
Montney in email exchanges demanded if he could not get a refund he should at least be guaranteed future services. Only no guarantee was forthcoming.
As Montney’s experience went public, people left negative reviews on Copper Stallion Media’s social media pages. Matters continued to devolve with Copper Stallion threatening to sue Montney for defamation.
Following the threat of a lawsuit, Montney told his story to local media.
And here’s where it gets interesting.
Soon after, a pair of identical websites appeared under Montney’s name rebutting the chain of events and reviews of Copper Stallion and accusing him of trying to ‘shake us down.’
Read one webpost, ‘In the news story he admits that the contract was non-refundable but says we should give the money back due to the circumstance. Life is a bitch, Justin.’
But there’s more.
Copper Stallion Media missing social media accounts
On May 23, Copper Stallion posted a photo of the couple (directly above) with the following caption, ‘Today would have been the day where we would have filmed Justin and Alexis’ wedding. 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.’
Of note, Copper Stallion‘s company’s website does not list an address, phone number or the owner’s name. Even more, the outlet’s social media pages have since been taken offline, or made private — except for one.
Denver7 managed to obtain a screenshot of a post that it reported appeared on Copper Stallion’s Facebook account while it was still active.
‘Today would have been the day where we would have filmed Justin and Alexis’ wedding in Colorado Springs,’ the text in the image begins, attached to a photograph of the couple. “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.”
The last line reads, ‘Sorry, not sorry.’
Both of the websites recount a version of the refund saga and refer to Montney’s TheKnot.com review and subsequent appeal to the media for help as ‘the smear campaign.’
Copper Stallion Media mystery owner
But it’s unclear who exactly created them, just like it’s not immediately clear who is behind Copper Stallion.
Justinmontney.com is registered through Domains By Proxy, LLC, a GoDaddy subsidiary service that allows web domain owners to keep their identities secret. An identical site at justinmontneywedding.com is registered through Wix, a popular cloud-based web development service. Neither listing reveals the name of an individual or company running the site.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Copperstallionmedia.com happens to also use the same Wix nameservers as justinmontneywedding.com and is registered through Network Solutions LLC — another web services and domain company.
‘We understand a death occurred, but it’s not right for people to turn to the internet and sodomize the reputation of a company,’ begins one section of the ‘Montney’ pages. ‘He could have quietly filed a small claim to ‘try’ to recoup the non-refundable deposit. Instead, he chose the internet to shake us down.’
An Internet search for Copper Stallion turns up a number of mixed reviews – some recent, referencing the rush of media attention. But some are from months ago – including one from a videographer who claimed that Copper Stallion refused to pay him for work.
Denver7 said it spoke with a former Copper Stallion videographer who said the company refused to pay him.
Organized Weddings LLC & Jesse Clark
Alex Murphy told the outlet that he eventually received his check, months late – but it wasn’t from Copper Stallion Media, it was from a company called Organized Weddings LLC, which the channel said uses an address linked to someone named Jesse Clark.
Jesse Clark is the name of a Massachusetts wedding videographer who was sued by the state’s attorney general in 2013 for allegedly ripping off 90 couples, accepting payments and failing to provide their videos, according to the Telegram & Gazette. Separately, he was also sentenced to two months jail in connection with an assault case and has suffered from documented mental health issues.
Despite the state’s lawsuit, jail sentences, probation and a court injunction in January 2013, Clark was accused again of continuing to operate online wedding businesses in April of that year.
Speaking with the Telegram about Clark in 2013, Nicholas Frye, a lawyer for several victims, claimed: ‘As long as he has access to Internet, he’s going to be stealing money from unsuspecting couples. It’s most definitely going into a PayPal account and going somewhere.’
