Customers allege companies owned by United People of Canada director stiffed them on wedding services

Judge upholds St. Brigid's eviction CTV's Jeremie Charron reports live from the Lowertown church where a group has occupied the building for weeks.

Companies owned by the one remaining director of a group that occupies an Ottawa church are being accused of taking thousands of dollars from customers and leaving them in the dark.

William Komer, head of The United People of Canada, has argued the group's eviction from St. Brigid’s church has been illegal since the notice was served on Aug. 17.

The owner of the church alleges TUPOC didn’t come up with payments to secure the deal and also violated its lease. A decision on the eviction notice will not be made until after Sept. 27 at the earliest, a judge said on Monday.

But Komer’s for-profit ventures, Campus Creative and Under The Umbrella Studios, have both been accused of having taken deposits or payments for wedding photos or videos and then either not delivering or in some cases, not showing up at all.

Eight customers shared stories with Newstalk 580 CFRA about their experiences with the two companies. All said Komer and company representatives have been unreachable for weeks, as they’ve ventured to get their photos and videos or their money back.

The eight couples allege they are out over $20,000 and one has filed a complaint with police.

Voicemails left at both companies by Newstalk 580 CFRA have gone unreturned.

Komer, the owner and executive director of both London-based companies, did not respond to a voicemail, texts or an email of detailed questions about the customers’ allegations and whether or not they would receive refunds.

When asked about the issue outside St. Brigid’s church, he walked away.

Customers describe bad experiences, fight for money back

Sam Shamblaw of Waterloo, Ont. hired Under The Umbrella (UTU) for their June 11 wedding. She said they paid a $565 deposit on March 12.

Shamblaw had no issues with communication before their big day, saying the videographer was great and followed up to send a draft video in late June.

The couple paid their full bill on June 29, another $565, sent a July 5 email to request minor changes to the draft and asked how best to access their videos.

When they did not hear back right away, they were not worried, given it's a busy time of year for weddings, an industry also still catching up from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But communication stopped completely and after seeing similar stories online, Shamblaw began to worry.

"Everything started coming to light on Facebook and I reached out to a few people to see what was going on with them," she told Newstalk 580 CFRA in a telephone interview, which led her to "panic" and reach out to anyone she could get in touch with at the company.

When she followed up with the videographer personally, he said he no longer worked there and gave her another contact, who was also no longer with the company.

Shamblaw has reached out to Komer directly by email and on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to try to make contact. There's been no response from Komer.

She doesn’t think she will get her money back and feels she’s been "ghosted," but beyond the $1,130, she says it feels like they’ve been robbed of some treasured memories, including the video of their big day.

"Thinking that that could be lost is more important than the money," Shamblaw said.

Couple ‘Ghosted’ for months leading up to Labour Day wedding

Megan Schmidt of Waterloo, Ont., also hired UTU for photos of her Sept. 3 wedding.

She hired the company in February and paid a $1,412 deposit, but said she was "ghosted" until the night before her wedding.

After not hearing from UTU for eight months, she said Komer phoned around 10 p.m. on Sept. 2, the night before the wedding, to say his team was available if it was needed.

Schmidt didn’t trust the interaction and had already scrambled to find another videographer in the short term, but still wanted her money back.

In a Sept. 4 email, Komer indicated someone "almost died and was in hospital", which had led to delays but a refund was in the works.

He provided no further details and Schmidt has not heard anything since.

She is still in search of a refund and plans to contest the charges with her credit card company but is losing hope she will get her money back.

"At this point, people planning weddings, people are strapped for cash, for them to take $1,400 from me and more from other people and to have some robbed of their memories is horrible," she said.

She also encourages those planning weddings to do their due diligence to avoid these situations, even if she thought she had.

"Do your research, read your Google reviews," she said.

Schmidt’s twin sister, Chrissy, also booked with UTU for her upcoming January wedding and has not been able to reach Komer or anyone else at the company since she learned of her sister’s experience two weeks ago.

She, too, would like her $1,400 deposit back.

Kayla MacLean of St. Mary’s, Ont. dealt with a last minute cancellation before her wedding after she booked photos and videos from Campus Creative.

She began to worry when she hadn’t heard from the company in the weeks leading up to the Aug. 27 date and eventually tried to get in touch in earnest the week of the wedding.

MacLean said her wedding coordinator and everyone in her wedding party called numerous times and left voicemails with the company and their previous contacts, sent Instagram messages, but still, nothing.

It forced MacLean to book another photographer and videographer at the last minute.

She said she still has not heard from anyone at Campus Creative.

Her contract has been cancelled on its online portal, though she still gets notifications to pay her full bill, something she will not be doing.

MacLean would like her $1,600 deposit back but said in an email, "her heart goes out to the brides who weren’t able to get another photographer for their day."

Fraud complaint filed with OPP by one customer

Another bride, Stephanie Steele of Ingersoll, Ont., filed a fraud complaint to the Ontario Provincial Police and is concerned whether her photos exist.

Steele and her husband Bobby hired UTU for their June 24 wedding. The couple says they were left in the dark for months until representatives were able to meet the week of the wedding.

The company then bailed on the video call meeting it scheduled two days for the wedding, Steele said, a call she waited on for over an hour before she realized no one was coming.

Several hours later, she received an email that claimed technical difficulties and, increasingly nervous, still agreed to meet the day before the wedding by video call with two people she had never met before.

Two photographers came to the wedding and went to other locations to take photos, including a family farm, but customer service left a lot to be desired, Steele said.

One was decked in camouflage and had to be told to stop swearing, she said, while family members were also upset the photographer blocked their view of key moments.

"After the ceremony, my dad told me he would have thrown a book at the photographer if he had one, which is so unlike my father," Steele told Newstalk 580 CFRA, in a phone interview.

Her new husband’s family also had the same problem as Steele and her father were walking down the aisle.

"Our guests were there to be witnesses and no one could see anything," she said.

Four weeks after the wedding, Steele followed up and received a link to a preview of about 100 photos, but says none of which were of any significant moments, and many awful in quality.

Daily calls then began with no response and she began to receive notifications starting on July 24 that her final payment was overdue.

"I stopped hearing from people and no one was returning my calls. I was leaving messages," she said.

"I would call every single day, multiple times a day, and I would never get through. I would leave messages and emails and never hear back from anybody.

"So then I was kind of desperate because I’m thinking, 'What’s going on here? It’s been 10 weeks and no photos or anything.'"

Steele contacted one of the photographers involved who said he had between 700 and 1,000 photos but told her they had been flagged as a non-paying customer so he was not going to send them. Another person in the company told her they have 250 photos.

To this day, she hasn’t seen any of the photos, and doesn’t know if they exist.

"I have no idea how many there actually are," she said and is holding on to hope they have not been deleted or lost.

Steele filed a fraud complaint with OPP in Ingersoll and was told by an investigator they would look into the matter. Steele says she was told they, too, have had no luck contacting anyone within the company.

She was advised to take the issue to small claims court and report the incident to the Better Business Bureau, but Steele doesn’t want to continue to spend money with no guarantee there will be a solution or photos.

She would like her $1,300 deposit back at the very least and hopes telling her story publicly means other brides can be protected.

An OPP spokesperson at the Oxford detachment in Tilsonburg, Ont. confirmed a complaint had been filed but could not provide any further details.

Ann George of Etobicoke, Ont., used UTU for her June 25 wedding in Niagara on the Lake and said the company’s team did show up but the photos were "extremely disappointing."

George said she followed up several times and about 45 days after, the couple got an email to a random link that said, "check if you can download these pics."

The quality of the pictures were "horrible," according to George.

"It was like a little kid took the pictures," she said in an email from the couple’s honeymoon in Asia.

She said many were blurry, shaky and unfocussed.

On top of that, George said there were no photos of many important moments, like her or the bridal party walking down the aisle. The video paid for, which included a short recap and full footage of the wedding, has never been provided.

George hopes those were not the only photos taken of the wedding but two and half months later with no communications, she just wants her money back, even if it means no video. She paid roughly $4,750 in total for services.

George will be filing a complaint with police when she returns to the country.

Two other customers shared their concerns with Newstalk 580 CFRA and didn’t want their names used as they were concerned it could impact their refund.

One man, from the Greater Toronto Area, has a wedding booked for the end of the month with UTU and has not been able to reach the company by phone or email in weeks, including an Aug. 22 email for their meal choice.

The wedding had been delayed from the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and a $3,000 deposit was paid back then before a total bill of $6,450.

After hearing of other customers' experiences, he too, is concerned his money is gone.

A woman from the London area doled out $2,500 to secure Campus Creative for her upcoming wedding but she, too, has not had any contact in weeks and wants her money back.

The eight customers that spoke to Newstalk 580 CFRA are seeking roughly $20,542.

Komer is owner and executive director of both Campus Creative and Under The Umbrella, which specialize in graphic design, photos and video production.

Under The Umbrella bills itself as "wedding production experts" on its website.

All couples dealt with either company for their photos or video.

Both businesses are registered to a space on the property of St. Peter’s Basilica in London, the same corporate address as The United People of Canada.

CTV News London visited the office space and the external buzzer was not in operation. A woman at the church's parish office, which operates the building, told CTV News that Campus Creative staff have "not been around for days" and others have inquired about the company.

A spokesperson for the Catholic Diocese of London said they could not comment on the status of its lease or rent because it’s a private issue between themselves and its tenant.

On their websites, both businesses also boast office spaces at 123 Slater St. in Ottawa. There’s no listing for either company on the building’s directory.

Members at the Innovation Hub on the sixth floor, a collaborative workspace, said Campus Creative had not been a member since well before the pandemic, while no one from Under The Umbrella had been around since earlier this summer.

Campus Creative was first incorporated by Komer and a partner but was dissolved in 2015 for failing to file tax returns. It was re-registered by Komer a year later, solo.

In 2017, it wanted to turn an abandoned school in London into a ‘community tech hub’ after London city council requested proposals for the site.

News coverage listed Komer as its creative director and the proposal was ultimately rejected, as Lorne Avenue Public School was demolished and turned into a park.

Komer is also listed as the head of Blacksmith Studios, a London-based video game company. It has not put out a new game since 2016, according to its website.

Both Campus Creative and Blacksmith Studios sponsor a summer tech camp for kids called Smart Start Camp that offers packages starting at $360.

Neither Blacksmith nor Smart Start Camp appear to be registered entities but their addresses are the same as Komer’s other businesses.

It’s not clear how many people are employed by any of Komer’s for-profit businesses.

Financial questions still remain surrounding TUPOC

The United People of Canada is a not-for-profit corporation registered in March of this year.

TUPOC planned to purchase the Saint Patrick Street church in Ottawa after a conditional deal with the owner, Patrick McDonald, was reached in June.

The purchase and sale agreement, signed by Komer and filed in court by the owner, stipulates a $100,000 in total down payment was to be made in three installments.

Despite being given extensions to fundraise the money, the deal fell through Aug. 9, according to an email sent to Komer on Aug 10.

Komer argues the group was not given adequate fundraising space and the landlord refused their attempts to pay rent. He maintains their eviction is illegal.

While the matter remains in civil court, with a decision not expected until the end of September at the earliest, questions remain surrounding the group’s financing.

It held a number of GoFundMe campaigns to help for repairs and ultimately buy the church, but it’s unclear where that money ultimately ended up and what it was spent on. It also sold ‘community bonds’ as a way for supporters to invest in the church.

Komer has not responded to inquiries about the group’s finances.

-With files from CTV London’s Daryl Newcomb