In the history of scamming by owner Connor Cochran, Better Business Bureau complaints show customers waiting TEN YEARS for undelivered goods. (2014: “This project is now nine years overdue”.) Corroborating complaints across the internet make an inescapable conclusion: the lowest estimate starts around $100,000 in scam sales.
That’s tens of thousands paid for audiobooks, and hundreds of documented “Extra Deluxe” Last Unicorn books sold and never delivered to victims. That’s only TWO among other titles, leaving much more unknown. How much higher do victim losses go? Take a guess when “The Last Unicorn did 2.5 million video sales” in 10 years and the “novel has sold 6.5 million copies.”
One scam victim has been documenting her ordeal with being deceived, concluding: “No one will be getting their refunds.” She is still getting the runaround after seven months (and counting). After persistently pleading for help, she’s left empty handed with nothing but sadness at being cheated. Her ordeal began in April 2015:
NO MONEY IN THE BANK?!!
A legitimate company would have no problem paying back a small sale of mere art prints to one person. But not Conlan Press and it’s owner. No Money In The Bank is the official statement and Connor Cochran’s excuse (swear on his mother!)
Meanwhile, he boasts of spending $5 million to plump up his Golden Goose movie, soliciting $15 million from investors, licensing deals, “over 60,000” ticket sales for a movie tour, and “over 300,000” merch sales on his Last Unicorn Tour website.
Your eyes are not deceiving you: Connor Cochran is simultaneously bragging of hundreds of thousands of sales and million dollar budgets for himself… and not a dime to repair hurt to a pleading, empty-handed buyer.
“But when the taxman comes to the door, Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale…”
It’s a policy of denial. Let’s summarize this victim’s 7 month experience of the Conlan Press Attrition Process to block victims from refunds:
- April: Victim pays for art prints. Conlan Press makes vague promises to deceive her about delivery in “approximately 4-6 weeks.” She orders a DVD too.
- Delivery dates come and go with empty hands, and no communication.
- Victim is forced to chase Cochran to beg for help, but gets ignored.
- Victim persists. Cochran stonewalls her pleas for written answers, stringing her along with vague, unwritten phone calls and no solution.
- Victim persists. Further pleas are ignored. She is forced to chase answers from a Conlan Press front person. (History shows that blaming the employee comes later.)
- Finally, she’s told that since she patiently waited through vague delivery dates, it’s too late to get a direct credit (oh, really?) But… the check’s in the mail.
- Surprise, the check isn’t in the mail.
- Forced to plead again, she gets a vague promise of a check in 4-6 weeks (again).
- November: More pleas. Still no check. History shows that Connor Cochran is more than willing to string victims along indefinitely.
This is clear – he doesn’t care who gets hurt, to reap profits for himself at any cost.
After a decade of stringing customers along, here’s more of Cochran’s excuses in a list longer than you can count:
- Relocating to Washington in 2015 while fleeing scrutiny in California.
- Beagle’s decline in health, which conveniently refreshes an oldie –
- Cochran is still hiding behind Beagle’s mother’s death in 2006. The moldy “mom” excuse extended to 2014 and beyond. It was on the conlanpress.com “updates” page, forced down in 2015 by rising public outrage.
During all the excuses for all these years, Cochran was spending at least tens if not hundreds-of-thousands of dollars on lawyers (who cost hundreds an hour). He was diverting payments for goods (on top of fan donations) into legal manoeuvres to capture The Last Unicorn movie for his properties.
It was far from the only extravagant legal spending. In 2012 he sent more attacks at his victim, Sydney Gurewitz Clemens, an elderly children’s teacher. She paid him $25,000 to publish her book, but got nothing. After breaching the contract, Cochran refused to return what he took, forced her to sue for help (PDF), and piled on abuse and heartache by dragging her through vicious court fighting. At your expense.
Now he claims there’s no money. Demand documented accounting for how your payments were really spent. You’ll get non-answers like the above customers did.
When you wonder where the money went, remember: Peter Beagle doesn’t own Conlan Press. All of the cheating feeds back to Connor Cochran.
Beyond consequences for scamming, Cochran has one thing to capitalize on by stringing everyone along. When Beagle’s time runs out… it’s all in the bag. And with such shamelessly venal behavior, death just makes a new excuse for non-delivery.
Complain to the California Attorney General and the Washington Attorney General. Report suspect financial activity to the IRS. Report Federal Mail Fraud to the US Post. Document abuse at Ripoff Report, and send your story to fansagainstfraud@gmail.com.
OMG! I had no idea there were so many other outraged fans. I don’t feel nearly so stupid for being taken in by this guy then, lol.
I was part of the special edition Two Hearts scam that went on for 10 years. I listened to the excuses for several years and was patient, and then I started trying to get my money back. I did eventually though. After months of sending emails requesting refunds, I finally threatened to go to the California Better Business Bureau, and then Connor stopped ignoring my emails and promptly responded with a refund. That was way back in 2008 or 2009 though. Even after that experience, though, I still did business with the company, & I had to wait and wait for another delayed product, & I still did not get everything that was promised.
If you want to email me and strike up a conversation, I might be able to find documentation of this. The emails may still exist.
I am just incredibly sad and sick to find your site and come to understand that lies and fraud are Connor’s standard business practices, and not just isolated, though monumental, f*** ups.
It is unspeakably sad that Peter is in the clutches of this man. It may very well be that Connor is correct in claiming that he worked his arse off in order to keep Peter out of bankruptcy and from being homeless on the street — I have met them both on multiple occasions, and it is a little bit obvious that Peter is mentally ill, and possibly losing his mind just a little bit. But it is also obvious that Connor is exploiting the hell out of Peter and the fans. He should be in jail. This is really sick.
Keep up the great work of informing people and documenting this!
Connor has just started a new money making scheme in the last two days, charging $15 for an eBook – an ebook – which is a ridiculous price, with a sob story that Peter has been unexpectedly forced to move. He’s begging the fans for money to bail Peter out! He says this is a special money making fundraiser just to bail Peter out! I am disgusted beyond words.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the latest, but it looks as if Peter himself has now filed suit against Connor and the company.
As embittered as fans are, it’s heartbreaking to see compelling signs that no one’s come off worse in this whole business than Peter himself. At the same time, it’s nice to see a clear separation between the author we love and the shoddy business that claims to represent his interests.
I’m not the one who leaked or posted this court complaint, and I can’t guarantee its authenticity, though it certainly looks like the real deal to me. I also ought to disclaim that PSB’s complaint is not, in itself, a finding of guilt. But it’s a sad and stark window into the heart of the scandal just the same.
I’m also relieved, very much, to see the physician’s note at the end (Exhibit B), which indicates Peter may not be as ill or compromised as we’ve been led to believe. It’s tragedy any way you cut it — but as outraged as fans are with Conlan, it looks like there’s someone who’s been hurt even worse by this business. I hope he comes out of this all right, and I especially hope he’s really in better shape than we’ve been told. I think it’s a promising sign of his health & spirits that he’s not taking this lying down.
Link to the complaint (not posted by me): https://t.co/LMhhxwa9CV
There’s a lot of he said/he said debate but the allegations against Avicenna are pretty serious. Did Avicenna pay their taxes during those years? Yes or No? And if the answer is no than you just won free federal housing in a place called jail. And Connor was paying for Peter’s rent for 8 years? Where did that money come from? And now that he’s being sued that rent money is now gone and Peter is getting evicted? There was money to pay the rent during the lean years but now that they have the rights to TLU with IDW graphic novels it’s all gone??? What is wrong with this picture? Really sad but also thankful we have an Internet now that is paying attention to how this plays out.
Just reading some of these comments… ya know, if I were a con, I wouldn’t target a fan base of anything! Fans tend to communicate with one another. And these “screwed customers” are the fans who’d buy the future LU merchandise, the tickets to the LU movies & musicals (all that stuff he had planned) but because he’s gaining such a bad rep among them, doesn’t it occur to him that the money will stop? People will stop purchasing. Once the trust you have with your consumers is gone, it’s gone, and your business sinks like the Titanic. Even if he’s not a con, he’s a terrible business manager at best. Now during my talk with him, he repeatedly said he wanted to make Peter a rich man, but then went on to say that some projects (like the musical) would take at least twelve years to complete. Having been acquainted with his tendency to greatly expand on promise deadlines, I have to wonder… Peter isn’t exactly a spring chicken, how’s he gonna financially benefit (and become rich) from projects that could take the rest of his life to complete. And who then really benefits from the exploitations of his novel? Connor’s favorite argument is Peter’s children. Well, then, I hope the kids can explain to the fans about the shady business aspect of this mess. I get the family drama bit, but not the business part. It would certainly make Judge Judy raise her eyebrows 😉