Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/03/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  ********************* of Phoenix Facilitation was hired by myself in November 2022 as an independent facilitator to help me transition my disabled son into the Self Determination Program of *********************** I signed a contract and our agreement was specific with services she would provide for which she would be paid $2500 by the ********************** upon completion. We had a written agreement that also stated that if services were terminated by myself prior to completion, she would charge me at a rate of $75/hour for the advocacy services according to our agreement above. Throughout the period that I hired her (since November 5, 2022), she was very unprofessional- unnecessarily delayed the provision of my sons person-centered plan document and its presentation to the regional center, provided little or no advocacy for my sons unmet needs. Therefore, I had to advocate for myself by scheduling meetings with the regional center, filing documents myself for my sons consumer rights with the ********** of ************* Services, writing appeals with no assistance from her in order to get much needed services for my son. She was not fulfilling her end of the contract; therefore I terminated services with her on July 23, 2023. On August 2, 2023; she sent me an invoice charging me the full $2500 and upon review, 90% of the itemization were charges for her email communications with me in order to compute to $2500. She was charging me for email communications at a rate of $75/hr; despite never advising me that her email communication with me came with a fee. She has willfully misrepresented her charges for services, which is an unlawful offense pursuant to California Business and Professions Code Section ******* BPC. Additionally, our contract stated she would invoice me every month, but I never received an invoice over the past 8 months, until August 2, 2023 She has also engaged in a fraudulent and deceptive business act because one of the misrepresented charges that she itemized on her invoice was a phone call to me to set up a consult on October 24, 2022 in the amount of $18.75. That phone call was placed by her to solicit my business and now she is choosing to charge me 8 months after the fact, when it was never agreed upon. It is also advertised on her company website that the initial zoom consultation is free, and I have an email correspondence from prior to that meeting letting me know that our initial consult on November 1, 2022 was free. However, on the invoice today, she is now charging me $75. This constitutes fraud, deception, and an unfair and retaliatory business practice as it is obvious that she is retaliating against me for the cessation of services with her organization. Additionally, she is willfully misrepresenting and concocting fees for services that she did not provide in order to obtain the full $2500, despite not doing her job in a professional manner or providing the service. I would like to request an investigation and my hope is that other vulnerable families with disabled family members are not further exploited by this individual.