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:08/24/2022

  Type:Delivery Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore 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.

  Karl/KMJ committed to the development of a mobile app, the attached proposal states "KMJ Will develop the ***** tone app and it's core set of features based on documentation provided to KMJ". Karl/KMJ failed to provide the service outlined in the proposal due to circumstances out of their control, which is understanding, however Karl refused to refund us in full for the amount initially paid $3844.50 on 9/14/21. Instead Karl sent a threatening email (attached) stating that ****** (***** Tone owner) had one week to agree to a $2000 refund. ****** agreed at the time because he did not want to miss out on receiving half of the refund and was not sure where else to turn. Attached is also an email where Karl stated "the loss in billable time is in excess of 14,000.00" however he never showed us a single thing he did on the app development, we simply got a few email updates with alleged progress on the development. No actual documentation was ever provided! All ***** Tone documents in the proposal were provided by ******. We are seeking a refund of 1844.50, as we believe we should be refunded in full as Karl did not keep his commitment of developing the app, as stated in the proposal.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/21/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2022/08/25) */ As the client stated this unfortunate situation was outside of our control despite all our best efforts to work through the issue. It's true that we attempted to build a mobile app and we agreed to do so at a deep discount to our established hourly rate because we believed in the goal the client was trying to achieve. However, the request was unusual and required a lot of research and experimentation and it had taken some time to work through. Just as we were getting close to reaching a breakthrough, privacy rules were changed directly by Android that prevented the outcome we had worked to resolve. At that time, we communicated to the client some options of how we might proceed to work around this new limitation. We also asked the client for their ideas on how we might overcome the issue together. Ultimately, the client decided to pull the project and requested a full refund without regard to the time and money that our company invested in their idea. We were well within our rights to invoice for all the time spent however, in a gesture of good faith, I agreed to refund of more than 50% of their deposit in hopes they would understand that we both were taking a loss on this issue that we could not control. Regarding threatening emails, this is just not true. As seen in the attachment provided by the client, we sent one email simply requesting that the client agree to some standard final terms that would allow both parties to limit any further action as we part ways. This was not an open offer and therefore, due to a lack of response from the client, there was one follow up to that offer explaining the offer was limited. In summary, KMJ agreed to work at a deep discount to benefit the client, KMJ spent far more hours than were billed and KMJ agreed to return more than half their deposit in a good faith effort to finalize the issue. Lastly, I would like to mention that we were never asked by the client to present them with any evidence of the work completed. However, this is available should the client wish to make a formal request and we can provide a summary of work completed along with the codebase that was started. If there is any other information that we can provide, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you. Consumer Response /* (3000, 8, 2022/08/29) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The bottom line, that KMJ refused to acknowledge in their response, was we that we signed a contract and agreed to pay for the development of a mobile app, we never discussed or signed a contract stating that we were paying to see if KMJ could develop the app. KMJ's website claims to provide "mobile app planning and development" we were never under the impression that the app's development might not be possible. ****** would never have paid $3844.50 or even $1844.50 to see if KMJ could have developed the app, we would have simply gone elsewhere. Furthermore, as a paying customer we should not have to ask for evidence that KMJ was working on the app, nor should we have to submit a formal request. A legitimate business would provide this information to their clients on an ongoing basis. Unfortunately, we were naïve and trusting, it's alarming that KMJ claims to have spent 120 hours on the project with absolutely nothing to show us. We would simply like KMJ to refund the $1844.50 and follow the contract we agreed to. Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2022/09/07) */ To clarify the client signed a contract for services which WERE performed toward the goal of building their mobile app. Had the situation not changed by circumstances outside of our control then the app would have been completed as expected. With that said, we would remind the client that the contract they signed also obligates them to pay for services rendered. Months were spent to research and develop the application until we could no longer move forward due to these external circumstances. Our loss in this project far exceeds the losses of the client as we offered discounts on our rates, avoided invoicing for additional hours spent and we agreed to a partial refund, all as a show of good faith. Despite our best efforts to resolve the issue mutually, the client continues to request more money with no regard for the financial burden our company took on the client's behalf. We will remind the client that they also signed agreement at the time of the final refund to accept certain terms to include not pursuing the matter further so we could all close the matter and move on. As they have also chose to ignore those terms by filing this claim, we see this as a breach of that agreement. We have always worked in good faith with our clients to resolve matters fairly, as demonstrated by our years of BBB membership with no complaints. As we have already assumed most of the risk and financial loss for this project, and agreed to a partial refund previously, we feel we have already done more than our fair share to resolve the matter.