I was contacted by Benjamin Schwelling from Phoenix Financial Group on July 13th regarding past due IRS tax issues. Mr. Schwelling guaranteed me that his firm represented by Attorney James Bardwell could put a 60 stay on my IRS account buying time to gather paperwork and that he could guarantee a payment plan with the IRS. He further explained that the stay could be issued within two hours of my wiring $2,125 to his firm. I agreed and later that day spoke with James Bardwell who advised me that what Mr. Schwelling had advised me of was not correct and there is no such thing as a 60 days stay nor could he guarantee a payment plan with the IRS. I then stated I did not want my account drafted as I was unsure of whether I was going with them or not after being lied to by Mr. Schwelling. I had given Mr. Schwelling all the information regarding timelines and conversations to date with the IRS and was very upfront on where I was at with the IRS.
When I called back Mr. Schwelling he switched his story to the fact that I told the IRS to go F* themselves they were not going to be able to take my case and would not be drafting my account. To be clear I never told the IRS that nor and was doing the best I could to answer all correspondence however was behind which is why I was interested in what MR.
Schwelling allegedly had to offer. After several calls back and forth with Mr. Schwelling, Mr. Bardwell and Mr. D. Wright I decided I did not want to go with the firm because of the deception on part of Mr. Schwelling. I was told my
account would not be drafted and we parted ways. Upon balancing my account I found PFG drafted my account $2,125. I contacted them and received a run around for a couple days. I filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of Colorado
against Mr. Bardwell as I had started to believe I was taken advantage of by a phone scam. Then I received an email from Diane Allison on July 28th stating they would refund my money if I signed that I would not file complaints
with the BBB or anyone else nor complain about PFG online. I emailed back I can't sign that as I have
already filed a complaint HOWEVER I will agree to withdraw it and file no further complaints. To which I have not received any replies nor received my funds back to my account. I have sent two more emails and made a few calls which go completely ignored. At this time I realize I was taken advantage of by a phone scam and would like to ensure no one else falls for this.
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