This Spring, I sought the assistance of a private investigator and after shopping around, decided on Investigative Services, based in Annapolis, MD.
I met my agent Belinda on April 17th and signed a contract for work. At that time, I paid a $720 deposit to have her do light surveillance work. We agreed that April 24th would be the first day of the case and she was to do one hour of work.
I told Belinda that I would be out of town for travel and when I returned, I would contact her for further instructions. She agreed to wait for me to return before proceeding with the case.
From the contract, it appeared that they charged $60 per hour and once a client's deposit had been used, they would then bill for additional hours and take this from the person's bank account or charge a credit card.
Well, I was out of the country for some time and upon returning noticed some money missing from my account. My bank records showed that Investigative Services had submitted three electronic checks in June on the 14th, 20th and 25th totaling nearly $1,000. I was shocked because I had not asked Belinda to do any more research and they had not sent me an invoice or called.
I have to this day, never received a report of her findings!
I immediately called the company's phone service and left a message (you can never speak to a live human being!). She (Belinda) called me back that afternoon and said that the accounting unit would be doing an audit on my case and that if I was overcharged, they would be refunding the money.
A week went by, then two, before I called them back. This time, however, I did not receive a return call. Nor, did I receive a response the following five times I left messages.
I am out of about $1800 for one day of requested work! On a whim, I pulled up their profile on the BBB site and found that they have nine complaints listed since the Fall of 2004. Not all complaints are resolved.
I am so disgusted with these jerks for what they did. It does not take much to call a customer back and try to fix a bad situation. It's obvious that they don't care and have made a habit out of creating "billing snafus" to fatten their payroll.
I hope that someone with some pull does something with these guys. I hate to see more unwitting consumers get into the situation I have found myself to be in; calling day after day to be ignored. Consumers beware of this company! You'll end up doing all the investigative work to find out what happened to your money!
Tiffany
Baltimore, Maryland
U.S.A.
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