Where’s my plan?

I need help with locating the owner of a consultancy, if possible.

I paid for a service to get help with a business plan and so far paid a total pf P1,515. The total was supposed to be P1,900 and I paid half of it on the 4th of January, then he messaged on the 7th of January saying he needed an extra P375 because he wanted to secure letters of intent and sub contracts.

On Friday, the day he said the documents were ready for collection, he said he needed P190 for printing and I asked why he kept asking for money when I was supposed to pay 50% deposit and I unfortunately bought the excuse of expenses.

He claimed he was done and we should meet at Masa for collection but never showed up after waiting for hours. He messaged me later in the evening saying we should meet Saturday and, when I kept calling that day, he never answered his phone nor responded to his messages. I asked for a refund. I have realised that his so-called consultancy is a scam and he has obtained my money by false pretences.

The bad news is that I’ve dealt with this company before, a few times, and the stories were all very similar. This company is paid money to deliver business services but they fail to do so. And then they go quiet.

The last time I heard from this company they reacted badly to a post in the Consumer Watchdog Facebook group. They suggested that the money they owed an earlier customer would be paid only when I removed the post criticising them. This is always a bad move. Telling a customer that they will only get service when they stop complaining is not the way to build a successful company. In fact, it’s the best way to form a company that either fails or has directors going to jail.

And now I hear about him again. This time he told me that the business plan “is ready for collection just that we failed to meet up with her due to our delayed appointments and meetings. We can surely meet her up on Monday or send it via email as well on Monday.”

And then on the Monday, he said: “We have emailed her business plan, please confirm if she has received it before we knock off.”

There’s only one problem. She didn’t receive it. There’s no sign it was ever sent. I think we should give him one last chance to send the plan before we escalate this.