Fraud by consultant

Question

My consultant is threatening me that if I do not pay they will contact the schools. 
Sharing more information below-

I had very limited time about 4 weeks to prepare my application. The consultant suggested I take comprehensive package for 2 schools, although they did mention it is too less time and maybe I should push to R2, I wanted to give it a shot and asked if we would be able to do it in R1. They usually take rush fees but I was very clear that I could not afford any rush fees and so they sent me a mail saying they will not take any RUSH and work at an agreed cost of $8100 for 2 schools. I made a initial small payment and told them I will be sending the remaining part of the amount shortly, they told me to send two instalments of total $3000 together and I agreed to it.

On 26th August, 10 days prior to the school deadline they started demanding extra money as RUSH fees saying the time remaining is less, I tried to have a discussion that they had agreed to no Rush according to the package we agreed. They were not ready to speak on calls regarding this and on 1st Sept, 5 days prior to the deadline sent me an email saying we will stop working with you since you are not paying RUSH, again not ready to discuss on calls.

On 1st September, I had made the first payment of $3000, but an hour after I made the payment they sent me the termination mail. So I told my bank to pause the payment since without doing even a call they terminated the contract due to which my applications got affected apart from the mental stress all this gave me.

Now they are threatening me that if I do not send the $3000 payment they are going to contact to schools as per “their policy”. I again tried to discuss on a call as I was ready to make a payment of $1600, to account for the effort put by them from 17th august to 31st august. Although I had not received even one final review of any document but since time was spent I was ready to make Partial payment. They are still not ready to talk on call and adamant on $3000 with threats of speaking to schools.

I am not naming here since I am not looking to shame anybody, all I am looking for is a resolution to this. 
Please advice and guide me here, if there is anyone from GMAT club forum who can intervene and help arrive on a solution I would request for help as the consultant is a member.

Posted from my mobile device

admitStreet · Answer

GhG - sorry to hear about the ordeal you're facing. I can understand how frustrating and difficult it can be. Two questions though: What is the consultant threatening to contact the school about i.e. what would they (hypothetically) tell the school, and what makes you worry about it? And do you have the records/ emails for all the communications and issues that you've indicated? I'm no legal expert, someone with more context there can perhaps advise on that. But clarifying these two q's could give us a bit more context. Regards, Arvind HEC Paris MBA alum, Admissions interviewer W: https://admitstreet.com | E: consultingteam@admitstreet.com

GhG · Answer

admitStreet  Here's what they are telling me - we will contact the schools per our terms and conditions and explain how we worked with you and you did not make payments.

GhG · Answer

bb  request you to help

bb · Answer

Hi. If your question is what can a consultant do, I would say not much.

I don’t think a consultant can do much in terms of threatening to report you to schools. Even if it is something you are trying to hide on your application, unless they have a lot of back up of something unethical or illegal you did but schools don’t have time to play detectives and do investigations. They have their own background check policy that applies to everyone so it’s a fair treatment to everyone.

Schools do not have a “dirt” section on their application and even if someone reports or sends dirt on a person, schools don’t have much room to take that info into consideration. We previously had a person who misrepresented their professional experience on the application and their coworker tried to report them and basically the schools did not want to hear about it… because how do they know that the person reporting does not have a personal grudge and making stuff up?

PS. This should answer your question. At the same time, you have to figure out if you’re in the right or in the wrong. It sounds like you’ve taken up admissions consulting services and usually those are not refundable because consultants can take only so many customers and once they take a reservation, the time is blocked. Think about it as a hotel room. While you may not have stayed in the room, you still reserved it and they couldn’t sell it to anyone else.

Posted from my mobile device

GhG · Answer

bb  thank you, I haven't done anything unethical or tried to fabricate any parts of my application. The only thing i did was to pause the payment and that's because they terminated the partnership without discussing it with me or helping me finish the work they promised. 
I did take up admission consulting services which they failed to provide as they terminated the partnership, had they continued to work with me I had absolutely no issues in paying them. I am still ready to pay for the work done but they are asking for much more which I don't think is fair.

My request here is if you could help arrange for a discussion, since they are not ready to speak to me, a third party with authority could listen to both and help arrive at a conclusion which will put an end to their bullying and threatening.

TheIvyLeagueEdge · Answer

GhG 
You already have very good advice from @bb; don't have anything to add there. 
It is really unfortunate that things reached this level;
Strategically, from this point on, you have to get on the offensive, and that will provide the BEST defence that you may not have even imagined. Since the consultant has already terminated your services, consider going ahead and giving full details of the consultant, and a factual description of how the overall experience has caused you untold mental stress and agony.

The consultants also have a reputation to protect, and will not want to risk bad publicity. My suggestion for you would be to  post transparently and ethically, with full consultant details, WITHOUT a negative bias,  and suggesting future clients to keep this in mind before signing up with that consultant, things may turn around. DM for more

bb · Answer

I have re-read the story a bit found a few items that I missed and surprised @Theivyleague or  admitStreet  did not pick up on. I am not an admissions consulting expert so I don't know what the industry standards are but some of these things sound out of ordinary to me. Are these normal to you?

Is it normal for people to decide to apply and hire a consultant 4 weeks before the deadline? 4 weeks seems very very tight. I am surprised the consultant agreed. Do you have a lot of clients who started 4 weeks out and succeeded? Do you take folks 4 weeks out?

Is it a usual situation for a person to have an application that is not ready to submit 5 days before the deadline? I feel it should largely be ready with perhaps some polishing. However, if it is going to require a lot more work and rushing, I can see the consultant pushing it to R2, esp if the application did not progress as much as needed and only 5 days remain (Were the essays turned around fast enough on your side?). The fact you sent additional payment on Sept 1st, would seem to indicate that you still needed quite a bit of help. Was this payment late? It seems odd to send a payment 5 days before the deadline. Just seems unusual to me.

OR if you did not want to pay rush fees, to me it seems there are some easy solutions - one of them is pushing this out to R2. Why would not you just move the app to R2?

Perhaps I am not seeing the full picture but it seems the main contention is that you wanted to submit in R1 after having applied 4 weeks out. The consultant basically said we can try but as the time approached, they did not see enough progress and would have to have rush processing to turn your apps faster since only 5 days were left and likely more edits were needed. At that point your choice was to say "no thank you, I am OK with R2" or to say "Sure, I will pay - I still want R1"

Unless I am missing something, I don't know why this became an issue. There is an agreement that you likely signed (most consultants have it) so you can review that and see if you have ways to resolve it using the framework both parties mutually agreed to. Unfortunately I see gaps here to make any further comments or judgements and I dont' have the legal background to get involved in the dispute and specifically i don't want my name or opinion to be used as leverage.

TheIvyLeagueEdge · Answer

bb , thank you for bringing out this version; much merit in what you have to say; my take remains however, that commitments should be honoured, ethically.

bb , A 4-week period is tight indeed. My point here is simply that once the consultant agreed, s/he should have followed her/his side of the contract, not just because it was the ethical thing to do, but more so, because not doing so could play with the candidate's future.

To answer your questions sequentially:
1) Is it normal for people to decide to apply and hire a consultant 4 weeks before the deadline?
Ans: Normal? NO; Does it happen? Hell, yes. In my case, if it is really tight, I tell the clients signing-up of the risks involved in expedited submission, and the pros and cons of moving the application to the next round instead; 
the idea is to let the client take an informed decision;

2) 4 weeks seems very very tight. I am surprised the consultant agreed. 
Ans: 4 weeks can get tight; But once the consultant agreed, there shouldn't have been any going back, at least on their part.

3) Do you have a lot of clients who started 4 weeks out and succeeded? Do you take folks 4 weeks out?
Ans: 4 weeks out is still quite frequent; In fact, I have a *publicly posted recommendation on LinkedIn* Linkedin(dot)com/in/sheenasaraf from a client who submitted her application to Cambridge Judge, in 4 days. With an extension allowed on the LORs submitted 2 days later, she got in

I wouldn't say I missed this, but I feel that the consultant should not have committed to deliver, if s/he had doubts. And that is how and why a transparent review, with the full details would help. In fact, a transparent review may also encourage the consultant to post her/his response, and for the readers to get both the sides of the story. But as things are, I do find several consultants getting unethical, and too focused on the revenues, while overlooking their commitments. To me therefore, the client remains the underdog, and often they (the clients) are not left in a position to hold the consultant to their words/ promises.

That said, I remain thankful for your brining up the easy-to-miss parts of the story, especially in a fast read, during a rush time.

admitStreet · Answer

Thank you bb for the note. You're right that it's not common or even recommended to start working with a consultant 4 weeks before deadline; I typically recommend min. 8 weeks. However, there are occasionally candidates who sign up even a week before deadline. In such cases, I clearly highlight the risk to them i.e. if they don't dedicate enough time or quality of the application suffers, we would push submission to R2. We proceed only if and after they agree, and we both keep our words. We've fortunately been ok in those cases e.g. an extreme case where Aditi Raman (Testimonial & LinkedIn at admitstreet com/testimonials) signed up 4-5 days before the LBS MiF deadline and received an admit. Looking just at the candidate's side of the story though (which is what we have), I feel the consultant could have handled the situation better. However, I would refrain from taking either party's side without having all the context and details. Thanks again for bringing up the points and a balanced perspective. Regards, Arvind HEC Paris MBA alum, Admissions interviewer W: https://admitstreet.com | E: consultingteam@admitstreet.com

adascal · Answer

Hi,

I am a Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business MBA graduate, class of 2010. Over the years since I graduated, I frequently consulted prospective students, and offered advice on applying to top tier MBA programs.

I would generally advise everyone to start early, as early as possible, and I would not take up a consulting engagement with only four weeks prior to deadline. I work with a minimum of eight -ten weeks. With that being said, if someone has all application pretty much ready to go, GMAT taken and the score as high as possible, I can review the application, and advise on minor tweaks, within the four weeks window. But not anything more than that, there's just not enough time!

If anyone considers a consultant for any aspects of application, (essays, resume and LinkedIn optimization, interview preparation) feel free to reach out! My prices are well below those of consultants who do this for a living, I have a full time job that I love, I consult only with select candidates that I can fit into my work schedule. The advantage of working with me is that I offer a very balanced preparation as I prepare a candidate through the eyes of someone who hired MBA candidates after graduation. I am a finance and business strategy professional, I know what and where MBAs add value, the more you can articulate this in the application, the hire your success rate is!

Feel free to reach out here: dascal.adrian@gmaildotcom

Best of luck,
Adrian

Fraud by consultant

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