Well well, Nicole, or Edward, or whoever is the entity responsible for the rebuttals on this site. Jason and Crystle here, surprise. Also a surprise (Not) we still haven't received the rest of our refund! I see here that many, many others have fallen victim to your fradulent, immoral, and illegal business practices. We are fed up; your time is up.
To all the other people who have fallen victim to these criminals, here is our shortened story (which is unremarkably very similar to every other complaint about this company on this site) On or around October 7 2009, we contacted "A.L.H." in regards to a very serious child custody case. We were told, assured and affirmed that if we paid $1550.00 that ALH would provide us with an attorney to represent us in court, and guess what? Nobody showed! The morning of my court date, I had to stand alone in front of the judge and beg for mercy that he would not send me to jail for contempt due to the fact that I had no attorney present to represent me (as promised the evening before by Kenneth). Luckily I was able to convince the judge to grant me a one month extension on the case. So we contacted the "ALH" office, and to make a long story short, basically got the same run-around as everyone else: "I'll have Edward call you back in a few minutes...he's in a meeting right now...etc. but we are working diligently on your case." Oh and the reason we didn't get a lawyer to represent us in court was because, as Kenneth claimed the payment was not processed in sufficient enough time to secure the services of a local attorney here in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, while the night before we were on the phone with Kenneth as the payment was processed and completed and he said that we will have a lawyer to represent us on the scheduled court date. Anyways, after about a week of the standard "ALH" runaround and delay tactics, we became fed up and requested a refund (on or around Oct. 27 2009). They said they were sorry and promised that a refund would be processed. The fee that "ALH" charged for our case was $1550.00, which they agreed to allow us to split into two payments (I couldn't afford the whole payment up front, hence the reason I decided to use their services in the first place!) The first payment was made via money order in the amount of $775.00. The second payment was made via credit card also in the amount of $775.00. After the court date was re-scheduled, we decided to give "ALH" a second chance to represent our case (Edward can be a very convincing salesperson) and overlook the "misunderstanding" with the first court date. The ignoring of phone calls and missed appointments on their behalf continued, and after pleading on several instances for Affordable Legal Help to give us the name of the attorney who would be representing us in the next court date, Edward finally gave us the name of the law firm and attorney that Affordable Legal Help intended on assigning us. At this point we were extremely skeptical of Affordable Legal Help's business practices and especially the actions of "Edward Maddison", so we decided to contact the attorney they assigned us via phone. Well come to find out, that attorney no longer worked at that law firm and had been fired 5 years ago! After SEVERAL weeks of constant calling, pleading and arguing with the staff at "ALH" (namely Kenneth and EDWARD "Maddison", aka Edward "Herzstock" which we were informed is Edward's real last name) for a full refund, we finally received a partial refund on our credit card in the amount of $775.00. We then proceeded to call their office several times with no answer, so we decided to go to a payphone and call (just in case they were avoiding our calls, caller ID anyone?) and surprise! Kenneth answered the phone! We then inquired about the remaining balance of our refund and were told that their company policy regarding refunds is that they are required to refund their customers in the way in which the customer paid, i.e. if someone sends partial payment with a credit card, then they have to refund that portion of the money back onto the credit card, if someone pays by check, then they have to refund that customer by check, etc. It is now January 18th 2010 and we still have not received the balance of our refund. The last time we called and actually spoke with someone at Affordable Legal Help about the status of our second refund, they said that the refund check was mailed at the same time as the credit card refund was processed, however we never received it. Here is an e-mail string between myself (Jason) and Edward Maddison regarding the status of the balance of our refund (Please note the dates):
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Jason Ford to Edward J. Maddison
11/5/09
Edward,
We received the $775.00 on the Visa card - thanks for that. Unfortunately, we still have not received the other $775.00 that you said you mailed off last week...Maybe you can stop payment on the check (or whatever form of payment you sent) and re-issue a new one ... Ideally you would send it certified mail so you and I both know the money was sent and received. If you have any questions please give me a call at **********
Thank you,
Jason
Edward J. Maddison to me
show details 11/5/09
Jason,
We are sorry we were unable to help you, and return your calls. It is difficult with the large number of calls that are coming into our office- for this I apologize. As I spoke about with Crystle, we are refunding you and there is a process to follow. You can expect the refund with 3-5 business days. There are other individuals who did not pay for our attorney services, and still expected them, that are unhappy with their results - for this we can't do anything about. Your case, did include an attorney, although we were unable to provide you an attorney as quickly as you needed - and you are being refunded.
Warm wishes,
Edward Maddison
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It is now January 18 2010, we still have not received our full refund for services that were paid for but not received. On January 15, 2010 we attempted to contact Affordable Legal Help by phone at the many phone numbers we have on file for them, listed here:
Edward Maddison: [protected] -or- [protected]
Kenneth:[protected]
Affordable Legal Help main line: [protected]
Like usual, none of our calls were answered. We have left several messages and they still have not returned our phone calls. We have sent e-mails and have not received any responses. We haven't even gotten any of their myriad of excuses that they use (apparently they have a catalog of excuses that they use for everyone, lol). We just want our money back! We are fed up with being ignored and lied to, and are angry that we have been "taken" by these criminals. We encourage anyone who has also been scammed by Affordable Legal Help like we have to contact us via e-mail or phone so we can share information and work together to get our money back and shut these crooks down for good! We need not stand back and let these people get away with stealing our hard earned money! It's time we take action!
Jason and Crystle Ford, Victims in Sachse TX
Crystle: [protected], starr_1626@yahoo.com
Jason: [protected], thepcbguru34@yahoo.com
To Nicole Smith at Affordable Legal Help:
Just FYI, none of what we have stated here is slander, as we have solid facts to back up our case. We have kept diligent records throughout the entire course of our correspondence with your company, including every e-mail, receipt, dates and times of phone calls, etc. and are not intimidated by your scare tactics. Have a nice day.
