ComplaintsforOptimum Research Consulting

• Initial Complaint

  02/14/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Optimum Research promised to assist with an analysis of my research paper. I was not satisfied with the results after they took almost a month to return what they did without consulting me on anything they planned to do. The representative did not take responsibility or try to fix the problem she caused. She just wanted my money. I am very disappointed that I paid for a mess.

• Initial Complaint

  03/07/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The business charged for a service that it didn't complete and refused to refund the $1800.

  Business response

  03/16/2022

  The client approached our firm to complete his dissertation proposal, starting with his chapter 1.The dissertation is built based on a foundation and in this case, the clients university bases its entire dissertation on a Prospectus.We provided a quote to assist the client only if his Prospectus was approved in full. We would not move forward otherwise.
  
  On October 18, 2021, the client noted in email that his Prospectus was fully approved, meaning the studys foundation was locked down. He did this on numerous occasions and in each case his project manager noted that if this was not the case, any work that would change his foundation would be outside the scope of our quote to assist him with his dissertation proposal. He noted that he understood, each time.
  
  By securing proof in email that the clients prospectus was approved,on multiple occasions, we felt ready to move forward. We protect our clients by asking this because otherwise they would be spending money that would not assist them in moving forward with their dissertation.We ask them, too, because this protects our company from this very situation. It allows us to present their written agreement to them should they ask us to change our project scope.
  
  With this assurance, we were able to move forward and completed the clients chapter 1 according to his approved Prospectus. Once we provided the client with his first chapter and he shared it with his chair, the client returned noting that his entire foundation would be changing. This included, amongst other areas, his population, the type of data (from secondary to primary data), the data collection,research questions and any other area affected by these drastic changes. Ultimately, these far reaching changes would result in the need to redevelop the clients entire foundation and as noted above, this was locked down in his prospectus and we were following this blueprint, and therefore the work to do this would be outside of the scope of our agreed upon contract. A contract the client was fully informed of and as noted, agreed to in full.
  
  The clients later assertion, one that he did not make us aware of when we asked whether his foundation was approved, was that he has a new chair and he then tried to push us to do work out of scope. We presented him with our previous emails at this point noting the scope of our work. We also suggested sharing the approved prospectus and chapter 1 with his new chair, noting that the approval should stand,but the client ignored this approach.
  
  He noted on in an email on December 7th, 2021, that we should be more flexible and should be willing to do the work. We responded at length, but this is also the last time we heard from the client. His decision to approach BBB more than three months after this email says a lot about the client. He wanted us to change standard policies implemented throughout the academic consulting industry and implemented by any consulting company, to not redo work based on completely new parameters, after we were completely upfront about these policies. His decision was to try and suggest that he never received his work, as noted on the BBB complaint, and here too we can provide email proof and the proof of the work in full that would clearly show how false this statement is.
  
  Sadly the client is using bullying tactics online to try and force an outcome where we nullify our clearly laid out contract with him.

  Customer response

  03/16/2022

  Complaint: 16845043
  
  I am rejecting this response because: The client did not fulfill their obligations and refuse to refund or rectify the issue.
  
  

  Regards,
  
  ***********************************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩