Inter County Rentals & Referrals

I contacted Angela Fusselman in late October 2012 regarding a house rental. She had a few houses for rent that I saw in the paper, and during that conversation, we began to talk about my situation of needing a house as I was separating from my husband at the time. That is when she had informed me that she provides a service to assist people looking for rentals. She indicated that she obtains proprietary information on rentals prior to the newspapers and other rental publications. She told me that for a fee of $170.00 she would be able to help me find a house that takes pets, kids, all under $650.00 per month. I set up a meeting with Angela in October where I signed a contract and paid her the "fee" in cash. At that time I was told by her that I would hear from her regarding rentals very shortly and that I would be in a house by December the latest. She did, at the time of the meeting, provide four addresses for me to drive by to see if they would work for me. None of the rentals were appropriate for me. During the month of November I was contacted by her less than 3 times. Most of that month I called her to see if she had anything. I, most always, had to contact her during November, asking if she had anything. The few places she suggested were not new. She had already given me those listings. They were the same few all the time - again, inappropriate for me. She would say she would call me with new leads, but never did. November came and went. I called a number of times on December 13th and 14th to see if she had any leads. She said she was working on a few. I was on my way up to Connecticut and upon my return, the following week, she did give me the address of a place to look at that she had again, given me previously, but because it was only 750 sq. ft. and located over a garage I knew it would not be appropriate for my needs. I had already told her that it was not appropriate. I looked at it and I was right, inappropriate. I told her that she needed to keep looking and she promised to keep in touch with me when she had a lead. I did not hear from Angela until I called her on December 31st. By this time I began to keep records of our calls, as I became very disgruntled due to the lack of service and movement/progress/response on her part. During the Dec. 31 call I begged her to help me find a house rental as I was separating from my husband and needed to leave by January. By this time I was looking on my own for a rental. Within two weeks I had found a house that would work for my needs. I have since moved in to that home. However, on January 29 I called Angela and asked her why she was not calling me, that I had implored her that I needed a place to live, due to my impending separation, and that is when she said she had some houses for me to look at. My question to her was if she had some houses how come she did not call me to let me know right away? How come it took me calling her for her to spur into action and tell me? I informed her at that time that I had paid for a service for which she did not provide. And, in fact, I found a house on my own, without any assistance from her. What had I paid for? That is when she said I had a responsibility to bug her. I said that I did not have any such responsibility even though I actually did bug her since I was the one who always had to call her and I essentially had paid for a service that I clearly was not getting. I contacted a realtor friend who told me that she has heard of similar complaints about Intercounty rentals, and specifically Angela Fusselman. I asked for a refund in February and she had indicated that it would be unlikely that I would receive a refund since she had provided a service and that I had signed a contract and that it was my responsibility to check out leads on the paper she gave me - the same paper all realtors receive, (so no proprietary information was provided to me at all). A few weeks went by and I called again in March asking if she had talked to her "partner" to discuss a refund and she said that "they" would give me $50.00. I told her that I thought $100.00 would be more than fair as I was looking to get all my money back for services never rendered. After much arguing, Angela sent me a personal check in early April for $50.00. I called again in late April urging they pay $100.00, but she said she had already paid my my refund and that I had signed the contract and she was not obligated to give me any refund.