James
Disappointing
Overall experience was disappointing. Darrin was great at selling his team and pushing me to pay for a higher level of service. He insisted that I hire two of his detectives instead of one for high-impact conversations with the leads I gave him, with the aim of collecting useful information. There were many pieces of information that the team could have collected, thus many ways to make this job a success. But Darrin's team collected nothing. Based on the job report they produced, the conversations that his team had with the persons of interest were very innocuous, which came as a big disappointment given that I thought I was hiring a 2nd PI for "high-impact conversations".
Response from North American InvestigationsSep 19, 2016
James, I appreciate when a client leaves a review as we always want to be able to hear honest feedback and improve our services for clients however all the facts should be cited. I take detailed notes when speaking to clients in order to be effective. We initially talked on 7/25/16 where we spoke for 18 Minutes regarding a criminal investigation that has occurred on 07/16/16. This was a serious case involving a violent assault which potentially could of ended up with an arrest and a large civil law suit on your behalf. I was very thorough in explaining our services, methods, fees and answered all your questions. I explained that this types of criminal investigation would require at least 3 days worth of investigative work which would include a myriad of services. I explained in detail why having two investigators over one in this circumstance would be a better option, this was discussed at length. All these matters were discussed prior to you hiring us. Additionally, I explained that when it comes to interviewing potentials witnesses especially in a criminal matter the sooner that we are able to deploy the better it could be as witnesses start forgetting important details, get cold feet, and can be harder to locate, etc. I indicated that 10 days had already past since the incident had occurred and that it was urgent for us to start working on the investigation. I sent you my contact information and details for you to research us to aid in your decision to hire us. You did not hire us until another sixteen day later on 08/09/16 so now 26 days has past since the incident. At that time you only wanted us to work for one day with one investigator, I urged you to consider using two detectives in which you ultimately hired us for 1 day with 2 investigators. I also articulated that there was no guarantee and we would put forward our best efforts under the constraints. Moreover, during the time between our initial consultation and until you retained us you also decided to take matters into your own hands to be your own investigator by contacting and making inquiries to potential witnesses which again I had advised you not to do. You indicated that you wanted to talk to people involved and I responded 100% do not get involved and talk to anyone. Your actions proved to be detrimental to the case. The two field investigators who worked on your case were highly experienced former high grade NYPD detectives, one was a former Detective-Sergeant who was in charge of all Homicide investigations for a whole borough of NYC. The second was a FBI-NYPD Joint task force detective with many accolades. I truly believe if you had followed our advice, hired us for the recommended time and hired us sooner you would of been a satisfied client. Solving a criminal cases with may components and people involved is a tall order for one day and that is why we advised you a case like this needs more time. I certainly empathize with your situation and wish you the best of luck. Thank you. Darrin