Tech firm refuses refund over problem-plagued $55k software product amid tumultuous company history

A customer has demanded a $55k refund for a product that doesn’t work as promised, while staff at the company continue to leave.

The boss of a disability care provider has been left fuming after paying $55,000 for a product that she claims doesn’t work.

Sarah MacRae, the managing director of NSW-based 24/7 Care Services, is issuing a warning against Sydney tech company D365 Group after the tech firm left her with a dud product.

She took out a $55,000 loan to fund a CRM (standing for customer relationship management) system for her business, a single platform meant to streamline the booking and payment methods for her 43 clients.

D365 Group started building the software in August last year, with promises it would be done by October.

Instead, Ms MacRae only received the final product in June and she said it doesn’t work the way she was promised.

“It’s hard when you’re paying $1500 a month for a program you can’t use,” she told news.com.au.

“Now I’m using Excel documents, hours and hours of my time, doing everything manually.”

She contacted D365 Group for help but says they have “dumped us” and severed all contact.

News.com.au contacted D365 Group for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

This is not the first time D365 Group - which builds software for health, real estate and accounting services with offices in Sydney and Melbourne - has made headlines.

News.com.au previously reported that 50 per cent of D365 Group’s staff had quit the firm in the space of a year after their superannuation went unpaid for months, and many were not paid their final wages, leading to one staff member sending a sensational company-wide email advising everyone to “get out while you can”.

Sarah MacRae put her life savings into the business, but now there’s a $55,000 hole in her expenses from her failed venture with D365 Group.

24/7 Care Services launched last year but staff are using pieces of paper and Excel documents to keep track of clients, payments and bookings.

Ms MacRae launched 24/7 Care Services just over a year ago, headquartered in the Central Coast north of Sydney, after working at another disability provider for 25 years.

Her company provides National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) care to those eligible under the program.

Around July last year, she saw a demo from D365 Group showing the CRM system and she said it “looked great”.

Soon she engaged D365 Group to build the system but months later, says it does not do what was promised to her.

“All my savings, I put everything on the line (for this business),” she said.

“It was that or nothing. I was already taking that huge jump, to clock this hit on top, was hard.”

She said part of the deal was for the system to be built and implemented, slated to cost $55,000, while a further $1500 would need to be paid every month for the licences and operation of the system.

When the CRM finally went live, there was a bit of back and forth between herself and D365 group as she said she pointed out various ways it did not work.

In a trail of emails seen by news.com.au, there were several issues with the tech, including there being no way to add billing or general details and the inability to schedule anything, for either customers or her staff.

An independent IT contractor wrote to Ms MacRae and D365 Group that the platform “was not ready for UAT (user acceptance testing), if it was ready for UAT nearly all the issues I have encountered wouldn’t have happened.”

The same contractor later wrote “I have attempted to perform basic tasks in the environment while following the guides to find that in some instances, get stuck and can’t continue testing, making it impossible to actually test the system.”

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How the system was meant to work.

To date D365 Group has not issued any kind of refund.

Ms MacRae claims D365 has severed contact with her.

“They left us and said they’d done their job, if we wanted anymore support from them we needed to pay,” she said.

“The costs are getting deeper and deeper. We’re getting nowhere, we’re getting no response from them.”

“It’s just ridiculous,” Ms MacRae added.

“As a small NDIS provider, we rely heavily on streamlined and reliable systems to ensure the wellbeing and safety of our clients.

“The current situation not only jeopardises our ability to deliver quality care but also undermines our commitment to meeting the needs and expectations of our clients and their families.”

With 43 customers, and 30 staff members working under her, and now having to resort to doing all the payments and bookings manually, “that’s a lot of work”, according to the company director.

Ms MacRae has since ended her $1500 licence fees to pay for the tech and has lodged a complaint with Fair Trading NSW. She plans to take D365 Group to court next.

NSW Fair Trading confirmed with news.com.au that they had received a complaint about the company.

An email sent to D365 Group staff last year, amid allegations they were not being paid.

Another NDIS provider who preferred to remain anonymous previously told news.com.au they hired D365 Group for a CRM interface, to create online systems that would organise their customer’s information.

“We did credit references on D365 Group, they came back positive,” the NDIS provider spokesperson told news.com.au.

“But subsequent to that, both of those referees have come back to me and apologised.”

They worked with the technology company over an 18 month period but when they were given the final product, they claim it didn’t work. This was in July last year.

“We spent $200,000. We have a finance system that is the lowest possible functioning level and a CRM that we don’t use.

“We’re managing in Excel what we should have been doing on a system.”

For an idea of how much it has cost the company, the employee said: “Our budgeted profit for this financial year was $241,000.”

When they reached out to D365 Group for support, their emails did not receive a response.

Finally, they decided they wanted to cut ties with the IT firm to have their services transferred over to another Microsoft Gold Partner.

They had to copy in D365 Group’s financial backer for this to be actioned.

James Turnbull used to work for D365 Group and says his reputation has been tarnished by bringing clients on board, but then the company was unable to complete jobs.

Mr Turnbull quit without another job lined up as he said “the wheels were falling off” the company. He is owed final wages and his superannuation and leave entitlements.

News.com.au previously spoke to 10 former employees of D365 Group who are owed unpaid wages and superannuation ranging from $7,000 to $45,000.

The Australian Taxation Office and the Fair Work Ombudsman are currently investigating the company.

David Wakeman worked as the chief technology officer at D365 Group for just shy of two years.

In his final months at the firm he realised his superannuation wasn’t being paid and he finally resigned in November 2021 after his request for a holiday was rejected.

In total, he is owed $45,000 from his ex-employer, and has yet to see a cent.

In July last year, a senior executive sent an email to around 30 staff at D365 Group.

In the email, leaked to news.com.au, the employee encouraged his colleagues to use up all their holiday leave and check they were receiving superannuation and that tax had been correctly paid.

The email read: “Please check to make sure that you are: Getting paid super, End of year tax has been paid and you can do your tax returns. Use all of your holidays ASAP …

“Get out while you can.”

It caused quite the stir. Mr Wakeman says there has been a “nearly 100 per cent turnover” at his old firm, as he does not know anyone still working there while he was an employee.

“I don’t know anybody still working” there, he added.

Mr Wakeman said he feels “ripped off” from the whole situation.

Then there’s James Turnbull, in his 50s, who worked at D365 Group for 18 months and was eventually promoted to Chief Technology Officer when Mr Wakeman left before he too quit. The ex-CTO claims he is owed around $20,000 from months of unpaid super, one week of wages and 240 hours of accrued leave.

Another eight employees are also owed substantial sums.

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Originally published as Tech firm refuses refund over problem-plagued $55k software product amid tumultuous company history