Beware Connex Group - empty promises, money seeking Aggressive sales approach did not deliver promised service New York New York

I was contacted in May 2015 by Robert Patteri of Connex Group. They are basically a "matchmaker" lead gen service for small to medium businesses.

Their salesperson, Robert, promised "Thorough qualified leads, 3 meetings into the sales process. Buyers, not lookers. Decision makers with budgets, actively seeking what you are selling. We love to work with companies like you, to cut through the noise in the market and provide you with business opportunities you could easily obtain on your own." 

As a consultant in an increasingly competitive space, I had been looking to align myself with strategic partners who have clients that want my services - so this was in alignment for me. At $3000/introduction, I expected them to be qualified as promised. 

What really happened, in a nutshell, was this: 

The introductions (at $3000 each) were barely more than cold calling could have achieved. 7 of the 9 introductions were NOT qualified decision makers, nor were they seeking my services. I was told by two other vendors at the conference where the introductions were made "The members who attend these conferences are invited to come for free, in exchange for taking meetings with vendors." Thus, they are essentially fulfilling a meeting quota with incentives to meet with vendors. 

When I complained that the  meetings did not reflect their promised qualifications criteria as spelled out in their contract I was told "We will give you more meetings, better meetings, but in order to do so we need another $7500."  Unfortunately, I didn't have it. I had taken a retirement loan to pay them the $15k and was counting on winning contracts as a result, based on everything I was told during the selling process. 

In 5 months, my situation did not improve. It has become very competitive in my space; I spend more time than ever writing proposals for less business, and most of my waking hours are spent trying to figure out a solution to my problem - whether to find a job or contract work at this point. I offered to pay Connex $25/month as a good-faith effort, until I could sort out how to meet their demands. They refused, cancelled my contract, then served me with a $45,000 lawsuit in New York, which I have no hope of defending as I live in Colorado and cannot afford to hire an attorney. 

Not only does the lawsuit lie (claiming they fulfilled 100% of the contracted services - ie, 20 meetings - which was untrue), they expressed "friendly" offers to pay them more money, but provided no specific explanations or confidence as to HOW would anything be different if I did. 

I am fully responsible for my plight. I'm not blaming Connex for my troubles. I am simply complaining vocally and visibly, about a company who takes $15,000 from a customer, does not deliver as promised, will not correct their end of the contract, then sues me for $45,000 KNOWING I cannot pay it, likely forcing bankruptcy on top of everything else. To me, this is the absolute worst side of capitalism, honestly.  

I filed complaints to the BBB in New York, and Consumer Protection Division. This company poses as an above-board business, and probably in some cases make introductions that lead to business - but there have also been 3 complaints filed against them with the BBB in New York thus far, and I'm hopeful that continuing to expose the tactics they are using might save at least one small business the trouble of finding out what they're really about, the hard way.