Oh yeah that's a good point. These little shits were using their accountant reputation as a reason why they can be trusted and would "never do anything wrong against their customers."
Well then guys, I think it's time we all follow up on our end of the bargain and make sure they lose all their licenses. Time to get going, shall we :}
Not sure you can get the accountants legally in trouble.
But what I'm REALLY surprised is that they didn't tell their little brother that a delayed filing for insolvency can cause a lot of trouble in a court. But maybe they advised him very carefully, and all this asking for more money and making customers stakeholders is actually legal.
I think Alpha probably was under water or insolvent long ago IF they had properly accounted for their assets/liabilities, the latter including refunds to customers.
I'd really suggest the route retro72 and others recommended. E.g. I simply would have filed a small claims court case if I hadn't gotten my money back via the CC. I'm curious how the legal system works anyways, so that would have been interesting.
Quick update on this.
Alpha-Tech challenged the credit card chargeback claiming that their T&C does not allow for refunds and that the product is about to ship(!)
I wrote to the credit card bank reiterating that they have not delivered a single unit by now and that I'm not paying for a product that I didn't receive. Otherwise I would have to file a small claims court and add the bank as a defendant as I expect Alpha Tech to go bankrupt.
The credit card bank agreed that Alpha Tech has not conformed to Mastercard rules and has upheld my refund. However, they said that it is possible that Alpha Tech would challenge the chargeback again going forward, and that the dispute would be reactivated then.