Angry and frustrated youth sports directors continued to ask probing questions Wednesday about the troubling situation at Bellevue-based Count Me In, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing online registration fees that have left soccer, baseball and lacrosse clubs across the country scrambling.

"It is not looking good," said Sandra Smith, president of youth softball league in San Dieguito, Calif., on about $15,000 in missing online registration fees through Count Me In.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Attorney General's Office said they had processed half a dozen complaints against the company as of Wednesday afternoon, including three so far this week from Alaska and California. The spokeswoman declined to say whether a formal investigation had been started. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle also declined to comment on whether federal authorities were pursuing the matter.

We also obtained an e-mail that CEO Terry Drayton sent to a customer earlier this week, which apologizes for the financial strain the situation has placed on organizations and notes that Count Me In expects to receive funds in order pay the money in full.

"We are in the same boat as everyone else, just waiting and wondering," said Mario Conte, who used Count Me In for his Jacksonville, Florida youth golf tour. Conte, who fears that the online registration service will be shut down, says he's missing $40,000 in back payments from Count Me In.

That's about the same amount missing from Earthquake Lacrosse in southern California, where director Chris Driggs said he has canceled a trip home for Christmas because of the financial strain on his startup lacrosse league. Driggs said he's received little communication from Count Me In since the problems arose, noting that they "come through with broken promises every time."

"My basic question is, where is the money? And what did (they) spend it on?" asks Driggs. "They have kept everything such a secret that your frustration turns to anger."

Here's a copy of the Dec. 8 email: (Note, names and emails have been removed)

We received your inquiry about a late remittance payment for your organization due from Count Me In Corporation.

We apologize for a standardized email response but we have a small team and cannot respond to each client individually or with a phone call. Here’s a summary of where we are at the moment: ·

--We are working with investors to resolve the issues and provide the funds necessary to pay you. This is our number one priority.

--We are in negotiations and will report to you via email when we have an announcement on that. We expect substantive news in the next 7-10 days. ·

--We currently expect that we will obtain the funds to pay your organization in full.

--We will send you a weekly progress report via email until this is resolved.

--We cannot provide your organization a payment plan as the timing and amount of future funding is uncertain.

--We will not make promises we do not know with 100% certainty can be kept. We may have done that in the past but we will not do it in the future.

--We understand the difficult position this puts your organization in and are sincerely apologetic.

--We will continue to provide hosting for your website, access to the Rainier desktop and full technical support for your organization while we work to resolve this.

Finally, we recognize that you have current programs and upcoming registrations and will understandably be concerned about increasing your financial exposure. We have a simple option to eliminate any risk: we will work with you to set-up your own credit card account so that all future funds flow directly to your organization. This can be done in a day or two and you can get details of how to set it up automatically by sending an email to clientMOR@rainiersupport.com.

Another advantage of this option is that you will not need to find, pay and migrate to another service provider. Until we resolve the issues we will provide our services and credit our fees towards reducing the amount owed to you.

Sincerely,

Count Me In Corporation