could mean a lot of things... like when you finally pay that is when you officially are a client. Right now, they are considered a customer with an audit request but not a client yet.
when the audit is finished and when they pay the bill... is usually when you can call someone a client...not just a customer.
From your post, why would they have been receiving phone calls from people 3 years ago if they were in fact working together. Sljb was private, and no-one had even heard of them. So who was calling and pestering them back then?
From your post -
They said the poor CPAs that did the work 3 years ago were getting bothered by many phone calls so they were probably not taking calls anymore
thanks for the response, i earlier stated that your original post had the probability of slightly above zero actually happening
in terms of your current response, the probabilty is now below zero
just my opinion and it is tough enough to track down former employees and co-workers while still working for a Big 4, for a complete stranger to get this info based on a dormant client of three years and verified by two offices is ummmmmm.............