Apologies, I was trying to be vague, and as a result I didn't clearly get all the information across that I needed to.

1) I was speaking to one of the owners. The email wasn't short, it was, for lack of a better term, whimsical, and this is from someone who has a pretty informal email manner. The subject was changed from the "Re: Let's schedule a meeting", to "August Meeting!!! :)" by the owner.

2) They completely changed their business strategy. Previously (and when I was speaking to them), it was a moderately sized agency with 50+ employees, they decided to close the agency, and just have the two owners work as consultants. This is obviously something that would take some forethought, something the gentleman admitted as such to me.

3) I spoke to them in March, and decided to set up the meeting on the first weekend of August, it was to be over lunch, and they would contact me regarding time and place. Contacted them again in June, as they had restructured their website, and I wanted to compliment them as well as check in that we were still on for our meeting in August. They thanked me for the compliment, said they were looking forward to seeing me. Having not heard from them, I emailed last Wednesday, two and a half weeks before we were supposed to meet, where I got the following email:

Thanks so much for following up :) Let me fill you in a bit on [Company] happenings.

[Partner] and I (after much deliberation) realized that an agency format is not the direction we wanted to continue to pursue. That being said we no longer have a need for a staff. Since everyone who has worked at [Company] has started their own company we utilize them as resources to outsource work we may have (very cool).

Sorry that news may not align with our last conversation but it's the best decision moving forward for us and the company. My plans have changed as well and it's likely I'll be out of town for much of August.

Is there anything I can do to help you get where you want to go [my name]?

Rock Your World,

[Owner]

4) The non refundable expenses are rental car and hotels, but in all honesty, as irritated as I am, I realize nothing can be done in regards to this company. It's a wash, it sucks that I lost that time, but whatever. At this point, I'm trying to make the best of it by reaching out to other companies in the area to try and set up meetings at that time. I sent cold emails mentioning that the company that I was interviewing with referred me, but now I wonder if this unprofessionalism on their part is harming me by associating with them.