Client being ripped off or is it worth it?

Hello everyone, My client and I are based in Western Australia and are aiming for local rankings throughout our state. We are in a highly competitive niche (financial advice) and competing against businesses that have been around for 20+ years and have 1000+ 5star google reviews. My client has been working with another local SEO agency that boasts 50 employees and has been paying them $6000AUD or $3800USD +GST (10% tax) for the past 6months ($36,000). Currently we have 8 shit backlink submissions to non credible websites (from what I can tell), 500 or LESS impressions from within the entirety of Australia not even just our state and ZERO click throughs (all GSC data). I am worried that A. My client has wasted his money B. My client has wasted his time C. My client will continue to waste both time and money And D. How long do we have to wait to see results? I am under the impression my client has been completely ripped off. They take "2 weeks for content optimisation rounds" which are basic web pages. The entire website has yet to be optimised, no blog posts and only those 8 backlinks which I couldn't even find on semrush a week ago. I am unsure what work we could have expected from another agency, what are the regular turn around times etc. I am by no means an SEO expert and I have limited/basic experience. I am however not an idiot (at least I think so) and by the looks of it my client has been ripped off. Help and advice is HIGHLY appreciated!