Ok. So I guess I am another sucker. I will admit, I didn't do my research first but The Grant People, Inc are sweet talkers.
All the same things happened to me that have already been reported on here. The Grant People, Inc called me and said that they could get my small business a grant and all I would have to pay is $5000. So, I overnighted them a check for $2500 with an agreement that the balance would be paid upon receipt of a grant for $100,000. About 20 days later I received a fax saying that The Grant People, Inc had found 7 foundations that matched with my company and on the fax cover it stated that I needed to call to set up a phone interview for further information.
On Feb 15 I had my phone interview. I was first told that a foundation had accepted my company and was going to award us a $500,000 grant. The downside, I would have to put 5% of the grant money into a community impact group account and give it to non profit organizations within a 60 mile radius of my business. Okay, this isn't bad...$25,000, I go to church plus there is other non-profits in our area. Then the guy told me that I would need a 400-600 page report documenting "who i am". This report had to be complete and submitted by Feb 26th. Okay, again this isn't bad because The Grant Company, Inc had someone that could do this report for me. Oh wait! For $12,500. I thought my total investment was $5000. Anyway, I fell into the sweet talk of the guy and told him I would go with it. I mean, if I am getting $500,000 what is a total investment of $17000. So, I told the guy we would go with it, faxed him a copy of the check that I would be sending out by FedeEx the next day. I waited on Saturday for FedEx to come an they never did. I called and left our contact a message saying that they didn't show up.
Has anyone ever told you that some things happen for a reason? Well they do! Because FedEx didn't pick up the check it gave my wife and I some time to think about what we had done. Monday morning we were contacted by The Grant People, Inc (returning my call from Saturday) and were told he was really sorry, he had forgot to have his secretary set up the pick up and he had rescheduled it for Monday.
So, I contacted my attorney. We went over a few things and he said he was going to call our contact and ask him a few questions. My attorney called me back and let me know that all his questions were answered except when he asked how many grants The Grant People, Inc have secured in the past 12 months. He was told that they are not able to release that information.
While talking to my attorney FedEx had come to pick up the check and I had made the decision not to send it until I had a couple more questions answered. About an hour later, my contact called because they had received notice that our check was not picked up.
We had a pretty extensive call. I asked him to speak with the owner of the company because supposedly the owner is the only one that can release information about how many grants they do. I talked to him about all the reports we saw on usacomplaints.com. He said that it was all the same person, an ex owner that was doing a smear compaign. Anyway, so I don't bore you any longer... The final income was, I asked him if I could have one more night to think about it and he said no. So we didn't pay the $12,500.
Was it a scam? I guess we will never know because we didn't take the chance. Is there anyone out there that did?
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