This company very subtly attached their service and fee to a very inexpensive offer on the internet for government grant funding information. Their services were offered free for 21 days, and at the end of those 21 days, a fee would automatically be withdrawn from the bank account with which we paid the $1.98 shipping fee for the "free" cd we received that was filled with information to help us compose a request for a government grant.
My wife and I had been searching for information that would help us file for a government grant that was not going to cost us a fortune and felt so "lucky" to run across this offer. I will admit, as it was very late in the day (early in the morning) we did not read all the terms attached to this "fantastic" offer. We were so excited to find that we could receive information about government grants that we signed up for the cd. What we failed to read in the terms and would later greatly regret is this business attaches a free 21 day free trial during which we would receive a free 1 hour financial consultation. At the end of the 21 day free trial, we would be billed $29.95 for access to the Ideal Wealth Builder Club.
At no time did this business contact us, either by mail, e-mail, or telephone, to remind us of the offer we had unknowingly accepted. We now have a new understanding of the phrase "Let the buyer beware." The company did withdraw the amount of $29.95 from our bank account automatically after the 21 days. The real problem here is the "subtle" way its fee is included in an offer such as this.
We did not request, and so did not receive, the 1 hour free financial consultation because we were not aware we had agreed to such. We only realized it after checking our bank account online. It was a complete fluke that there was enough money in the account to cover that withdrawal because we often need to take our account down to a bare minimum from payday to payday. We would have been even more angry had this withdrawal overdrawn our account.
At this time, we realize how foolish we obviously were by neglecting to read ALL of the terms of this request for the "helpful" cd we were going to acquire. We only wish we knew if there were any course of action we could take to recover the $29.95 that was withdrawn. We are a 1 income home, and that amount can mean the difference between having groceries (or not) in our house. We have already made the necessary phone call to the company (and, of course, got a recording stating they would return the call within 24 hours). This membership we did not even realize we had "signed" for is about to be emphatically terminated.
We will no longer be foolish enough not to read EVERY word in the terms section of EVERYTHING we ever find online again. We wanted to make this report to warn other unsuspecting people who search the web looking for information on government grants. Don't give out any information until you have read every word in the terms. You will do wise to live by the phrase "Let the buyer beware."
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