Here is a copy of the letter that I was asked to write the lady that was in charge of the "Customer care" dept.
To All This Concerns, 11/17
My name is Stephanie and I am writing this letter because I am VERY upset about how your company is conducting its business. To give you a little background on myself I have been currently looking for grants online so this is where I presume you all got my information to call me.
When I received a phone call on November 2nd of 2005 a sales man from you company had contacted me and told me that I was pre approved for a loan of no less than $12,500. I cannot quite remember the name of the sales man and the more I think about it I don't think that he ever told me.
Along with this pre-approval he asked me if I had the $49.95 in my checking account within 48 hours so that they (your company) could take the $49.95 out as the transaction fee to deposit the No Less Than $12,500 into my account. The Sales Agent I presume also asked me if I would like this deposited in 3 payments or if I wanted them just to put it all in at once.
I told the man on the phone that I would just like it all at once and he then asked for my checking account information. I had repeatedly asked him several times before I gave him the information if this deposit was a guarantee. He assured me several times that it was a guarantee the amount of again
No less that $12,500 would be in my account in 48 hours from the time of our phone call. I even wrote it down word for word what he had said to me. I have been struggling with money very badly for the last several years and this was just the answer I was looking for. The man told me that because I had been a taxpayer for so many years that this is how I approved for this grant. He then put a lady on the line that gave me what he had said was an 800 number and a conformation number.
So feeling very assured because of his constant reassurance I gave the man my information. When nothing had come in or out of my account by Friday November 4th I was a little concerned but I had just figured with that large of a transaction it might take a few days. I called my bank to ask them if anything was trying to go in or out they had informed me that nothing was showing up yet. I tried to call on Saturday the 5th but after being on hold for 30 minutes I had to hang up.
When Monday the 7th came around I called the 800 number that I was given and spoke to a lady that had played back the information I gave the automated machine and I was under the assumption that the man had led me to believe that I was only allowed 1 grant a year and the lady had told me that it had not been transacted yet because I had to sign a paper that was being mailed to me that stated I knew that I could only receive one of these grants yearly.
I told they lady that I understood and that I would wait for the paper. All of this so far is making logical sense to me. So I waited for a few days and still nothing had come in the mail and nothing except the $49.95 had been taken out of my account.
We are now on Thursday the 10th and nothing is going on. So once again I called your customer care department and the next lady I had spoken to informed me that the $49.95 was a one time non refundable fee that you charge just for signing up.
By now I am a very escalated person and she then told me that she would go ahead and move my cancellation date for the now NEW FEE that I just hear about of $299.99. I told the lady that I was told that this was only if I signed up. Which I had not been informed that I was signing up for anything and that it was all optional.
I told the lady that if I was set up for this to be taken out of my account that I wanted this cancelled right now. The lady had informed me that I needed to call back the next day to cancel this. I had asked her if I could speak to a manager and she told me that none were available and again to call the next day to cancel this. She also told me that she would put in a request to have a manager contact me within 24-48 hours.
I called back on the following Friday but your company must have been closed because I was on hold for 45 minutes. Monday the 14th I called your customer service department again and the lady told me that you were closed and that she would cancel the program.
At first I had requested to have the $49.95 put back into my account and she had then informed me that this was non refundable and I had asked once again to speak to a manager and I would wait all day to speak to one if I had to because no one had called me back from the last phone conversation I had.
She told me that she would put in another request and I told her that I didn't want a request I wanted to speak to a manager. I really hope that as a consumer or even as an everyday person you can understand why I am so escalated. After taking up an hour of the girls time I told her I would except a call back if it happened that day.
She told me she would put in the request and here it is Thursday the 17th and I once again had to call the customer care department and the gentleman that I spoke to this time gave me this fax number and told me to fax you a letter and a copy of my bank statement to have this issue resolved.
I feel that I have been VERY mislead and taken advantage of since day one and I am now even very nervous that more money will come out of my account. The ONLY reason I would have ever have given my account information is if I have been reassured and been give a conformation number and I really thought that I was speaking to someone reliable but your company has given me a scare and a huge loss of trust.
Not only in companies like yours but in myself for being so comfortable and trusting. I would really like to have this resolved before further action has to be taken.
After trying to fax the letter to the dept. Several times I got a message that the fax number is no longer in service and the customer care people first hung up on me and then they tried to assure me that it was working and then told me to call the next day because they may have been having technical difficulties. I tried again and once again it is still disconnected. So now I'm at a loss.
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