For once I am glad that I can find my way around the internet! I had gone to MGR's site looking for a government grant to try and start my own business. After filling out the small survey online someone calls me within a few days. Wow talk about people who work fast. So I go thru a small little interview on the phone. None of the questions they asked involved personal information so I was comfortable with it. The lady was real nice until she informed me of the $499.00 fee payable "immediately".
Now the first thing that got me about the fee is that she tells me that with it I am guaranteed a $25,000 grant with the receipt of my money. However if for some reason I don't get the grant I am refunded my money. Perhaps someone there should look up the definition of guarantee! Okay about wanting the money immediately, well I understand some things are on a time limit but when I started to hesitate as my business is going to involve myself as well as about 3 other people and I would need to discuss it with them first... She offers to stay on the phone while I do this.??? Excuse me? It took me about another 10 minutes to get her to understand that our conversation was over as I was trying not to be rude to her. That is what led me to start doing some serious research about them online.
So I seach them using a search engine and can find nothing but rip off reports and reports of them being a scam. I read through all of this with a somewhat jaded eye. So I start doing reverse phone look ups on every number I have for them..."No data available" Okay??? So maybe they are unpublished but then why on earth would a major company out to get your business and help people get a government grant not want to be listed? Because they are a scam. Plain and simple! Then I start trying to do reverse address look up and again "No data available" okay??? I guess it pays to be from Houston and still have friends there. I have a friend drive by the address they gave me and it is a mail drop place. Sorry but I don't think so. I also tried finding them in the BBB. Funny not only are they not listed in the BBB for Houston, but when doing a nationwide search for them using the BBB website they are nowhere to be found. One of their rebuttals blames it on the office of the BBB in Houston just not being on the ball or trying to make them look bad.
Paranoid anyone? Funny when I lived in Houston I never heard anyone have a problem with the BBB not listing them. I knew of mom and pop diners that had been open only weeks that were already listed with them with no issues.
So a few more days go by and she calls again and I wasn't home so she tries to brow beat my mother (who was watching my kids while I was out) into sending the money off for me, because surely it was an oversite on my part and she wouldn't want to see me miss out on this oppurtunity before they give it to someone else. Thankfully my mother is smarter than that! In the course of about a week they called me a total of about 8 times. They seemed to catch me while I was out. Well finally they manage to call when I am home and my roommate decides to handle the call as by this time I have lost my ability to deal with them anyone without getting rude. He politely tells the woman that we are not interested and then she becomes rude. He tells her after we researched them we want nothing to do with them. She starts talking about how she told me to research how much I needed for the business if I wanted more than $25,000 not research them. Gee wonder why she didn't want me to do my homework on where my money went? He explains to her that after reading report after report online that they are nothing but a scam we decided not to risk it, tells her goodbye and hangs up on her halfway thru her torrent of excuses.
Sadly they couldn't even leave well enough alone. She waits about 5 minutes and has the nerve to call back. This time (I guess she forgot about the wonderful invention of caller ID) she sits on the phone saying nothing. My roomate proceeds to start singing "Henry VIII" to her. He starts on the second verse and she decided to say something. She starts in on him about how they aren't a scam and how she doesn't know where we got our information but that it was wrong. He asks "If you aren't a scam then why is it out of the millions of people online no one steps up and speaks out for them and says Hey these people are ligit I got money from them"? Good question. Her answer is that they "have testimonials on their site". Um excuse me... You paid a web designer to put only what you wanted people to see on a website. N oone else that I have found online wherever MGR solutions is discussed has anything positive to say (I know and I am adding to it). Our final question after about 20 minutes of her being obstinate on my phone about how they weren't a scam (Um who are they trying to convince? Me or themselves?) we finally asked her..."If you are in such a hurry to get my money or you are going to give my grant to someone else... Why are you still on my phone and not someone else's Goodbye!"
In short... If they aren't a scam then they sure are acting like it and there are far too many questions they cannot answer. If it looks like a scam, acts like a scam and they can't answer 90% of the questions that most ligitimate businesses answer on a daily basis then chances are it is a scam. Save your $499 people and keep looking for your dreams elsewhere.
Chelle
Conway, Arkansas
U.S.A.
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