Complaint / Review
National Small Business Alliance
Ripoff Fraudulent, Deceptive, and Unfair trade Practices

I'm writing to you about fraudulent and deceptive trade practices by the National Small Business Alliance, based in Washington DC.

Late last year, they contacted us via phone with an offer of an $8,000 line of credit. We signed up for the service, for which we paid an initial fee (I believe it was around $100) and had 30 days to review the material to see if it was for us or not.

Turns out the $8,000 line of credit could ONLY be used for travel or for a computer store through their own stores and was not a true line of credit as it had been presented to us. They instead said it could be used for "such things as" computers, travel, etc. Also, rather than waiting for the 30-day review period to end, they debited our bank account within 10 days for the full year's subscription— not the monthly fee that they'd said it would be— directly from our bank account without our prior knowledge or consent, making our total payout of $339.35 without any beneficial services.

I called and cancelled the service within the 30-day period and also sent them an e-mail to confirm this. I was told I would receive a refund within 30 days. I called after the 30 days expired and they said that it was 30 business days and not 30 calendar days and that the check was scheduled to be cut at that time.

I just called today and was told that they had not received our "welcome packet" that supposedly was to have been returned to them. This was the first I'd heard of any such thing even though I'd contacted them twice by phone and once by e-mail. The woman I spoke with, Denise, claims it's in verbal contract and in the welcome letter that the packet's return was part of the conditions for a refund. I doubt either of these are true but, like any normal and reasonable person, I am sure I threw out their material after it was clear it was not for us.

So far, they continue to refuse to refund the money or to connect me with any other supervisor or provide me with the name of their corporate attorney.

I'd like to spread the word about these people and if you'd like to look into them, I am sure there are 100s of other small businesses that went through the same thing.