I found this scam on a website that said that this company was one of the few legitimate companies that offered information on government grants. When I went to the site it said I would only need to pay $1.98 s/h for a "free" CD. I ordered the CD on November 6. After placing my order a confirmation page came up and explained that I would have a 7-day free trial and that the CD would take 5-10 business days to arrive. The CD took about over 2 weeks to arrive. When I received my credit card bill I saw the s/h charge on 11/6, but further down the list I noticed another charge from them on 11/14 for $69.95! I never authorized any charge from them other than the s/h charge of $1.98!
I called the company on 12/17 and demanded that they credit my account. The representative that I spoke to said that if I hadn't canceled my "membership" within the free trial period that I would be charged $69.95/mo. She said that all that she could do was cancel my "membership" but would not be able to refund my money. I hadn't even received the CD yet on the date that I was charged this amount. I decided to call back the following night. I told them that I would file a complaint with the BBB and the state's Attorneys General in both Utah and my state of Pennsylvania. I was put on hold and when the representative returned she said that she had authorized a credit to my credit card account and that it would take 3-5 business days to post. I thought that the issue had been resolved.
When I received my statement for the following month, I noticed that they had credited my account on 12/20, but while I was looking through my list of charges, I noticed that there was another charge for $69.95 from them made on 12/14! I called them again on 1/13 to demand a credit for this charge. Again I was told that they could not credit my account. I was also told that the credit that I had received was for this most recent charge. Never once was this second charge mentioned either of the first two times that I had called them. They had to have known of this charge when I had spoken to them, but I did not know until the following month when I received my next bill. I threatened again to file complaints with the BBB and the state's Attorneys General, but she wouldn't budge.
I went ahead and filed my complaints with those agencies and immediately called my credit card company to dispute the charge. A few weeks later I received a letter from my credit card company telling me that the dispute had been resolved, and that they had credited my account.
Also at the bottom of their confirmation page they say that I will be provided unlimited access for 21 days to the "Ideal Wealth Builder Club (IWB Club)." Again they do not mention that I need to cancel this "membership." Along with the unauthorized charge of $69.95 from "The Grant University", I also received an unauthorized charge of $29 from IWB. I called them up to inquire about this charge and the representative explained to me that I had enrolled in their club from another company online. I informed him that I never had any contact with or authorized any charges from IWB, and that I had no idea how they got a hold of my personal information. He then agreed to credit my account and have not seen any future charges from them. Obviously, "The Grant University" gave or sold my information to IWB, which is illegal!
I hope this helps out anyone out who's had a similar situation.
FYI: If you're having trouble getting through to The Grant University's customer service line, call after 7PM. My call was answered within a few minutes every time.
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