I was seeking grant funding to help jump start my Graphic Design/Illustration business. My wife and I had lost our jobs - me in 2007 and she in 2009. We were depending on her income to help carry us until the business began to grow. However, in October of she fell and fractured her hip joint. Of course we had no health insurance and she was immobile for 10 weeks causing us to rely on our savings and retirement funds along with the unemployment benefits. Thankfully she recovered but financially we were struggling. Knowing that I had to really start moving with my business caused me to look for ways to help jump start it and the only way that I knew was through grants. I responded to a grant ad that came into my email inbox. It wasn't long after my response that I was contacted by Compass National. The gentleman who called seemed to be a knowledgeable person with lots of details about grants as well as helpful suggestions in finding grant funding. We spent about 45 minutes over the phone and most of the time spent was giving him information about my business, my veteran status (US Army '69 - #039;71), my needs to make my business successful, my projections for future growth, etc. He then proceeded to inform me that with all the criteria in place, I qualified for 168K in grant funding and that with an initial retainer of 3K he could start the process. I told him that I would need to discuss this with my wife and he agreed to contact me on the next day. We knew we didn't have the 3K as a retainer (I borrowed it from my parents). We sent the retainer to Compass National, signed a Service Agreement which would give them an additional $6400 once half of the grant funding amount was put into my business account. I was also advised to put together a business plan that would be used in the grant search packet. All of this was done and for a period of weeks I had no communication from anyone at Compass National. Then, I received a call from someone at Interlanfinancial. They explained to me that they worked with Compass National and were responsible for putting the grant search packets together and while my business plan looked very good, it needed to be custom done to meet the specifications of each funding source. That would mean that I would need to pay an additional $3200 minimum for them to do so. They actually wanted the entire $6400 remaining on the agreement. I refused to do so explaining that my Service Agreement stated that I would not be required to pay any additional money until one half of the promised amount was in my business account. The representative was persistent and I continued to remind him about my service agreement and informed him that I would send it to him via email for his review. I then asked him what would the results be if I didn't pay the $3200 and he said that Interlanfinancial needed the funds in order to move forward with the packets being done to best help my chances of getting funding. I refused and we cut off our conversation. Weeks later, I was contacted by the same rep and we went through the same issue. Once again, I explained the Service Agreement to him and we ended our conversation. No communication at all with Compass National. A week or so later, another rep contacted me from Interlanfinancial with the same scenario. However, this time the rep said that after review, I now qualified for $248K in grant funding but would need the additional $3200 to get the packets together. I explained to him my Service Agreement and how I was not paying any additional money until one half of the promised funding amount was in my business account. We got a bit heated and ended the conversation. I never heard from anyone via telephone again but did receive emails from a customer service person regarding my misunderstanding about their not moving forward seeking funding because I would not pay the additional amount. She explained that they were still moving forward and seeking funding. She also stated to me that they were a sub-contractor of Compass National which led me to respond to them that I am not obligated to pay for a sub-contractor's charges but rather Compass National should be the responsible party. It has now been over one year since I signed a service agreement with Compass National (October 24) with a gentleman named Charles Cangelosi. I have not seen a single penny from Compass National nor have I received any returned communications from my emails to them or Interlanfinancial. I have tried to seek a refund via the Better Business Bureau in Nevada to no avail as well as contacted the Attorney General's Office in Nevada to no avail. When I first checked Compass National out on the BBB site their rating was a B. I felt that they were legitimate and seemed to be interested in working for me. I am angry that they knew my situation and did this. I had no other means to find financial help at that time and I feel that they should pay me back the full amount. To this day, I still have not seen a penny from them.
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