Hello RIP OFF Editors and Chief's of Staff and all others that may see this document,
I do have a good one to add to the latest about "The Grant People" and all that other great stuff that goes on behind the scenes of that beloved company.
They were recently in court over a civil lawsuit for a non-compete agreement with another company "Grant Research of America, Inc." There were multiple parties indicated in the civil lawsuit including myself as you could pull for yourself from their own documents "Joseph Hall Ballard Jr." They said on the formal date of June 1st when the last court date was that they hired detectives and such to track me down and serve my papers, but I was no where to be found so therefore right now there is nothing that they are doing against me until the new trial or if they try to subpoena me.
This is what happened and how I came to be named in the lawsuit, which pissed me off since I never signed the non compete agreement with "Grant Research of America, Inc." or "The Grant People". I did sign one that was for "USA Grants", but that company never actually sued me. When I left "The Grant People" originally I got transferred to "Grant Research of America, Inc." an associated company ran by a different person, but was owned by the owners of "The Grant People". This broke their original non-compete agreement, since I was working for a "competitor" of "The Grant People"
I worked on their sales force for about 2 weeks and then I took over their profiling, research, customer service, and covered their administration work when needed. I busted my ass for them thinking the whole time, since I was told this is the ways it worked and the other company had the proper back end support to do the work that was required by the contractual agreement that we had.
I was told that there was a full blown letter writing department, which there is but they do not do their job properly since they do not allocate the funding properly to the individual foundations needs or requirements. The clients that I was told by their back end manager, Larry Franklin at that time, that the letter's had been written and sent out to the various foundations on behalf of the clients.
What I was sent was a blank template letters with no letter head and it was very uninteresting and very bland letter. Now being in sales, I see multiple ways to approach the project and I also have written many of different project budget outlines, time line sketches, creative writing summaries, business plans, and other business documents including legal documents that have gotten approved by lawyers as legal binding agreements. I had multiple complaints about these letters, others, those who didn't know better, loved the letters.
I found out later that I was lied to by the other parties involved "The Grant People's" back end staff and by the owners themselves saying that the work was getting done and we were just waiting on the responses from the foundations. I was told the same thing repeatedly over and over and that is what I was told to tell to the client. I was flat out lying to the clients that I talked to on a regular basis, because of the lies that had been told to me in my position.
Over the time I waited and watched as things started changing.in January is when things started sliding and the company started getting in over its head since it was undermanned and mismanaged by the owners and directors of the company. I told them multiple times and repeated multiple times that I needed certain things on the back end to complete my job and keep track of the clients. They said no problem we will have that for you soon. One thing was a database which, I never got from "Grant Research of America, Inc." I asked September - February when I transferred from "Grant Research of America, Inc." to "The Grant People".
In January they fired John Bausch for starting his own company and what they assumed to be direct competition, even though that was not started by him, just someone he knew. After John left they brought over a Rita Patillo and she was in charge of the back end. She did not sit well with me, coming in and trying to make me answer to her. I didn't answer to anyone except Bobby Balash, Greg Villegas, or Mark Bausch from July 20 something till she came 6 months later. The other people Ray Thompson and John Bausch just made sure that I did my job while I was overworked, underpaid and over stressed for the amount of work that they had for me.
Up until October or November (3 months worth of customer support, profiles, research, and setting people up for the Non-Profit pitch) I had absolutely no help. Then they got me someone that didn't help at all. She bitched, complained, and whined. I was still doing all the work.
They got me some additional assistance of a girl that would tell clients one thing and go get drunk and deal with all her personal issues at work and take off leaving clients hanging without their profiles being done or me being told that their was profiles to do causing confusion and having this lady let go.
When Rita came over that is when things looked liked they might be going right but she caused more conflict and confusion by trying to micromanage me when I had been doing all the work myself and then preceded to talk down to me since I was younger than her. I put up a fight and told them I was going to quit so they fired her and disband the back end of "Grant Research of America, Inc." and merged it with "The Grant People." I was extremely stressed at this point and was glad for a change.
I went over to "The Grant People" and never signed a non-compete agreement with them and took all the clients over to their office on 4550 W. Oakey Blvd Suite #107 #109 and what ever else number they needed information with. I inputted the clients into the database that they had and that was my primary goal so at least the client could be found and serviced at some point in time. I found out all the nice little things that they had not told me before but I figured out as I went along and was not pleased with they were gouging people with outrageous prices for Non-Profit Organizations with documents.
That drew the line. I finished inputting the clients into the database (which took me about two weeks) and told them before I was finished to have my next assignment ready for me. They put me on straight Research. That pissed me off and I was so bored. They had me running around doing everything for "Grant Research of America, Inc." that doing one thing over and over again was not my cup of tea. I said screw this and didn't come to work the next day.
The next day the phones were down at "The Grant People" so I could not get through and my sister was on her way to California that way she could go to vacation in Hawaii. I took the rest of the week off and sat at home doing absolutely nothing. It was great to get away while they decided where they wanted to put me. They asked me where I wanted to go and I told them "Where do you need me?" They didn't have an answer (mismanaged all the way) I told them whatever. They asked if I would be in on Monday. I said "I don't know." That is when they called me up and started accusing me of all these things that I supposedly did, like steal client information.
I am not dumb why the hell would I want a list of clients that have been burned as well as why the hell would I care to do such a thing when I honestly don't like the grant program the way that they presented it to people. With all theses accusations in the air they told me that they were going to sue me and I told them to talk to my lawyer.
I found out later from John Bausch and Gary Bausch that they were served with the lawsuit and that they had to appear in court. They asked me if I got mine and I said no. I had just moved and they went to the wrong place, plus they were looking for me at "Grant Financial Network, Inc." corporate office, which I stated that I did not work for so obviously if they did their homework they would have realized other wise.
Anyway. I just wanted to state that to the readers of the column. If you have any direct questions for me please don't hesitate to write to me and ask away. Also I was wondering what I should do about the lawsuit and I was wondering I can counter sue them for emotional distress that they have caused upon me and my mental well being by inadvertently misleading clients in such away that it is defamation to my character and causes my name to have a sour taste in some people's mouths since
I was the only one that they had spoken to and I honestly thought that the company was doing the right thing, since before I got switched to the back end of "The Grant People, Inc." that I knew what they misrepresented to me and the clients that were associated with either company.
Thank you
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