Complaint Review: Business Acumen Inc

This is more of a warning than anything else.  For all I know, these people might be okay.  But I just got a bad feeling from them, and everyone that I talked to about it got the same bad feeling.  Then, I went to look them up on this service, and they didn't have a previous complaint; HOWEVER, absolutely everything they did and said (including the exact pricing) matched what other people had been ripped off from with other supposed grant writer rip offs.

What happened was this.  It started with a telemarketing call sent to my place of business that wanted to know if I'd be interested in receiving grant money to help expand my business.  That they'd do all the research and write all the grant proposals (which I knew was a complicated process) for the fee of $7,500. And that if I didn't have all of that money, it was okay because I could pay half now and the other half out of the grant money once I received it.  This was the first alarm bell that went off for me, because usually you can't do that.

The second alarm bell sounded when after I "qualified for $329,000 in grants", which was more than I had previously discussed with them, but I would have to pay the $7,500 fee upfront; and when I said I didn't have the money and would have to wait awhile before doing this, that I would be "Blacklisted under both my name and my company name for 18 months, and unable to apply for any kind of grant until the time had passed."

At this point, I continued to talk to this person and to another representative.  I asked them questions, and they seemed to have professional answers (which is why I'm still not certain if they are okay or not).  But the weird thing was that every time I mentioned a different use for the grant money, it was alway "okay" and "no problem" and "absolutely you can use the money for that".  That is what I call too user friendly or too helpful.

Unfortunately, I needed to borrow the fee and I needed to set up a business banking account.  Each of these delays was responded with SEVERAL return phone calls.  And how all of this must happen before next Monday if I was to make it into this grant cycle.  Otherwise, I would have to wait for the next period, and be blacklisted so that I wouldn't qualify for as many grants the next time.  Yes, this made alarm bell #3 go off in my head.

The next alarm came with the contract I was to sign.  Every contract that I have ever signed before requires both parties signatures, even something as small as a lease contract for an apartment.  This one did not.  It only required mine.  And quite frankly, it looked like something I could create on my own computer.  Plus, it talked about being awarded $325,000 not $329,000, which is just weird.

So, I tried to get them to fax me something in writing with their signature on it, and their promise of the funds being received. And they refused.  Saying that it wasn't necessary as they are just the intermediary to the grants.  Now, I started to get very nervous.  I talked to my friends, neighbors, and to a very nice representative at my bank.  NONE OF THEM thought that this was a good idea.  And the bank representative told me to come and look for them on this web site.

Now, as I said at the begining, they don't actually have a complaint against them (except for this warning that I'm doing now), but everything was exactly like all the frauds that had been committed from different companies based in Las Vegas.  That was just the "straw that broke the camel's back".  I called them and told them that I wasn't going to participate, and if they wanted to blacklist me they could go right ahead and do it, but I wasn't willing to risk my friend's money on something so identical to other scams.  I hope this will be the end of it and that they will leave me alone.

If you wish to gamble on them, go ahead.  Maybe you'll be right and I'll be the one who is sorry.  But I'm stopping before I actually send in any money.