Complaint Review: Smart Soltions Financial Services LLC.

August 2, 2010 my family was locked out of the house we lived in for city code violations. We did have a house lined up, but the city kept denying a pass inspection for us to move in.  We wanted to get into a house as soon as we could because this was our first night living in a hotel and we didn't have the cash to do that for however long it would take our new home to come up to code and pass inspection. I searched a site called Craigslist and found Smart Solutions huge ad in the housing section. I decided to give them a call and see what they could do to help. I was given the voicemail for a guy named Sam. I told him exactly the situation and left my number. He called me that afternoon and set up and appointment with us for 2pm the next day. We showed up at 1:30 the next day and got started. Sam showed us some listings and did what I call the "bait and hook". He showed us some 5 bedroom homes right in our price range. After claiming he could get us into some new digs "within 48 hours" we were ready to move forward.  While I was there, he explained their processes and what kind of financial services they offer and said we would need $850 for their fees.  Since we had $650 deposit on the new home we were going to move into, we decided to get our deposit back and give it to this company to get us into something bigger and affordable.  I left to retrieve the money while my husband stayed there. As I was gone, Sam started to explain to my husband what the $850 was for. To our chagrin, it had nothing to do with a deposit or rent on a new home, but it was just solely for their services.  (I was not made aware of this until AFTER we left the building. ) When I returned to their office, we were rushed over to one of the realtors to start looking for a home. Sam asked for $350 instead of the $850 by way of "doing us a favor since you can't afford us and deposit/rent on a home right now".  So we gave him the $350 and we started looking at listings his associate had. The homes he had were nothing like the ones Sam had been showing us. That was the first clue. Then we were given about 17 pieces of paper with listings on them and was told " If you see something you like and want to go look at it, give us a call and we will set that up". We left at 3:30pm.  After thinking about everything and weighing the options we had, we decided that we should probably just wait for the new home we had the deposit on. We got up the next day ( August 3 ) and called Smart Solutions at approximately 9:30 in the morning to let them know we changed our minds and no longer needed their services. I got the answering machine and I left my number. After not hearing from them by 10:30, we decided to go to the office. My husband went in and was approached by the realtor who gave us the listings and I assume the manager, Mr. Scharf.  They both told him the money was non-refundable as they had already used it up to find us a place to live. I went inside after I was given this news and debated for 30 minutes why they wouldn't give us our money back. In the end I was told we would have it back in 2 or 3 days. I have called everyday since then and left numerous voicemails without as so much as ONE response. I have reported it to the BBB and these guys said they will not settle. So now I am out $350 without any closure. Maybe it was our fault for not asking more questions, but when the manager looks at you and says " it says on our website that monies are non-refundable" when he knew I didn't find him on his website, you know something is seriously amiss.  I still have not heard from anyone in the company and I am still pursuing this.