Complaint Review: FedGrantUSA - Sparta Nevada

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 We represent some of the Fed Grant USA programs. I apologize for any misunderstanding regarding the services you've been receiving from our company.  There are no commitments with the free product however there is a bonus free trial period to membership websites that accompanies the free CD and we do our best to disclose this as it is stated several times throughout the ordering process - on the sales page, the order page, the confirmation page and the thank you email, it is then also explained in the first paragraph of the Terms and Conditions of the offer.  We offer the trial periods to give our clients a chance to use the services and see the value of them for themselves before they are billed for them.  The trial periods are free for 7-30 days from the order date depending on which bonuses apply and we would not have charged you had you called customer service and canceled during the trial period as it is not our desire to bill clients who do not want the membership after the free trial offer ends.  The following is the first paragraph of the Terms and Conditions of the offer (the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy links can be found on every page of the sales ad): Bonus Material Terms and Termination. By purchasing this product, you agree to adhere to the termination agreement as outlined on the order page, confirmation of order page, and confirmation email, which is that you, the buyer, are not entitled to a refund of the upfront cost of any shipping and handling that may or may not have been charged to you for delivery of said product. Furthermore, any free trials that may or may not be offered with this product are only free during the said allotted time of the free trial period as outlined within the product sales page, confirmation of order page, and confirmation email. If you have not cancelled the free bonus within the free trial period (if offered on product purchasing), you are agreeing to purchase the bonus material and/or service at a monthly reoccurring cost. This can be cancelled by calling the customer service number provided in the confirmation email between the hours of 9AM and 9PM EST M-F and stating your desire to cancel said bonus material. However, in order to not be charged any future reoccurring cost, please give ample time (2 business days) to be cancelled out of any reoccurring billing system before the next scheduled charge to your account (this does not apply during any trial period).  Not canceling trial programs constitutes authorization, by you, the buyer, for any charges (as outlined) for the associated bonus service until your request to cancel has been received by our customer service staff.  By not canceling the bonus program during the trial period or prior to two days before a scheduled billing cycle, you agree that any reoccurring charges billed to you will be non-refundable. As you can see the Terms direct the customer to the sales page, confirmation of order page and the confirmation email.  The following disclosure is directly from the sales page - it is located directly above or below the submit button depending on which sales site you are ordering from: By clicking "Click Here", I am ordering the Grant Program CD and trial membership for $2.29 S&H, after the seven day trial I will be charged $39.95 a month thereafter if I do not cancel. I also agree to the fourteen day and twenty-one day bonus trials to Search Market and Network Agenda for $7.95 a month and $9.95 a month thereafter, should I choose not to cancel. I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy / Terms and Conditions. Charges will appear on credit/debit statements as "www.center4grants.com". For questions, call 1-800-546-2919 M-F, 9am-9pm, EST. The Information on our Grant CD is general information that you can find for free on the internet. We have gathered the information and put it on an easy to access and navigate CD for your PC.  This saves our clients the time and, lets face it, frustration of having to search out this information on their own.  That is why with our Grant Program you receive a 7 day free trial to our Grant Members Site.  This is our member's website were you will be able to learn the entire process on how to write and submit a grant proposal.  It is easy to start utilizing the Grant members site by simply watching the tutorial videos that explain how to access all of the features on the site.  Our team of writers headed by acclaimed Grant expert Dr. John Porter provides a monthly cover story that provides the newest information on grants and grant related topics.  We also provide a quarterly newsletter that provides in-depth information on current trends in government and private funding, as well as the latest financial advice on how to find and manage grant money.  You will be able to search grants through multiple grant sources. You can search for Federal, State, and Private Grants, as well as for Scholarships.  The Grant Member Site gives you access to the Grant-A-Day program; which guarantees at least one member will be awarded a personal needs grant every single day! Click here to read testimonials from recent grant recipients.  In three easy steps you can apply for the Grant a Day program and you will be eligible for it as long as you are a member of the Grant Member Site program.  Another feature we offer is our live one on one chat representatives; they are available to answer any questions you have along the way.  All these features and more are designed to help you be successful in locating, applying for, and receiving a Grant. The information that is offered through the Grant Member Site is more extensive than what other companies sell in coaching programs that cost a thousand dollars or more, so we feel that we are offering our clients the best value in the industry at a reasonable monthly rate of $39.95.  Ordering our Grants CD also includes two fast action bonuses. The first fast action bonus is for Search Market Members site which has a 14 day free trial. This members website where we offer one on one live chat assistance and it teaches users how to make money using Googles AdWords and AdSense Programs.  Customers can use these programs to create Google AdWord-based Advertisements and place ads on Google searches using Google AdWords.  They can do this either for their own sites or they can use Google AdSense to funnel traffic through their sites to other sites and get paid for the traffic they generate . After the trial period, it is a reduced monthly membership fee of $7.95 because you are already a member of another of our programs.  The second fast action bonus is a 21 day free trial for Network Agenda an affiliate company. That offers an online date book service that will allow you to keep track of your daily schedule and will even send you reminders to your email and or cell phone. After the 21 day free trial the service is $9.95 a month membership fee. We offer these trial periods to give our clients a chance to use our service and see the value of them for themselves, before they are billed for them. Please contact customer service at the number listed in the above disclosure.  There you will find a helpful agent waiting to assist you with your concerns. If you are another customer that is reading this and you have already tried customer service, but feel that we have failed you in some way or you feel you weren't treated fairly please call me directly at 435-773-1795 or email me at [email protected] I will be happy to address your concerns ASAP. Sincerely, Online Customer Support  

Hi ReactorCore,

Thank you for chiming in with your insight about this dodgy scheme.

I was aware of their Terms and Conditions which you outlined but did not mention them, due to the fact that I find them absolutely appalling and am presently looking into just how much ground they hold in a court of law, considering that not all of these websites that are tied into this scheme of theirs - have the Terms and Conditions that they are trying to hide behind.  At least they didn't, until all the disputes of unauthorized charges started stacking up against them by individuals from around the globe.  

As much as Diamond J Media has tried to document Terms and Conditions to protect themselves from legal action, their Terms and Conditions fail to make mention of ALL the services that a person will be automatically subscribed to and billed by upon placing their order.  This effectively means that they are charging a person for services that were not mentioned in any agreement at the time of purchase.  So I am presently looking into just how much grounds their flawed document holds in a court of law, in the state of Nevada - since that is where Diamond J media is located and where appropriate action be taken.  How they are even able to require legal action to take place in the state of Florida is beyond me, when that is not where they are located.

On a sidenote...

I see that they have taken down fedgrantusa which now takes you directly to their so called Customer Service Center and the old fedgrantusa store, has been replaced by grantmemberssite.  The same has happened with gglprofit which now takes you straight to their so called Customer Service Center and the old gglprofit store now takes you to googlemoneyprofit.

I am glad that they being given the runaround and having to work harder to hide their tracks after all our complaints against them.  As the old saying goes, what goes around comes around.  Karma can be a real *bleep* sometimes and they will get what is deserved, eventually.

Hi, Kiwi...

You're on the right track. Good research on finding the parent company and a number of the names of the companies, but although you've got the right path, the facts are just a little askew. Not that that's your fault, these operations are going to great lengths to make the maze as twisted as they can to just within the confines of the law. So, let me expand on the info you've given here and round out the info for anyone looking in on this report. The more armed against this stuff the better, right?

If you go to any of these "something for nothing" sites that offer the $1.95 or so CD and you go to the bottom of the page, you'll see a very small link to the "Terms" (usually opens in another window). There, the whole sordid, distasteful deal is laid shockingly bare.

Everyone should be aware of the following facts in these terms. They may vary a bit from site operator to site operator, but the basics are pretty much the same:

Yes, you pay $1.95 (or whatever) for the stupid CD, but when you make that final purchase click, according to the "terms", you're agreeing to sign on to (usually) 2 more services right there and then. These will be in the form of something like 1) a "personal wealth mentor" of some kind and 2) a subscription to some manner of "identity theft protection" service or "debt2wealth Club". Each of these "services" will also charge you to the tune of about $20 - $30. Each.

These are the "services" that will recur every month and be taken from your bank account or credit card. These are the ones that most people view as the "unauthorized charges", although if they read the terms, they'll find that they did indeed authorize them with their acceptance of the cheap (and generally worthless) CD with that final, fateful click.

You're told you have 7 days to cancel, but that's from the time you place the order. This is appalling, because I've gotten surface mail from only 3 provinces away, and the difference between the postmark on the letter and the day I got it? 7 days. So, you as soon as you get your silly CD, essentially the time window for getting your refund is gone. Remember too, that the 7 day limit for money back includes the turnaround time to send the damned crap back! Doomed from the start.

Oh, and those other services you signed on to? They have their own time limits for cancellation before they become regular charges too, and the time limits vary enough to confuse you.

Now then...

You may also be advised that you will receive, for example, "2 eBooks", one valued at $30 and the other at somewhere around $20 or so, for only the charge of ~$3 or so each. These charges will occur only once for each, but remember the volume of people being taken in by this sham. It all adds up. Please note that these are eBooks, there is no postage, shipping or handling involved. It's pure profit.

Under the terms and the pricing given, you can expect to see (if you allow it to continue) your account or CC being hit for around $120 per month.

So, now you're pissed off. You want to cancel, but it's not going to be that easy. They make sure of that... Each of these "services" is controlled by a different department, if not a different company entirely. You must call regarding each separate subscription service individually and cancel them one at a time. From other reports I've read on ROR, one or two of these controlling arms of the other offers may be very difficult or even impossible to contact and cancel from. At the very least it will take another couple of billing cycles to be able to do it.

So now you're super pissed and want to take legal action? Be prepared to travel. You see, also in the "terms", they make you agree to take action only within a certain jurisdiction... You may live in California, but you can only seek legal redress in the state of Florida... Could be worse, we in Canada are directed to the UK to seek redress in the courts.

And that's the best of the worst. As I said, these sites are just pushing the envelope of legality, and do so by putting the terms and conditions there on the site, but they obscure them deliberately by putting them under that tiny, little link at the bottom of a page that is suspiciously long. In fact, the page is so long, that there is a lot of blank space between the bulk of information and the bottom of the page... Looks very much like they don't want you to find that "terms" link, doesn't it?

It's slimy from beginning to end. It preys on the needs of people who are the least able to afford being taken advantage of and how are looking to get a leg up on hard times and perhaps bad luck. Granted, some of these people may not be the sharpest knives in the block and they're seeing "easy money" instead of using common sense, but even so, no one deserves to have their finances totally, completely and utterly violated in this predatory manner.

Unfortunately there is a lot more to this dodgy scheme than what meets the eye.  Diamond J Media is the parent company that is linked to all these groups.  So far, the ones that I know of are listed below:

(1) gglprofit.com
(2) fedgrantusa.com
(3) Networka Endacom
(4) Easysearch4cash
(5) Moneyhelp

If like myself, you are another person who has been ripped off by this company - I do urge you to follow the advice given by Skip Roxboro of North Carolina.  I also urge you to immediately close the credit card that is being debited by these groups and have your bank issue you a new credit card account number.  As some people (including myself) have found that even after going through a formal transaction dispute process and requesting that billing be stopped, the billing continued (under new group names!).

As a first step however, contact [email protected] and firmly request that they cancel any and all accounts that they have created for you in their system.  You will find that they will be very quick (and friendly) to reply to you and tell you that they have canceled your accounts so that is the good news. They may also offer you a refund of the charges but do not hold your breath on that one.