Complaint Review: UNITED LOAN FUNDING - Clearwater Florida

Ok first I want to explain our situation, we are very hard working and have 3 children we are buying our home, we got the house in May of 2006 as a fixer upper and we got it cheap, we have poured everything into our home and were almost done when a tornado hit and while we are lucky and grateful to still have our home we are having to start over from scratch with major repairs, we have been married for almost 3 years together over 4 and both previously divorced and working with credit counseling to clean up our credit after divorces, we were in desperate need of money to start over on our house and we were contacted over the phone by UNITED LOAN FUNDING REPRESENTED BY NATE ROSENBURG after we had applied online for various loans, he told us we were approved for a personal loan of $40,000, he faxed us a contract and everything, I googled the company name and found nothing no good or bad, then I checked with the bbb and the company was listed but said there was nothing against them, we were very concerned we knew we were taking a chance but had exhausted all other hopes of getting the money we needed to fix and pay off our home, NATE told us they needed 6 months payments up front for good faith, we sent $1999 and some change to LISA BROOKS in VANCOUVER CANADA VIA MONEY GRAM, yeah we know now how completely stupid this was of us, we informed NATE the money had been sent and gave him all info he needed to have the money picked up by LISA BROOKS, and we were told we would have our loan w/in 24 hours deposited into our checking account. Well 24 hours went by and we heard nothing, we were finally able to get NATE on the phone he said he was sorry he had not called us the problem was that the "lender" had put up red flags b/c of our credit, even though when we sent the money he assured us it was guaranteed we would get the loan, we kept askin who the "lender" was he told us he could not tell us that was the loan was done the "lender" would contact us but not until then, so what we had to do now was send an additional $499+ change to "purchase" insurance to make the lender happy, at this point we were fuming but figured well we already sent the other and if we don't send the insurance to get the loan we will feel stupid when we start hearing people talk about this great place that they got a loan from, so like idiots we sent the "insurance" again to Canada via money gram, this was all right at Christmas time, and it was everything we had, we are still trying to recover from this and will be for a good while, that was ALOT of money for us, I am not posting this to have anyone feel sorry for us we messed up and have no one to blame but ourselves, and we will fix it ourselves, NATE told us after the "insurance" had been sent that it would again be 24 hours and the loan would be in our checking account, and again this DID NOT happen so we call and call NATE isn't answering, a few times a female answered and took the message for NATE to call us, we left messages on voice mail and yes at this point some of them were pretty nasty, then I call one day and get NATE on the phone he answers, "This is Nate how can I help you?', I told him, "You can give me my **** money back', he "asked who is this", I told him my name and used some very harsh language he told me he,"did not like me talking to him like that to please watch your language, I am not cursing at you mam', I told him "he was lucky that was all I was doing if I knew where to find him I would be there beating his ***', he hung up on me, my husband called him later that day from a different number and NATE very politely told him I was wrong for talking to NATE the way I did my husband told him he just had to understand where I was coming from NATE said, "there is nothing to worry about the money will be in your account by the close of business today, and if it is not for whatever reason then we will give you a full refund of the money you sent, you will get in w/in 3 business days of when you request a refund," we never got the loan and when we requested a refund and were assured it had been sent out we never got that either and this guy NATE still had the nerve to answer the phone when we called inquiring about the refund he sore, "it has been sent out you should have gotten it by now", I filed a report with the bbb and called the police and district attorney for Clearwater, FL and was told I had to start with my local police and file a report then they would contact Clearwater and get the ball rolling that way, we know we will never see our money again but I will do everything in my power to keep this from happening to someone else, my husbands mom lives in FL and she took a trip to Clearwater specifically to see what was at the address that UNITED LOAN FUNDING uses, it was a big building with different businesses in it she went to suite 330 and the room was full of empty desks and telephones, she wandered around some more ask a few other business in the building had they heard of UNITED LOAN FUNDING, no one had, then she went back to suite 330 and was taking some pictures of the room when a man came in and ask if he could help her, well she kind of went off on him about giving us back our money and what she thought of people like him, the man assured her he had no idea what she was talking about and asked if they could start the conversation over and have her explain to him what the problem was, well she ask who he was and he told her he owns the whole building, she explained the whole situation to him and she called me this man got on the phone and ask me more details which I gave and he told me to get hot and heavy on the police to find these people and to even go to a local t.v. station there that is known for doing storied like this, he said he owns the building and that suite 330 has been empty for a good while and the last business in there was a real estate company but it was not nor has it ever been UNITED LOAN FUNDING, I thanked him and he said he was going to do some digging also b/c he doesn't want this associated with his name and building b/c they are using his address. After this I did some online research and found there is really nothing we can do b/c the people are more than likely in Canada and the authorities in Canada just give a slap on the wrist at best for this crime. As I stated previously we are not looking for a handout or any of the such, we are not looking for anyone to feel bad for us, what we are trying to do is keep this or anything like this from happening to someone else, these scams prey on people who can't get a loan through a bank b/c of credit issues whatever they maybe, and I don't care who you are no one deserves to have this done to them. We know we will not stop this or something like this from EVER happening again but if it saves just 1 person it is worth it.

Leeandmindi

Chapman, Kansas

U.S.A.