Grant Writing Express review: Unauthorized billing 88

Grant Writing Express and Grant Mentoring Center has taken an unauthorized charge of $74.95 from my bank after canceling within the 7 day free trial. I called 2 times to verify on 3-15-09 that my account ordered on 3-10-09 was canceled. I was assured twice that my account would not be charged the $74.95. On 3-23-09 they took that amount from my bank account. I had to call them again and submit an email requesting a refund. I was told by Mr. Rob Smith, who had a very thick Indian accent, that I would receive a refund in 3-5 business days. I believe this is their normal practice. They use your money, even if you cancel in the alotted time. Once you complain, they refund. I have read where many people did not get a refund even after doing as instructed. I find this company appaling and unethical and will do everything in my power to see they no longer do business.

I'm a small business owner and I also thought I was just paying shipping of $3.95 on a free cd, which I was charged. I was given access to members only area, but that was seriously lacking any information. You aren't told of any user agreement until later after the ordering the disk, in an email they disclose that you are automatically enrolled in a membership that will cost you 72.95 a month unless you cancel before the end of the 7 day trial period to use their website. I canceled two days prior to that cutoff. I never received the cd, but was charged again for $29.95 from my debit card. I have tried to contact and all I get is a busy signal! What a scam, and I'm not easy to scam.

I Ordered a 3.95 product on 2/ 20/09 sence then I have been billed extra $1.99, $74.99 and $94.89. Causing a over draft. "SOB'S" Warning do not buy from
"GRANT WRITING EXPRESS"

I authorized a $3.95 charge to my debit card for a software CD which I received in one week. About one week later the company charged another $74.95 to my card unauthorized.

After having called the number listed [protected]) and spoken with customer service rep. and to one who identified himself as a "supervisor"...regarding the UNAUTHORIZED DEBITING OF AN ATM/CREDIT CARD by: GRANT WRITING EXPRESS, in the amount of $29.95, on March 11th, 2009, which occurred AFTER the membership was CANCELLED in Feb, 2009. They ( all) give the same response each time saying; "The refund will be submitted to your bank with 2 days.." This has not been the case..Attempts to contact them via email have failed to be responded to by these people. Only email received from them is a "no-reply" notice stating the membership was previously cancelled and there will be NO MORE CHARGES ! (THIS WAS THE CASE in March and April, 2009 ).

As a matter of recourse: A petition of complaint has been filled with the State Attorney General's Office, the Financial Institution and the matter is under investigation by the FBI for Wire Fraud complaints in connection with Unauthorized use of Credit Card information and other charges are pending reguarding this sleezy organization.

I had ordered a "free CD" which required a $3.95 shipping and handling charge that I paid online with my visa debit. A couple of days later I find an unauthorized charge for $74.95 from Granthelorder.com. I have never heard of this company, and today I find another charge of $29.95 from Grants/newspin, never heard of them either. It appears that this company uses the "free CD" to sucker you into releasing information, then distributes it to a group of other "companies" probably wholly owned subsidiaries. In researching this, I have found the same scam from Grant Writing Express which list other companies that have used the information to charge against other individuals accounts.

So far, I have been charged over $104. and received nothing except a headache. If this happens to you, go to your bank, make a formal complaint, they will investigate and charge back the appropriate amount to your account. Then cancel your debit or credit card, so they can not pass the info onto another company and continue the scam. Then call the office of your state Attorney General, and file a formal complaint.

Then go to other consumer complaint sites, and inform others of what has happened so they won't be part of the scam.

At the present, I am awaiting a return call from the FBI office to investigate internet fraud, and hope they will go after these jerks too.

This is a major rip off. I ordered a free cd for grantwriting that charged $3.95 for shipping and handling charges, and used my debit card to pay for it. then Granthelporder.com (who are they?) charged my checking account for $74.95 a few days later another company charged my account for $29.95 all in all the free CD has cost me over $100 and 2 trips to the bank to fill out paperwork to get my money back and to cancel my debit card.

Apparently Granthelporder.com and Grantsnewspin.com are all associated with this scam. I have filed a formal complaint with the North Carolina State Attorney General, and if any of you have run into this scam, I suggest you file a complaint with your states attorney general.

If you try to find contact information, address. phone # and so on. for this company it does not appear to be available.

I ordered a so-called free CD which required only USPS shipping of $3.95 and paid online with my debit/Visa card mid Fedruary 2009. As of today I have not received the CD! A few days later after paying for the CD I discovered an unauthorized charge of $74.95 from GrantHelpOrder. And then while I was at my bank today discovered that another unauthorized charge of $29.95 from Grants/Newspin was deducted over the weekend. These last two unauthorized charges caused an overdraft on my bank account as I only had enough money to cover my legitimate bills. While at the bank I had to cancel my debit card to avoid any further unauthorized charges.

I did manage to get through on the phone number listed on my email from GrantWriting [protected]) after 5 minutes of redialing. They are a third party and it appears they are used only for refunds after we discover the scam for the $74.95. The person I spoke with told me she is putting a refund request through and it will take 5-6 business days to get my money returned. Now the waiting game to see if I really do get a refund. Now I have to spend more time tomorrow to find out how I can get my $29.95 refunded from Grant/Newspin.

I am going to take this a few steps further as suggested by other complaintants such as reporting them to the Better Business Bureau, contacting the Attorney General to file a formal complaint and reporting them to the FBI with the hope that they will investigate them for Internet fraud.

I was on the internet one day and came across the Grant Writing Express offer and thought for the price of the shipping of a CD decided to order the CD. I placed the order on 2/11/09 and it finally got to me 3/7/09. On 3/10/09 I received a credit billing not only for the shipping charges for the CD I found out I was also charged for two memberships I hadn't ordered. One was labeled 'MYFITNESS' charged by Quick Income in the amount of $29.95 and the other was for $74.95 for a membership through GrantHelpOrder.com.

I had both charges taken off my credit card and puts me in the frame of mind to cancel a card I've had almost all my life. Grant Writing Express was the beginning to this ripoff with help from the billing companies. Maybe they should take a little more interest to these billings as it only took a minute on the phone with both billing companies to have the charges removed.

I feel sorry for the HONEST business person trying to take advantage of the internet to promote his or her business because I for one in the past have been very leary of online purchases just for this very reason.

grant writing express charged my credit card without authorization.

what free software ? no emails answered, phone # that went to no one. 2yrs. later i get an email telling me i am going to be billed 74.95 ! still no one answers the phone

Part 2 of the scam is to keep you waiting for cancellations to show on your bank account (if you can get in contact with them). It goes like this: You are balancing your account and discover a charge from 1 to 30 days ago.

You: Please cancel this charge I did not authorize.
Them: Sure. It will take 10-15 days to show on your account.

You: Hey, that charge is still there.
Them. So sorry. Taking care of it right now. It will take 10-15 days to show on your account.

And the beat goes on until its too late to dispute.

Don't wait too long to dispute charges through your bank. My bank has a 60 day period. Check with your bank. Know the rules

Kathy

After ordering the free CD, I did some research and landed here. Fortunately. I then read the fine print and canceled everything. But guess what. Three months later I get a charge for $29.99. Don't bother calling the number. It's a recording regarding their $74.95 charge. Go straight to your bank and dispute that phony baloney $29.99 charge.

Don't waste you time trying to write like I did. They are sitting on a Caribbean beach being served a frosty margarita at your expense. Dispute, Dispute, Dispute!

Kathy

My charge was $69.95 from these people. If you call the 800 number that you see on the credit card statement for them, you'll get a [censored] on the phone who states "after the 7 day trial is over" blah blah and I can't get a refund. First he says the 'trial' starts when I place my order. Well, My CD came almost 10 days later. Then the guy tried doubletalking me saying the trial starts once I access the website, which I never did, in fact I haven't opened the CD. When I asked "which one is it, does it start once I place my order, or once I access the website?"He had no answer. Once I used the word "attorney general" and "lawsuit", he immediately put me on with another [censored] who claimed to be a supervisor, who stated "upon reviewing your account, i'm happy to tell you you can get a refund of $69.95".. then she tried selling me something else that if I accepted a phone call I would get a $15 gas card - "AND BE CHARGED TO THE BILLING INFORMATION ON FILE". These people are snakes. I also have some charge for an 'e-book' for $3.73 which I never agreed on.

My advice is to call and threaten them as I did, and most importantly - IMMEDIATELY CALL YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY AND STOP ANY FURTHER TRANSACTIONS FROM THESE PEOPLE - OTHERWISE THEY WILL KEEP CHARGING YOU!

I never received the CD If you gave your credit card to this people you need to get a new number or new bank account they will continue to take your money if you don't

WHAT A SCAM! I SIGNED UP FOR P.O.S. BUSINESS AND BEFORE EVEN GETTING THE CD, I CANCELLED. THE NEXT MONTH MY CREDIT CARD WAS BILLED $29.95. I DID NOT KNOW WHAT THIS WAS FOR..AT LEAST NOT UNTIL MAY 18TH WHEN I LOOKED AT MY BANK STATEMENT AND SAW ANOTHER $29.95 TAKEN OUT OF MY ACCOUNT WHICH RESULTED IN PUTTING MY ACCOUNT IN A NEGATIVE BALANCE. I CALLED GRANT WRITING EXPRESS RIGHT AWAY AND SPOKE TO A DANIEL. HE EVEN GAVE ME REFERENCE NUMBERS AND TOLD ME IT WOULD TAKE 12-15 BUS DAYS BEFORE MY ACCOUNT WOULD BE CREDITED. HERE WE ARE JUNE 15TH AND LO AND BEHOLD NO CREDIT IN MY ACCOUNT. I CALLED UP AND NOW I AM BEING TOLD THE COMPANY CAN NOT CREDIT BACK ACCOUNTS. AFTER YELLING MY A** OFF OVER THE PHONE ASKING WHY THEY COULD CREDIT MY ACCOUNT AND WHY DID DANIEL NOT TELL ME THAT, I GOT NO STRAIGHT ANSWER...PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THIS F***** UP SCAM.

Once the billing begins, you should just forget about contacting them other than to officially request they close your "account". They're just snickering at you when you naively ask for your money back. That's not their job. Their job is to ### you, bounce you around, give you a glimmer of hope, then take some more money. To them, you're just another greedy ### who wanted something for nothing, and deserves to get screwed. over and over.

They took us for almost $150. I recouped through our bank, but I'd like to rent a bus, drive around the country picking up all the victims of this scam, and head for 2710 Thomas Ave., Cheyenne, Wyoming, to deprive these sleazy carnival-workers of their rights and body parts.

In the meantime, here's an idea. Contact the Cheyenne/Nevis chambers of commerce. Tell them there's a bunch of "city-fied" ripoffs from Florida (not Ocala) hiding at 2710 Thomas Ave, and Cheyenne is becoming known around the country for being home-base for this kind of criminal activity. What would John Wayne think?!

Contact or call the local papers just outside of Cheyenne, as they'd be more likely to want to find some dirt in that town that's "down the road, a might"...

What the heck...Send the governer a letter. Hell, it's just Wyoming. He'll be happy to get a letter even if he "CAIN'T" read it.

btw: Google up Phil Piccolo. He's the fat greaseball behind all this...a one-man internet crime wave.

On 2/20/09 I authorized a $3.95 charge on my credit card to cover the S&H of a CD from this Company. The CD was supposed to provide information re: government grants. I have yet to receive the CD.

On 5/4/09 I discovered a $74.95 charge deducted from my account from this company. I DID NOT AUTHORIZE ANY SUCH CHARGE!

The Merchant phone number listed for this Company is actually the number for toll-free telephone directory assistance outfit. And surprise... they do not have a listing for this Company.

I plan to contact the authorities in Nevis and take appropriate legal action.

Patty
Fairfield, Ohio

I was also taken by the scam. This company claims that they will not chage the $74.95 if we cancel the free trial within 7 days. The only problem is that they send the CD well after the 7 day trial period has expired. I disputed the charge with my credit card company. They successfully contacted this company and received a response from them. Their response was of no surprise since they held to their original offer to not charge the $74.95 if the 7 day free trial is cancelled before the 7 days has expired. However, the supporting information they included proved their culpability since it showed that the CD arrived 13 days after the date that I purchased it from them. This provided them the opportunhity to chage $74.95. I feel good about my Credit Card company's involvement. I have not received my refund but they are pursuing this on my behalf.

Warning! Grant writing express is a big RIPOFF I agreed to only 3.95 had agut feeling something was up so I canceled my bank card, they were still able to get 29.95 before it was cancelled.I called and they said they would return the money, still no money. THIEFS SHOULD BE PUT IN JAIL WERE THEY BELONG!

I wholeheartedly agree - they are taking our money. I just found the $74.95 charge on my credit card account and immediately disputed it with my bank. I went to their website and canceled my order. Now I'll wait to see what happens. They need to be put in jail for their rotten practices. I will definitely report them to everyone I can think of - BBB, IRS, FBI, and anyone else I think needs to know.

Betty

I ordered it and thought it was only 3.99 all of a sudden i see a charge for 74.95 and cant get through their lines, anyhow what i want to know is has ANYBODY tryed this cd and SUCCEEDED in getting any kind of MONEY let us know I think thats the most important question THANKS:)

I too am very angry about this scam. I have been charged 74.95 2 times, 29.95 for MyFitness and now 29.95 for GrantNewsPN, in addition to the 3.95 for the CD. I was told it would take 72 hours for my account to be credited back, however, I am still holding my hand you know where. Something needs to be done about these pirates. My suggestion to those who happen to read this before you purchase, don't do it! For those of you who already have, be sure to check your statement for random 29.95 charges. It is sickening how these people have no conscience about ripping off people who are looking for help. These people are loathesome and hopefully with all these complaints they will be caught soon.

from everett, wa. I got the cd, but it was only supposed to be for shipping and handleing. Got charged the $74.95. Talked to them 3 times they say they will refund the money. I got $3.95 back for the S & H. but not the $74.95. If i knew what to do I would do it if it got peoples money back.

Let me explaine this a simplely as possible for all of u...I don't give a @#$#@#$$# if the cd works or not. I cancled my SUBSCRIPTION and was charged 149.90 dollars AFTER I cancled. To me, that constitutes the death sentence.

Be sure to call your credit card or your bank (in the event you used a debit card, as I did) and ask for them to cancel your card and get a replacement card (with a different number) so these fckers can't ever charge against the number you provided. This is really important to do.

I just got the same cd. And no, i don't have the guts to stick it in my computer! Mine says 49 dollar value and all that jazz, but i got a really bad feeling about using it.

these wankers also took 29.95 from me a month after they took my 74.95 and i canceled it...

I almost fell for it, but I remembered the sayings, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is, .and greed will inprisson us all.so I decided to do a little investigating and thats how I foound your site.now more than ever we need to be more causous and not so trusting because now with this economy theres more scammers comming out to try to take advantage of everyone that will let them so please be careful in the future, especialy whe it comes to online offers of any sort that offer something for "NOTHING". thanks.

HELLO! Has anyone recieved their FREE CD yet? I DID! Now if anyone has got their CD, did you find the courage to try it out on your computer? I haven't! On the front cover it says, $49.95 Value! What a $%%$@!*&^ing joke! They took $3.95 and $74.95 from my now cancelled account. Also I googled GRANT SCAMS and guess what? The very first was SCAMMER-ALERT.COM. This guys SECOND CHOICE for the best grant writing company is GUESS WHO? GRANT WRITTING EXPRESS! What another #%%^&$ing JOKE! Folks nothing is for free!There is always a price for everything! If its not your money, its your time. And both are very valuable and important! Soooo, good luck everybody and be prepaired to do some hard work, spend some MONEY to get what you truely deserve. Best wishes! I will continue to look for a trustworthy company.

Ok, I too am looking for this "Free Government Grant Money." I am very glad I found this page. Bottom line to me, after reading these comments, is that most of these sites aren't what they seem. IMAGINE THAT! I did find this, however: http://www.grants.gov/. This seems to be a government website that has all the tools for searching for grants, assistance, loans, tax help, etc. I am going back there right now to fill out a grant application. CAUTION, this will require you to do the work. It is very difficult to find something like "free grant to pay off credit card debt." If you want someone to do the work for you, good luck in your search!

ok I blame getting charged the 74.95 my fault, i should have read everything. But I didn't thats my fault. I am actually on the phone with a lady, that doesnt work for the company shes 3rd party and she seems very nice and is refunding me my money and sending me the cd. I ordered the cd over a month ago, She told me that only 3 people she has talked to has actually recieved the cd. my honest opinion this is a scam to a extent. its a scam on idiots like me who dont read the fine print. just call them and cancel [protected]. It took me along time to get throught but I did so keep trying.

HELP I NEED MY MONEY AND I NEED IT NOW. HOW ON THE FACE OF GODS GREEN EARTH CAN YOU PEOPLE LIVE WITH YOUSELFS AND DO WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOTHING BUT A BOUNCH OF CROOKS

I too was scammed by these a%^*holes after repeatedly calling that no end toll free number I finally managed to talk to a human. She promised me a full refund of 3.95 and the additional 74.95 they took out of my account. I didn't know at the time about the 29.95 they took out over last weekend by newspin. I went to the bank to dispute the charges and cancel my debit card and found out they had in fact credited my account for all charges except the 29.95 which I'll more than likely play hell getting back. When I got through to their automated answering system they wanted an extension number, just by chance I tried 111 and got through! I hope you all have luck getting your money back. I'm out 29.95 which stings but not as bad as the 80.00 I would have been scammed out of. The feds should locate the adress in the carribien and drop a bomb on them. Good luck

Clearly some people have no problem promoting these scams:
"I have no problem at all promoting gov grant offers. Are they scams? I don't know or care. If it's converting like crazy... then I'm going to promote it..."scammy" or not."
From: http://www.warriorforum.com/ad-networks-cpa-cpm-cpl-millionaire-makers/59759-stimulus-package-cash.html

News article on these scams published today:
"At a press conference this week, a representative from the Federal Trade Commission admonished online media companies to "monitor their sites for scam ads and get rid of them."
http://www.marketingvox.com/ftc-knuckles-down-on-faux-stimulus-relief-ads-043432/
http://www.clickz.com/3633002

Make sure you report these scams to the FTC here:
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/contact.shtm

Also complain to their ad network:
http://www.convert2media.com/forum/index.php?topic=111.0

Convert2Media

Address:
358 South 700 East, Suite B147
Salt Lake City, Utah 84102

Email:
info@convert2media.com

Telephone:
800.689.1260
http://www.convert2media.com/blog/contact-us/

(They run ads for their clients: Grant Writing Express ; Grant Funding Express; Grant Every Day Search.)
http://www.convert2media.com/forum/index.php?topic=111.0

I ordered the cd on 2/10/2009 and as of 3/05/2009 have not recieved the cd. Contacted support and was told it was being reshipped on 2/17/2009. I fully understand how this works ie membership charges but how can you rate a product without ever recieving it.I have concluded this is a bogus product and have ceased doing business with this firm. Also closed my crcard acct so as not to incur anymore charges. I have sent this info to the Ohio Attorneys General Office and found they have a number of complaints about this service.

I have waited a month for the cd.and have still not recieved it. Couldnt say if it works or not because I never got the product. I did read the small print and it is what it says A FREE WORTHLESS CD that you will not recieve untill your FREE period has expired. Dont use this service.

I was sucked into this scam by something from the MSN home page. I google the company on 2/12/09 and did not find anything wrong but found things showing it was top rate. After I ordered the product I received an email from them with a link to the terms of service / user agreement. I printed out the 7 pages and found the hiden charges. I tried calling the phone number given numerous times but only got busy signals. In the terms of service it also gives you detailed directions on how to cancel it online. I followed those direction but did not get any response. I sent them a second cancelation notice to their Help Center. I received an automatic response that they would get back to me within two days. It been three weeks and no contact. Today I finally got the CD (labeled "Ultimate Grant Secrets")but I also got my Discover bill. I had the $74.95 charge on it with the [protected] phone number. I called the phone number and just got a recording from "Toll free directory assistance". I could not get through with that so I called Discover Card. After 15 minutes on hold I finally got ahold of someone. She told me they would dispute the charge for me. I asked how could I stop future charges from that company. I was told that without a cancellation number that they could keep charging me and if I cancelled my credit card they could report it as an unpaid bill to the credit agencies.

This happened to me also and I am so glad that everyone came up and spoke about what happened to them for the ones that are expirencing this too. At least the more people that come forward the better the chances we have of getting these people locked up.