4 Seasons Business

4 Seasons Business Solutions Elaborate Scam, dragged out over time, ultimately took $3500 from me and tried hard to get more, then disappeared Las Ve

4th of Jul, 2011 by User529820

The easiest was to describe what happened to me is to refer to the other complaint I saw here from RipOffReport.com:
Reported By: Carlos Hallandale Beach Florida United States of America
Submitted: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Posted: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 I was shocked at this report, names above, as it is PRECISELY was happened to me, right down to the amounts, people I spoke to, everything! It is difficult to say whether this started out as legitimate -- whether this company actually helped anyone get grant funding for their business. I read a few posts online where people actually had received funding through efforts of this company. Later, I discovered how easy it can be to post false testimonials -- so it's tough to say. I consulted an attorney about this as my experinece began and it was dificult to determine whether I was being scammed up front. The idea of getting grant funding seemed worth the $3500 risk. Read on: 1) I was called on my cell phone to start everything off, seemingly a telemarketing call. They offered to help my bsuiness obtain grant funding. This gal had all of the answers and seemed to know her stuff. She took what she referred to as an "over the phone application for approval". Shortly after our call I received an email stating "Congratulations, you're Approved with more than 30 foundations!". Then, Allyssa Alvarez got involved and said I needed to pay $7,000 to get the process going, because it was a lengthy, laborous process to get funding for us. They would accept $3500 up front and then take the remaining 3500 balance from the funding once received. Allyssa Alvarez was very clear that my money would be refunded if I did not get funding within 90 days. She said this over and over to me, to assure me that there was no risk of losing my 3500. 2) I was assigned a project manager, Steven Arcuri. I was given a huge questionnaire via email. I was told I had to complete this and then they would create a Business Analysis. This BA was a critical component and would be used by the grant writer to write the grant. After waiting a couple weeks, I recevied the BA. The analysis did not seem comprehensive, rather repetitive, and did not conclude anything positive about my business. They claimed this was all part of the plan to convince organizations to give grant funding to us.
3) At the end of 2010, around Christmas time, I was called by Steven and his "supervisor" Ronald Joseph. Ronald said they had a client who had "fallen out of their funding because they were not truthful on their application and questionnaire info" and that I could be put into position to receive the funding, a $500,000 renewable grant! Mr. Jospeh had me quite pumped up about this -- and then the punchline came: The funding was conditioned upon receiving a comprehensive business plan which would cost about 15,000! I told him flat out that I did not have access to that kind of money. Then he said if we could come up with half ($7,500) than they would do it and take the remaining balance from the funding. My questions to him were: a) Why can't you just take the entire 15k once the funds are received? [he said the law prohibits them from doing so] and b) Can I submit a business plan of my own? [he said it would need to be their business plan] <-- my suspicions were running wild at this point. Clearly this had to be a sales scam. WHy couldn't I submit a business plan of my own?
4) After this "huge oppounity" to take someone else's grant funds was lost due to my inability to pay 15k for their business plan, I was told that I missed the opportunity for "4th quarter funding of 2010". Both Steven Arcuri and Ronald Jospeh said after the new year they would be sending out proposals to try again for me. They promised they would attempt to get me funding for 1 year and that not all foundations would require a business plan.
5) In February, I called for Steven Arcuri and was told he no longer worked with the company and that Jason Williams was my new Point of Contact. I spoke to "Jason" and I have to tell you this was the same person as Steven Arcuri. I have a trained ear and I KNOW when I'm talking to the same person -- which was crazy because he didn't even attempt to sound differently than before. Clearly "Jason Williams" was "Steven Arcuri" -- absolutely positively.
I was told at that time (by "Jason") that in 2 weeks they would begin getting responses back on my proposals for 1st quarter 2011 funding.
So, after waiting another few weeks, I tried calling them again. This time, their phones are disconnected and no reply to emails. Totally gone. My wife and I were heart-broken that we lost $3500. We took out a loan to get that money and now it's gone.
I'm sure more poeple fell victim to this. It doesn't seem right. I'm not stupid and tried to do my homework on this before getting involved. It sounded very legit at first, but then went from bad to worse.
I wish there was some way to get them to deliver on their promise or get my $3500 back. At this point, I would be happy with even some of the money returned. Not going to happen.
That's the story.

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