53 Years Old Owner Sole Proprietorship
I first was on the internet trying to find funding to grow my business.
I was contacted by several companies and most of them were high interest business loans.
Then I got a call from Corporate Capital Team, Inc and they sent me an e-mail about their services.
On Oct 14th, 2009 I received an e-mail from corporatecapitalteam.com signed by Peter Lin.
I checked them out through the BBB, and they had a B+ rating on the BBB website.
On Oct 21st ,2009 I received a call from Christopher Lee and he sent me more info about their company. He told me CCT was working with big corporations, and that due to the Government Stimulus Package the companies were giving grants to small businesses in return for tax breaks on their companies. He stated that by helping small businesses grow, that it would, in return, stimulate the economy.
On Oct 23rd ,2009 I received a call from Christopher Lee stating that I was approved for $75,000 in business grants. He said all I had to do was return the retainer fee and they would get the ball rolling to get me funded.
At this point I once again checked out the BBB site and did my best to find out what I could about CCT .
On Oct 29th, 2009, Christopher Lee contacted me again and at this point he said that because of the type business that I had, and that it was a locally owned family operation, that they had an influx of companies wanting to fund me and my business.
He stated there were 64 companies willing to fund my projects. He said the money was there for the grants.
Broken down into categories: $21,000 Working Capitol, $18,000 Debt Reduction,
$24,000 Construction Grant, $23,000 Employee Grant (to aid in hiring additional employees), and $14,000 as an Equipment Grant to update my shop to bring in more business. = $100,000 total.
All I had to do was send the retainer fee and they would get started.
I explained to Christopher Lee that I was having a hard time coming up with the $2400.00 retainer fee. He put me on hold for a few minutes and came back with a special offer from His Boss. He stated they could do my grants for $1200, because I had so many different companies wanting to give me funding and that the balance of the $6000 could come from what I was awarded when I received it. At this time I told him I would send the $1200.00 retainer. I had money saved back to pour concrete in the new section of my building. I figured that if I was going to get $24,000 for construction grant I could get my money for the concrete then. It still has not been done yet. (12-1-2010)
I am very conservative with the money I have available, so I didn't go overboard on a promise to get any grants. All I would really like to do is get my $1200.00 back.
Now that I know it was a scam to take my money and run.
I waited about 3 weeks to hear back from CCT and after that I tried to contact them.
Their phone had been disconnected. I tried e-mail and it too was shut down.
That was when I went to the Federal Trade Commission , (Gwen, Ref# 24639434) and the Nevada BBB and filed complaints against them. I also filed a Police incidence report at the Sheriff's Office here in Allen County Kentucky, Fraud Investigation, Detective Rose (Report # 09>13315)
I repeatedly tried calling the office at CCT and all e-mails, (no answer,returned e-mails).
Then one day I received an e-mail from someone who said they were filing a class action lawsuit against CCT.
All I had to do to be included in the lawsuit was to send a $2000 retainer fee to the lawyer (in Las Vegas)
and my name would be included in the lawsuit. (1) I didn't have $2000 laying around to send to the lawyer.
(2) If I did, I would not send it to a lawyer in Las Vegas (3) Even if I paid the $2000 retainer for the lawyer it might be 3-4 years before it ever went to court (4) I had no guarantee I would get anything back at all, so I would be out $3200 instead of $1200.
Then I received a letter from CCT, stating that they were out of business , and they were turning the files over to Elite Writing Services and I should be hearing from the shortly. I never even got a phone call from them. Then I checked them out on the Nevada BBB site again. Here is what I found.
Customer Complaint History When considering complaint information, please take into account the company's size and volume of transactions, and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm's responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints. The Bureau processed a total of 57 complaint(s) about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period.
Complaints Concerned:
1 - Service Issues
1 - General Service Complaint Issues
45 - Refund or Exchange Issues
1 - Failure to honor promised refunds, exchanges, or contract
44 - General Refund or Exchange Complaint Issues
3 - Contract Issues
1 - Failure to honor a contract or agreement
1 - General Contract Complaint Issues
1 - Unknown
2 - Guarantee or Warranty Issues
1 - Failure to honor money-back guarantees
1 - General Guarantee or Warranty Complaint Issues
6 - Customer Service Issues
1 - Failure to provide promised assistance or support for products or services
1 - Failure to respond to phone calls or written requests for assistance or support
4 - General Customer Service Complaint Issues
The 58 complaint(s) closed in the last 36 months was/were closed as:
7 - Resolved
3 - Company resolved the complaint issues. The consumer acknowledged acceptance to the BBB.
4 - Company resolved the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledged acceptance to the BBB.
5 - Administratively Closed
3 - BBB determined the company made good faith and reasonable offer to resolve the issues, but the consumer did not accept the offer.
2 - BBB determined that despite the company's good faith effort to address complaint issues, the consumer remained dissatisfied.
46 - No Response
44 - Company Out of Business
2 - Company failed to respond to the BBB or to the consumer to resolve the issues.
Government Actions The BBB has no information regarding government actions at this time. (WHY)
Advertising Review The BBB has no information regarding advertising review at this time.
Out of Business The BBB has information indicating that the company is no longer in business.
I finally realized my money was gone, they were gone, my dreams were gone!
On 11-29-2010, I received a call from Alexis Calloway at Business Funding Services.
She said they had been selected, by CCT, to take over the grant writing services.
She said my files had been sent to them, and I was already funded to get my grants.
She scheduled an appointment (by phone) for the next day.
I received a call from a cell phone registered in Manhattan, NY. The man who spoke broken English asked for me , and his connection went dead. I then received a call from a 1-866 number and it was him again calling from Nevada? He told me that he was from Business Funding Services, and that he had been working on my
grants. He said that it was getting close to the end of the year and there was a great number of companies trying to get all this money sent out before the year end so they could qualify for the tax breaks the government was giving out due to the stimulus package. He said that there were several companies wanting to help me with funding and that I had been approved already for $100,000 in grants.
He then stated "All I had to do was send them $5000 for them to complete the grant writing process".
DING-DING (1)If had $5000 laying around to send to them I wouldn't be seeking funding)
(2) I am already out $1200 (3) I can't get my money back (4 ) I'm not going to get my building finished anytime soon! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!! | 
