Government Grant Association - ProTel Fraud Ripoff Shady Dealings Impossible-to-Find Customer Service Clearwater Florida

I received a call from this place on Wednesday, October 27, 2004. Everything seemed fine. Then they asked for my bank account info and I asked what the deal was. They told me it was just a formality. Sadly, I gave in.

Then they told me that I had to go through a verification process. At this point, I was transferred to a man who did not give me his name and spoke far faster than he should have.

He, in turn, accessed an automated voice system to "confirm my purchase." When the system asked if I approve the billing, I said, "No" and told the man, after he asked, why I had done so. Then I hung up.

But the situation was not done, sadly. I got a call back from an unidentified woman who asked, of all things, why I had been so rude to the man before. Then she put me through the process again and I said "no" to the question about the billing once more. Again, I was not done.

I got yet another call back. And I got put through the automated system again. I figured I'd just get my access number and cancel the next day. So I said "Yes" this time, because putting up with these people was impossible.

At the end, there was some blurb about long distance calling. No question was asked, so I just said "Okay" as a way of saying that I had heard it. Then a voice says, "Please answer 'Yes' or 'No.'" I had no idea what was going on. I figured it must have meant, was I done? So I said yes.

Then I got told I'd just signed up for free long distance and I denied this once more, but they just ignored it and gave me a number to call to cancel.

I called the number today, Friday, October 29th, from work and the program used at that number said there was no account with the phone number at my work. Naturally, I decided to call from my home phone when I got home, as that was the number they had.

So I did that. And it said it didn't know of any such number. So now I'm freaking out, because I may very well be stuck not only with 250 bucks withdrawn from my bank account at a very inopportune time, but also with 40 bucks a month for a phone service I won't use and have no way of cancelling. The company involved in the phone thing is called ProTel, as I understood from the voice.

They said the customer service number for the Grant Association was 1-866-341-6696 and that it was open from 9-5 M-F MST. I called at 3 PST (4 MST) and it said they were closed. So again, I started to freak out. I need this cancelled and I need it cancelled now.

The number for turning off long distance is 1-800-634-2979. I'm giving you these numbers so you can check them out for yourself.

As you can see, I'm quite happy about all of this.

Ben
Folsom, California
U.S.A.