888-390-3468

C/R to 1-800-658-9792

This group uses an Ottawa address at Room/Suite 425, 1500 Bank St., Ottawa, Canada, K1H 1B8.  This is the Blue Heron Mall, a strip mall.  One tenant is an UPS outlet.  There is a 2 story office tower at this location, hence it doesn't extend beyond the 2nd floor.  Suites 300 and up to the 900 series can be found at the UPS location - a drop box-a mail box.  In other words, the "Small Business Finance Centre" does not have a location you can walk into.  (http://www.grants-loans.org/index.php)

Another telephone number 1-888-390-3468 with Beth McConnell at the other end is associated with the  "Small Business Finance Centre".

It also has a 2nd location (another drop box) at 704 Spadina Ave, Toronto.  This just happens to be a Canada Postal Outlet known as TORONTO STN P, 704 SPADINA AVE, TORONTO ON M5S 2J0

My friend thought he was applying for a loan, but the credit card number was needed for a credit check, then a $325 charge was made on the card and then a small booklet arrived indicating where one might apply for a loan.  My friend then contacted his credit card company, explained the scam and the false pretences and had the charge reversed.

Ken,
My name is Steven Trustrum. I am a manager at the Small Business Finance Centre. Having read your posted complaint and mischaracterization of the Centre as a “scam,” as I see it there are four points you bring up that require addressing.
1) The Small Business Finance Centre does, in fact, have a location you can walk into. Like many businesses that extensively utilize the postal service in order to do business, however, we maintain mailing services to prevent our primary facility from being flooded by mail traffic, as the mailing aspect of our business does not take place at our office. This is why the address you have provided is listed as our “mailing address”—all our shipping and warehousing is outsourced and thus uses our mailing addresses as necessary reference points for this process. Indeed, you’ll note most companies that rely heavily on mail services for their business but do not do shipping and warehousing on site also use mailing addresses in this fashion. It is an incredibly common outsourcing process used out of logistical necessity and efficiency. Note this is why so many businesses and charities have a PO Box as their publically listed mailing address rather than the physical location of their primary office. There is absolutely nothing unusual about this.
2) Beth McConnell is indeed associated with our Centre. She is a call centre representative for us and has her own direct line (the 888 phone number you cite.) Like all our call centre representatives, Beth openly identifies herself as an employee during all conversations with prospective clients—her association with us is not only rather public, but necessarily stated as part of the information she is required to impart. Like all our call centre representatives, her calls are recorded to ensure this information is provided to all clients. It is also important to note that ours is an inbound call centre—we make no proactive, outbound phone calls. This means if someone receives a call from Beth or any of our other representatives it is solely because they contacted us through our web site or a similar source in order to express their desire that we return their initial email or call and address their interest.
3) At no time do our call centre representatives communicate or even imply that we are involved with any sort of direct funding process or exchange of funds, for loans or otherwise. Likewise, when asking for a credit card number it is clearly stated this is to charge the client for the funding research package they are purchasing and not funding itself in any form. These details are explained and the client is asked to confirm they understand. Based on the amount you’ve mentioned ($325) it is clear your friend actually approved the first payment for the package he received. Fortunately, as with all our representatives’ calls, the entire conversation would have been recorded as a preventative measure against any wrong doing by a Centre employee, as you claim was the case here. If your friend believes he was misled contrary to Centre policy and standards, I invite him to please contact me at the following email address so I can arrange a time with our call centre manager when they can both review the recording together in order to address your friend’s concerns directly and irrefutably rather than via speculation or hearsay on behalf of either party.
Finally, calling the package your friend received a “small booklet” is a gross misrepresentation of what he purchased. What your friend paid for, and thus received, was our complete funding research package, which includes the following:
"The Grants, Loans & Assistance Programs Guide"; a 3-ring binder 492 pages in length that is researched, collected, and published by the Centre. It contains specifics such as award conditions, contacts information such as phone, email and street address, categorization of funding (i.e., Arts, Consulting etc.), and specific funding details such as monies available on government and private sources of accessible small business funding for eligible applicants.  This copyrighted guide is NOT available anywhere except through our centre directly.

"Canadian Entitlement Programs for Individuals". This is a 123 page report published by the Centre, covering a wide breadth of funding options available to groups ranging from artists to persons with disabilities to youths.  This copyrighted report is NOT available anywhere except through our centre directly.

"Financing Your Small Business. Your Definitive Guide to Small Business Financing in Canada"; a report  published by the Centre that is 88 pages long and discusses specific funding alternatives to government financing.  This copyrighted report is NOT available anywhere except through our centre directly.

"The Grantsmanship Report". This 35-page white paper is a detailed collection of suggestions and tips on writing funding proposals. Published by the Centre, the report's contributors include previous grant recipients and experienced professional advisors.  This copyrighted white paper is NOT available anywhere except through our centre directly.

"Sample applications".  We provide these documents so as to give clients an idea of what to expect from applications you will need to fill out when applying for small business financing.

"Smart Way to Dollars" This 23 minute DVD, produced and published by the Centre, provides clients with tips on funding alternatives, ways to save their business money, and risks to avoid.  This DVD is NOT available anywhere except through our centre directly.

"Qualification Questionnaire".  This Questionnaire helps clients determine their possible eligibility for financing for a few particular programs especially suitable for most Canadian entrepreneurs. This "Qualification Questionnaire" has an attached, pre-paid, stamped self-addressed envelope to return it to the Centre for review at no cost. Alternatively, we provide the questionnaire online so that it may be completed even more quickly if you do not want to experience the delay of mailing it via Canada Post. This copyrighted "Qualification Questionnaire" is NOT available anywhere except through our centre directly.

As with all packages sold by the Centre, your friend’s included a one page receipt listing all of the above information contained in the purchased package. With a combined total of nearly 750 pages, claiming the package your friend received was a “small booklet” is obviously hyperbole and not at all an accurate description of the product he purchased and was subsequently delivered to him.

Regards,

Steven Trustrum
Content Manager
contentmanager@sbfc.ca
Small Business Finance Centre

WOW! 750 pages??? His friend won't have to buy toilet paper for a year at least!!! Might as well look on the bright side, eh!

Wow I'm glad I did a google on "Small Business Finance Center Beth McConnell" before wasting my time.

We are a corporation and we are actively looking for government supports and grants, and when we got a call back from Beth from Small Business Finance Center, I figured it was a legit call.

I was about to arrange a call with my business parter and investors, that would have been embarrassing when I found out I was talking to a call center rep, not a government employee.

Thanks!

THIS IS A SCAM.
The wall-of-text method of snowing readers --- a lot of words, little real content.
The name "Small Business Finance Centre" suggests a Gov affiliation but SBFC isn't connected in any way with the Gov.
"The Small Business Finance Centre does, in fact, have a location you can walk into" but does not provide the physical address.
It's a very good thing Canada Post has *unique* post codes for businesses. Go to http://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/fpc/pe ... ?execution=e3s1 , enter "K1H 1B8" (post code given by poster Ken 3 Feb 2011), and you'll see that K1H 1B8 is the *exact* post code for "UPS STORE #1500, BANK ST    99, OTTAWA, ON" and *NOT* a "location you can walk into" at a strip mall called the Blue Heron Mall.
THIS IS A SCAM.

It is a scam!. They are going to hell!

The caller wants me to provide credit card info in order to access grant data base.
Most likely, it's a scam.
The phone no. is different from the http://www.grants-loans.org/contactus.php
provided contact numbers.

Different phone numbers appear on different aspects of our site as a means of data tracking. (For example, it can inform us what part of the site you are viewing when you call based on the number used.) With few exceptions, these numbers all respond to the same phone system. An exception is the "Contact Us" phone number, which is for our customer service agents. Again, this is an increasingly common tool used by corporations for on-line data tracking thanks to the advantages of VOIP technology and the like. Review the following article to learn more about how this works http://www.mediumblue.com/newsletters/dtni.html . I understand why people want to attribute this to some manner of underhanded behaviour, but it simply isn't true. Scam artists don't have successful, satisfied clients, after all.

Had a rep call me after I applied to see if i was eligiable. They wanted to know if i had any major credit cards. I said no. the guy pretty much told me that i was approved and to call 1-800-O-CANADA. Thinking it was somehow connected, I called the number and the lady on the other end did not have a clue about the website, nor could she direct me in the right location to look about getting the grant.

Thank goodness my experience kicked in automatically when the Do You Have Any Major Credit Cards question came rolling through. Anytime someone ask if you have a major credit card for something that is not related is a Major Red Flag.

good for your friend because there are MANY similar companies that SCAM with the promise to $$$

I wish both the Canada Government as well as Quebec would investigate (stop) these companies because these are too common.
In Montreal, one operates out of a Regent mail fowwarder and it is not even listed in the REQ (Corporate Directory) as a business