The other day my daughter received a letter in the mail informing her that she was selected to attend a special workshop to help her receive financial aid for college. Considering that I’m scrounging around for enough money to keep our water from being shut off today, I had her there with bells on.
Come to find out, this was just a ploy. They were marketing a service for $2,000 that would tell us what we need to do (like completing the FAFSA and study for the ACT).
My first warning sign was when they started talking about their service. My head popped up because in the letter it was indicated that the basic financial aid help was free.
The second sign that something was up was when they po-pooed the fact that my daughter has already received one scholarship plus money from the state due to her grades.
“We go after the big money,” they told us.
The third sign that something was off was when the “counselor” didn’t know an important fact about taking the ACT.
The straw that broke my back was when they told us we either had to shell out this money now or my daughter would never be able to go to college because open enrollment ended the next day.
This wasn’t my first rodeo when it comes to folks like this so after I refused we went home and looked them up. Even the Better Business Bureau is warning people about these folks. Complaints ranged from not doing what they said they would to refusing to accept their cancellations. One person reported that this company was taking money from their mother’s account two and three times a month despite the fact that the service had been cancelled (sorry, I misplaced the link on that one).
Even more interesting, my daughter went online and promptly found a number of websites that do the exact same thing that they claim to do for FREE.
So if you happen to get a letter from this company, I advise you to toss it in the trash.
