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GSA1000 aka Fema Today, Countryside Publishing, Federal Suppliers Guide. Is a total scam of a company. This company deserves to be shut down and legal action should be taken against them. Federal Suppliers Guide should be ashamed at the way they have taken from communities and to small businesses. We defy any business who says any different about their products and services. They have harmed countless people. Basically the way this hoax of a company, actually a group of companies, (FEMA Today, GSA 1000, Countryside Publishing, Federal suppliers...Only a sham needs that many names) goes about their business; they publish a fake directory full of ads of flimflam or scammed companies telling them that these nationwide directories must be sent out to FEMA Procurement officers. These companies hope to one day receive a call from FEMA or other GVMT agencies in order to supply their products and services. Countless resources have been pulled away from viable interest of communities because of their deceitful schemes. GSA1000 doesn't have any alliance with FEMA. I personally researched this, not to mention contacted The Federal Emergency Management Agency, although regretfully not soon enough. It's a shame that a company like this is allowed use FEMA, an agency that is such a great asset to this country in times of disaster, to take advantage of unknowing people for their financial gain. If you or anyone you know comes across any of these names, "FEMA TODAY", "COUNTRYSIDE PUBLISHING", "GSA 1000", "FEDERAL SUPPLIERS GUIDE" Beware of the scam!
Just checking back. If you have been had by "GSA1000, Federal Suppliers Guide" please comment on my review. Don't let them strike again!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Funny how I search Our company database and don't find a customer by the name Mark Astanu. Yet another coat tail rider spreading negative publicity! Good Luck!
They price out their Contract Application process at $7, 500 but will discount down to $3, 500 to do a deal. Right in my own backyard. Plus they have a competing sub company owned by the parent company called Countrywide Publishing. Watch out of "Federal Verification Company" which telemarket's out of there Oldsmar offices. Met Mark one of their field reps willing to give away the processing contract price to get a sale. I opted out since there is not a refund policy in their contract to perform services.
My copmany had a long track record of successfully selling about 50-50 to both businesses and government. When the economy stalled in 2008, our sales to businesses dropped about 40%. That’s when we got the call. It was Carol Tights, calling from the GSA, to tell me that they needed my company for several contracts, but I had to first get a GSA schedule. Actually, Carol was working for a GSA contractor, GSA1000, and the contractor was helping the GSA to locate vendors. Because GSA 1000 was working directly with GSA, they could help me to get a GSA schedule, and much of the cost would be subisidized by the government.
I called other GSA Schedule consultants, and Carol’s story seemed to check out. The other companies were charging more than twice as much. I spoke with some friends, who had also paid more than double for the same services that GSA1000 was offering. GSA1000 also had great references on their web site, and guaranteed that they would get me a schedule, something the other consultants would not do. I had no idea how they could make money if htey were chargng half of what all the others charged.
As promised, GSA1000 delivered the schedule. We were amazed how fast and easy the process was. Friends who had used other consultants spent hours digging up data for those consultnats, but GSA1000 took care of all that. We gave them some basic info about our company, and they took care of everything else.
We were delitghted, because now we could grow the government side of our business, and replace the revenue lost when our commercial customers reduced their purchasing. All was fine and good for the first year. Then the other shoe dropped.
Last August, two gentlemen from the GSA Inspectors office, with blue blazers, badges and side-arms, showed up at our business. They demanded all kinds of documents, bills, contract info, etc etc, and told us that we were being investigated for FRAUD! We couldn’t believe it. We’d been in business for alomst 40 years, with never a complaint from anyone, and now the federal goverbnment was accusing us of fraud. They demanded that we produce our GSA schedule, but we never received the actual documents from GSA1000. But we felt we were OK, because we could see our schedule right on the GSA.gov website Then the inspectors produced a stack of paper 3 inches thick, and asked if that was our schedule We hadn’t seen it before, other than the top page, which we had signed when we hired GSA1000. As we looked through the document, we saw projects we had never done, employees we had never hired, and invoices we had never sent. GSA1000 had made up all the information, put our signature page on top, and submitted to the government.
That’s when I understood how they were able to charge half, ask for barely any data, get it to GSA in a matter of days, and guarantee a schedule. They’ve been using the same data over and over again for all their clients. Naturally if the same application worked yesterday, it would work again tomorrow, so they could guarantee their ‘work’. And they were making money charging 50%, because they were only doing 2% of the effort that the other consultants do.
GSA cancelled our schedule, and banned us from doing business with the government for 3 years. Needless to say, the ban has destroyed our business, but the other option was to fight the ban, and risk charges of criminal fraud against the government and maybe even JAIL. I’m a 60-year old service disabled Viet Nam veteran. I’m too old to be worrying about lawyers, courts, judges and jail.
Now, you may be thinking that I’m just some poor dope, or a disgruntled customer. I’m not disgruntled. I tried to save some money, I didn’t believe what my friends said or what the established and successful consultants told me. I tried to get something for less than I should have, and I got burned. Shame on me. After all these years, I should have known better. GSA1000 will self destruct on their own, they don’t need my help. But you don’t need to make the same mistakes I did.
So forget my story if you want, and check the facts for yourself. After doing some checking, you’ll see that GSA1000 goes by many names, including GSA Access Group, GSA Preview, Federal suppliers, countryside publishing, and who knows how many others. They are all in Florida, and are the apparent spin-off of the B2G Institute, Telligenix, Dynatech, Fred Steinberg and Larry Pino, who were closed down by the attorney general in 2009. They are all in the same part of florida, all have the same photos on their websites, and (unlike reputable consultants) none of their sites list their owners, partners, exec team or anything else. These guys have long running arrest records throughout the US for all kinds of get-rich-quick scams.
If you don’t want to do all the research, I’ll help you out a little.
Check out the attorney general’s report:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/09/22/_Cash_Flow_Institute_a_Fraud_Texas_AG_Says.htm
Check out the expose from San Diego’s Channel 6
http://www.sandiego6.com/mostpopular/story/B2G-Get-Rich-Scheme-Targets-San-Diego-Business
Check out the expose from Huntsville, AL’s Channell 19
http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-b2g-investigative-report-tease, 0, 1774507.story
whnt.com /news/takingaction/whnt-b2g-institute-free-workshop, 0, 2140248.story
Check out Fred’s trial for bribing a fed
http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/551/510/43536/
http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/551/510/43536/
Joe Glennon (owner) now has a version of the company called GSAApplications.com which is also based on Tampa.
GSA Applications called my company today (Bill Wood) who didn't bother checking to see that we are a membership organization (not a contractor) that had asked to be remove from their list (GSA1000) a year ago. We have multiple members who have been had by this organization (or a version of the company - they all tie back to B2G Institute and GSA1000) and were participating in investigations of the company by four different state attorneys general.
I got taken for $1, 000. They never could produce anything to look at from the past. No book, not anything. There is nothing. They provide nothing but good smoozing and then pressured sales. Don't do it! I received not one call from the money spent.
Got called out of the blue by the Small Business Advisory Group in Chicago about getting on the GSA Schedule. Since I had wanted to get my company on the schedule for years but just been too busy to do the application myself, I set up an appointment to talk to a consultant. The consultant was very nice and answered all my questions, and I checked out the company online and couldn't find any complaints. They wanted $7500 to guarantee at least $25, 000 in government contracts, but I was very skeptical, so when I initially agreed to the service, I paid with my American Express Card. We signed the agreement online, and the consultant made me send an email to her saying that I had signed the contract online -- just a number of strange steps to go through. AMX declined the charge, so I investigated a little more. Turns out that the merchant account was for a company out of Oldsmar called The Federal Verification Company, and 47 BBB complaints came up. I was able to cancel the contract with an email to the consultant, and so far, I haven't had any problems. But it appears as though two additional names for the above company are Small Business Advisory Group and The Federal Verification Company or FED VERIFICATION CO.
My company was taken for $5, 000 (discounted from $7, 500) by a GSA service, they made it seem like we'd be accepted for a GSA no problem. Once we paid them we got a rep that changed every other day. I could never speak to the same person twice. I realized we were being taken for a ride when asked to provide them with letters of recommendation from our clients and endless documents from our CPA. They also signed us up (on day 1, months before you'd need this service) for a $199 per month service that would provide me with a classified listing of GS opportunities. There were only a couple "ads" that barely even pertained to our line of business. Despite the fact that before I signed up they showed us dozens of "ads" of available opportunities in our industry. In the end, we decided to take the $5k loss and stop the information gathering and not go further in debt. I attempted about a dozen times to get them to stop taking the $199. I eventually had to threaten them with legal action before I could get a refund. I eventually got the $199 back but never got the $5k back despite their claim of money back guarantee. In order to get that back I would have had to proceed with the GSA application and attempt to get government contracts for 3 months and then they said they would pay us back. However, as a business I felt continuing on with these Florida scam companies and handing over my business personal data was not wise. We already got screwed once, they aren't getting us again. Stay away from these service companies that promise govt. work. If you want Govt. work apply directly with them and don't fall for the scam!
I worked for Federal Suppliers Guide BEFORE they were bought out by Countryside Publishing. I was the customer service mgr. and worked for the company for 7 years. I have tried numerous times to contact the state attorney's office regarding my history of work with the company and their fraudulent practices. Please feel free to email me regarding this information. Rebekkacd@yahoo.com. I can assure you I can prove who I am and that I worked for the company. I will attest in a court of law whom I am and that I will swear to the truth of any and all statements I am willing to make against the company.
Complete scam. They fraudulently charged our credit card $5, 000, we disputed with our CC processor and won. Then they ran the charge again! Amazing! Oh I wish I had the time to sue the **** out of them! Amazing!
Hello
Yes my name is Jim Sprecher owner of GSA applications or you may know me from Federal Verification Co., Inc. in Clearwater, FL. Let me start off by saying thanks to all of my attorneys keeping me out of jail, and showing me how to file bankruptcy so that all the card holders and past workers can’t get their money back and I would also like to thank Pam Bondi’s office for taking my check for $250, 000. I guess that’s what I have to pay in order to make this go away. I gave her office a bribe for my freedom. Now for the rest of you dummies at the I-team, Jackie Callaway AG Economic Crimes Unit of Tampa, and the FBI get lost. You don’t have anything on me and you all already know that. Go ahead and put taps on our phones. You and Pam Bondi’s Office can’t do one thing to stop me from running my companies the way I have been. I am getting more telemarketers, more offices to make more money than I ever have, and why not? No one is going to do anything about it. My office gave you a contract and if you did not follow that contract then we keep the money and that’s the bottom line. Yes my family and I live well, real well. For all of you dummies that keep calling the office for a refund, look in the contract you signed. For 2017 this is going to be our biggest year yet for sales. More programs we offer from the government, the more money we make. If anyone would like to talk to me my number is [protected].