CBC MARKETPLACE: YOUR FINANCES » RUNNING A BUSINESS
Help for small businesses: Don't pay for what you can get for free
Broadcast: March 14, 2000

Stuart Gorzen has been in the cell phone business for a couple of years now. He owns a couple of Cantel stores in Winnipeg. A couple of months ago his wife Sue started up her own business as well a real estate marketing company.

Eager to get some help with start up costs and after seeing a magazine ad, she sent away for a package from a company called the "Small Business Consumer Centre." It promised to help the couple access some of the millions df dollars available each year in government grants and loans.

"I was thinking, 'Perfect!' I wanted to start my own business. What better way to start but with a grant?" says Sue.

The couple paid $297 plus shipping and taxes for the package. The total cost was $358. But shortly after the package arrived the Gorzens got a surprise: a friend told them they had wasted their money.

"As soon as I mentioned the name of it he said, 'As soon as you get it in the mail, mark it return to sender and send it back. Don't open it,'" recalls Stuart.

Why? Because the Gorzens could have got all the same information without paying a dime simply by coming to the Canada/Manitoba Business Service Centre. Government offices are located across the country to help Canadians set up businesses.

Trained staff are on hand to answer questions regarding government financial help. All the information is also available for free on the Internet.

As Shannon Coughlin, who runs the C/MBSC looked at the book, she discovered some problems. For instance, this program listed in the 2000 edition, ended in January 1999.

"I can see some programs that have been superseded or are no longer active," Coughlin says. "When we have the information in the Canada Manitoba Business Service Centre here, it's updated and refreshed on a daily basis."

The Small Business Consumer Centre has had trouble before. A couple of years ago the Competition Bureau forced the company to reimburse customers because the company advertised it was a government-authorized information distributor.

It isn't.

The Gorzons tried phoning the Small Business Consumer Centre to try to get their money back. But they didn't get far.

"His last response right before he hung up the phone was 'I've got your money, you've got your product, good bye' and click," Stuart says.

That came as a surprise to Gorzen, because of the satisfaction guarantee that came with the product.

We tried to on numerous occasions to phone the company our calls were never returned. We did talk to a supervisor in Montreal named Mark Byrne who said he didn't speak for the company but did tell us:

"We are a business. We sell our research for them. They don't have to do it. We're not going to sit here for an hour and explain to them how they can go about doing it."

But a day after a our call to the company the same representative called Gorzen back now offering a refund.

"It's pretty disappointing for a company that has to have pressure put on them you know through media or contact with me or the customer to in order to get to this point," Stuart muses. "I mean a simple phone call should have been enough."

^TOP