Federal Business Partner Misleading, questionable, and rude Internet, Internet

7th of Nov, 2011 by User208139

First of all, I am not a former employee. I have never done any work with this company, only had a series of telephone and email interactions as described below. I am guessing this is a sneaky marketing/sales agency that purports to get in front of federal procurement agents by advertising directly to them. The reality is they are leveraging the majority of small business' ignorance on how small business outreach and contracting works for federal agencies. Federal agencies have their own 'small business' outreach people you can contact directly dedicated to connecting you and guiding you through hopefully getting contracts (albiet sometimes unsuccessfuly I might add) -- and you don't have to pay a dime to talk to them, get in front of them, or to get information. It's unfortunate that this company is (rude and) preying on the ignorance of small business in a time where people are desperate. I wouldn't be suprised if people are biting and buying their yellow-page-like ads because of their tactics. I was called by a nice enough lady named Jeanette who wanted to introduce me to 'sole source' opportunities for small business. I used to work with a small busines who procured millions of dollars of federal and government contracts so this sounded a bit fishy. Sure, some entities can sole source for projects under $150,000. What they do eventually tell you in their email is that you can be sole sourced if, after the government requests quotes from multiple companies, they only recieve one bid (and you are it). What do you think those chances are, in this economy, for a small business who has never contracted with the government before? That's what I thought. I did feel like she was a bit vauge and misleading and even missrepresenting themselves as a 'government' representative. In fact, I asked if they were a 'government' agency -- the first answer was a yes, then it was glossed over with more sales pitch, and the second time I asked, the answer was no. The red flag came when she told me she couldn't email me any information unless I agreed to set up a phone appointment (with someone other than herself, and she didn't know who that would be), so I did, just because I wanted to see what would be emailed. When I recieved the email, I tried to respond that I wasn't interested and it bounced back 'unaccepted.' They described themselves in the email: "Federal Business Partner is an online shopping source with direct and instant access to thousands of products and services that are provided from qualified small businesses. " The PDF attachment has a "Facts about contracting with the government" section and talks about the Small Business Set-Aside Program and the 8(a) program which nobody wins just by advertising. I've worked for and with 8a's and it's not easy to get that status. You can't get it or get to the right people just by advertising, and for someone who doesn't know anything about it, it's very misleading. I recieved the scheduled call, I told the rep I checked them out and was not interested. He said, "Oh are you talking about that rerport by the former employee." I explained to him that I wasn't interested, that I had procured a GSA Federal Supply Schedule for a previous company and understand how federal contracting usually works. He told me that they were about "sole source" contracting for small business and this was nothing like the GSA. I told him I really wasn't interested and he kept trying to talk over me, said something that sounded rude, then hung up. Beware, this one raised many red flags for me, just in the first phone conversation, how they are handling (or not) their emails and forcing you to set phone appointments with rude salespeople. Small buinesses stay away. Spend your money going directly to the small business liasons for agencies in your area. They'll be much more helpful (and not so rude).

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