Caveat Emptor:Let the buyer beware.

One SIUC student may have learned this lesson the expensive way recently, when he paid a company to find financial aid for him.

Matt Jiang, an MBA student from Mattoon, said his brother answered a classified ad in the Daily Egyptian last month that encouraged students to call a toll-free number to qualify for financial aid.

Jiang said his brother made the call, with his approval, and gave the company a checking account number after the company guaranteed that Jiang would receive at least some financial aid if he used their service.

Jiang said the company, Academic Investment Money, promptly withdrew more than $90 from his brother’s checking account, but never delivered on their promise.

About two weeks ago, Jiang said he started calling the firm to check on the status of his financial aid. He said their response was not pleasant.

They started getting rude, Jiang said. They even used the F-word.

Matters did not improve when he made more calls, Jiang said.

They said I told you not to call back, you’re not getting the money,’ Jiang said.

He said the last time he called the firm, they tried to make him belive he had lost a chance for scholarship money.

You think this is funny? You just lost $50,000 in scholarship awards, Jiang said an employee told him.

Jiang is not the only one who says A.I.M. is a shady company.

Jerry Desanto, director of information and investigations for the Better Business Bureau of New York, said he is quite familier with A.I.M.

They’re one of the most inquired-about companies we deal with, Desanto said.

Desanto said the bureau received 275 inquiries about A.I.M. last year and has received 279 so far this year. He also said complaints against A.I.M. increased from 14 last year to 39 this year.

The company, he said, has an unsatisfactory rating with the bureau, the lowest rating possible.

Desanto said he could not go as far as discouraging people from doing business with A.I.M., however, because Better Business Bureau policy stipulates it cannot endorse any product, company or service.

Amanda Leger, a head representative for A.I.M., said just the opposite.

Leger said the company sometimes gives customers certificates of approval with the bureau’s logo on them.

Desanto said this is a lie.

We can’t endorse or disapprove any company, he said. That’s also trademark infringement, we’ve been in contact with them about that.

Legar said some complaints are received but that it is difficult to please every customer.

We’ve served over 300,000 students, and less than one percent of our customers have complaints, she said. Not everybody can be satisfied.

The New York division is not the only branch of the Better Business Bureau that is familier with A.I.M.

A.I.M. used to have an address in Allendale, Mich. After the bureau’s western Michigan branch began receiving inquiries about A.I.M., the bureau sent questionaires to the company to find out more about them. After two failed attempts to reach A.I.M. at the Allendale address, the bureau found out the address was false, according to a bureau report on the company.

The bureau report also states that the company claims its physical headquarters are in Miami, Fla. Better Business Bureau officials said they believe A.I.M. is actually based in New York.

The report also alleges that A.I.M. misleads students into authorizing payment without being aware of what they’re doing.

Rick Steudel, assistant director of counseling and special services at the SIUC financial aid office, said students can avoid problems by testing businesses like A.I.M. before they authorize any payments. He said there is a list of questions compiled by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission that gives students an edge when dealing with these companies.

It gives students the opportunity to ask the right questions, Streudel said.

Struedel said caution should be taken when dealing with commercial financial aid companies.

The student thinks this is a sure-fire deal, but what you see isn’t always what you get, he said.

He said guarantees offered by these companies are not as simple as they may seem because students must prove they applied and were turned down for any aid offers a company may find for them.

Sandra Kim, owner of National Scholarship Service, a commercial financial aid finding service agreed. She said students should not have the impression that all companies are like A.I.M.

There’s a few bad apples, but most people in this business have a conscience and do business in an ethical way, she said.

She said she was also familier with A.I.M.

They’re the worst nightmare for us, she said. They give us all a bad name.

After all of this Jiang said he simply wants to put the incident behind him.

I don’t really have any hope of getting my money back. I’m basically learning a lesson from all of this.