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2006 Company and Web Site News
December 26, 2006 VFD-Funding Group Web Sites Receive Updates and Upgrades All thirty-two (32) web sites in the VFD Funding Group have undergone updates and upgrades, both those which are cosmetic and those which are functional. These were necessary as the entire VFD Funding Group is preparing for some exciting new changes coming in 2007. The VFD-Funding Group is in the process of entering into international agreements with new strategic alliances and partners, in addition to further expanding our domestic USA operations. Our visitor traffic on all of our web sites continues to grow exponentially, as all of these web sites are ranking high in the major search engines and we are getting a lot of direct referrals from fire departments and from our fire truck, equipment and financing sources. We did not experience the typical slow-down in activities after Thanksgiving until after the first of the new year. In the first three (3) weeks of December, 2006, VFD Funding Group sold and/or financed forty-one (41) new fire trucks and sold and or financed another 17 used fire trucks. This includes apparatus sold in the USA and apparatus sold in Iraq, Dubai, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and China. We also processed an order for Iraq for 100,000 liters of firefighting foam and 50 tons of firefighting dry chemical powder. During the course of 2006 we have entered into and then after gaining intimate knowledge about others, we drifted away from several relationships with purported funding sources and dealers of used fire trucks, who did not meet our standards of customer service and excellence. As some of these smaller and less than stable enterprises have shown us how they conduct themselves, this has made VFD-Funding Group all the more so committed to quality, integrity and customer service, which only further reinforced what it is that has made us grow so rapidly, what we do right and different from others, and what will continue to fuel our growth and distance from other funding and fire truck sources. We have the best apparatus, sources and customer service in the industry, while also having the best finance terms, lowest financing rates and lowest fees of any of our competitors, where we are 1/2 the cost of our competitors, while being more than twice as professional. As we have grown and we have entered into many substantial relationships with very large and reputable banks, financing sources and with international manufacturers and distributors of firefighting apparatus and equipment; we needed to adjust all of our web sites to accommodate these new relationships, while also separating ourselves from those who do not have the quality of products or who did not share our commitment to professionalism and customer service excellence. We are very encouraged as we look forward to 2007, as we enter into these new financing and further strengthen our relationships with the stable and reputable financing and the apparatus/equipment manufacturers who have proven themselves to us, because they have also proven themselves to be the very best in the firefighting industry on a global scale.
October 30, 2006
Used Fire Truck Sales Fees Reduced by VFD-Funding Group Used fire trucks and used ambulance sales deals at all VFD-Funding Group web sites have become even bigger and better bargains than ever. The VFD Funding Group, owner Will Griffin, has announced a reduction in listing/selling fees for volunteer fire departments, who sell their used fire trucks on VFD-Funding Group's nine (9) fire truck sales related web sites. This reduction is to celebrate VFD-Funding Group's first birthday on the web. These savings also will be passed onto all purchasing volunteer fire departments. VFD-Funding's already industry lowest selling fees/commissions of 7% have been reduced to 5% for volunteer fire departments selling used reliable fire trucks, which is 1/2 of what most other dealers and used fire truck brokers charge, who do not help handle the financing either. For apparatus selling under $50K, the fee will be a flat rate of $1,000 or 2%. The low rates and fees for fire stations, 911 centers, equipment and municipal infrastructure remains capped at no more than 3% of the amount financed. During the first formal year on the web, the VFD Funding Group has grown huge to now include thirty-two (32) high profile web sites, the very top search engine rankings enjoyed by most of these web sites for various keyword searches, the highest total visitor traffic volume and the largest increase in sales in the past year since the first VFD-Funding.com web site was posted on the web at 2:35 p.m. on October 31, 2005. Although VFD-Funding founder Will Griffin has written grants and as a volunteer firefighter since 1972 helped fire departments for years, the formal VFD-Funding.com group of web sites didn't come into existence until a year ago and the response has been tremendous. Also during this first year, VFD Funding has entered into strategic financing alliances with some of the largest banks in the USA, including: Bank of America, Wachovia Bank, SunTrust Bank, and many finance companies such as Baystone, GLC, and CFRI. "We simply list the best fire trucks we can find, we get the selling fire departments the best price we can for them and we get the buying departments the best deals we can, notably with the lowest interest rates found anywhere and the lowest fees any financing broker charges", declares VFD Funding owner Will Griffin. The listing/selling fees charged by VFD-Funding for fire departments has been a maximum of 7% of the sale of the used fire truck and 1%-3% for financing fees from the beginning, which is less than most others charge in fees of 10% and they do not provide financing. Other dealers also do not have as many web sites and certainly high search engine ranking web sites as the VFD-Funding Group. With this huge number of high search engine ranking web sites, VFD-Funding provides the selling fire department with more exposure for their used fire truck for sale than any other dealer, broker or advertising source. The financing fees charged by VFD Funding are 1% - 3% and if VFD-Funding arranges the financing of a used fire truck they help to sell, they reduce the 7% listing/selling fees charged to the selling department proportionately. To celebrate their first birthday and to say thank you to the fire departments who have done business with them, the maximum listing/selling fees have been reduced to 5%. Thus the selling departments gets more for their used apparatus as the result of reduced selling costs compared to what other dealers charge, the purchasing departments acquires the apparatus for less, the purchasing fire departments gets financing at lower rates and lower fees, and the apparatus is listed on up to nine (9) search engine topping fire truck selling web sites 24/7/30, rather than once a month in a magazine; or what may be found on just one web site owned by a dealer or broker. In addition to listing the apparatus for sale across up to nine (9) high search engine ranking and high profile web sites, the selling department gets their sale financed by the listing/selling company and as an added bonus in the listings provided by the VFD-Funding Group, the inquiring fire departments are put into immediate e-mail contact with the selling department, avoiding delays and confusion. No other used fire truck dealer or broker does this. "We'll see how this goes and if the response is as impressive as we've seen in our first year, who knows . . . we may make this our general policy and new fee schedule for volunteer fire departments listing their used fire trucks for sale with us", says Will Griffin, who started the VFD-Funding Group to have a part-time semi-retirement activity. For more information, contact VFD-Funding.com. Fire truck dealers wishing to enjoy deals and reduced listing and advertising rates with the VFD-Funding should also contact VFD-Funding or visit http://FireTruck-Dealers.com. Volunteer Fire Departments wishing to list their used fire trucks for sale should visit http://VFD-Funding.com/Selling Used Fire Trucks.
October 18, 2006 VFD-Funding
Retains Municipal-Funding.com The VFD Funding Group, owned by Will
Griffin of Pittsburgh, PA has decided to retain Municipal-Funding.com (
http://Municipal-Funding.com )
and not sell this web site and business to another large
bank or finance company. Several banks and finance companies voiced somewhat an
interest, however, nothing ever really seriously developed and Will Griffin
really never seriously or assertively attempted to sell the web site and
business. If Municipal-Funding.com is ever sold in the future, or offered for
sale, it is anticipated that it will be part of the sale of the entire VFD-Funding
Group. For more information: Click HERE
October 11, 2006 VFD-Funding Considering New Dealers and Funding Sources VFD-Funding is considering adding a minimum of three (3) new new and used fire truck dealers and and two new funding sources. The selection criteria is predicated upon the quality of apparatus in a dealer's inventory and the level of customer service. Customer service and capacity volumes are the considerations of the additional funding sources. Invitations to premier dealers and funding sources has been extended due to an increase in our search engine rankings on various keyword searches, increase in traffic, increase in inquiries and an increase in support staff. VFD-Funding is attempting to perform managed and sensible expansions, now that we have so many web sites, high search engine rankings and a high number of inquiries; while maintaining the highest levels of customer service. VFD-Funding Group dominates the searches for "VFD funding" and "fire department funding" at Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Google and others. We intend to do the same for "new fire trucks", "used fire trucks", "fire trucks for sale", "ambulances for sale", "firefighting equipment", "EMS supplies", "fire stations", "911 centers" and other related emergency keyword searches. Dealers and finance companies interested in participating with the VFD-Funding Group should contact our owner Will Griffin at griffin@VFD-Funding.com
October 4, 2006 VFD-Funding Adds Four (4) New Web Sites to Web Group VFD-Funding has added four (4) new web sites to the VFD-Funding Group. The new web sites include:
Pumper-Tanker.com This brings the current number of web domains owned by the VFD-Funding Group to Thirty-Two (32) More web sites are under acquisition negotiation and VFD-Funding will announce when these are acquired and the new web sites are created and published.
September 18, 2006 VFD-Funding
Adds Ten (10) New Web Sites to Web Group and VFD-Funding has recently completed the acquisition of ten (10) new domain names, where we will be publishing web sites over the course of the coming week. The new web sites are two (2) for general funding, four (4) relating to fire stations, two (2) relating to fire trucks and two (2) relating to 911 centers. The new domain names and web sites include:
Fire-Grants.com This now brings to a total of twenty-six (26) web site in the VFD-Funding Group of web sites. Each of these new sites will be linked to our existing sites and our existing sites will have links to our new web sites as well. Also, VFD-Funding Group has added a new PowerPoint Presentation Slide Show to our web sites, to help our visitors understand better and more efficiently all of the ways we can help them.
September 14, 2006 VFD-Funding Adds SunTrust Banks to Our Funding Sources VFD-Funding is pleased to add SunTrust Banks to our growing list of major funding sources for volunteer fire departments, EMS companies and 911 centers. This will be for VFDs with 501 (c)(3) status and for municipalities and counties of every size and will include all of the continental US states. SunTrust will finance projects on two (2) levels. The first level of tax exempt leases will be for projects ranging from $300K - $1M and above in special circumstances. The second level will be for smaller projects in the $100K - $300K range. The addition of SunTrust to finance projects in these two levels will help us to increase our services and the competitive rates for projects in these ranges. This will also help us to have more capacities for those projects under $100K, in that we won't be overloading any particular funding source with risks, thus the rates on these projects will remain very low as well. We are very pleased to welcome SunTrust to our group of sources and we look forward to many successful ventures and years of a strategic alliance.
September 6, 2006 New Web Sites Added to the VFD-Funding Family VFD-Funding is proud to announce that we have added three (3) new web sites to our family of web sites. The new sites include: Ambulance-Financing.com, EMS-Equipment.biz, and EMS-Supplies.biz. This increases our family of web sites to now be:
VFD-Funding.com
(funding, general consulting,
new fire trucks, used fire trucks)
August 5, 2006 Wachovia Bank Newest Strategic Financing Partner VFD-Funding and Wachovia Bank have entered into a strategic alliance for funding fire apparatus, equipment and fire stations for the states of: NY, CT, PA, NJ, MD, VA, NC, SC, TN, GA, AL, MS, FL and TX. We are pleased to send Wachovia projects to finance in these states, so that we can offer fire and EMS departments may options and competitive rates for tax-exempt leasing.
July 27, 2006
Company Two Becomes Newest Strategic Partner VFD-Funding and Company Two Fire apparatus (www.companytwofire.com) with offices in GA, SC, NC & PA have formed a strategic alliance where VFD Funding will list new and used fire apparatus for sale for Company Two and provide Company Two's customers with financing. We soon will be adding many pumpers, tanker-pumpers, tankers, aerials, quints, and rescue units for sale at VFD-Funding.com and at Used-Firetrucks.com. You can identify those apparatus under this agreement, because the links for the e-mail to inquire will say "Contact Quincy and Will". All apparatus listed will be certified, ready for service and under warranty. There will be several new pieces of apparatus, we will list in the "used" sections, because of the reduce priced, but we will identify them as new in the description, along with the mileage. Visit our used fire trucks section or http://Used-Firetrucks.com to see these apparatus.
June 3, 2006 Rev. John Fernandez Joins VFD-Funding as West Coast Director Rev. John Fernandez of Maple Valley, (Seattle, Washington area) has been named the Director of Operations for the western USA (Pacific Coast) for VFD-Funding. John's primary territory of responsibilities will be the states of Washington, Oregon and California. His responsibilities will include the marketing and all services provided to volunteer and combined fire departments and EMS companies by VFD-Funding and our subsidiaries. These services to include: funding/financing, vehicle acquisitions, apparatus sales, FF & EMS training programs, HazMat, customer service & support, and general VFD-EMS outreach and marketing. John will work closely and he will report directly to VFD-Funding CEO Will Griffin. John will also work in conjunction with Josh Keener as VFD-Funding continues to develop our services to the EMS, Rescue and HazMat communities. John has 13 years of firefighting, EMT and Hazmat experience. He has served with five (5) different departments in the Washington and Oregon areas. He has done so, because of the inherent relocations that are part of his primary job as a licensed and ordained minister and community leader, which he continues to work on a full-time basis. John's firefighting experience includes:
1.
Black Diamond Fire Dept. (King County District 17) Firefighter, EMT.
Completed John's additional qualifications and experience includes:
1.
Attended
National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, MD Challenges for Local Training John also serves and has served in various capacities such as school board member, Board of Directors of the Puget Sound Christian Academy, Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Club, appointment to the mayor's budget committee, law enforcement chaplain, and he performs many public speaking engagements. We are very pleased to welcome John to VFD-Funding and we look forward to a very long and beneficial relationship with him. His education, skills, certifications, experiences and general credentials are indicative of the type of people that VFD-EMS services have come to rely upon and expect from VFD-Funding. John can be reach at: (425) 277-1152 - home, (425) 358-1111 - cell, or FernandezJ@vfd-funding.com
June 1, 2006 Joshua Keener Joins VFD-Funding as EMS Services Coordinator Joshua A. Keener has joined VFD-Funding today as our coordinator of EMS services. In this position Josh will help develop and coordinate all EMS related services, including selecting on-line training materials and courses, ambulance acquisitions and financing, along with keeping EMS related news current. His responsibilities will also include outreach to other EMS departments as part of helping VFD-Funding developing our EMS services. Joshua will be very active in the development of our http://VFD-EMS.com http://VFD-Resources.com and http://Volunteer-Firefighter.com web sites. Joshua will also work with fire departments in listing their used apparatus for sale, while also helping departments with their selection and financing of acquiring reliable used apparatus. He will also work with us as we develop our equipment and tools section and financing of these items. Josh is a paid EMT with the Citizens Hose Company of Harrison Twp. PA, where he also serves as lieutenant. Joshua has been a firefighter for 10 years and started as a junior fireman with the department. In addition to his EMS credentials, he has many certifications as a firefighter and HAZMAT technician. Joshua can be contacted at (724) 994-6144 or Keener@VFD-Funding.com
May 20, 2006
VFD-Funding Increases Sources and Resources and VFD-Funding is pleased to announce several new funding sources and strategic alliances. We have formed a strategic alliance with Consolidated Financial Services of Texas, who will fund many projects, but also they will be our primary alliance for fire station construction and renovation projects. We have also formed two (2) significant strategic marketing and financing alliances. We are pleased to work and list apparatus for and with Jim Campbell of Fenton Fire Equipment and with retired fire chief Warren DeSimone of Arizona. These strategic alliances help use to increase our inventory of reliable and well maintained used apparatus, while we will also finance all purchases of apparatus from Fenton Fire and Chief DeSimon. Look for the apparatus and links in our Used Fire Trucks for Sale section. To add more traffic and to better distribute our visitor traffic, so as to not overload any one given server, we have acquired four (4) new web sites, which brings the number of our total web based asset to seven (7). The new web sites are:
VFD-Financing.com, Adding these assets and keywords will also increase our visitor traffic and the number of firefighters, EMS personnel and departments we can service.
March 15, 2006
VFD-Funding Increases Sponsor/Advertising Rates VFD-Funding has increased our advertising rates, due to our increased traffic and the increase in the percentage of visitors who contact and our advertisers for funding and the purchases of fire trucks and equipment. Our advertising rates are now comparable to what most industry monthly magazines charge, but with a lot more effectiveness. We are actually still less expensive than many others, who do not have our volume of readers/exposure. They do not have our response/inquiry percentages either. Plus, we bring the financing and direct referrals of departments, where we have worked with them, written their RFP specs, and have made sure the department understands and they can afford what they need. In contrast, magazine ads do not. The increase in our advertising sponsorship prices effects new apparatus manufacturers & dealers, used apparatus dealers, and finance companies; who advertise with us and help us keep their deals with only requiring a 1% administrative fee from us. There are no changes in the advertising rates for volunteer fire departments and those who we finance their new apparatus, will receive their listing and advertising of their used apparatus at VFD-Funding & Used-Firetrucks, remains FREE. To continue to provide value to our preferred advertising vendors, we are providing the used fire truck dealers and finance/leasing companies with FREE common border and corresponding page listings on our two (2) new web properties of http://Municipal-Funding.com and http://Used-Firetrucks.com This offering of FREE additional listings will remain in effect until June 1, 2006, because we anticipate the traffic of these two (2) new web sites will continue to increase, certainly as they are indexed and rank high in the search engines for various related keyword searches. The new sites were acquired, developed and posted on March 6, 2006. See Below. For more information and to see the new rates, effective immediately, please visit our advertising page.
March 13, 2006
VFD-Funding Expands Services to Include Writing RFP VFD-Funding has found it necessary to formally add RFP specifications writing, including requiring performance bonds for bidding fire truck manufacturers and dealers, to our services. An exemption on the performance bonds will be granted to our preferred dealers and manufacturing vendors, who have a proven track record of excellence. Many fire departments have complained that they do not get their inquiries and requests for bids answered. This is because many times a dealer, who they first approached, will write the bid for a department, adding components to the RFP that only his company can satisfy, thus most other manufacturers knowing this don't waste their time bidding. They often arrange financing (higher than others), because the manufacturer either owns their own finance company, or they are owned by a finance company. This practice is reportedly wide spread and as the result fire departments are not assured of getting the equipment they really need, nor the best deal. According to the U.S. Department of Justice web site: "Violation of the Sherman Act is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $10 million for corporations, and a fine of up to $350,000 or 3 years imprisonment (or both) for individuals. In addition, collusion among competitors may constitute violations of the mail or wire fraud statute, the false statements statute, or other federal felony statutes, all of which the Antitrust Division prosecutes. In addition to receiving a criminal sentence, a corporation or individual convicted of a Sherman Act violation may be ordered to make restitution to the victims for all overcharges. Victims of bid-rigging and price-fixing conspiracies also may seek civil recovery of up to three times the amount of damages suffered." If a representative from the bidding company writes the RFP, this creates the opportunity for a situation to occur that the DOJ declares to be a warning sign of a potential violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act: "The probability of collusion increases if other products cannot easily be substituted for the product in question or if there are restrictive specifications for the product being procured." The only way we associated with VFD-Funding believe that honest bids will be received is by us formally adding our service of assisting fire departments with their RFP specification writing to our services, given that we have been doing this for many fire departments anyway. We do this so often and have been doing this for many years, thus there are days when we feel that if we had the parts (which can be obtained from various manufacturers, no matter what the dealer may tell you), a variable tip screw driver and a crescent wrench, we could build the fire truck to NFPA standards. We will insist that a performance bond (guarantee of quality, specifications met, and delivery dates met), be a component provided by bidding dealers and manufacturers, who are not our preferred vendors. And yes, this performance bond will be required of several major name manufacturers. Because of the practices of dealers and manufacturers, the federal government is now requiring performance bonds for all apparatus funded by AFG grants. We believe the only important name in the entire process, is the name of your department on that apparatus sitting ready in your bay. This apparatus configuration assistance we have been generally providing will remain a free service and will be part of those services we offer at low fees for also arranging the financing. By formally adding this new service, we know then that we are protecting fire departments, our funding sources, and ourselves (certainly in our workload). If you are in the market to purchase a new fire truck, we strongly recommend you read this article from American City and County Magazine. Then contact us regarding our assistance in designing and selecting the apparatus. If you are looking for a new fire truck, visit our page regarding writing the specification for your RFP and fill out our Fire Truck/Funding Bid Request Form, We will then contact you for more information about your needs, your community and your budget, so that we can arrange the financing and then contact fire truck manufacturers with you to get you the best and most honest bids and best deal available.
March 6, 2006 VFD-Funding Acquires New Web Sites VFD-Funding has acquired and developed two (2) new web sites, due to our volume of visitor traffic. The new web sites are:
Municipal-Funding.com Each of these has grown out of the large volume of traffic generated, as these topics are searched and reviewed at VFD-Funding.com. Many of the links on these new web sites will bring the visitor to VFD-Funding, however, each of these has multiple pages and links which correspond to those pages and content found here at VFD-Funding. The process of search engine submissions and other direct marketing will occur over the period of the coming months, along with the continued marketing and advertising which is being done for VFD-Funding.
February 25, 2006 VFD-Funding and Fenton Fire Equipment Form Strategic Alliance VFD-Funding and Fenton Fire Equipment has formed a strategic marketing agreement for the used apparatus sold by Fenton Fire. Most of the units will be used tankers and wildfire apparatus, but may include pumpers, mini-pumpers, aerials, quints, and rescue units. VFD-Funding will give the sales of Fenton Equipment preferred vendors fee rates, while also sending direct referrals to Fenton Fire for the sales of their apparatus. Twenty-Six new listings of used apparatus have been added to the inventory of used fire apparatus offered through VFD-Funding.
February 24, 2006 Volume Has Grown to be Impressive VFD-Funding is pleased with the number of inquiries that we have received during the month of February and that we have been able to contact the fire departments and advise them of their pre-approval. We are working day and night, literally, trying to keep up with the volume. Most departments are seeking financing for new & used pumpers, tanker-pumpers, quick attacks and either renovations or construction of firehouses. We are also very delighted to the number of new friends we have made and the compliments we are receiving about our web site and our prompt and professional customer service. In addition to hiring new staff, we are trying to prompt some of the fire truck manufacturers and dealers to deliver the same level of customer service that we do. We have had many departments complain that they send out request for bids or contact the dealers and nobody is returning their phone calls or submitting bids. They then contact us for not only funding, but to see if we can help them find someone to sell them a new or used fire truck. We then try to find manufacturers and/or dealers who wish to sell fire trucks and then provide prompt and professional customer service. We don't know why some manufacturers and/or dealers are not returning phone calls or submitting bids. It is amazing to us as well. This seems to be an industry wide problem. Hopefully, as we finance and sell fire trucks, the level of customer service throughout the industry will improve. Perhaps some of the dealers don't think or know these departments are serious in their inquiries. We have contacted the major manufacturers alerting them to this problem and that now we have many departments we are pleased to have pre-approved their financing. Perhaps this may help improve the response rates from manufacturers and dealers, when a fire department contacts them looking for a bid, customer service and to buy a fire truck. Perhaps we might get better results for departments, because our funding power has grown so substantially. However, our alerting others is a two-edged sword for us, because the customer service failures of others has driven a lot of business to us.
February 17, 2006 VFD-Funding and Bank of America Form Strategic Alliance VFD-Funding and the Bank of America have formed a strategic alliance to finance fire departments in the acquisition of new and used apparatus. Under the new agreement, the minimum amount of the 301 tax-exempt leases will be $250,000 and for terms of 3-10 years and at rates of 4% - 6%, depending upon the amount of the lease and the credit of the fire department, or the municipality that transacts the lease for their fire department. The Bank of America alliance, given their size and ability (like some of our other sources) to transact business in all 50 states, will provide for more competitive terms for lease agreements for the fire departments that we are currently assisting in all 50 states. Adding the Bank of America to the list of strategic alliances with financial institutions will enable VFD-Funding to do more for schools and infrastructure projects for municipalities with our other financial institution strategic allies, who will fund these various types of projects, in addition to the apparatus and equipment acquisitions of fire departments.
February 5, 2006
$2.5M in Inquiries and Preliminary Funding Approvals For the first week of February, VFD-Funding is pleased to announce we have given preliminary funding approval to five (5) fire departments for a total of $2.5M. The largest funding approval was for two million dollars ($2M) for a fire department in Pekin, ND. The smallest funding approval was for a request to upgrade Scott air packs. Other funding approvals were for Washington County Fire Rescue #1 of Bristol, Virginia who are looking for an SUV for their new addition of a dog for arson investigation. Preliminary funding approval for acquisitions have also been granted to Robinhood VFD of Brandon, MS. All financings are at rates far below what these fire departments would have received from their local banks, if funding would have even been approved. For loans/leases under $250K only requires one (1) year of financial information and a simple one page form. Amounts over $250K require three (3) years of financials, which most departments have readily on hand. All of these preliminary funding approvals are the result of inquiries we have received from our full page ad in Fire-House Magazine, which began with their February issue.
January 18, 2006 VFD-Funding
Affirming Preferred Vendor Policies While Also After seeing some of the experiences we and some of our customer fire/EMS departments are having in dealing with certain manufacturers or their distributors/dealers, VFD-Funding is taking a serious look at those companies we will consider preferred vendors and perhaps those who we won't fund their products whatsoever, because of our concern for the potentials for poor service levels that fire departments may experience after the sale. Given what we've seen in customer service, or profound lack thereof by some companies, we are considering putting some companies on a list that we won't fund their products for less than a five percent (5%) fee and there may be those companies we may not fund whatsoever. In fact, we will help the departments to obtain another bid from a more reliable company with far better customer service in the same price range, while reducing our fees and interest to make the new apparatus bid more affordable one way or another. We can only imagine that if we have difficulties trying to get excellent customer service from some companies (and we're the folks with the money), what fire departments are experiencing. Also, we cannot help but wonder what may be some of the horror story experiences some departments may be having with these companies, when it comes to product reliability, warranty, speedy repairs and customer service. We have made a commitment to fire/EMS departments to get them the funding they need, the highest quality of products and to enjoy the best possible customer service from us and those with whom we work in alliance. Those who cannot meet these high standards concern us, because we don't want them to pull us down, increase our costs and waste our time and ultimately leave our customer departments without the use of the apparatus or equipment they are paying for. So, if you see apparatus and/or equipment from vendors listed with us, you can be sure you can count on the apparatus/equipment as much as you can the company, because this is what we have found to be true also. Now this probably has some companies/dealers not liking us. Well . . . tough! We don't like them either and from what we're hearing from fire departments, they're not real happy with these vendors either. So unless a company/dealer/vendor has high quality products and customer service, you will not see us fund them, much less invite them to list their products with us. Because of these high standards, our high search engine rankings, and the growing number of visitors to our web site, we are also supplementing our advertising by obtaining ads in Fire-Trader and Firehouse Magazines. Our full-page Fire-Trader ads will begin in February. We are also excited in that we are in talks with Firehouse Magazine about advertising as well, along with the potential that our Management Course may become a monthly series of articles in Firehouse Magazine. We will make an announcement if we do indeed begin a monthly series of articles in Firehouse Magazine and as we formally publish our Management Course in book form. January 6, 2006 VFD-Funding
Formally Announces Policy for Management The purpose of this FREE VFD Management Course is to help volunteer, combined fire and EMS departments enjoy better general management, decision making, financing, effectiveness, public relations, personnel relations, and the benefits of putting "organization" into the organization. It is FREE to use on-line to all, with the explicit understand of the agreed compliance to this limited use and all provisions set forth in the Copyright Notice Participation in this VFD/EMS management course is FREE to use as an on-line resource to assist officers and officer candidates to become more competent in their positions, however for those seeking certification, it does require a registration. We can only provide 100 scholarships per year for certification seeking participants. Selection of these is based upon the education, experience and level of officer the participants has and the likelihood of their successful completion of the course to then become a certified instructor of the course. January 1, 2006 VFD-Funding
Formally Amends Policy to Make Sponsors Effective January 1, 2006 VFD-Funding will be amending their fee schedule to give a greater preference to our preferred vendors. For acquisitions which are funded by tax-exempt leases and low interest loans, VFD-Funding will continue to do our funding processes for only a 1% fee and not require any up front money be paid as fees to us, when fire department customers shop and make their acquisitions with our preferred venders and advertising sponsors. As we find financing and funding for volunteer fire departments, we will refer our client fire departments to our sponsors first, because we know them and their levels of customer service. Our 1% fee is exclusively for our sponsors and preferred vendors, because we know they have reliable apparatus & equipment, great customer service, and they sponsor us with advertising; so that we can keep our rates low at 1% for tax-exempt leases and loans. For non-sponsor and non-preferred vendors, our fees range from 3% - 5%, which are added to the price of the apparatus, equipment or whatever the financial need may be. This is still more economical than others who charge as much as a compounded rate of 9.75% for their fees and interest on the leases/loans. Those vendors who wish to become our preferred vendors and then also get the first direct referrals from us and to have our fees fixed at only one percent (1%) for their products should visit our advertising page and then contact us immediately; because we are limiting the number of preferred vendors and sponsors, so that we give them the best edge over their competition, while still providing many affordable options to our customer fire departments. Due to the large number of visitors and qualified visitors to VFD-Funding.com because of our funding programs, refinancing programs, our VFD Management Course and other services, we will increase our sponsor advertising rates, although we are still less expensive than other forms of advertising that are far less effective. Visit our advertising page to see our rates and compare us.
Contact us at VFD-Funding today or fill out our convenient on-line feedback form, give us your wish list and tell us a little about your organization and then let's see what all we may be able to do for you and your volunteer fire department, rescue squad or EMS service. REMEMBER, there are NO up front costs or fees required. Last modified: January 20, 2008
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