Took a lot of effort on my part to complete the final steps in obtaining my grant. The main issue was the language barrier...At first, the Associate assigned to me just kept sending the document list with no specific instructions attached...When he finally answered my email asking him what documents he still needed, his reply was full of grammatical and punctuation errors (I thought at first it was some type of spam). I located a phone number where I could reach and speak with someone to get the answers I needed; it took me at least four more phone calls to understand the items I needed to complete the application and the submission procedures. Some of the documentation they required was missing after 45 years and 5 moves while in business; I needed to spend hours on the phone with federal government agencies requesting duplicate copies of these items which had to be mailed to me. During that wait time, I was repeatedly contacted via email regarding the urgent need for these items. I phoned the center again and asked them to please note on my records that the items were on their way and I would post them as soon as they arrived. I followed this up with an email and kept emailing the same information each time the associate contacted me. This part of the process (June 16th to July 8th) took at least 20 hours of my time before we were finally awarded our grant. While we are grateful for the grant, it was an incredibly frustrating, stressful, and difficult process. A process that would have been made much easier if the communications had been clearer...I actually wasted a lot of time opening a checking account because the original instructions were not clear regarding the way the funds could be deposited into our existing account. read more

I applied for a California Relief business grant in early January, 2021, managed through Lendistry. The application process and uploading to the website was clunky and poorly described, and only intelligible to those that have experience in this sort of database upload. I ended up helping several other local business owners, flustered by the process, to apply. This database and document request was designed as a one-size-fits-all-businesses, which meant it fit poorly on smaller, single-owner, non-traditional businesses with no method of supplying additional information. Communication with Lendistry was poor to non-existent. After several months, I began receiving emails stating 'my documents were incomplete,' however, when I logged in and checked, every document was in order, and as requested. It was only a month later that I was contacted by a person with the specifics of what they deemed incomplete - and all of those were in-house errors or misunderstanding of standard, State-issued documents, and then needed new documents they didn't ask for at the beginning, some of which were not pertinent. A lot of time could have been saved had Lendistry stated this in the first email. Four months into this process, on my own, I handled the financial crisis that predicated my grant application. Seven months after application, my (small) grant was funded, but also grateful my business didn't depend on this to save it from folding. Although I'm grateful the State of California chose to distribute money to local businesses, I would never choose Lendistry as the pass-through or for my own business finance transactions. This process was unnecessarily long, drawn out, and stressful. read more

Lendistry is the worst grant management company and bullies small businesses. They were the selected to be the grant administrator for California's Small Business Relief Grant. Their system to apply and submit the application was wonky and had frustrating buttons that didn't work. Calling and contacting their customer service was a terrible experience. While their front line call folks were friendly, there is zero escalation process. Our grant application was in review for months. I called to follow up to get help and the staff could not help me. I asked to speak to a supervisor but was told they weren't allowed to escalate a call. Told me to wait for my email. Waited and followed up weekly for 3 months. Ended up having to contact California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) for help, even though they didn't have any relationship or management of the grant. When our issue was "escalated" they gave me a person to work with who kept asking for our 2019 tax return. She kept tellling me it was wrong because of the date of the tax return form. Couldn't understand Fiscal Years and the proper forms. Kept telling me to change the form's date for an IRS accepted tax filing. Sent her the following year's tax filings that only covered 3 months of business operations and that was accepted because the form year in the corner was what she was looking for and not the date of operation. I will be filing this review with other agencies as well. I have worked with countless grant agencies and this one is the absolute worst. read more

Can not believe they sent me a link to review them, was going to give 2 stars since I did receive the grant, but they were so bad I think the one star for getting the grant was enough. While I appreciate how many apps they had to process, the process was so poorly performed, they should never be in charge of a grant process again. My grant took 4 months or more, I gave up several times. My documents mystically disappeared once, the log in process just to get in the portal was horrible, had to do the lost password "many" times (Which neither me nor my computer lost). I was turned down once for an expired LLC, apparently they didn't look at the LLC info and paperwork submitted and did a search without knowing the correct business name and assumed some expired LLC was my business. The turned down again, again they didn't look at the application. The effort made to get this grant felt like earned money at an hourly rate. Just poorly run. You could not contact anyone, no help feature, just terrible. They cannot be proud of this. After writing this review I thought I would read others, What? They must be paying for these. I know many business people, none, not one was happy with how this site functioned. Not one. Crazy. read more

The biggest issue I had with the portal they have to apply for CA Grant was that when uploading the documents to apply, they ask for your banking information to complete the process once you move on to the next round. They use a third party to load your bank information. How they did not take the time to see if the third party software was up to date or not know that to access almost all major bank accounts you need to go thru a 2 step verification process to get on to the account. This dumb company would not accept any bank that required this, (email or text you a number to input to verify it is you). It is Lendistry responsibility to test and vet the third party that is doing this. I suspect that there might have been a political component with dealing with the State that might have required this but again, utterly DUMB. It caused me a lot of stress not knowing that I would qualify because of their stupidity. Aside from that huge glitch, the customer service was good, you could call and get someone to answer and help you. This would have been a 4 star, easy, if not for the fundamental problem that a LENDING company could allow to happen. read more

I am trying to understand why Lendistry was selected to be the Grant administrator for California's Small Business Relief Grant.  The application process itself was ok but I had to read about it online first for tips on filling it out correctly. I completed my application on Jan. 11, 2021. My Grant was not funded until Aug. 2021. During those months of waiting, my application status online changed from processing to under review, to approved pending funding. They never asked for anything else from me and then one day eight months later, money was deposited into my account. Lendistry delayed the processing of my Grant application for all those months. Now they are asking me for a review. My review is that California should choose a different Grant administrator. Also Lendistry's customer service by phone was pretty useless. While their front line call folks were friendly, there is zero escalation process. The workers kept telling me I had to wait.  Multiple times, I asked to speak to a supervisor but was told they weren't allowed to permit me to speak to one.  Told me to wait for my email. Overall an unsatisfactory experience. read more

Lendistry was apparently the only loan vendor California authorized to facilitate the CA Relief Grants to businesses. While I understand that there were literally millions of businesses applying for these grants, and that it's difficult to handle all of those potential customers, the Lendistry process for these Grants was truly abysmal. Lendistry provided only the most rudimentary instructions, their application portals often did not work and when they did work they were at all not user friendly, no one at Lendistry responded to any emails, etc., etc. And to cap it all off, my only indication from Lendistry that I did actually receive the Grant was today's email from Lendistry asking me to post this review! After I got that email today I checked my bank account and discovered that, sure enough, I had received the Grant funds 2 weeks ago. How hard would it be to send an email saying something like "Congratulations! Your Grant has been approved and the funds have been sent to your bank"? Anyway, while I am thankful that I was awarded the Grant, I am also stunned at the difficulty of the entire process of working with Lendistry. read more

I had problems at first with the agent communication to bring my LLC current this is one criteria. The agent responded, but did not help with email with my company name on it, this is what tax franchise board needed from lendistry to bring my LLC current. I called 800 number at Lendistry and talked to customer service about speaking to supervisor. The customer service kept referring me back to the agent who didn't respond to me and address the issues. Customer services even sent her emails, this went on for 3 weeks. I was at dead end. Until I reach out to Calif Treasury state who referred to liason who step in and supervisor from lendistry contact me and sent me the email and she was concerned why agent did not send email too. Once supervisor aided me it took weeks and everything went smooth and sailing. This was one of problems with lendistry there was no other steps or person you can speak with regarding issues. The customer service was told refer clients back to the agent. I had reach out and contact Calif State Treasury who had liason step and reach out Lendistry, my next step plan was reach out. Calif governor. read more

I heard about Lendistry from my CPA and my colleague who advised me to apply for the grant. My hopes were low but I applied anyway since there's no harm in trying. In January 2021, I filed my application and submitted all the requirements at the same time and waited. My application was placed on a waiting list month after month after month until June came and I was informed that my business was selected to receive the grant that will be available in a few days. Lendistry kept its promise and I received the full grant of 15K the third week of July. Looking back, I did not spend that much time in filling up the entire application. I just remained patient for many months and my request was granted. As Confucius said, "Good things come to those who wait" Thank you very much Lendistry for all your hard work. I truly appreciate you. I will highly recommend your agency to my friends and family for future business opportunities. You guys did a wonderful job in helping small businesses received this much needed cash during this trying times. Keep up the good work! Again, Thank You! Rudy C. read more

Even though the process of getting a grant was an arduous journey, I had profound gratitude when I finally received the funding. I also want to do a shout-out to a lady named Cassie - she was heaven sent. Very compassionate, understanding and became an advocate for me during the process. I agree with other comments, you definitely needed to have all your paperwork - and in order. There was no way of skirting around the requirements. I was just lucky I had everything they requested. The only complaint I had was that the actual people reviewing the paperwork, weren't always communicating with each other or updating the system. So a few times, I had multiple requests for paperwork that already had been provided. That became stressful. But I was extremely proactive and never assumed that what I sent was what was required, transmitted clearly, or had been received. As a final point - not related to Lendistry, but to the State: invest in updating its IT infrastructure to reduce the administrative snags that routinely occurred during this process. read more

I had such a good experience working with Lendistry. The pandemic took away almost all of my income and my company's business. It's been a rough time for many. I tried applying for some work grants, but I found most of them to be extremely confusing. I was clicking through a million links, and most were unclear about where I should fill out what. Luckily, an employee of Lendistry offered to help me. She held my hand through the process, and even gave me a call and walked me through step-by-step. After a waiting period, my business was finally up for review. Once again, I was a bit confused about which paperwork was correct to get everything in order. Another employee spoke with me, and even though I sent the wrong paperwork first, he showed me exactly what I would need, and allowed me to submit properly. I was so so grateful that it all worked out! They really saved me in my time of need. read more

I applied late in the application process and found the on-line application fairly easy. I had all the required documents, however I had difficulty uploading documents due to their size. I received several e-mails from the processor who helped clarify the "format type" of file they wanted and had to re-submit information in the correct format. They also enlarged the "upload" to be able to take a large document (e.g. tax return). Unfortunately after I was told the funding was enroute within 10 days, it was delayed due to a technical glitch with the funding. All in all, I gave only 4 stars due to upload document issues and no contact information after application submitted if I had questions. I had to creatively find an e-mail contact - there was no contact information on the site if questions. The gentleman who did help me via e-mail was amazing. read more

I finally got funded in the last round. I was only eligible for 5K but gratefully received it. I know other people needed it more who went before me. This kept me from being totally overwhelmed by debt I couldn't manage. I was able to just do my work instead of scrambling to figure out where to get money to make payments tomorrow. The application process was challenging. I had to redo sections of it more than once because it wasn't exactly clear what they needed. I know others who had difficulty with this as well. I was able to get help by either phone or email. I found out about it through California Women's Business Centers www.CaliforniaWBC.org portal. I think people who had negative experiences that I read about, went through other lendistry partners. It seems that having a well-vetted qualified lendistry partner was really important! read more

I am extremely disappointed with Lendistry and the entire loan application process. After six long months filled with endless document submissions and countless emails, they have come back to inform me that my loan, which was supposed to be backed by the SBA, has been denied. The lack of communication and transparency from Lendistry was frustrating. Each request for additional documents seemed like a step forward, only to be followed by weeks of silence. When I did receive responses, they were often vague and unhelpful. This experience has been a significant waste of time and effort. I trusted Lendistry to assist me in securing this loan, but instead, they have caused unnecessary stress and inconvenience. I would not recommend Lendistry to anyone seeking a reliable and efficient loan process. Save yourself the hassle and look elsewhere. read more