Internet Marketing Workshop
This Saturday, I will be attending a 1-day internet marketing workshop conducted by a supposedly “leading internet training organisation since 1995″.
I used the word “supposedly” because I have not heard of this company from the internet prior to signing up for this workshop. Isn’t it wierd that a company teaching internet marketing isn’t doing too well for itself in the same area?
Furthermore, I already know most of the topics that will be covered during the workshop; yet I paid $100 and signed up for the workshop.
Why?
The reason is because the marketing system used by the company to generate sales (for the workshop and it’s other products) is in itself worth the price of the workshop.
This is a method that is widely known and I will be able to witness for myself firsthand the masterful execution of this strategy.
I will give the breakdown of this particular marketing strategy next week after the workshop itself.
on June 1st, 2007 at 4:12 pm
My sister and I attended a SOL workshop day. It was busy but was not all that great. A man called Bud took most of the presentation. However, I agree with some of the above but when we attended there was no mention of duplication or anything like that in fact it was the opposite. Eventually, we left early as my sister was unwell and we had decided not to go ahead. A few days later we received a call and was offered a package of 9 weeks training every week with advice for a further 9 months via email etc. We also were offered the website and a merchant account within the package. We are almost ready to start trading and we have had a few teething problems we have continued to go ahead.
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on June 1st, 2007 at 7:53 pm
ajpl,
so did you take up the package in the end?
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on July 11th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
my mother and i purchased in full three of these sites two years ago and have spent the last two years trying to get at least one of these sites up and running but each time we get wrong instructions or no assistance at all now when i try to get in to my stores on line sites as soobn as i type in my licence number and pass word a message saying invalid id comes up and stores on line home page goes off the web i tried to use their help@ quickresponse to find out why and my email came back saying that stores on line has my email address listed as spam. so after all this and lots of money stores on line now wont even aknowledge me as a custemer if their is any class action law suits going on or if anyone has any info one what i should do please contact me ataswezx3@yahoo.com thank you.
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VReed Reply:
October 1st, 2008 at 4:47 pm
To to http://www.myquickresponse.com and you can start to chat. You will need your license number.
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on September 30th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
I had the same problem as Stephen when I went to help@quickresponse my email came back saying I was listed as spam. We bought 6 licences & spent AU$6398 in April ‘07 & still can’t get the site up & running.
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on October 12th, 2007 at 5:37 am
My friend and I are attending a seminar in a week. We already went to the initial luncheon. Will it be worth our while to go to the seminar? Is is worth the money to buy the site? We have no knowledge of on line sales. Of course, the speaker makes it sound like anyone can do it…Can anyone do it?
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on October 12th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Hi Cathy,
The price of their websites sold is way over-priced.
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on October 12th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
You pay $20 to go the seminar, not $100. And the websites Stores Online helps you to set up are known to be the best in the business. Customer service is there to help, all you have to do is take some initiative and call. A lot of online businesses fail, that is not the problem of Stores Online and if you are having this problem maybe you should switch products. All the world needs is a little more initiative and a little less lazy.
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on October 12th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Hi Jessica,
Just to clarify, the price depends on the country (and currency) they are holding the event. In my case, it was $100.
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on October 12th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
jessica dear, let us not confuse caution with lazy. I have worked hard every day of my life since I was 15 and i am now 55. I worked 3 jobs to put myself thru college AND support my child. I have been an entrepreneur marketing my own crafts, sewing etc to peers and neighbors since i was in 7th grade and i supplemented a full time teaching job to support my family by working on my at home business til wee hours of the morning. But my tekkie knowledge is minimal. i do not care to take such a risk with my very minimal resources after reading the many disturbing comments. i would rather bail while i have the 10 day window of escape opportunity before i end up devoured in debt and the claws of the debtors thank you very much. So please do not cast judgement on folks who don’t have the resources (be it economic, technical. learning curve– whatever-to hang in there until a profit is made) NOT everyone fails due to laziness or lack of initiative or incentive.
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ibrahim Reply:
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:04 am
Guys thanks alot for everything u said, because i just got 2 tickets for a simenar and now no way that i’m going thank u so much ,but dose anybody know if there’s any other serious ,honest websits as far as online business or to work from home stuff ?if yes please let me know ,because i looked for some and it came out nothing but scams.thanks again
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sally jamieson Reply:
November 17th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Hi Ibrahim, did you find a good website company? - check out http://www.traff1k.co.nz - if you havent
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hevyn Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
storesonline is NOT a scam…they simply provide u with the tools to make ur online business a success. I truly feel it is what you make of it. It is NOT a “get rich quick” scheme! It is, just like any other business, something you have to put time and effort into in order to succeed. If u are looking for that fantasy of “sitting bak, doin’ nothing and making heaps of money in the process” then storesonline is NOT for you.
It is ultimately up to you! YOU are the creator of YOUR destiny…if u think u will fail then u will! If u believe u will succeed…THEN U WILL!
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on October 13th, 2007 at 9:49 am
There are many reasons why an online business might fail to take off. Paying for highly overpriced services is one of them.
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on October 13th, 2007 at 10:02 am
I have just attended your 90 minute semiar in the UK, very interested and have booked to go on the Workshop, but after reading some of these comments am very concerned that there are operational problems here of not being about to contact StoresOnline, can someone please put me in touch with StoresOnline to confirm that there is no such problems we are very like to buy this e-commerce product at the workshop. Thanks for you time.
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on October 15th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I pray that everyone reading this blog takes these complaints to heart and stays away from StoresOnline and all of it’s seminars, free lunches and false promises. And no Cathy, it is not worth the price and not everyone can do it either. Their “manager” has made my wife cry twice now attempting to get anything she can back from our poor judgement. They told us they had to be fair but they sold us 6 websites for just over $4000 when we were almost waling out the door after they asked for over $6000 (anf got it from many more folks) . How is that fair so don’t pay $6000 and please don’t even pay $4000. I wonder if they will even go lower because it really doesn’t cost them anything. And $20 a month to host a “site” is unheard of anymore. I pay $5 a month and have never missed a beat. THere are several hosts that offer that or better prices around the http://www. Please if anyone wants to get a class action and really get this pathetic excuse of a company where it hurts, please email me at goodpasture@gmail.com and I’ll do everyhting in my power to see it through. Jonathan
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on October 24th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Two years ago I purchased three websites from Storesonline. I am not a tekkie, but I am a hard worker, determined entrepreneur, and so on, just like everyone who has emailed on this subject before me sounds like. Anyway, I found a particularly good dropship company in my state that I have been very happy with, as I also purchase their products and sell them at flea markets, bazaars, etc. Due to a very hectic and busy schedule, I finally completed two sites in a year and a half. Take into account that this was my fault for taking so long, not theirs. I did not want Storesonline to build the site because it would cost quite a bit and I was determined to complete it myself. Whenever I came across a problem, I emailed the Storesonline live chat and they quickly helped me every time. I launched the two websites in July of 2007, and now it is my job to market them on the internet, just like any normal type of brick-n-mortar store would have to do, although it is a little more trickier since this is an internet business. I have checked with similar types of businesses as to what SOL does and SOL is very reasonably priced. Yes, SOL has some affiliated companies that will contact you to see if they can sell you a marketing package or be your coach (don’t do this one - very expensive and they will call to badger you to get the website completed. I didn’t use them, but they did not make me feel comfortable on the phone), but it is ultimately up to you to figure out how you want to run your business. If this were a real brick-n-mortar business, you would be looking at so many overhead expenses every day, every month, that it would make you sick! I work for a workers’ comp carrier, so I definitely know the cost to have employees that many people overlook. Anyway, just recently I have signed up with a marketing company that will be working behind the scenes on my websites to update the keywords, meta tags, and submit my websites to hundred’s of search engines, directories and put links on my sites so I can be listed on Google’s first page. I hope that everything works out, but again, we are all accountable for our actions. It’s not easy being an entrepreneur, since there are many risks involved and your hard earned money at stake. I have always held back in the past because I was afraid of the unknown and of failing, but I’ll never know if I don’t at least try, and this is a pretty inexpensive way of trying. Good luck to everyone who chooses to go this route.
Lisa
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VReed Reply:
October 1st, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Are you able to assign passwords to specific areas of your site? I recently found out that my administrator capabilities have been deminished. Does this cause a problem for you?
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Katrina Reply:
November 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Hi
Did you just use your express or pro site because I dont really want to spend that much on a pro site and I would like to know if you used the standard express site and built your own???
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on October 24th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Hi Lisa,
good for you. Perhaps you want to share with the rest of us the address of your 2 websites?
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on October 24th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Sure Martin,
You can check them out at:
http://www.dvynegardendecor.com
http://www.dvynehomedecor.com
Thanks for your interest.
Lisa
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on October 26th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Hi - i am due to attend a workshop in London on November 3rd and now i am wondering if i should give it a miss. i will get a free power sellers guide to ebay which would be useful as i have just launched an ebay shop but will i get anything else out of the day other than a hard sell. i am a website novice so i would need all the help i can get and i have spent all evening ready complaints after complaints on Storesonline. will i get some usual knowledge from the website. i promise to leave my chequebook and credit card at home!!!
i am bringing a friend who hopes to launch a shop on ebay shortly so we both need extra tips and advice as we both have limited knowledge. we have no money to give them so we definitely won’t be buying but now i am wondering if the workshop will be a waste of time.
thanks for any response before next Saturday.
Cheryl
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on October 27th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Cheryl:
I can for one definatelly say it will be the biggest waste of time there ever was. On top of that you will be subjecting yourself to the biggest con artist on Earth. These guys are PROs at getting your money. I said right off the bat that there was no way I was going to spend the $8000 they will originally ask you for, but the further your out the door they will go down to $6000 then $5000, then $4800 then $4000 final offer - BAM they got us for 4K. THey stole $4000 dollars from us because when we were aware of what we did and read through everything (BTW which takes more than the 3 days they are legally obligated to offer a refund) about a week or so later we asked for a refund and my wife has been in tears 2 or 3 times now asking them for anything and all they will budge is say they can “help us” build a website and ohh… charge us $25 a month to host it forever ((that is $300 a year BTW)) I will spend a 40 hour week full time right now to anyone in the world that reads this to help them build a website if you host it with me for $25 a month and sign a contract for min of 2 years. Here’s what I’m going to do though is pay resellerguru or a dozen others $100 a year to host as many sites as I want for a 1 time $100 a year and collect that $25 a month from you ((FOR EACH SITE)) for a long time wether you market your site and make anything of it or not ((because I don’t care if you succeed or not - well maybe just a little so you don’t stop paying me the $25 a month per site fee - hint **sarcasm**). Sound fair??? Please save your money. Pay someone through guru dot com or google ‘website builders for hire’ and pay a couple hundred dollars for a great start on your website and then pay hostmonster dot com $5 a month (($60 a year)) to host it and if you want spend a couple hundred more for promotional help. There is companies out there to do it for you but I recommend a semi- do it yourself with excellent tools and support namely SEOELITE which you should find on the first page by googling “SEO Software” if you want. So spend $600 to $800 insted of $4000 to $8000 and I promise that you will be better off.
AS far as eBay I have tons of eBooks I’d mail you including the one you referenced if you want if you just give me your email. I have a gmail account ‘goodpasture’. I woud like it if you go to this place and warn everyone there not to waste their money and at very least go home and read all the stuff your reading on the internet. Hope to hear from you. Thanks, Jonathan
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on October 27th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I just bought 37 websites from StoresOnline after attending today’s seminar and it was fantastic. I have made a million pounds already. Unfortuantely Jonathon, you are wrong and StoresOnline is right. *this is not a typical case and individual results may vary
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on October 28th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Hi Ben,
lol. That’s the biggest joke of the day.
So you made a million pounds from your websites within a day after buying them.
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on October 28th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Yea Ben … Thanks for a great laugh. I needed that!
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on October 29th, 2007 at 12:59 am
I had attended the introductory seminar a few days ago and paid the 20.00 for the full day one. I am suppose to attend it with my friend who went with me and also paid 20.00. But after reading all the horendous reviews of this company here and in other sites, I guess I am going to stay away from them! Thanks for warning us in advance!..I guess that is some consolation for what you went through that you have helped others from being scammed.
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on October 29th, 2007 at 8:46 am
StoresOnline can turn wine into water! Unfortunately they haven’t yet worked out to reverse the process. Further, they turn your water into bottled piss.
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on November 7th, 2007 at 1:22 am
Obviously, they haven’t figured out how to turn bottled piss back into water yet.
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on November 14th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
We purchased 6 sites in November 2005 and it was the worst mistake of our lives. Not only do we feel that SOL doesnt tell you everything, especially all those other little bits you have to fork out etc, but then a firm called PMI calls and tells you they can enhance the SOL package and when you get it it is exactly the same presentations and presenters, even using the SOL marketing workshops examples in their tutorials. And they charge you the similar money in $US. Oh yeh they give you a guarantee of money back…what a joke…not worth the paper its written on. As for contacting anyone in authority from SOL forget it. The only people you talk to are the quick response people and I must admit most of them are very good and patient.This is SOL getting 2 bites of the cherry, but you cant get anyone to contact you about this, its all hush hush, and they deny knowing PMI!!. We have one site up and running but I now think the internet market is being saturated. How can you sell a product on line, eg digital cameras, when everyday people can log into any wholesale site and purchase the same camera as you are trying to sell for the wholesale price? Take a tip from us dont get sucked into their free lunches and quick spiels. I have worked hard most of my life but find this very frustrating, most of my savings went into this under the false hope;that any one can do it; even a little mexican lady…Bullshit!!!!
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on November 26th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
We purchased 6 websites from Storesonline in 2003. From what we have learned since then, it is way over priced. You can get them now without going to a seminar for less than $200 Our biggest complaint with them is the down time and slow loading of the websites. So far we moved one site off of Storesonline to a faster server for far less than the $24.95 a month they wanted for hosting and that site is doing very well. The site is http://www.cookforyourhealth.com
Their monthly hosting cost is not too bad though when you compare it to Yahoo stores.
If I had to do it over again though I would not buy from Storesonline. I also stay away from any company that aligns itself with Storesonline and PMI. In my opinion PMI is a much bigger ripoff.
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Linda Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Nancy,
how were you able to move the website from SOL to another server. IF you would please elaborate I’d certainly appreciate it.
Thank you
Linda
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Nancy Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Linda,
I basically just rebuilt the site from scratch.
I exported the product info from the SOL site and imported it into my new site. Then I had to go through each product and create a separate page for it. I used Dreamweaver to build the site and ecommerce templates for the shopping cart.
I also had to create redirects for each product and category page. It was a lot of work, but worth it in the end.
I wouldn’t recommend a newbie do it though. You do have to be careful of where you move to and the shopping cart you use. SOL has an advantage that they are responsible for the security. If you just go get hosting somewhere you will be responsible for that.
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on November 26th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I had a look at the two websites of Lisa dyvinegardenndecor and you cant tell me you got this front page from the SOL package. You must be pretty good with a computer to have such a great looking site, however not all of us are that much of a whizz at the computer, so we are stuck with the mundane pages and fonts that SOL has to offer. Good luck to you, we are working on our second site, but get more sale on e bay for the same products we sell on out first site, at a fraction of the cost.
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on November 27th, 2007 at 9:03 am
I looked at Lisa’s sites too and they are SOL sites. They are the earlier version of the stores. I am using the same template on two of my stores. http://www.indulgeinchocolate.com and http://www.pampered-dog-gifts.com
I am using a different color scheme, but it is the same template. I have also customized my template a little bit by moving the navigation to the left side and featured to the right.
In my opinion the older templates were better because you could customize more. I tried the new 5.0 builder a little bit, but don’t have the time to mess with it. I have heard others say that you cannot customize it the way you can with the 4.0 builder.
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on November 27th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Thanks for that. Some of the templates SOL are offering now are plain boring. I am not a computer whizz but I will give your suggestion a go, anything that can help. My present site is ok, but i know it could look better.www.samscamerashop.com
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on November 27th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
If you are interested there is a forum for SOL users. This forum was started by other SOL users to help those in need. We are not affiliated with SOL. There is lots of helpful information there. You can check it out at http://www.onlinemerchantforum.com
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on November 27th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I am looking at your sites and it totally suprises me that you spend 5 and 6 thousand dollars and more for them. ((PLUS $29 a month to host)) which is very slow on load speed BTW. I’ve spent $10 on eBay and bought a much nicer looking site several times. I’m not saying that simply to put your sites down but would like to make a point that I could take that same $6000 dollars and go to a site like elancer.com or guru.com and post a project for bid and have someone build me a site with the professionalism in look and feel of amazon.com, ebay.com, etc… It would be a top notch website with that kind of bankroll. Plus don’t get me started about hosting for $29 a month. There are literally thousands of places on the web that are better and cheaper. I spent $200 for 24 months hosting at hostmonster.com and as many websites as I want as long as I keep within something like 300 gb of space and 300 gb of bandwidth. I wish I had a problem keeping within those constraints let me tell you. SOL uses high pressure sales tactics to get people like me and you to spend way to much of a template looking website that isn’t worth nothing and your going to lose your money and time. I don’t want nothing from a anyone who reads this except to ask you to please not go to hte free dinner they will offer you to entice you to get started on their sales pitch. Please save your money and check out the websites listed above to create your own unique websites. Thanks, Jonathan
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on November 27th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Thanks nancy
I will
Cheers
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on November 27th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for the link. Interesting forum we have there.
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on November 27th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
I agree with you Jonathan that SOL sites load very slow. This has been a major issue and is the main reason we are moving our sites to other hosts. The monthly cost is 24.95 though not 29. We did not pay $6000 for a site. It was around $4000 for 6 sites. This is certainly still a ripoff.
SOL markets to people who do not know anything about running an online store. They do have a lot of tutorials and information available - which most people seem to overlook.
They are expensive, but certainly not the most expensive out there. (for example volusion, monster commerce to name a few) Just SOL tactics are questionable.
You can now purchase a SOL site for under $200 without going to a seminar. The site is storesonline express (or something like that). Even at that price though, still a ripoff. Also stay away from their merchant account company. They charged us $999 to get the merchant account. Now I hear they are trying to make everybody have a separate account for each website. At the seminar they tried to tell us merchants accounts were very expensive and hard to get.
Overall I would not advise anyone to start business with them. But, if you already invested your money with them, you can make it work.
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hevyn Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
storeonline now offer “:unlimited pages” for $3000 (usd).
The first site is built free by their technicians.
I have done some extensive research as far as pricing and plans go…(new zealand only)…and what they offer is a real bargain!!!
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on November 28th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Went to the seminar today. Boca Raton Florida. Actually it was the second one. I paid 25 bucks. It was interesting but they kept hammering the special ”today” only deal. The minute I get a hard sell I looked for the nearest exit.
After lunch, I checked to see if my wallet had all its contents in it and ran as fast as I could. They kept the room ice cold and told us it would be a working lunch. They also told us not to listen to anyone in the restroom about what they thought of the seminar. I had a bad feeling
all morning. Glad I did absolutely NOTHING with them.
BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID!!
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on November 28th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
HaHa Joel..
That is so funny. There was only 2 things that got me to buy. They told me a lie and said I’d have use of their tools for life and I thought I could use that for whatever I do on the internet. And the fact that my wife wanted to give it a go and I thought well she can try and if not, I can use their research tools for life. The lie is that you either have to pay $100 a year to access their tools (after the first year of course) or you can if you pay the rediculous $25 a month hosting fee for the rest of your life. That is as Paul Harvey says the rest of the story. I am after a full refund right now from StoresOnline and if anyone can please offer assistance, Please email support at my website address (hanoverlutheran.com) I really want to get together many people that stores online has screwed out of their money and create a class action lawsuit. If there are any lawyers out there, please email me and I can help with the leg work if you are interested in this. I want to put these people away where they belong and keep them from taking old people’s money and money from people who have no business on the internet trying to make money. I don’t know if there is anything to it or not but at the seminar I went to, there were I’d say 80% of people 60 and older. Anybody else see this as the case? Anyways Joel thanks for the great laugh and I’m so glad you got away. We were actualyl headed out the door and they stopped up half way out and then nocked $2000 of the top for the same 6 websites. They don’t care about you that is for sure!
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on November 28th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
The main reason I got away was my wife took my credit cards and checkbook as I was headed to the seminar. She continously texed me saying ”DONT COMMIT” you need to talk it over with your business partner.
Also, I noticed more than half the people in the room where over 60. They had NO knowledge of even the computer basics. They should not have been there!
To me, that was there customer. They would hand over money they did not have and would be totally lost.
Again, something is rotten in Denmark! RUN AWAY!
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on November 28th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Good luck with your refund..they will NEVER give anyone a refund. That is what I am led to believe. They told me I could sell the storefronts to other people, my response was I am not that much of a bastard to get someone else hooked on rubbish and lies. You can NEVER get anyone to speak to you in authority, only the help desk, and they know nothing about the financial side ( I can believe that). I have faxed letters to them, I have addressed them to their NEW Customer SERVICES MANAGER, never got a reply from him either…so much for customer service. If you can get a lawyer that can file a class action, count me in…Good luck
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on November 30th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Hi Joel,
your wife saved you! lol
Hi Sylvia,
Storesonline do give their refunds if you pursue them hard. If you read the comments here, you will notice that there are a few people who have gotten their money back (but mostly within the first 3 days).
For periods longer than that, it usually requires a greater coordinated effort (perhaps by AG) to get the money back.
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on November 30th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
believe me i have tried very hard to get them to even consider refund, even when i said I would keep 3 fronts, and they refund me the other 3, as i know I will never use them, as so do they.
Wehen youre on the other side of the world it makes it more difficult also, so i am stuck with 6, unless I can figure out a way to persuade them to refund me, at least halef but i dont like my chances
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on December 1st, 2007 at 8:29 pm
ALL:
I have contacted a very good firm who handles class action lawsuits. I am getting more information together. I would really love to hear from everyone interested in pursuing this together.
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on December 1st, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Just reading through the above posts and I get the impression that Jessica works for Storesonline.
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on December 8th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I am going to the full day seminar next week fully enlightened now I have read about this company. I will enjoy the lunch and spread the word about what I have read to as many people as possible…I will consider it my community service for the week. I am prepared.
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Billy High Reply:
September 24th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Went to seminar today, chicken salad sandwich,slice of orange,scoop of potato salad, 2 cookies and tea. Glad I didn’t buy!
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on December 8th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Hi Winson,
Good work!
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on December 13th, 2007 at 10:55 am
One of the website building solutions that I have always recommended as an alternative to Storesonline, “Site Build It” is having a 50% offer until Christmas.
You can watch this SBI video tour to see how SBI can help you start your online business.
http://www.storesonline-reviews.com/go/sbi-video-tour.php
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on January 13th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
In response to Johnathan, We are also trying to get back the money that we paid Storesonlinepro two years ago $4700.00 for three websites . My wife and I are in our seventies and thought that we could start some kind of online business to suppliment our pensions , but this was a mistake . After signing up we tried to publish one website and after a year of trying realized that we could not do it I e mailed stores on line and asked them if we could at least get back half of the money we paid them part of which was for credit card processing which we have never used . They quoted the three day period which we had to cancel, I did not see that clause until two weeks later (my oversight) but I was not ready to complain at that time , as we were still trying to work on a website .
My last resort was to e mail the office of the Governor of Utah’s complaint department , since doing this I have been in constant contact with Ms Amber Henderson of the better business of Utah and she has contacted Stores on line on my behalf . The address is Ms Amber Henderson Better Business Bureau 5673 South Redwood Road #22 Saltlake City, Utah 84123 I should finish with , I am still looking for my refund. Jim Dobinson
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on January 13th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I purchased 6 sites from Storesonline on December 15, 2007 in Brisbane. On attempting to make a start I found that my password didn’t work. At that time started reading comments about Storesonline and realised that I had made a huge mistake. I was fortunate to have sufficient time to cancel the contract. I sent email, fax and registered letter. I had no response other than the computer generated reply to the emails. I then phoned Storesonline twice and was told the accounts department was not available. I contacted my credit card company ,and as I had fulfilled all of the necessary requirements for a reversal of the payment, they began the process of entering into a dispute. I again phoned Storesonline and informed them that they would now be dealing with my credit card company. The payment was reversed the next day.
Thank you for alerting me to the problems encountered with storesonline and overpricing. I have saved my AU$5998 and intend to research other ways of building a website.
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on January 13th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Mari
You have just won the lottery!! I cant believe they made the mistake of giving you a password that didnt work…lucky you.
You are the only one I know of who has got their money back.
I have been trying to register with MSI for credit card transactions since November, they told me it would take three weeks. i complained to SOL because we had paid for this part of the agreement, but as yet no response….funny that…I am a dope…did I really expect a response…no no no
[Reply]
on January 24th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I would love to take the complaints to another level and recoup some of my losses. I purchased 6 websites at a financed total of $8,000+. At this time I am making payments of $254 a month. That may not sound like much to you all but for me it is one-third of my income. I am disabled and living on a fixed income (SSI). To supplement this I attended the SOL meeting and bought into the hype. I got caught up in the moment and all of the excitement — now I will have to live with this for the next 6 years.
If anyone is serious about taking this further, or if anyone has gotten their money back after the 3 day cooling off period, please let me know. This is a scam. In fact I was phoned by a fellow named Josh who informed me that in order to make my websites work to pay for themselves, I would need to invest another $11,457. He told me I could just put it on my credit card (which I don’t have) or borrow it from a bank or family member. I tried to tell him that I am on a fixed income and can’t afford what I am already paying. He then brought in the big gun, Brian, who tried to tell me that I was never going to be any better off than I am now because I was not willing to make the $11k investment. Well I thought the $8k was going to get me to a better place, not make me poorer than I already am.
HELP!! Can anyone offer any advice?
ME
[Reply]
on January 24th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I have no idea how storesonline get people to their seminars, but it is very sad that a number of their “victims” are elderly or disabled.
[Reply]
Katrina Reply:
November 11th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
TRUE THAT MARTIN
I just went to a seminar in Rotorua, New Zealand today
I had a one on one consultation and we were talking about the price. I said at this time it was too step and then the consultant said HE couldnt even afford to pay that price right now.
What does that tell you he works for stores online the pay must not be that great and why does he have his own stores online site when he promotes how cold it is and life changing??? We had a lot of people their over theie 60s half the class and many people with disabilities. I left early its still going right now and people are already purchasing their sites.
THIS IS A BIG PYRAMID SCHEME!!!
[Reply]
on February 17th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Please read this carefully and believe me it is the truth - my personal experience with StoresOnline.
If you are thinking to buy anything from this company, you will sorely regret it, take my word for it! I believed these guys and they have frustrated me, lied to me, deceived me and have even threatened me. But after pitying myself for so long and thinking it was my fault because I signed a contract, I have finally taken action. If you believe you have been suckered into this scam by StoresOnline, you owe it to yourself and others to get out and put these people to shame.
I have been having a running battle with them and now I am having the upper hand and StoresOnline has agreed to cancel this phony and dubious contract. I am in touch with the Utah BBB which has been extremely helpful so far. I have even spoken to the Division of Consumer Protection in Utah and I will still report this company. I have reported them everywhere I can possibly think and I will keep reporting them everywhere on this planet.
I have insisted that this company must pay back my money which they took by subterfuge, don’t let any idiot deceive you by selling you more lies about all the SOL nonsense. I am a proof and have discovered so much lies, you will knock yourself again and again for falling foe this scam.
I will come back here to publish my accounts or refer you to the cases in case anyone wishes to take a cue from my approach. I will be happy to see everyone in this world get their money back and let people like Jessica (shes pisses me off so bad) and her like go to StoresOnline and be deceived right into debt, penury and frustration. If you have worked so hard for your money, never allow the devil called SOL come anywhere near you. But if you wish to burn your dollars like someone setting paper on fire, then do please go ahead. But rmember, you have been warmed.
** Note:: This is a serious real life experience and I am not writing lies about this company but the truth which I speak all the time.
[Reply]
on February 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Please look at stores on line exposed as well.
ALSO, please look at BBB as they have been sued over and over again by Attorney Generals. They are not even allowed in the State of California now.
Obviously, they are theives and the General Attorney’s know it.
[Reply]
on February 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I meant Attorney Generals know it.
I have also filed a complaint with the Attorney General here in PA and it is now my life’s mission to destroy them.
People have gone into bankruptcy because of them. They are stealing people’s life savings and tricking people to go into debt they cannot afford thereby causing bankruptcies.
[Reply]
on February 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Hi there guys, especially those outside the US. We have been scammed not only by SOL but also PMI. They are targeting SOL customers out of the USA witha fast track to the SOl storefronts promising all sorts of whiz bang ideas and help. When we got the package the lessons were the exact spiels that the boring SOL presenters gave in their seminars..boy are we pissed off. We have lodfged complaints against both companies with the BBB. I beleive that PMI are even worst bastrads than the SOL mob and I never throught i would say that. If there is scum of this earth ten these two snakes crawl together. beware of PMI, especially is you live outside the USA
[Reply]
on February 24th, 2008 at 8:27 am
WOW… I can’t believe how active this blog is with people getting swindled by Stores Online. Stores Online is the biggest scam I have ever had the pleasure of being part of. I get part of my $4000 they stole from my family every time I make a post. I know I can make a difference and hopefully warn people against going to their highly suggestive (should be illegal) sales pitch “free dinner” meeting. I have actually had lots of people email me and ask for alternatives and I found what I think looks absolutely wonderful. It’s called Site Build It and you can check it out by clicking right here or copy this addres in your browser address window. http://proof.sitesell.com/internetmlm.html
They offer everything you need for $299 a year and they give you a 30 day money back guarantee (instead of the 8 day Stores Online give you which they are legally obligated too BTW and you won’t get that information in the meeting but according to SOL you have to read your contract after your pumped up 10 miles from their snakes … uhh I mean sales people LOL) and Site Build It comes with all you need including unlimited support ALL for $299 a year - no bolt-ons as it states on their website. I haven’t honestly tried Site Build It yet because I already started something different before I heard of them and it’s working pretty awesome for me. You can check out my first site at http://www.cheapbibs.com if you want. There is a link at the bottom to the BANS software I used to build it. Bans cost $99 for unlimited websites but you have to have your own hosting which I paid $249 for 2 years at Hostmonster and I can have unlimited websites with up to 100 MySql databases and much more. Anyways check out Site Build It or BANS if you like and email me if you have any other questions please. I HATE STORES ONLINE. I am always interested in helping with a class action lawsuit against stores online if anyone is interested and hopefully has some resources or knowledge to get it started. I’ve talked with several others who would be interested so basically we would need an organizer and I think the people would be there honestly. Thanks, Jonathan
[Reply]
on February 24th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Hi Sylvia,
In actual fact, PMI is affiliated with Storesonline. That’s how they get your contact numbers.
[Reply]
on February 24th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I know now that they are affiliated, but ask them at SOL about PMI and all they ay it that they are awware of them but not associated with them…another bloody big lie… I have reported them to the BBB as well, as i think what they do is somewhat worse than SOL
[Reply]
on February 25th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Hello,
I am currently working on the website thru PMI and StoresOnline. It has been a struggle for me. I am not that great with computers, but am learning. I have learned alot, but there is alot more to learn. I feel like there is not end. I hope it is not a scam as I would really like to have a website.
All the comments on the chat is really quite scary. I there anyone in Canada that has comments or concerns.
[Reply]
on February 25th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I would really like some feedback from Canadian customers who have dealt or are dealing with PMI and or StoresOnline.
[Reply]
on February 25th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Debbie - you should really check out the merchant forum. I know of a couple of people who are from Canada that frequently use the forum. This was put together by other storesonline customers who were frustrated with their service. Yes, you can be successful with a storesonline store. It is hard work and frustrating at times.
I am personally moving my sites to another server, but I probably wouldn’t have even started this if not for buying these sites at the seminar. Storesonline is costly, but not so outrageous compared to others that offer the same features as storesonline. PMI on the other hand is a total ripoff in my opinion.
Anyway checkout http://www.onlinemerchantforum.com You will find lots of free help there.
[Reply]
on February 26th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Debbie, the PMI part of it is as big as scam as SOL. Its just a rehash of the seminars using the same boring speakers. There Web biz marketing..is so called to jazz up the site if you are not that good, as we are, but we didnt see any jazzing up, just a few lines added, or changed in our overall descriptions.
It has also taken me from November to last week to finally get on line with MSI International for my Merchant card processing, which we paid about $1000.00 AUD for, for each store. And that was after having to make 3 international phone calls to SOL, as we couldnt get any satisfaction from them. I doubt we will ever get the 6 stores done, as getting products wholesale her in Oz is not as easy as the US and I am not sure about Canada. Customs over here is very strict with imports so it makes the job doubly hard.
[Reply]
on February 27th, 2008 at 6:55 am
In about April last year I attended the Stores Online seminar in Sydney Australia, & landed up paying $4600 for 6 sites!
At the time, before I went to the seminar I was looking at adding pages & links to my existing website & also looking to invest in an email marketing system.
That was probably going to cost me about $2500 Aus dollars.
I thought through Stores Online, I could transfer the hosting of my original site to them & then through their “tools” would be able to add products, pages etc.
I also liked the idea of their permission based marketing of e-newsletters integrated with their system. (I’m not sure how that works - I’ve never been able to test it!)
I spent quite a few months going through their training cd’s etc & when I started trying to use the system I found it impossible!
Eventually I told the programmers to copy the site & paid another $150 programming fee for that.
The site looks terrible, & I would never dream of going live with it as it would be a huge step backwards & would definitely make my business look extremely amateur & unprofessional.
I told them that I was unhappy with the site, but they said that was the best they could do.
I recently went to some local web designers & showed them the Stores Online system & asked them if they could help get my website incorporated into one of the stores online web templates – to make the site look professional.
They quoted me between around $500 to try & get it looking professional on one of the Stores Online templates & so I told them to go ahead!
They came back to me, however, & said that they spent a lot of time trying to get my site to look professional on one of the templates but were unable to achieve a half-decent result & so refused the job!
I have now given up with Stores Online realizing that I have been totally scammed!
If experienced web designers here say they have never seen such a complicated content management system, what chance would I have!
I would also now never trust them to host my business websites anyway.
In terms of their 3 day cooling off period – how can you investigate all their web building software in 3 days?
How can we get our money back!!
Also, is there anyone in Sydney, Aus that has experienced similar?
[Reply]
on March 2nd, 2008 at 12:59 am
We have recently purchased one site and are having a lot of trouble understanding the directions on how to set everything up.Tracey is drawing a small disability check and I am working all of the overtime that I can get just to get by.Since Tracey is unable to go to work at a “real job”, we though this might be a good way to help make ends meet.So far it looks like we may have been too hasty.I wish I would have found this review page before we went to the seminar.So far we haven’t spent too much on our dream,but like I said we are just getting started.Neither of us are computer whizzes,so that makes all of this even harder on us.Just wanted to vent a little and say HI!!!
[Reply]
on March 2nd, 2008 at 5:33 am
Hi we have a bit of computer knowedge and we found it difficult. I think everyone in this forum wished they found it before they committed. At least you only outlayed for one site, most of us bougth 3 0r 6 for outlays of anything from 3000 - 6000.
Good luck
PS Dont expect a refund from SOL either..we have all tried..believe me
Just make sure that if a company called PMI ring to offer assistance at a price, dont fall for it…they are in cahoots with SOl and they just give you the same info as the SOl seminars with the same presenters and all and in my book are bigger scam artists than SOL if that is at all possible
[Reply]
on March 19th, 2008 at 9:51 am
SOL has now blown its way into our small Canadian Community..I planned to attend, but thought I would first do a little research, after spending a few years in the states , I was aware of “IMergent” and its problems, but happy to say
[Reply]
on March 19th, 2008 at 10:02 am
SOL Is Now The World’s Biggest Scam :Hello to everyone,I am so very sorry to hear that this Saga continues ,now my Niece has become another Statistic ,who just recently this past Sept 2007. invested her savings into buying a 6 site ripoff extravaganza deal .Whereas she received 6 perfect Inoperable sites for only $5700 Total, not including all her Credit Card Interest Fees all this with an Added BONUS COMPANY’S SPECIAL 3 DAY NO RETURN HIDDEN POLICY CLAUSE !!! .
She now is trying to recoup her losses though , per my help, suggestion ,is now contacting the AG’s Office UT.,The Consumer Protection Service now serving Orem UT. As you really must attack Vermin where they live to get any positive results .Also if you did not know already I also found out recently that SOL does not operate or cannot make any sales to consumers even in their own home state of UT.Now hopefully this info should help some new prospect think fully before making one of the biggest mistakes of their lives.Sol is now dangling from a thin thread and maybe very close to having chains placed on their front doors in UT. It is also so very true that they are affiliated with the larger, more Fraudulent Famous Company aka PMI,could possibly even be a Div. thereof.So now If you do happen to ever hear the two names mentioned in the same sentence please hold onto your wallets and purses and run fast for the hills!!!
Good luck!
[Reply]
on March 19th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Hi again
I contacted the Better Business Bureau in Utah about both of these companies and the results are this. SOL has agreed to refund me half of my initial outlay which is ok with me, however if Ihear that they are closing down, or being closed down, I will go for the jugular. PMI, at the time of purchase offerred me a full money refund if my site didnt perfom in 6 months,. Now they have agreed to repay the whole of my investment, As yet I have not had a release form from them, but will be contacting them shortly. I will let you know when I have the cash. If you want to register a complaint with BBB just google BBB Utah and they have a form that you fill in to regiter the complaint. Make sure you use a separate form for each comopany.
Cheers
[Reply]
on March 19th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Sylvia: I emailed the SOL rep I have talked too so many times before and told him that they agreed to refund half of your money and that we would also accept half of our money as well. We were previously told that the only way they would refund money is if the person was gravely ill or terminal and they also told us if they refund for one person, then they would have to refund for everyone. My first though is Why don’t you come up with a product and customer service so that refunds isn’t your main concern anymore but whatever right? Anyways as you all can see by the post right above me, that is all crap just like StoreOnline is crap.
Stores Online doesn’t seem to get the fact that I will make posts, reports, websites, and anything else I learn until they refund my money and pretty soon I’m going to charge them double to make up for all my time as well. I’m not bitter about it anymore but I’m just doing what is right. If I never get my money back, I will have told thousands of people about this company before they even go to the seminar and sway them from going. I just filed a report at RipOffReport and I strongly encourage everyone who has reported on this blog to do the same. StoresOnline, iMergant, and PMI already have over 350 complaints on that site alone. I believe it gets pretty good attention from StoresOnline as well. A few say they were offered a refund, a few say they are basically just giving up and hundreds are probably not even resolved. Please go there and tell your complaint about Stores Online. I also encourage everyone who has been ripped off by StoresOnline to also post blog entries, forums, create polls, and even help in getting a class action lawsuit filed and do whatever is possible to help this company from hurting other people and their pocket book.
thanks,
Jonathan
[Reply]
on March 20th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Hi Sylvia,
Good job there and thanks for sharing. It seems that SOL have more problems with the authorities in Utah.
[Reply]
on March 20th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
My husband and I paid the $25.00 for the all day seminar. Fortunately I took the time the day before to visit the BBB website and read through all the ongoing law suits..Still we attended just to maybe learn a little about online sales…Little we did learn as the morning was spent trying to convince us to part with $6000 for unlimited web sites and blah blah balh!!! I did manage to get one good round of laughter after the speaker held up his cell phone and said “I have the vice-president of Microsoft on my SPEED Dial and that’s how big we are” and I yelled out ” Then call him right now and invite him to lunch.” That drew a laugh as he turned red as a beat and blubbered something about not abusing their relationship. We did stay for lunch only because we had already paid for it . And then I began talking to the people around us about NOT wasting any more time or money on these hyper- active scammers. My husband knowing what a determined heckler I can become escorted me out shortly after lunch. Then I stumbled on to this site tonight and I am so glad to hear that my intuition is still in tact..for being an old person (55 and getting younger) Thanks for the tips from thoughs who succeeded in other venues as I will not give up on my persuit to find my place on the internet.
[Reply]
on March 25th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Wow! Well, call us lucky! We went to the evening seminar to learn more about how we could make our millions.
Although my husband was sold immediately, I am a little more pessimistic. We purchased the software for $50. That price included both of us being able to go to the full day seminar. I noticed an unusual number of elderly people at the seminar as well–it’s too bad they have to prey on anyone, but the elderly? Really? How sad!
Unfortunately, I threw my back out and am unable to go to the one day seminar tomorrow. He was upset as he wanted me there to help him decide whether this was worth going forward with. I called SOL to see when they’d be back in our area for us to attend and was met with an agitated man who informed me it would be 3 to 5 months before they’d be back. When asked for a date, all he could do was quote “3 to 5 months”. That rubbed me the wrong way.
My husband wouldn’t go without me, so he went online to see where they’d be next so that we could hopefully to to that seminar. When he typed in the SOL website for the Yahoo search engine…the first site to pop up was SOL Beware. Intrigued, we read on and are very thankful for my bad back.
You have no idea how thankful we are to those of you that have posted your experiences here. (Save Jessica–an obvious mole for SOL.)
Keep spreading the word! Save as many others as possible from WASTING their money on such a scam.
Like the cliche goes…If it sounds to good to be true…it probably is!
THANKS AGAIN AND STAY AWAY FROM SOL!!!
[Reply]
on March 26th, 2008 at 8:55 am
I just want to thank all of you protector for helping me to save my little hard earn money. I was going to pay for the Onlinestore, but I had this funny feeling in my stomach the day before. And I feel so good now that I’m reading your Blog. I didn’t have the money myself, but I did bring a friend who had the money for the website. I did some research the day before and I had a little knowledge about what was going on in there attempted to get my money for the website. Well, after lunch my friend and I decide to leave to go home and the person doing the talking summons one of his worker to stop us from leaving. I said all of this to say sometimes that funny feeling is the key to saving some hardship later. Thanks again for this site!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Reply]
on March 27th, 2008 at 11:36 am
URGENT - URGENT - URGENT
I need all people from Pennsylvania to contact me immediately.
I spoke with the Consumer Protection (Attorney General’s Office) about getting StoresOnLine banned from PA and was informed if there is a reoccurring problem, they can get them banned.
Any PA residents who have been lied to by StoresOnLine, contact me at 610-495-0176 or 610-213-9011 or
stephanie@ushopeurope.com
We need to file complaints with the Attorney General’s Office. Don’t worry about how long it has been. I filed 11 months after I was scammed.
We need to show a pattern of deceit. This should be pretty easy considering the fact these people do not tell the truth about anything.
[Reply]
on March 27th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Stephanie: I would love to please hear your progress with this personally. The Attorney General is probably the only route I haven’t tried yet and apparently from what I hear, is the best one. Please fill me in with your details and help me with Missouri.
MISSOURI RESIDENTS:::
Please call Jon and Katie at 573-243-3729 or email sol@blazzo.com
I feel if we all work together it will have more pull. I encourage others who have had issues with StoresOnline in other states to file right along with us. Lets stand up and get our money back from these people one way or another.
Jonathan
[Reply]
on March 27th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
TO ALL CANADIAN RESIDENTS!!!!
Please give me some feedback regarding PMI and StoresOnline!! I am currently working on a website. They had said it would take 5 - 10 hours of my time a week. I am not really sure sure if I am getting anywhere. I have spent a lot of hours(a lot more than 10 hours a week.) and I not getting anywhere fast. I would like more feedback from Canadians who have purchase the PMI package!!
Debbie
[Reply]
on March 27th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Debbie,
You should really check out our forum. It is for people who have SOL sites and has a special section for Canadian merchants and the special problems they encounter. It is not affiliated with SOL or PMI in any way. Sorry to hear PMI got to you, but since you already made the investment, you can be successful with a SOL store. Go to http://www.onlinemerchantforum.com and check out all the useful information and help you can get there. Its all free and in my opinion, much better help than PMI or EMS.
[Reply]
on March 31st, 2008 at 2:34 am
TO ALL UNITED KINGDOM RESIDENTS !!!!
My brother and I attended a SOL ‘FREE dinner’ and got a sandwich. We were caught hook line and all the sinkers we had.
We bought two sites each for £4000. We were told about 100’s of ‘Dropshippers and sites and yes … in UK’ We tried to find these sites and where ripped off. I believe the seminar leader gave us a site and we subscribed £50 and got squot nothing in return. (Might have been his own)
We tried to set up the sites and could not get any joy from SOL who sent back info saying “it only works in the US”. Great help when you are sold a product in the UK! I sent off info again and received a reply saying sorry all the google search info is only based on US info. At this point I gave up.
And just incase you wondered about the PMI, yes they tried to get us to buy into the SCAM but when we suggested to the salesman that we would carry on trying ourselves, he replied in such an aggresive manner that Both my brother and I had to put the phone down on him in seperate calls.
We thought it was our fault we couldn’t get things working. SOL made us both feel like we were so stupid. Got to give it to them, ‘they are good at what they do’.
I am thinking of writing to my local MP with this. ANY SUGGESTIONS?
[Reply]
on March 31st, 2008 at 2:42 am
All i can tell you is to take it to the Better Business Bureau in Utah. i got satisfaction through them. Google BBB Utah. They have a complaint form which you fill in and submit. They get back to you pretty quickly, and as i said i was able to get some satisfaction from them Good Luck
[Reply]
on March 31st, 2008 at 8:53 am
I wanted to share with everyone a few more blog post to read about StoresOnline i just found this morning. Check out http://rad-box.com/?p=113 and http://rad-box.com/?p=120 to see what Aleks from Australia has to say about Stores Online.
thanks, jonathan
[Reply]
on April 10th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
This message is for Maxine,
Hi Maxine, I was just reading thru all the messages and I came across your message. I was very upset by your message which was written way back January 14th 2008. Did you deal with Stores On Line or PMI? My heart goes out to you. That is really low on their part. Did they not offer you any advice as to what you can do with what you have invested so far?
Do you live in Canada or the USA?
Debbie
[Reply]
on April 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Debbie,
I dealt with SOL but the others called and tried to get $11000 out of me for a marketing plan. Thank God I had the good sense not to buy into that. I have not gotten any money back but hope that they will reconsider. I have filed complaints with the BBB and others but nothing as of yet.
Thanks for your message.
[Reply]
on April 12th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Debbie,
I forgot to add that I live in the US.
Maxine
[Reply]
on April 15th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Hi all,
I just received an invitation letter yesterday from this so called Stores online. First thing that caught me was the special free breakfast, lunch, dinner “dinner for two” which will be held at some of the known hotels here in Toronto. And man, I am so thankful to have had browsed into this blog!! Really stay away from this gate of hell!! They will eat you alive!! I shredded the invitation into pieces right away!! Evil!!! There’s nothing free that comes from the devil!!!
God bless you!!
Jovic - Toronto
[Reply]
on April 17th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Go eat their lunch. You do not have to buy! Get the free gift as well– if there are few buyers than takers the economics will sort this out. Never reject a free lunch! Be strong!!
[Reply]
on April 23rd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I realize that most complains posted about SOL is about their hard sell on 6 websites for $4000 to $6000.
We just sat through the first seminar and paid $25 to buy that Storesonline express + first month hosting free + 2nd training. We were told that we can turn the hosting on/off anytime and (therefore no need to pay monthly hosting fees anymore).
Just wondering if anybody encounter trouble when you ask them to turn off the hosting. We wanted to limit the overall cost to the current $25?
Thanks, peter99jansen@gmail.com
[Reply]
on April 28th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
To Debbie:
I am CANADIAN. I have a storesonline website. I am ready to publish but still have problems that need addressing by storesonline. Serious problem with payment processor and getting a company that can process CANADIAN payments. Contact me Debbie, I will be happy to discuss in detail. It has taken me 2 years to get to this point, not all storesonline fault but I needed to become knowledgeable on computer, online selling etc.. It takes a lot of time and work to learn everything before designing your site, if you want to be successful, but getting help from storesonline, when needed, is like pulling teeth. I REFUSE TO GIVE UP and am determined to see this through and then keep my fingers crossed that my site is successful. Me email address is freedom59@msn.com (London, Ontario, Canada)
[Reply]
on April 28th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Debbie: Fellow CANADIAN here again. Just wanted to add, I don’t know if storesonline is a scam or not, but I do know that they try to get you to pay for things that I really don’t think you should have to pay for in order to get to the point where you can publish your site. I am still working on getting answers so I can get my site published, hopefully before the summer is through! Have been at this for to long and worked to hard to give up! I refuse to give up, and being an entrupreneur is hard work, so…keep plugging at it girl! I’ll give any info and help I can to help you. Contact my email: freedom59@msn.com (LONDON, ONT. CANADA)
[Reply]
on April 28th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Hi Carol,
Good luck with your site.
At some point in time, you will need to refocus your efforts from “making” the site to marketing it because that is where the money is.
[Reply]
on April 29th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Hi Martin Lee:
Thanks for the response. I spent the first year doing just what you suggest. I found the product I wanted to sell, decided on, and found my target market, and wow oh wow, it is there and I have really “marketed” myself. Problem I encountered as of late is this: firstly, being CANADIAN and choosing Pay Pal as my online payment processor etc.. what Pay Pal indicated was not fully the truth, I cannot process according to setting up my shopping cart following storesonline info. Pay Pal will not work they way it is needed (especially will not work for CANADIAN) And secondly, because of all that, I have tried to find a Canadian company to register with to process my payments, specifically to allow me to offer and process online, telephone, email and fax orders, and also mail-in orders if the customer provides a credit card number. Also I would like to offer interac on line payment method. That is ABSOLUTELY out of the question with Pay Pal or any of the payment processors you will find in the “affiliates” with storesonline drop down box. I need storesonline to integrate, so the “platform” of the canadian company I choose to process my payments will work. Forgive me if I am not using the proper computer lingo language. SOL does not want to help, does not want to work with the canadian companies to enabe us canadians to use a company that will enable us canadian merchants to process our orders. Working on that issue right now with sol. I have marketed, have everything in place and ready, have people waiting to order, to list me (marketing!!) but cannot publish until I can get storesonline to work out the issue of canadian payment processor. That is what is holding me up from publishing. However, I will likely then find another problem I have to deal with SOL. I’m still refusing to give up, after comming this far!! I am willing to pay a canadian company to process my payments but noone seems to be able to integrate with the programming and things the way sol has set up their system!! That proves to me that sol intended from the get go to make our lives hell and make as much $$ off us as possible, telling us we have to pay for this, pay for that and pay for everything that SHOULD be available for us to get our sites live. IF THERE ARE ANY CANADIANS USING SOL SITES, PLEASE TELL ME WHO YOU HAVE USED AS YOUR PAYMENT PROCESSOR because I need to process credit cards, telephone etc.. orders and need a “virtual terminal” to do it, that will do it for canadians, in canadian funds. I also need to accept interac on line that will go to canadian bank pages for canadian customers. HELP? You can email me at freedom59@msn.com if you prefer.
[Reply]
on May 2nd, 2008 at 6:01 am
So I have gone through the Internet Marketing Workshop in Canada recently, there are new changes to their TODAY ONLY workshop offer.
Now with SOL express, you already have your store with shopping cart integrated with paypal, the only thing you are missing are the advance features. So as expected, they get this Brian from California (bald, Nicholas Cage looking) to talk about advance features and internet marketing tips, to be honest, I do not find this Brian too hard sell on the SOL advance features and it actually contain some useful information regarding eMarketing.
As for the “Workshop today only” offering, they changed a bit. It now offers two options: $3000 upgrade to PRO (Pro upgrade, merchant services, first site programmed, ECI merchant account, bootcamp training 6 hrs) or $6000 (unlimited site upgrade, merchant services, first site programmed, intergrated drop shipper, ECI, boot camp).
Thanks to Martin Lee and this site, we already know what to expect so we make the best out of it and learn some new things. Out of the ~300 audience, maybe 20-25 people signd up, so the fill-rate was not exactly high, maybe CANADIANS are more conservatve.
As an IT professional, looking at the product & service offering, I cannot say they are really ripping you off in terms of what you paid for and what they give you. In fact, I would charge my clients similiar and cannot match 50% of their “PRO/advance” offerings. Everybody has to make money, so the offering is not exactly unfair in terms of pricing.
However like many of the above said, there is questionable ethnics (nothing illegal) on the approach they do business. It is not necessarily that is illegal but just the ethnics is very questionable sales techniques. Out of all the audience, it seems they on purpose targeted the elderly, disabled, and low educated people; the proportion is a low higher than other groups….. maybe these people are more easily attracted by “get rich” scheme? I don’t know.
As with any one successful business, there are always at least nine failing ones. SOL only offers an enabler, to succeed in business, persistence and drive for success is the more important factor. To all those that are willing to dedicate the effort and hardwork, I wish you all the best luck.
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on May 8th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Hi Carol,
do you mean paypal cannot be integrated with the storesonline shopping cart?
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on May 9th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Hi Martin:
What I mean is, storesonline has multiple options that merchants can use, include for payment methods and payment processors. Pay Pal is one payment processor listed. As a Canadian, I called Pay Pal, very clearly stated I was CANADIAN and a Storesonline merchant. They knew storesonline well, or so stated. I set up a Pay Pal merchant account, and my Pay Pal rep told me what was included, ie: payment methods my customers would have the option of choosing. In turn, I followed SOL instructions to the letter and set up my shopping cart. I had already secured a distributor who would drop ship my products using Purolator as the “carrier”. At the end of it all, I started doing “TEST ORDERS”, used the pretend credit card number provided by SOL, just for this purpose of doing test orders. SOL said you could follow your order through, get the email confirmation, just like a real order, just as if you were a “live, online customer” processing an order. It all seemed to be working. However, talking with my CANADIAN bank, I learned it would NOT work, if I was “LIVE”. That is when I contacted Pay Pal again. They now explained that with Canadian SOL merchants, they had payments floating around in virtual land, never actually being processed through pay pal because of the way the merchant set up the shopping card following SOL instructions, that are meant for USA merchants who have Pay Pal PRO accounts, which are NOT available to Canadians. We can ONLY have Pay Pal STANDARD merchant accounts. If Canadian, DO NOT follow SOL instructions. DO NOT “ADD” payment methods show by SOL. You MUST only put Pay Pal as the “payment method” and as the “payment processor”, then, as the customer goes through the checkout, Pay Pal adds their own credit card payment method option page-nothing to do with SOL. Only then will credit card actually get to Pay Pal for verification. The USA merchant options and payment method options are completely different than what is available to Canadians. Besides, most of the payment processors are set up to deal with USA, not Canadian, unless our customer wants to pay in US funds and we, the merchant, want to set up a USA bank account. Storesonline has not included much choice for canadians, have not listed processors that offer or provide sercices that will offer what canadians need. Therefore, it limits our ability to make as much revenue as we possibly could. They do not offer “virtual terminal” for Canadians, for us to process “telephone, email or fax” orders, and they do not offer Interac on line for Canadians to pay directly from their Canadian bank accounts. That limits our revenue and order possibilities, limits our customers choice of payment methods to only online credit card. I don’t want the world, only the same options to make as much money as US merchants who can offer more payment choices to their customers. Storesonline has not integrated with Canadian payment processing companies. Who you talk with at SOL are not the ones who decide but, it seems like everything costs EXTRA and thousands of dollars to consider. To integrate with a Canadian processing company, they might, but they also will charge every merchant to do the integration on their site. That is not fair. If I give them the URL and info needed to do the integration with a Canadian company, for us CDN sol merchants, why do they say they will charge every sol CDN merchant to do the same integration on their site too? Ripping us off, for sure!
[Reply]
on May 10th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Hi Carol,
Thanks for clarifying. As mentioned by so many other clients, their customer service is bad.
Based on what you say,
“You MUST only put Pay Pal as the “payment method” and as the “payment processor””
Does that mean it will still work but without the sol shopping cart functionality?
[Reply]
on May 11th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Like Mari (Jan 13 2008 blog) we also attended SOL sales spin in Brisbane Dec ‘07.
After attending their 2hr presentation a few days earlier we turned up on the day quite excited at the futue prospects we thought we were to be offered. Despite their hard-sell technique I thought they were above-board, however my partner Julie was very wary on the day. Despite this we proceeded and forked out $6000 on credit card for 6 websites.
A couple of hours after coming home that night Julie decided to Google “stores online credibility”. Well, I can tell you, we just felt sick reading all the negative press. Immediately we emailed (a few times) and faxed them our desire to opt out under the “3 day cooling off period” clause. We received the standard automated response to our emails but heard nothing more. Over the next few weeks we just kept annoying them with emails and phone calls. Amazingly, about 6-8 weeks later we received a full refund. I thought we had no chance of getting our money back……. and I’m sure had it been one minute after the 3 day deadline we would have been sunk……. like most others on here.
I would love to hear of any other seminars these thieves are holding here in Brisbane in the future. I would go along quietly, armed with discreet little printouts and stuff one in the pocket of every person there. I would make it my mission that they would not sell one website that day.
Oh yeah….. do you notice that they wont let anyone ask even a single question during the hard-sell day?! Of course they wont……. they’re afraid someone might stand up and mention blogs lke this. How good would that be……. stand up and in a very loud voice question them on all the bad press and see how long it takes before they all swoop like a pack of seagulls on a hot chip and throw you out the door.
In the end we were very lucky, but these rip-off bastards need to be exposed and I applaud blogs like this one in aiding that cause. Good job!!!
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on May 13th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Today I received an invitation and tickets from this place to attend a conference and dinner. I am SO glad I took the initiative to research them before falling for a free meal! After reading these comments there is NO WAY I will be calling in my R.S.V.P.!! I have been both a seller and buyer on Ebay for years, so don’t need help with that. I also have my own website as I am a hobby breeder of AKC Pomeranians. My site was built for me by my husband and is hosted through GoDaddy. I am absolutely appalled that this place even exists!! I have a lot better uses for the money these people want to charge for a product that, from what I’ve read, is totally useless!!! I’m sorry for those who have been misled and want to thank you for saving many others the misery.
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on May 14th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hey MJ I am happy that you read all the review of StorseOnline they’re a bunch of scum bags, just out to rob people of the hard earned money. I got sucked into that trap . I am trying to have my contract cancelled and they r giving me the run around. I will be calling them every day until they cancelled it. Added to that there is a law suit filed against them with the state attorney here in Florida. I am just hoping that everything goes well.
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on May 14th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Computerman: I wish you only the best and hope you’re able to get your refund. I wonder how many other people here in our small town received the same “invitation” I did and I also wonder if they’ll do any research before attending. Please keep everyone posted as to your outcome and the outcome of the suit with the State Attorney.
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on May 15th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Hi Martin I have just received a invitation through the post from storesonline.com and it looks like they are spreading there wings over the pond so I have put a warning on my blog and a link to yours as you have encountered them before.
Yours Alan Martin
[Reply]
on May 15th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Hello I am here once again to report about the status of contract with these scim bags, I made a call today again to get an update on my contract and I can tell you i did behave nice at all. I was told they r reviewing my case. i saod ok but I will be calling again tomorrow. If anyone calls them ask to speak to the supervisior, mails seems not to work. I will keep u guys posted.
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on May 15th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
The only way to get staisfaction, some not all, as they wont refund the total, is to go the the BBB Utah website, and place a complaint. Works with PMI also
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on May 24th, 2008 at 10:37 am
This is a chat with customers support 2 day
Welcome To Storesonline Storefront Support! Good to have you on chat, how may I help you today?
are you interested in buying over my License
I apologize robert, but storesonline do not but sites back
you can sell them on reseller sites link ebay
i am talking about storesonline i am asking you.
dont you work with storesonline
dont you have websites which is being hosted by storesonline
guess the sites you have are all up and running and making money
yes I do work for storesonline , but on buying the sites back , we do not have this policy implemented
what i am asking you has nothing to do with storesonline
if you have sites up and running why cant you buy another one
I apologize truly Robert, I really want to help as much as I can , but I dont have money to buy another one
why not
that means that the sites you have are not making any money or you dont have any site at all?.
it’s only one i will sell you for $500.00 i’ve already paid $700.00
Once again, I wish I have the money so that I can help you out. But I do have other responsibilities also and I need to prioritize those first.
I suggest that you sell the licenses on reseller sites like Ebay
ok. what if i gave it to you free
no one else wants to buy a licenses from storesonline
so i figure i would get someone who works with storesonline to buy it.
Okay , we will check on the management if we can do buy it back
when will that be
I will send an email today and we will check that first thing on tuesday
so who will respond to my request.
you will
I can tell you what they will say..they cannot buy it back jus as you told me.
I will contact them and as soon as they have responded to the request , we will get back to you
are you sending the email now?. when you do please let me have the ticket number.
you already know what they will say.
Okay please hold on as I create a ticket for that
ok
thank you for waiting
the tracking number is Ticket 23077110
what is the name of your site if you dont mind telling me.
it is under site construction but I do plan in selling refurbished turntables , im working on it now
ok. i thought is was that easy to build the site, so how come u r working there and urs in under construction, u have all the programmers close to u.
Okay here is the site I am did previously http://www.tipid-racing.com
I did*
I removed the underconstruction site
ok.
okay
looks intersting
okay thanks
you still have lots of work to do.
yes
but it should’nt take u that long.
I understand robert but im full time here as a customer service representative
sounds like u work 24/7
:O) sometimes we do double shifts
which means that u do have time cause u wk double sometimes.
but we do assist more that 3 merchant most of the times so I prioritize merchants first
any way got to go look after my baby. nice talking to you and looking forward for a reply.
Okay thank you robert for your time
please do Feel free to contact us if you need any further assistance.
We’d love for you to fill out the survey after you click on the “Done” Button. We appreciate your comments and suggestions regarding your recent experience. I hope I have given you excellent service. Thank you and have a lovely day!
u too.
thanks bye!
[Reply]
on June 3rd, 2008 at 7:33 am
Oh My God!!!!! Thankyou everyone for your comments
I was supposed to be going to the full day seminar in 2weeks- I think not now.
For Craig, UK……. I think you should fight them all the way- contact your Bank or Credit Card Company for help. They will have the knowledge and the power to help you. I would also contact Trading Standards