So, I recently received, in the mail, an “invitation” from a no-name entity who plastered the words “Internet Marketing Conference” like it was their company name in subdued gray type all over the stationery. The invitation was to a free internet marketing seminar in my town, of all places. I say, “of all places” because Melbourne Beach, FL is not the hotbed of internet entrepreneurship that you may think. I may be wrong, but I doubt it.
The reason I attended was because curiosity got the better of me and I was dying to find out what this was about.
This seminar, or conference as they call it, was presented by a company called Storesonline.com. If I had known that before, I would have searched Yahoo.com and found this. Anyway, I was there already, one of about 150 people, crammed into a hotel ballroom like sardines and I figured I’d give them a chance.
There were SO many red flags going off in my head that this was just a big sales pitch and here’s why:
- The cheap suits of the seminar crew. JC Penny specials, all of them.
- The presenter was trying to be Mr. Personality and greeting everyone like he was a celebrity but looked like he fit better in a dive bar type of environment.
- The constant reminders by the seminar crew that this was a really popular conference and things sell out fast.
- They were offering free lunch and a free day-planner. “A $120 value!” Right.
- They talked more about the experience of having money that building an internet business.
- The seminar presenters “revival preacher from Kansas” method of delivery.
- The opening line, “How’re all you folks doing today!!” “What was that? I couldn’t hear you!”
Basically this free 90-minute seminar was a sales pitch to get you to the full-day seminar for which they were charging the lowly sum of $20.
According to John Chow in his post about his experience, he says that the “services” they were offering were exorbitantly priced and completely not worth it. He was right.
In my opinion, if you know enough to run a business on the internet, you know that this company’s services are a total ripoff. Yes they aggregate all that you would need to run an ecommerce site but the more you learn, you will find out that these services are available a WHOLE LOT cheaper elsewhere.
The thing that made me kind of sad was that about 80% of the people in the seminar were older retirees in their 70s who looked like they were all into all the crap this company was selling.
So, as always, buyer beware.
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15 users responded in this post
We also were enticed into purchasing 3 websites, than Storesonline passed us to EMS to charge another $7500. In 1 1/2 year we haven’t recovered even fraction of the money Storesonline and EMS took from us!!!!!!! Several times we requested buy back the 3 websites, we won’t be using them ever!!! We had their call back to tell us “too bad, we do not refund money!” We are seniors, they lied to us how easy one can make money, there is not such a thing, and I wish they wouldn’t entice more people in Canada into their fraudulent scheme.
I am glad someone has brought this to the table, Its sad that companys like this make it hard for companies like mine to prosper.
I recently went to Ohionavtech.fscstore.com thinking the same thing a getting ready to beat in heads or sue someone but lucked out and found no thousands of dollars needed.. Thank god theres at least 1 legit company out there.
Unfortunatly, I too was scammed. They herd you in and out of their presentations. Then when you’re suppose to read the fine print, there’s no time. “Sign here, and here and here.” These were the words which are heard constantly. I discovered the program was not all I needed to start a business. There is much more money needed for everything over the 6000.00 already spent. I charged the down payment on the credit card, signed the contract for monthly payments, and was reassured that everything I needed was included. It wasn’t. I feel and believe I was taken advantage of and should have been told of the extra finances needed to have a successful business.
I too was scammed. I am now stuck in a payment plan of $155 a month and getting no where with this store. I am really becoming irritated and wanting to pull the plug. I have already got $2000 vested in this stupid thing and don’t really know what to do. They gave me 3 days after signing which wasn’t enough for anything considering I took a day off of work just to go to the seminar and had to make that time up at work. I see where Australia was issued a refund and hints of Texas ordering them to comply by giving one also. I am afraid to put a stop on the payments for fear of being sued, but if I counter sue and enough people come forward maybe this will work. I am stuck between a rock and a hard spot with this company!!!
Alas! We were also scammed and put in a fixed by Storesonline. We were assured of how simple it is to have the site running and rolling with income, as long as we are work hard to build it up. And that we will have all the support needed to start and run it. It has been almost a year and they have not been able to resolve our issues to get the credit card processing onto our site, which still lies in limbo not being able to publish onto the world wide web. Now our suppliers are also questioning our ability to sell their products. We had to constantly chase their so-called “quickresponse” centre for the status and everytime the answer we got is “we will do our best to resolve your issue”. Incidentally, they never bothered to reply any of our email submissions. Once, they even closed the case without resolving it.
I’m happy that I read these comments…thank you for the warnings! My husband and I attended the FREE internet conference a couple of weeks ago and paid $20 to attend a conference tomorrow. I already requested a day off from work. It sounds like I should have saved the vacation day for a better cause.
I attended the “free” storesonline seminar this evening and wished I haqd looked them up first. It was obvious that it was a sales pitch for next week’s marketing course. However, I bit and the cost for the marketing course is now $50.
I attended a seminar This afternoon with my husband, I glad I didn’t sign for the work shop after I saw all those comments
Gert
Wow, Bruce, this is a great blog.
I was actually doing some research because I am mentoring someone who has bought into this scam and stumbled across this blog. She also has been taken for $7,000.00, and they told her that she can get her money back IF she opens a 2nd store. Now, the trick here is that she must show that she did not make $7k after this 2nd store runs for an additional 6 months. In the meantime, she has to shell out hundreds of dollars a month for stuff like blog support, advertising, etc., while they continue to hold her money hostage. I will bet that at the end of the 6 months, they will have some reason that she does not qualify.
Here’s a question for you (rhetorical, of course): When was the last time that a company set up an agreement in YOUR favor so they would have to refund your money if you didn’t get what they guaranteed? Contracts are written for the company’s protection, not the consumer.
It truly angers me that people can actually prey on others in this fashion. Often, it takes someone’s life savings, or worse yet, they incur untold debt to pay for this type of scam. As pointed out here, there are very good, decent and legitimate companies out there, but the only one’s you hear about are the scams like this one with the guys in the cheap suits using boiler room tactics. And while I agree “buyer beware,” the truth of the matter is we all want to believe the dream, and are easily sucked in by the hype and high pressure tactics.
For those of you who happen to find this wonderful blog and believe you were defrauded by this company, please feel free to contact us. It might be possible to do something about it. We make no promises, but it’s certainly worth looking into.
The “red flags” went up for me when I called three times to make the dinner reservation and each time I was unable to understand the person taking the reservations.
I was only interested in getting the “free” ipod. After reading all these reports I’m so glad I didn’t waste my time and I’m so sorry for all those who have lost so much money!
R in AZ
Glad I came acrossed this blog. I was going to go just for the iPod too, but it really doesn’t seem worth the BS. Thanks.
I am so glad I found this blog. My sister-in-law and I went to the conference today, and something just didn’t feel right to us.We left the seminar early… We had already shelled out the fifty dollars for the day, but are happy to have found info from everybody on this site before we invested.
Thak you for all that posted info!
I’ve read all your complaints about this Stores Online so called “scam”. My partner and I attended this seminar and put into practice all the procedures, suggestions, searches and work that were brought to the table at the seminar. It is WORK! And alot of it – pick something sellable (1st importance) and then market it (2nd). No fraud here – hard work yes, recouped profit – 25 times over!!!!
I also was taken in buy their crew telling us that they would program one site for me. I’m in it for 3400. then the Avail people called told me I would have to have 800 numbers for customers and orders and they would send me my order by pdf online and they would throw in 1 year domain site. contradiction. That is costing $12.60/month then if they program the site it’s $ 29.30/month plus the balance I owe of $ 90+ a month. After I have done all my reasearch on the product I wanted to sell I sent in in to the programer in pdf form then she emailed me and said I would have to have everything in jpeg. So both are sent and nothing is happening. Haven’t heard from the programmer in 3 week but I got a nice looking letter that said they would be in contact with me.
?????
I am also paying the monthly fee still have 2 years left… WE ALL MUST DO SOMETHING TO MAKE THEM GIVE OUR MONEY BACK! What can we do?
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