StoresOnline Day 26–A Word About Scams
May 26th 2007 03:08 pm
I need to take a step back for a moment and make a few comments about the “scam” factor.
If you google StoresOnline, you’ll see a lot of complaints and claims that StoresOnline is a scam.
Here’s my 2 cents:
A scam is something that suckers people into giving their money and then provides them with a shoddy product or no product. Case in point: there are home improvement scams. This actually happened to a woman: a “roofer” knocked on her door and said he noticed her shingles look waterlogged. Since she did notice a leak, she let him do an estimate. He told her it is worse than he thought. He needed to redo the entire roof and replace beams. It would cost her about 8,000 but he could arrange market-rate financing. She agreed. He began work before she signed papers and ripped off her roof. Then she was presented with papers for 27,500 for 16% interest! When she complained, he said if she didn’t sign, he’s was going to walk away and leave her with no roof (cold weather was coming) and put a lien on her house. She signed. After the project was done, her roof leaked worse than before and she’s still paying off this enormous loan. (source http://www.consumerlaw.org/initiatives/seniors_initiative/home_improv.shtml)
Now, that’s a scam. The roofer was in with the bank and the whole point was to get this woman into a 27,500 loan at 16% interest.
Is StoresOnline a scam? Even though I don’t have my site up yet, I can say, absolutely not. Did they promise me a porsche and deliver a VW? No. Even with my minor complaints about the storebuilder software, all-in-all I’m extremely pleased. The interface really is simple enough that a non-techie person should be able to do it. And their 24/7 live chat is really beyond customer service. Think about it, these people are sitting there at 3am just in case someone has a question. They really don’t need to provide that.
If you Google, you’ll see that one site with complaints is ripoff.com. Just the name invokes bad feelings. It is a site where people can post complaints. However, if you read this report: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/218/ripoff0218805.htm you’ll see that they investigated the claims and found no truth to them. Many of them that sounded like they came from consumers were really posted by competitors and people wanting to drive down the price of the stocks.
Now, I have no experience with this company prior to my seminar in May 2007. It could very well be that some complaints are legit—I see a lot of dates from 2005. Maybe they made a lot of changes since then, I don’t know.
Also, some say 1) the price is really steep and 2) the hosting is expensive.
As far as the price being steep to buy the websites to start with, I agree. However, I don’t care how much it costs if I can make that much back in sales. I’ve tried to do it myself. I have a friend who is hosting a site for me for free. I tried to sell a product with Paypal buttons. So far I’ve made about 100.00 and I’ve had that site up for a year. It doesn’t look that professional and I’ve really had to spend a lot of time getting it up. I’m ready to try something else.
Really what you are purchasing is not only the store software, but all the training and support that goes behind it. I glanced through the internet marketing tutorials they have the other day. Good, good stuff. Pages and pages of basics including keyword reasearch, pay-per-click advertising, keyword density analysis, etc. etc, etc. Also sources for drop shipping, directories, etc.
As far as hosting, sure you can get hosting somewhere for 9.95 per month. But my freebie site is currently offline because I accidentally exceeded my bandwidth (I put videos on my salespage–big mistake). Is my freebie site truly an ecommerce site? Not really. Sticking paypal buttons is really not the ideal situation.
Again, I think it all comes down to whether I make money or not. My goal today is to get my site up and running.
So far, would I purchased StoresOnline again knowing what I know? So far….yes.
If you google StoresOnline, you’ll see a lot of complaints and claims that StoresOnline is a scam.
Here’s my 2 cents:
A scam is something that suckers people into giving their money and then provides them with a shoddy product or no product. Case in point: there are home improvement scams. This actually happened to a woman: a “roofer” knocked on her door and said he noticed her shingles look waterlogged. Since she did notice a leak, she let him do an estimate. He told her it is worse than he thought. He needed to redo the entire roof and replace beams. It would cost her about 8,000 but he could arrange market-rate financing. She agreed. He began work before she signed papers and ripped off her roof. Then she was presented with papers for 27,500 for 16% interest! When she complained, he said if she didn’t sign, he’s was going to walk away and leave her with no roof (cold weather was coming) and put a lien on her house. She signed. After the project was done, her roof leaked worse than before and she’s still paying off this enormous loan. (source http://www.consumerlaw.org/initiatives/seniors_initiative/home_improv.shtml)
Now, that’s a scam. The roofer was in with the bank and the whole point was to get this woman into a 27,500 loan at 16% interest.
Is StoresOnline a scam? Even though I don’t have my site up yet, I can say, absolutely not. Did they promise me a porsche and deliver a VW? No. Even with my minor complaints about the storebuilder software, all-in-all I’m extremely pleased. The interface really is simple enough that a non-techie person should be able to do it. And their 24/7 live chat is really beyond customer service. Think about it, these people are sitting there at 3am just in case someone has a question. They really don’t need to provide that.
If you Google, you’ll see that one site with complaints is ripoff.com. Just the name invokes bad feelings. It is a site where people can post complaints. However, if you read this report: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/218/ripoff0218805.htm you’ll see that they investigated the claims and found no truth to them. Many of them that sounded like they came from consumers were really posted by competitors and people wanting to drive down the price of the stocks.
Now, I have no experience with this company prior to my seminar in May 2007. It could very well be that some complaints are legit—I see a lot of dates from 2005. Maybe they made a lot of changes since then, I don’t know.
Also, some say 1) the price is really steep and 2) the hosting is expensive.
As far as the price being steep to buy the websites to start with, I agree. However, I don’t care how much it costs if I can make that much back in sales. I’ve tried to do it myself. I have a friend who is hosting a site for me for free. I tried to sell a product with Paypal buttons. So far I’ve made about 100.00 and I’ve had that site up for a year. It doesn’t look that professional and I’ve really had to spend a lot of time getting it up. I’m ready to try something else.
Really what you are purchasing is not only the store software, but all the training and support that goes behind it. I glanced through the internet marketing tutorials they have the other day. Good, good stuff. Pages and pages of basics including keyword reasearch, pay-per-click advertising, keyword density analysis, etc. etc, etc. Also sources for drop shipping, directories, etc.
As far as hosting, sure you can get hosting somewhere for 9.95 per month. But my freebie site is currently offline because I accidentally exceeded my bandwidth (I put videos on my salespage–big mistake). Is my freebie site truly an ecommerce site? Not really. Sticking paypal buttons is really not the ideal situation.
Again, I think it all comes down to whether I make money or not. My goal today is to get my site up and running.
So far, would I purchased StoresOnline again knowing what I know? So far….yes.
RSS
Darlene responded on 26 May 2007 at 8:54 pm #
I am very glad to read your blog. Yesterday Storesonline gave their seminar in my local town and I purchased 3 web-sites. Then I started reading all the bad complaints when I got home and I suddenly feel ill. Should I stop payment on my cheque and bail out now?
So far, you are the only positive feedback.
But maybe it’s just too soon to tell.
Frank Ross responded on 26 May 2007 at 8:54 pm #
Granted the RipOffReport complaints are not very reliable. I would also encourage you to consider the long list of legal action on the BBB record for this company.
http://www.saltlakecity.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=2000585
Fulano Detal responded on 26 May 2007 at 8:56 pm #
Frank Ross – you are pathetic. You just finished writing a hack blog piece on StoresOnline (http://commonsenseecommerce.com/blog/category/scams/), and now you’re spreading your uneducated crap here. Actually, I wish I could believe you are uneducated. You are just paid by short investors in StoresOnline stock to write half truths about the company in order to scare the stock down. The complains at the BBB have all been addressed by the company – many of them years ago, not to mention many of the complaints were discovered to be fake complaints made up and submitted by short investors just like what you’re doing today.
susb8383 responded on 27 May 2007 at 8:58 pm #
Guys, guys, let’s keep this civil. Everyone is entitled to express their opinion.
(Actually this is kind of cool. This is the first blog I’ve done that actually got a comment in less than 6 months!)
Darlene, thanks for your post. In what I know about the current software, I am glad I made the purchase. My recommendation to you is
1. Give very little weight to complaints made prior to 1 year ago. From what I can deduce, I think the company has made some major changes to both their software and their customer service in the past year. Just the fact that they’ve made efforts to improve says something. I had an experience with a different company once that promised me free software if I attended a seminar. What I got was 30-day trial software that wanted me to purchase after the trial was up. I thought there was just some mistake, so I contacted them and the only reponse I got was, “We don’t know what the problem is. We gave you the link to the software!” I did file a BBB complaint. The result was “This vendor has failed to address this concern.”
2. Keep in mind that the ripoff site investigated and found very little truth in the complaints. Most of them were not even from StoresOnline merchants, and some of the complainers that were merchants did not even try to resolve their issue with customer service.
3. Most importantly: I recommend you really spend time with the software before your 3 days are up. Pretend that you found a dropshipper and that you have product images and prices. Then really try to use the software and the customer service chat to get a test site together. Pretend you’re selling items around your house, for instance, and even take some digital pictures of them if you can. Or even better–download some free images (go to Google, click on Images at the top, and search for dog, bucket, whatever. Then right-click on one of the images, and select Save Picture As, and save it to your computer. Use those as your product pictures.)
This will really give you an informed picture of their product. If before the 3 days are up, you feel they misrepresented their product, then yes, you should cancel. But that hasn’t been my experience.
If you do try to cancel, can you post here and tell us if they gave you any trouble about it?
Fulano, I think Frank has a good point. I agree that everyone should consult the Better Business Bureau when checking out a business.
I did look through the BBB link that Frank posted.
In looking at the dates of the complaints and from what I know about the software and customer service based on my experience, here’s my 2 cents:
A lot of the complaints are prior to 2006. For now I’m going to ignore them because I think the company has made some major changes since then.
I checked with the company about the version of their software. The current version is version 5. They say it has been out for a year.
The summary of the BBB I see (scroll all the way to the bottom) basically says a few things.
BBB Complaint that the software is not easy to use by non-computer people.
This has absolutely not been my experience. I find the software extremely easy to use. Now, granted, I am a computer person. But I’ve used other software that’s very kludgy and non-intuitive. This is not the case here. It is extremely straight-forward. The minimum steps to get your store up and running as far as the software goes are:
1. Select a predefined template. They have little pictures of each so it’s clear what your site will look like.
2. Select an image and logo. Again, they have prefabed images you could use. Now I admit that if you want a different picture, you have to figure out how to get one, but there’s no way around this. There is nothing that makes you have a picture, either.
3. Type in your company name and information.
4. Edit the predefined pages. For example, they have a default shipping policies page. The text says something like “Change this text into your own policy.” You just double click on the text and type. I don’t know how this can be easier.
5. Enter products. Again, very simple. You click on Add, you put in a product description, you upload a picture, you type in a price. Very simple.
Now people may be a little daunted by the tasks that are not related to the softare. These include doing keyword research to try to find a good product to sell, finding a supplier or dropshipper for that product, obtaining the product images and price information from the dropshipper, etc.
There is absolutely no way around needing to do these steps. The only thing I could see that the company might offer is a service to set absolutely everything up for you–help you pick a product, conctact the dropshipper for you, put in your products, etc. They don’t offer that; they just offer the software, tools, and training to have you do that yourself.
I will add that after you purchase, they give you one more full day of training for free. It’s called their bootcamp. They go over everything once more…it’s all things you find in their online tutorials, but they reinforce it one more time, including how to pick a product, how to find a dropshipper (complete with sources and suggestions) and how to set up your products.
BBB Complaint that Defendants failed to provide the promised technical support for the products.
Now this one I can’t understand at all. You can get tech support in 3 ways: by calling, by emailing, and by using their 24/7 online chat. I’ve used their online chat plenty of times so far. True, I’ve gotten a couple of wrong answers, but this is not unusual for a company. Anyone who has tried to get any kind of answer through Paypal knows what I’m talking about. Sometimes I think the Paypal reps are Stepford reps. But I’m digressing…
I did email them about one of the wrong answers I got. They looked up the online chat transcript, contacted the rep, and made sure she knew she had given a wrong answer. I know that because I got an email from her telling me the correct answer.
This actually sheds some light on something for me. After the first seminar, if you purchase, they give you “homework” to do before your all-day training. One thing you have to do is get the online chat piece up and running. You have to start a chat with a rep, write down the rep’s name, and fax the paper in. I guess this is so that they know you can access the online chat.
I will agree that there’s one thing they could do better in this department. In order for the online chat to work, you have to download java. It’s very simple and they give you a link. However, I’ve used many other online chat functions for different companies that worked without you having to do this. I think non-computer people may be intimidated by this and may never get the online chat functionality working. But they can still call and email.
If I were StoresOnline, I would alter this so that you didn’t have to download anything to get online chat to work.
BBB Complaint that they didn’t refund money during the 3 day period.
Now this I can’t say anything about. No experience there. I will say that in my seminar, they definitely mentioned the 3-day right to cancel, and after I purchased, this was one of the papers in my kit.
I will also say that if I were StoresOnline, I would offer a 30-day money-back guaranty if not satisfied. I think the product speaks for itself, but if you don’t give people ample time to try it out, you’re going to get customers like Darlene above who buy it, find complaints on the internet, and want to cancel immediately. If you give 30 days, there won’t be as much of the panic factor to back out. They may get more returns, but I think they’ll make up for it in increased sales. It also gives their company more credibility.
BBB Complaint that they misrepresented that you could make money.
I am going to comment on this even though it was an older complaint. In my seminar, they said at least twice something like, “Do we promise your store will make money? No! It depends on how much time you put into it.”
So to me it sounds like they’ve changed their seminar based on some of these complaints.
I went to my seminar in Massachusetts. I can’t comment on other states, but I would think they’d have a set script.
Wow, sorry this comment is longer than my original post!!
Based on my use of the software so far, I do feel that this company is getting unfair publicity. That’s the problem with the internet; info stays around forever even if it is no longer valid.
Do you remember in August of 2003 when the planet Mars was the closest it had been to the earth in 5,000 years? It was a big deal, right? Planetariums has Mars-viewing parties, people could see it just by looking up. I don’t know anyone who didn’t know about it.
And yet, one year later, I got an email from two different people which said “Next week, Mars will be closer to the earth than it has been in 5,000 years!!!” The email did not have a year on it and it was obviously still circulating from 2003.
C’mon guys! How could you not remember that big event?!
If you Google “Mars close” you’ll find that email is still circulating and fooling people!
That just goes to show you that information on the internet stays around forever, even if it is no longer valid.
Anyway, that’s more like my 2 million dollars worth of comments than 2 cents.
JAMES responded on 14 Jun 2007 at 8:59 pm #
WHEN IN DOUBT RESEARCH IT YOURSELF, I THINK THERES A SHARK IN THE WATER http://www.saltlakecity.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=2000585 SO MUCH MISINFORMATION AROUND THESE GUYS, EXAMPLE… THIS BLOG GETS VERY RAPID RESPONSES FOR A CONSUMER REPORT SITE, AND QUITE THOROUGHLY DISCOURAGES INDEPENDENT RESEARCH. MOSTLY WHAT I HAVE FOUND IS THIS CORPORATE DISCLAIMER STYLE OF B.S. WITH 2 THIRDS OF A PAGE EXPLAINING THAT EVERY COMPLAINER IS A MISCREANT. I JUST ATTENDED A SEMINAR AND UPON VIEWING THE BEGINNERS DISC IT REFERRED ME TO MAXAMWHOLESALE.COM
THIS DOMAIN IS UP FOR SALE, NOT A GOOD SIGN. UPCOMING WORKSHOP THE 18TH IN POUGHKEEPSIE NY I MAY ATTEND TO WATCH THE TECHNIQUE OF SOME REFINED HUSTLERS. THEY ARE ADEPT AT SELLING THERE PRODUCT….I HAVE NO DOUBT ON THAT. GOOD LUCK !! JAMESWAY SELFMADE POWERSELLER
Suzie responded on 09 Jul 2007 at 9:00 pm #
Just wanted to say thanks for this blog! I don’t feel so alone and nervous about setting up my own storesonline webstore now. I just had mine published, but I really have to delve into the marketing portion of it. I’m very new to this, so it will be trial and error for this first site. Thanks also for your comments on the fraud accusations. I really got nervous reading all of the complaints that are out there, but I knew in my heart that the storebuilder tool was very powerful and easy to use (for the most part). I will check back in on this blog to see how you’re doing with your site. Good luck!
Tac responded on 26 Jul 2007 at 9:00 pm #
It’s funny, one comment accuses you of working for the short sellers to drive the stock down, where my impression is that you’re somewhat naive if you’re promoting the company and software with saying good things and actually expecting to make money! However, I don’t think you’re in cahoots with the company, though I believe there are other posters out there who are.
Good luck on your site and your business. When do you think you’ll make enough money to pay the hosting fee ($25 / month / site)? If you never cross that threshold, will you reconsider your answer to the question “Is this a scam?” You’re following the program pretty much exactly how they recommend, and you’re obviously pretty smart, so if you can’t make money using their software / services / business model, I’d have to say that almost no one can.
susb8383 responded on 05 Aug 2007 at 9:01 pm #
Hi Tac,
Actually I think the post with the accusation of driving the stock down was directed to Frank Ross, who posted a comment on May 26 (see above).
I’m definitely not affiliated with the company in any way.
Still hoping to make money, but so far I’ve only had 1 sale! D’oh! Not enough to quit my day job! I think my biggest problem is that I don’t have enough traffic because I’ve been really lazy about doing link exchanges.
But…I’m changing companies for my day job (I’m currently a dog walker, recently left my graphic design job because my boss needed to cut my hours), and I’ll have next week off before I start at the new place. I have high hopes to do a lot of things that I haven’t had time to do, including work more on link exchanges. I’m also going to put up an eBay auction (I had one other sale that way). Hopefully by now I have enough positive feedback that I can offer a Buy It Now button, which should attract the people who want it for a gift and don’t want to mess with bidding (you need at least 5 feedback points to be able to offer Buy it Now).
I’m also (right now, actually) reading through the 2007 version of The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on Ebay. It’s an eBook that tells how to use eBay as a lead-generation tool to drive traffic to your website, even if the person doesn’t bid on your auction.
Going slowly, though. It’s a catch-22: If I had enough time to put into this, I’m sure I could get enough sales to let me stay home. But without the sales, I don’t make enough to be able to stay home to put the time into it.
Ah well. Hopefully this new company won’t have such long hours.
–Susie
susb8383 responded on 05 Aug 2007 at 9:02 pm #
Oh, I don’t think I answered your question. If I really do all that they tell me and I don’t get any sales, would I call it a scam? Maybe. But they do tell you a lot about link exchanges that I haven’t done, so I haven’t come to that point yet.
I’m still reluctant to use the word ’scam’ though. I still think of a scam as something that is misrepresented or dishonest. So far, even with my low sales, I don’t think they misrepresented their product. And in viewing the StoresOnline Forum posts, I can see that there are plenty of people who are making money with this.
WholesaleBuyer responded on 23 Aug 2007 at 9:03 pm #
In regards to MAXAMWHOLESALE.COM …
The owners have moved to buydsi.com
I have dealt with them for over 20 years and have nothing but good things to say about them.