StoresOnline - attended seminar in Bowling Green, KY - purchased six storefronts - want refund

StoresOnline - attended seminar in Bowling Green, KY - purchased six storefronts - want refund

December 19, 2006 - Business Reply:

StoresOnline is committed to customer satisfaction and is constantly improving its products and services. StoresOnline is eager to satisfy its customers by fixing problems and overcoming misunderstandings. If StoresOnline has problems with its software or its services, then a detailed complaint about what is wrong is necessary for StoresOnline to remedy the situation. General postings made about StoresOnline’s products or services are often unclear as to what consumers want StoresOnline to do. StoresOnline’s products are constantly improved when customers identify specific glitches in the software or shortfalls in its services. Indeed, the latest version of StoresOnline software, introduced earlier this year, is a result of detailed and clear feedback from StoresOnline customers. We urge you to contact StoresOnline and identify your concerns. Please provide your full name, address, telephone number, and StoresOnline product license numbers. StoresOnline will respond to your email and will find a resolution to your questions and concerns. Other useful information about StoresOnline can be found at its website at www.storesonline.com. StoresOnline provides small business owners and entrepreneurs with eServices to help their customers successfully market their products and services. Whether a company wants to extend an existing business to the Internet, or launch the next big idea, StoresOnline's eServices are there to help each step of the way. From education, to training, to eCommerce-enabled websites, StoresOnline seeks to be the best in the business. StoresOnline's software platform has continuously developed over the past decade, evolving to fit the needs of the dynamic, global economy. Today, the development platform (StoresOnline Pro) sets the precedent as small business owners and entrepreneurs offer their products and services to the world. You should not only consider what StoresOnline is claiming about its commitment to customer satisfaction. Consider the recent report written by Ed Magedson, founder of RipoffReport.com, detailed below. Please visit www.ripoffreport.com to confirm this report. Through exhaustive research in conjunction with RipOffReport, StoresOnline found that only 12% of complaints filed on that website were true StoresOnline customers. In that report Ed Magedson - Founder, Rip-off Report, stated: “Rip-off Report discovered disgruntled ex-employees, competitors and persons who have taken a "short position" in StoresOnline Stock have tried to victimize StoresOnline repeatedly. Actually, Rip-Off Report's investigation reveals that many of the complainants are not StoresOnline's customers at all, but some of the aforementioned miscreants instigated others to file complaints without even first contacting StoresOnline customer service.

…

Rip-Off Report's investigation of StoresOnline shows that StoresOnline is fulfilling its commitment to provide excellent customer service.” Sincerely, Customer Service

February 10, 2004 - Consumer Message:

Re: StoresOnline, purchased six storefronts. Not as presented. Want refund.

My wife and I attended a 90 minute "seminar" in Bowling Green, KY, hosted by StoresOnline. We explained to the SOL personnel that we both had existing businesses with existing websites. My wife owns a retail Scrapbook store and I have an MLM business. What we wanted was help to position our business websites in such a manner as to attract a large number of hits.

We were assured that this was exactly what we needed and that there would be no problem blending SOL with our existing businesses. The 40 mile drive to the seminar now seemed more than worth it. We gladly paid the $20 for the all day seminar, called our daughter in Mt. Pleasant, SC (also in business) and signed her up for the seminar as well.

Our daughter drove up from SC to KY and we all attended the seminar in Louisville, KY on June 4, 2003. All of the speakers were "smooth talkers" to say the least. One of the men actually said that the hardest thing we'd be up against when we got home was to find the hole where the CD that we would be getting would go. "If you can find the hole in your computer, you could be up and running in no time at all". We were told we only would need to send some pictures to SOL and what we basically wanted to say and they would put it all together for us.They wouldn't allow questions during the day.

However, at the end of the day, we were individually "tutored" by a salesman and once again, I brought up the already existing businesses. He absolutely assured me there would be no problem whatsoever blending the two together. We were told that we could use one or more of the storefronts for our existing businesses and the others for any other idea we might have, related product, or just sell them to someone else. I bought six storefronts and charged $5299 on a credit card. My daughter did the same thing.

Three weeks after the seminar, a man from PMI coaching called me & told me that for a few thousand dollars more, we could have professional coaching and become one of their success stories within six months. He got very short with me when I told him I wouldn't need his services because the folks at SOL had assured me they would help me every step of the way.

I then read the manual they gave out at the seminar and discovered this was a 100% do it yourself program and not user friendly at all. I got virtually no help when I called LD to the company. I was told that absolutely, our businesses would not coincide with SOL---that our websites were not compatible with SOL. We knew then that we had been swindled out of $5,299. Six months later, we further discovered that PB-Next was drafting our credit card for $29.95 a month. Our closing counselor had told us that these charges would begin when the sites went online.

In short, we were the victims of fast talking, professional crowd motivators. We received nothing of what was described to us. Had we known that our business websites would not work with SOL, we never would have even gone to the Louisville conference.

Due to the gross misrepresentation by SOL, I am requesting a full refund of the money paid to them.

Mike W

Glasgow, KY

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Comment On This

Sounds like you need someone to wipe your butt and spoon feed you. Running an online bussiness is much like a regular business. It takes motivation, dedication, good ol' fashion hard work and most importantly, the willingness to learn. I agree the web accounts could be a bit more user friendly. However, I took the time to figure it out. You people are all alike. MENTALLY LAZY!!!

The nice thing is (especially with storesonline), is that once do the hard work-initially(first six months...?), the rest is cake walk. My advice to you is to start over after mentally preparing yourself. You have a six month drive ahead of you, so team up with your network and get the coffee on.