Stores Online

Rosalind of Marion, IN June 3, 2009

I attended one of their workshops in my city on Nov.18, 2008. All guest was told that they would receive an apple ipod as a gift. During the lunch period we were asked to sign up for the 2nd half to be held in Indianapolis. So I paid the 50 fee. After the meeting was over we find out they have no apple ipods. They started passing out generics ones. Some people took them, while others refused and left very upset. When I complained we were told if we paid the 9.95 shipping cost per ipod, we would receive the apple ipod in the mail. We were given the address to mail it to.

That same day I mailed in the required fee of 19.90 for myself and my guest. About 2wks later I attended the 2nd half. At that time I signed up for the complete internet service for 3600. I paid a deposit by post dated check. This was to be deposited in 2wks. So when I got home I thought about how they pressed people so hard.

So I then started reading about them. That was when I decided to call with a few questions. They were so hard to reach that when I did get them I canceled. This was less than 2wks after the workshop. They had also cashed the check for my deposit. Yet I have never signed in or used their website.

As for as the apple ipod. I have been told every lie possible why I have yet to received them. I was given 2 telephone numbers to call about the ipods. They turned out to be for companies with no connection to them. I have tried calling their numbers and still can't get anything resolved.

Victor of N Charleston, SC May 21, 2009

Last year I attended the Stores Online deal in Charleston, SC and listened to the sales pitch along with the Disclaimer. Depending on your product and marketing your site may or may not be sucessful. Since I never bit of more than I can chew I only purchased the Express package for 25. The package is OK, but I really wish it allowed for more features. I then got all the calls from all the companies that wanted to 'HELP' me for a fee.

What I decided to do is listen to whaat they had to say on what would help better market my site and do it my self. I even asked SOL to send my their site users manual. I spend several months reading various sites on web stores, marketing etc (all that stuff they try to SELL you) I think I did pretty good putting PepperEyes together. I just wish some of the disabled options were available in the express package, because doing them one by one is tedious. Every month I get calls of SEO, and people wanting to help Market mysite for a fee. But you have to be smart folks and hav a budget. I did not put ONE Dime of the venture on a credit card, it all been cash and within a budget that I could afford to write off on my taxes. right now I'm averaging 1 sale a month. which is nothing like the promise, but then again I have lots of competition for my on-line product so I'm trying to think of other things. Perhaps I thinking wrong, but I may try this another year. Now I do have issues with the customer service lack of follow up or sometime ability to speak and understand ENGLISH. But I have that same issue with Gateway and Dell sometimes. But their big speel was their fantasic customer service. Today I got a call from Consumer Retrivial Services who for the fee of 149 will get me my money back. I've spent over 700 on this and have not made a dime, yet. The only plus is I get to write this off on my taxes with all the complaints and class actios suits. how long will they be in business.

Deena of Sandy, OR May 17, 2009

After attending a seminar for SOL, I purchased the Pro package, supposedly all I needed to make as many websites as I wanted. Everything I needed to make a success - supposedly. Supposedly your first website could be made & published by the SOL team. After starting the work myself, I decided to have them do the first one since there was a huge learning curve on their software. That never happened; I called, then never heard another word. So I kept trudging along on my own.

Every so often, I got sales calls from "partner" companies, selling some service or feature that was supposed to be included in my Pro package. The last "offer" I received was to improve my search engine ranking; something that the seminar spent a major portion of time convincing us how easy it was to do ourselves. When I began talking with the sales rep, he told me that I'd be smart to buy the service now, since most SOL customers have websites live for a year or more with NO SALES.

That was the point I decided that they were fraudulent in their claims, misleading, and I wanted out. So after speaking with the Oregon State's Attorney General's office to find that they have a file on SOL from other complaints, I sent a certified letter to them stating my intention to terminate our contract. I informed them that I would not make any effort to recoup the losses I'd suffered to that point, but that I wanted the contract terminated, and the balance negated.

I spoke with a gentleman at their office regarding this, and he told me that they would discuss it at their weekly meeting-apparently they make decisions on cases like this, and have so many that every week they go over the complaints. He called me back and told me that my proposal seemed fair and reasonable, and that their legal department would write up the termination agreement.

Of course, I never heard from them again. Then, about 3 weeks ago, I get an email stating that they are reactivating the account. When I told them that the account was terminated, of course they wanted to see a copy of the termination agreement. How convenient that they never sent it to me. The checking account they were taking money out of was closed, and as far as I'm concerned, we're done.

Denise of Apple Valley, CA April 24, 2009

we bought into this company expecting to be able to make ourselves money. this company was not what they said they were and it was a very bad investment. we tried to get our money back but we had no luck. all they wanted to do was charge us more money for another service.

Bernita of Port Hueneme, CA February 6, 2009

I am tried to resolve this problem with Stores Online through the BBB. I have been trying to get my money back for several years. I would have asked for my money back within the 30 days, but it takes 90 days to even get the thing off the ground. The elusive promise and frustration that follow are incredible. Stores Online holds to the view that they have done nothing wrong. I bought 6 storefronts in the hopes of climbing out of debt and not living paycheck to paycheck. I could ill afford the expense but I was led to believe that if I worked hard, it would pay off. It didn't.

Three months later, my website still was not together, and I recieved a call from PMI, an affiliate of Stores Online promising that I would make a killing if I purchased their program, guaranteed to have my website up and running within a month. I payed, on my credit card again, another approximately 7,000.00. In return I recieved 10-30 minute sessions. That ended and I barely got a storefront up. It was and has never made money. I ended trying to get another storefront up to make money, Zilch! BBB tried to help recover some of the money lost to no avail. I was offered arbitration, which I declined. Stores Online offered my 3,000.00 which is about half of what I paid. PMI refused any refund at all. In Ventura, from what I understand, there was a class action suit that is being formed. I have contacted the Assistant District Attorney. I have filled out his forms.

I no longer use the storefronts at all. They are not user friendly, hard to navigate, hard to alter, and are very limited. I was given some other things with my storefronts, ie., links4trade, E-bay, etc., none of which I have ever used. I hope that the Stores Online gets nailed and banned from being able to misguide individuals in the future, but I expect not. I am still paying off the credit card debt, struggling to do so. I had almost gotten myself out of debt, only to plunge headlong again. I normally would have checked on line regarding any legal actions that a company might have against it. I was not able to do so, as you have to ACT now! I should have been more reluctant, my friend who came with me, declined. I should have joined her. I would not be embroiled in this present predicament. Unfortunately, my story is like everyone else that has written, nothing new, I have been in this for four years. What a drag!

I have had to work two, sometimes three jobs to keep up with the financial burden of paying off a credit card that went up approximately 14,000.00 with no money coming in to offset that within a six months time. The interest I have paid could have bought a car, not to mention that I am still struggling to pay off the credit card which is also not tax deductible. I have been under alot stress trying to keep up, I take natural anxiety medication now, but I was on anti-depressants, on and off, for about 3 years.

Sylvia And Christine Green of Bridgeport, MI February 4, 2009

My Mother and I have wanted to open an internet pet supply company for years. When Stores Online can to town ( 7/17/07), it seemed too good to be true. We were very clear on our financial situation. I am disabled and my Mother is retired, both on fixed incomes. The presentator, E. Martineau, stated to the entire group that Stores Online would help it's customers to find the financing need to get the websites up and running. They said that the websites would be ours, not owned by anyone else. They were very convincing. We bought 6 sites. We really only wanted one, but you had to buy either 3 or 6. We decided on 3. The personal trainer kept pushing us to buy the 6 as he said that it would be more expensive to add more later. We didn't know what we would do with 6, but he finally pushed us into buying.

We have learned some things since this happened. I worked hard on the sites, putting in 6-8 hours of downloading pictures, adding text, finding ways to show available colors, finding suppliers. I really have one of the sites that could be launched today. When we were ready with the one site, we were told to contact our personal mentor. When we contacted him, we found out that he doesn't even work for Stores Online, he works for another company as contract labor. We told him that we had been promised help finding finances to launch our site. He laughed. He suggested borrowing the money from family members. He also suggested that we ask our friends for money. This was not the kind of Help we had been promised. Also, we were never told that if the sites did not launch in 1 year, we would be locked out of them. And, we are. We are still paying on websites that we cannot access.

Also, we have received conflicting information between the seminar and the Mentor service. We were told that Stores Online has great customer service. And, for a while, it was helpful. As long as the help was done by chat. To chat, you have to logon to your site. We can't logon to our site and so we can no longer get help. There is no toll-free number, so if I do call, it's a long distance call and I have to pay to stay on hold. We were never told that if we changed our minds, we had 3 days to get our money back. We were never told in the seminar that the purpose of the seminar was to sell software and related products. If we had, we would have been out of there faster than lightning. We were told that anyone could make a website. You didn't need any computer skills other than availability to logon to the internet. That definately wasn't the case. I have some computer skills and I knew more about websites than some of the folks on the help-chat.

Stores Online has been offering refunds to folks in Australia who bought their products. The states of Texas, Washington, California, Illinois, Indiana, Utah, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Oregon, North Carolina, and Florida have all filed suits against Stores Online for their business practices. Now, my Mother and I are having trouble paying our bills and Stores Online continues to take their monthly fee for a service we are being denied use of. Stay away from these people. I was motivated and work diligently on the sites and all I have is more debt to show for it. This company is truly a scam, in my opinion and experience.

We are having a hard time staying current in our bills. We have unpaid medical bills, are late on a house payment and generally just unable to pay anything on time. Some months, due to the automatic withdrawals, other checks have been returned, costing us more money. This has caused a great deal of sleepless nights and stress that neither of us need.

Mrs. M.john of Dolan Springs, AZ January 17, 2009

Last june we went to their workshops (3 in all)and we thought that this will be a good way to make in income, since we both are over 60 and are living on my husbands social security which is very limited. We spent 6500 plus, we had to finance with storesonline, which they so gracefully offered. They claim that getting this ebusiness up and going is an easy task and they will provide guidance all the way. We had to sign a contract to pay monthly which comes out of the acct automatically.

Then the problems began, I could not set the website up by myself and had their designer do it, so far no extra charges. When the designer was finished, without letting my double check for additional revisions, the site was published. I checked, it needed revisions, as in there were no prices for the products we are selling, I then contacted storesonline chat and told them no to publish. I was told that is ok and let them know when I will be ready. I took their word for that, another mistake. I finally was ready to publish on 1/4/09 and was told that the site had been published since 11/15/08 and that I have to pay another 29.95 monthly hosting fee.

I am very upset with their business practice on that also, because I have to pay for service not received. The next payment should be due 2/4/09 and I have contacted them over and over again, basically being told the same story. I am not getting the hosting fee adjusted nor refunded. The program itself is not worth the 6500 plus interest we have to pay (till 2007) I was reading the contract and did see that there is no refund, not even within a few days after purchasing. So we are stuck with the payments. Thus far, the site has not made us a bit of money and we now have to deal with the hosting fee being taking out of our account on the wrong dates. I have found another host and will change but have to wait till storesonlines date 2/15 or else I will be out their hosting fee. I am so upset and really don't know what I can do to remedy this.

We have to live on 350 a month until this is paid off. because we just have not received any income from this program/web site builder what so ever.

Mike of Santa Fe, NM January 15, 2009

Company does seminars around the country. They offer a free website, and state that and I can have this site hosted anywhere on the web in their Software License Agreement. However, when you go to access the software to build the site, they demand 24.95/mo. to pay them for hosting. So, they tell you that you own the site, but you cannot access it.

They charge for their workshops, which I paid. Their free website is useless if it cannot be accessed. Their hosting fees are at least 2X to 4X what is available elsewhere. Their forced use of their hosting is contrary to their own written agreement and is a restraint of free trade.

Billie of Reading, PA January 15, 2009

I attended a seminar by Stores Online and thought this was a great opportunity to make some extra money without spending time away from my kids and husband (as I already work full-time). At this seminar, the people from Stores Online made it seem so easy to set up a website and be making money in no time! My father was with me and he was under the impression that I would get a great deal of help to set up the website. I purchase 6 websites for over 5,000. When I attempted to set up my website, it was not as easy as they said that it would be. I used their technical support, but that wasn't much help as I really didn't know what I was doing. They make it seem like you can do it in a few hours. I spent six hours that day and still did not have a website or anything remotely close to it!

I was then called about 3 months after the seminar about the success team to help me set-up, market and advertise my website...but they wanted to know how much debt I already had, because they could help me pay off that debt within six months. I did not do it as I had already spent the money for the 6 websites. Nothing happened with my websites as I am unable to set them up myself.

I was again contacted yesterday (1/13/09). A salesman from the success team Bob, was telling me how the success team could help to set up the website and have it making a profit in no time. I was hesitant but listened. Bob made it sound like I was chosen to be helped and since I have had my websites for over a year and they haven't made money.. he was going to connect me to the next step with J. Powell who would get me signed up. J. Powell talked about how the success team would help me set up the site and it would be making money in about 1-3 months. Mr. Powell told us that the website prepare for disaster was a stores online website and that the success team helped the owners of that website become very rich!

My husband and I listened and we told Mr. Powell that we need to discuss it further. We told each other that we needed to sleep on it and we would make the decision the next day. Today is that day and we searched on-line and found all the people scammed by Stores Online, just as I have been. I have a newborn child and a 4 year old. We have credit card debt because of this and no way to get that money back.

Have a large sum of money on a credit card that is getting harder to pay! I have 6 websites that are useless as you cannot have someone else help you set them up... only Stores Online and for that you have to pay at a minimum 5,000 up to 17,000 or more! The prey on people who want to start a business and they make it seem so easy to do so! I hope this helps someone else. I hope that if anyone reads this they will stay away from the high pressure sales people and save their money!

Lourdes of Red Bank, NJ January 10, 2009

I October 2008. My brother and I attended two seminars given by StoresOnline. We ended up investing 6,000.00 dollars. We did the worksheet after, we read the Getting Started Packet. We faxed it to StoresOnline as instructed. A StoresOnline representative called to schedule an appointment to orient us. But, PMI, who are affiliated with StoresOnline.They are the ones that try to get as much money as they can from you. Because before an orientation session, they always interrupt. Mr. Petersen was the first. He said that he could make us a success story.He mentioned the silk screen man. That was shown in the seminars, who made millions with the help of the PMI Success Team.

But we had to invest 14,000.00 dollars. He and several other PMI Success Team representatives tried very, very,very hard to convince us. These guys are relentless. We did not invest. We contacted StoresOnline for the orientation, after weeks of waiting. A session was scheduled for the next day.It never happened because I received a call from Mr.Brandon Clark.He stated,that he was a PMI representative. He said, since 14,000.00 dollars was probably too much to invest. He would try to reduce it. And he did to 8,675.00 dollars. It took him a long time to convince me. I knew it was wrong and I did not want to invest more money. I told him no several times, that it was still too much money and I did not even have a website. But he told me that the money was for marketing and advertising. He promised me, that I would not have to invest any more to StoresOnline and PMI.

The next day, my brother received a call from Joe, a Success Team member. He was from tax department. He told him about setting up the business as an S corporation, tax advantages and help with web design and getting a logo later on,etc. But Joe said, that the Success Team needed another 3,890.00 dollars from us to continue. The promise of Mr. Clark was broken. At this point, all we want is our money back because we do not have a website and we never got the support from StoresOnline as we were told. I do not trust StoresOnline or PMI. People need to know that StoresOnline and PMI are uncompassionate and greedy. Someone should start an investigation because many people are losing money that they could use for other things. They should not have the right to take money from hard working people.

I had to increase my credit card limit,which I did not want to do. Since I recently paid off 27,000.00 dollars of credit card debt. I had to go into my money market account. I wrote a check for the 8,675.00 dollars. I feel used and violated. My brother has a family to support. He wrote a check for the 6,000.00 dollars. He needs a car. He thought with a business with the help of StoresOnline he would be able to buy a car. He is trying to make ends meet.

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