I feel a duty to tell others so they can make up their own minds. I signed up with this company not knowing all the money I would spend trying to advertise this stuff. The website cost me $2500 which I have not made any money back on. I signed up because I liked the products. They tell you of all the wonderful frosting-covered ideals, so I am here to tell you what they don't.

First, the so-called 'free' website is not free, but $9.95 month. It is a 'promo' site, listing your name, and a maximum of 20 items that you cannot sell from the site. IT IS NOT A SITE SET UP TO SELL FROM. You can show 20 items only. You will pay at least $250 for the most basic site with 50 products that you can actually sell from. Then it goes to 250, 1500 and 3000 items.

I was angry about the useless 'promo' site, which will cost you $10 month. I assumed you could sell from it, otherwise, why bother. They tell you it builds credibility for you, but they don't tell you you can't sell from it. Credibility or not, no one will see it unless you have a million friends. Shortly after I paid for the deluxe site ($2200 and $29.95 month) in which I can list all products, but that was my original intention. With search engine submission it was $2500.

The website is limited as far as html changes. You have a selection of layouts, but they are still template based. No matter how many items you have, the chance of someone seeing your site is less than finding a needle sitting somewhere inside a ton of hay. It is up to you to let everyone know about it, otherwise it won't just happen. They charge $299 year for search engine submission, but that doesn't place you anywhere in the top 10, 20 or even 500 (first pages.) Good luck ever seeing it. When you search for an item, usually you choose something within a page or two. My site? It may be somewhere on page 500.

Many items we can purchase at wholesale-reasonable prices. However, when you order them from the company, you must order 6 items, sometimes 12. These are smaller items, but still, you end up buying items only to sell one. Prices listed on the website are for the whole set, which is too much, and customers will go elsewhere, where they can purchase one, not 6 or 12. The company will not sell you less than the package deal on many items. So you must go through the website, changing all the prices to a single price and hope you don't go broke if you do get an order for one and have to buy 11 to sell one.

Once you have a website, you will have telemarketers calling to promote your site so it has good ranking. SCAMS I have already dealt with two of them ebiz.csp in Arizona, and Internet Advancement-Redmond WA. They even sent me a professional looking contract, but they won't do what it says. I nearly lost more money but I checked. Hang up and check Ripoffreports.com and the BBB and you will save hundreds of dollars.

Mystery Person

Santa Rosa, California
U.S.A.

Click Here to read other Ripoff Reports on SMC And EMerchant Club

9 Updates & Rebuttals

Donald

San Pedro,
California,
U.S.A.

its easy as 1,2,3

#2Consumer Suggestion

Thu, September 01, 2005

to get a inexpensive website....go to your local college,find a computer teacher, or someone the rebuilds computers,tell them what u looking for, or what you need, and they will help you for dirt cheap, i got my web page set up and designed for $50.00, and my www. set up for $9.00... thats all i payed and it is fully running with everything i put on there...if you pay more than that you did get ripoff....im sorry to hear that.......

Juliet

Birmingham,
Alabama,
U.S.A.

This is exactly the kind of thing I love about RipOff Report

#3Consumer Comment

Thu, August 18, 2005

Wow, Allen!! I don't even need the info you laid out, but I sure do appreciate your taking the time TO lay it all out like that for us neophytes! This is exactly the kind of thing I love about RipOff Report, when someone uses a bad experience for a good purpose. Educating each other on our many areas and varieties of knowledge should be the hallmark of the regular RipOff Report reader. Thanks so much for being so generous! You even spoke in English, too, lololol!

Allen

Maitland,
Florida,
U.S.A.

Save Yourself a bucket load of money and make your own website, here is how you can do it cheap

#4Consumer Suggestion

Thu, August 18, 2005

Hi, I have not used SMC before but I have set up a ton of websites and a ton of ecommerce websites and you do not have to pay the huge fees that I have been reading about. $3000.00!!! You have to be kidding me! If you want to throw your money away I will give you my PayPal address and you can send it to me :) Here is what you need to do things youself and set up a first class website for ecommerce, get all of your products set up, accept payments over the internet, get inexpensive webhosting, and get a cheap domain name. First: Get a domain name. There are many domain registrars that you can get a domain name from under $10.00. Just do a google search for DOMAIN NAMES and check the different prices that each have to offer. The registrar I use costs me $8.95 a year for a domain name. Second: Get a web host. You can get a web host pretty inexpensive as well. Why would you pay anyone $25.00 or $30.00 a month to host a site. You can get monthy webhosting service for $5.00 to $10.00 a month and most hosting providers provide a discount if you pre-pay for the year in advance may only cost you $50.00 to $100.00 for the entire year. Make sure that your web hosting package includes free extras such as forums, AND SHOPPING CARTS. THE SHOPPING CART IS YOUR ECOMMERCE PACKAGE! The shopping carts are generally open source software which are installed automatically by your web hosting package. You may want to look for web hosts that feature control panels with cPanel or Plesk they offer the freebies that you will need. Third: Now that you have your web host, Install your shopping cart. Like I said this should be very easy to do and should be automatically be done by the control panel in your web host. Fourth: With your new domain name that you just got for under $10.00 configure it to be directed to where the shopping cart was installed. Fifth: Set up your shopping cart. Upload your pictures of the things you want to sell and add your prices. Sixth: Get a PayPal or StormPay account, or something like them. You can accept payments over the internet. You wont have to pay huge expenses to some company for online merchant accounts. Seven: Configure your shopping cart to accept your PayPal, StormPay, or whatever. Very easy to do. Eight: Set up your email for your new web address. This is done easily with your web hosting package. This is not complicated stuff. To get a domain name takes no time at all, to get a web hosting provider takes no time at all, setting up a PayPal or StormPay or other, takes no time at all, setting up your email address should take no more than 10 minutes to do or less. Installing your shopping cart should not take anymore than 10 minutes or less to do. The only thing that will take some time is to upload the pictures and descriptions of your products to sell. If you do not know how to do some thing with your domain or web host, you can call them directly and they can walk you through everything in just a few minutes. Total expense that you have spent if you pre-paid your hosting: about $100.00 or less for everything! You just have to invest a little time to set up your shopping cart with your products. You just saved yourself $2900.00, go on a vacation.

Travis

Phoenix,
Arizona,
U.S.A.

Pat - Who are you pointing the finger at exactly?

#5Consumer Suggestion

Fri, May 13, 2005

Pat, You have offered very specific complaints about eMerchant Club and SMCorp, but what makes eBizCSP and/or Internet Advancement "scams"? I checked with the BBB and there is some bad news about Internet Advancement but I am still interested in your specific complaints. As for eBizCSP there are 0 unresolved complaints with the BBB and 0 complaints submitted on RipoffReport.com It seems to me you are just trying to blame whoever you can to avoid accepting responsibility for your business and your business decisions. Over the 13 months since SMCorp first began posting their "fraud alert" I have seen it change many times but still have never seen any proof of eBizCSP committing any acts for "fraud". Now, I read your post and you just through around the word "scam" like it's insignificant and offer absolutely no details to support your allegations. You were already upset about spending $2500 for a site that looked terrible and functioned poorly a site that surely no one would buy from. So, then why in the world would you pay at least two separate companies to advertise this poor quality website? You probably should have gotten a better web site first and maybe even found better products to sell from your web site. I hope you do well with your business and stop making false accusations and/or unsupported claims.

Pat

Santa Rosa,
California,
U.S.A.

Rebuttal to Sam's rebuttal

#6UPDATE Employee

Thu, April 14, 2005

In response to my first complaint about SMC, these statements are facts, not to mislead, but to let others know before they get into trouble. Sam, if you are in fact an SMC member, look on your members site map, and you will find a FRAUD ALERT notice with ebiz.csp underneath. They used to be SMC members. I don't doubt they can build websites, but it was advertising they were selling, and I was nearly ripped off for hundreds of dollars. Also I told the truth when I alerted others that I could not sell from a $10 per month "promo" site. A commercial website is useless if there is no gateway connection to it. This is the connection that allows funds to travel to your bank. They did not tell me this-I learned the hard way. As for products, yes some SMC products are GREAT, really nice. Unfortunately, others are junk. I just lost a customer, because the first item was defective. SMC was happy to send me a new one, but it was 20 times worse than the first item.

Pat

Santa Rosa,
California,
U.S.A.

Rebuttal to Sam's rebuttal

#7UPDATE Employee

Thu, April 14, 2005

Pat

Santa Rosa,
California,
U.S.A.

Rebuttal to Sam's rebuttal

#8UPDATE Employee

Thu, April 14, 2005

Pat

Santa Rosa,
California,
U.S.A.

Rebuttal to Sam's rebuttal

#9UPDATE Employee

Thu, April 14, 2005

Sam

Glenwood,
Illinois,
U.S.A.

Ebiz Is the best alternitive

#10Consumer Comment

Sat, April 09, 2005

In responce to the negitive person that submitted a false statment about Ebizcsp. I am a SMC merchant and they have some great products.I also have the Emerchant account that SMC offers. it was Very Expensive to set up and run. Ebizcsp offers a impresive web store and emerchant account at a price that is much less than SMC's program offers. I am truly discusted when people that have had a bad experiance log a complaint of this magnitude on a message board that millions of people reveiw . This type of complaint is missleading and the person submitting it should get their facts straight before sending others in a wrong direction. EBiz csp is trying to help people attain there dreams by offering something that won't empty their bank account . Please reveiw all the information before judging any business. Sam Camerano www.samsforless.com

Reports & Rebuttal