Complaint Review: Storesonlineinc. - Orem Utah

In March, 2002, I received an invitation in the mail to attend a seminar about having your own business on the internet at the Colony Inn in New Haven. I attended this seminar and was then invited to attend attend an all day workshop a few days later at the Trumbull Marriott. There were maybe 50-100 people at the first seminar and at least 100-200 at the second seminar - maybe a lot more. The room was packed.

We were told about all the tremendous success this company that was sponsoring this event, StoresOnLine, was having on the internet. We were told that they were one of the few companies on the internet whose affiliates were making any money. They had someone speaking throughout the day who was in fact one of their success stories. However, he was being paid by them (which he even admitted and told us) to relate his success story. I felt that their presentation was credible and signed up that day for their full package of six websites and accompanying merchant account to the amount of $5,600. I was promptly approved for financing through a related loan company, Fair Financial Services, for the full amount.

My monthly payments were to be $234.59. I felt that I could afford this payment until I got the first website up and going. Then I would start to see enough of a return to pay for this loan and pay it off fairly quickly. This was how the workshop was presented. If I could get just one website up and going, StoresOnLine would show me how to market it successfully so I could start making money right away. The speaker who they used as an example claimed to be grossing $6-7000 daily! from multiple websites.

Many people at the seminar - I would say easily 50-100 - maybe a lot more - hurried to sign up for 3-6 websites and coordinating merchant accounts. I decided this was a great opportunity and decided to sign up for the whole package. This was on March 20, 2002.

I went home and immediately opened my package of information that was given to me by StoresOnLine. There was a letter from the President, John Poelman, welcoming me and informing me that there was an additional private coaching session available which he encourage me to consider to insure my success with StoresOnLine.

Soon after I signed up I recieved a phone call from a Michael Coles at Professional Marketing International. He explained that my chances of succeeding with my internet businesses would be greatly improved if I qualified for their Success Team. I had to convince them that I was indeed very serious about this and then I was told this would cost additional money to be part of the Success Team.

I was given examples of people who had done well. I then was told I could sign up for a conservative, moderate or aggressive strategy. I gave them four credit card numbers and they charged $8,900 on my cards. This, I was told, was a moderate approach for marketing and was necessary to make sure that I got the right start as part of the Success Team. I agreed, feeling that if I put the right effort in, I would be successful.

I then started having coaching sessions with my coach from PMI, Mat Rasmussen. Mat would call me every week and we would spend a half-hour on the telephone. He faxed me a list of drop shippers from which to choose. I chose LinensByJanet who coordinates drop shipping from numerous manufacturers of linens. I did all the assignments until I was ready to submit my website information to StoresOnLine. I did so in August,2002. I explained to StoresOnLine that I had a Macintosh/Apple computer and was having trouble getting on my website. They said there should be no problem. I decided to get a new Mac as I still couln't get into my website.

Meanwhile, several weeks after my initial submission, without my consent or approval, my website was "published". The website designer, Han Butler, had not followed my instructions but had literally lifted images off of two websites that I had referred hime to to use as guidelines for setting up my website.

These two websites are www.linensbyjanet.com, which as I explained to Han Butler, the original website designer at StoresOnLine, the website for my dropshipper and was a wholesale venue. He took prices from this website rather that prices I asked him to use which were retail.

Cheryl

branford, Connecticut
U.S.A.

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