A subscriber to the my newsletter recently sent an email to me asking for advice about an opportunity called “Stores Online”.
Now, I haven’t come across this one before so I can’t comment but I though I would write a post giving some details to see if anyone knows more about them.
Have you had any experience with StoresOnline (storesonline.com)? Could you shed any light about whether their sites can bring in a good income?
Here is the email I received (I have removed some details to protect the identity of the sender):
“Could you advise me on the following:
My colleague purchased a package from a company called www.storesonline.com based in Utah, USA. Purchased after attending a workshop here in the UK.
It consists of:
Six websites, which you then customise from all the tools supplied.
Reverse Search facilities, Keyword reports, Online Tutorials, in fact it seems about everything that would be required to make them successful.Unfortunately my colleague is [not a computer expert] and like myself clueless where the net and web design and web mastering is concerned.
The only thing not included are products. I wonder if you know of any people in your organisation who may be interested in helping for a percentage of the income from these sites?
It cost about $19,000 and she has had no luck at all in getting them going. I hope you can help.”
Now, my personal thoughts on this matter are that for $19,000 this person should have 6 singing and dancing websites online and making money. If they are not then there is something seriously wrong with the opportunity.
$19,000 (just under £10,000) is a hell of a lot of money to pay for a few websites and so if this kind of money is being spent, it is not out of the question to expect excellent, problem-free service.
My reply was as follows:
“Hi,
The short answer for your problem about the websites is:
Your colleague should go back to StoresOnline and get help from them until she has all of her websites up and running.
If she has paid out $19k she should at least have the sites working. And if not, she should push for a full refund because this is not good value.
Ask her to go back to them and explain the problems she is having – she should not stop until everything is working for her.
Thanks,
Ben”
Now, I haven’t heard anything further about this problem yet but it has only been 5 days.
In the meantime, if you have any information about StoresOnline that you would like to share, please do let me know. You can leave a comment on this blog post or send me an email to the usual address.
By the way, don’t forget to check out the forthcoming seminar in Coventry – more details can be found here:
http://www.bizoppsblog.com/125/recommended-robert-puddys-coventry-seminar/
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
Two years ago, my friend and I attended one of these training days in Birmingham and it was very good fr content until it came to the hard sell at the end of the day. We only boughtone site not 6 and this cost us almost £2000, but the short term follow-up help was rubbish. The website was a poor cheap template type that you can get on ebay for a few pence and you had to set it up yourself, which to us who were beginners was hard, so we tried contacting them for help, but they were not very good at all. Communication was poor to say the least, so after a month we asked for our money back, but they say they don’t give refunds. We had to keep phoning them in Utah with threats of lawyers and court cases and it had to go to their top management, and in the end, they agreed to pay us back half our money so we lost £1000. There have been so many lawsuits against this company, a website has been set up with people posting their grievances on it, and it was several pages long. I don’t know how the company have managed to stay in business, and I would warn people to avoid them like te plague, and pay a local web designer to design them a website to their own style as these sites were very basic but expensive. Also, if you couldn’t afford to pay the money upfront, they arranged a loan for you and charged a lot for this too. Avoid at all costs as many peoples lives have ben ruined by the debt they got into from purchasing these sites with loans. For many reviews on this company, see Business Opportunity Review website as there are a lot of coments there.
Comment by Pat Higgins — 14th September 2007 @ 9:19 am
I attended a seminar 2 years ago also. the day was fine, then the hard sell, as I was not prepared to sign on the day as I will not make instant decisions without looking at the details in the cold light of day. They gave me an e.mail address which for the next three weeks I tried and failed to get through. This put great doubt in my mind. I think now that doubt is justified and I received another seminar option within the last 2 days offering ” how to sell on E.Bay”
From my past experience I will obviously not be taking this offer up.
Graham
Comment by graham — 30th September 2007 @ 3:48 pm
Have just been to a lunch presentation by StoresOnline. They seemed very professional and I’ve agreed to attend a training day on 21st June. I’ve got plenty of websites already so aren’t looking to get any more – only to get whatever professional guidance they can give. The price seems very reasonable, £25 reduced from £199 for a whole day even though it means giving up a summer Saturday. Paid for it in cash so don’t feel beholden to anything yet (eg haven’t given any card details etc) and the amount is just a bit of beer money.
I’ve been to sessions with other organisations in the past and never hesitate to walk out if there’s something fishy going on. I did just that recently at a seminar run by a property investment company called Inside Track when they started asking everyone to pay £2,000 for further training. Every one in the room looked at me as I politely left, but seeing as Inside Track went into administration a few weeks ago, I think I was the one to have the last laugh!
I’ll report back on how the day with Stores Online goes. I’m very interested in the other readers’ comments. I still have an open mind but as the saying goes, “forewarned is forearmed”.
Congratulations on this site it provides a valuable service and I’ve a lot of respect for what I see on your pages.
Regards
Patrick Clarke
Comment by Patrick Clarke — 11th June 2008 @ 4:53 pm