Complaint Review: StoresOnLine

In December of 2003, my parents and I attended a "seminar" on Internet Marketing. We liked what had been presented then so we paid $20 each to attend the next seminar for "more information" which was held the following week.

At the second seminar, we were given numerous examples of NON-storesonline web sites (their favorites were on-line sellers of wheatgrass kits & cow patty clocks) but were led to believe that these WERE highly successful storesonline merchants. We were also LIED to that only storesonline had a reverse-search engine tool. NOT TRUE! We were told that by using this unique tool, we would be able to easily locate businesses that were searching for us to sell their products. NOT TRUE!

Hyped up with these lies, we purchased 6 web sites for $6000 plus the extra $99 for the vacation affiliate package to display on our site (yet another scam!).

We were lied to that their customer service, accessed through a chat line, would be able to answer ANY questions we had and would be there to help. NOT TRUE! Our experience with this "help" was extremely SLOW responses that were form replies that did NOT answer our questions. When we would express that complaint, we would receive the same form response again. Often times, the person replying didn't even possess a slim grasp of the English language. Not only were they not knowledgeable, they were often times rude. We're still waiting for a programmer to get back with us (only 9 months later!) about why some of our product pictures were NOT displaying on the pages of our sites!

When we finally did get 3 of the sites "published", we weren't able to take any orders!! When we contacted storesonline, they claimed it was the fault of the credit card processing company ECI, that we'd had to pay an additional $1000 for since it was integrated to use with SOL. When we'd contacted ECI, they claimed it was the fault of SOL. We went round and round in circles before we were finally able to get our shopping carts working. We lost numersous sales because of their incompetence.

NOWHERE in the information supplied to us for our $6000, was their information on how to set up the web sites properly. For example, I had to access several help forums to find out how to write a proper footer. This is basic information that SHOULD be included in the packet. Other basic information not included is how to access the newsgroups, not just suggestions that we "should" access them.

This whole company is in business to just grab the $3000/per 3 web sites per person and move on to more people dumb enough to fall for their lies, and unethical business practices. They are NOT in the business of supporting their customers or backing what they sell.

Unethical, deceitful, untruthful, shameful, and untrustworthy is what describes this company.

Tracy
Piqua, Ohio
U.S.A.