Suzan
Greencastle,#2Author of original report
Thu, April 20, 2006
I just want to tell anyone who has unfortunately been ripped off by these people that they CAN get their money back! No matter what they say, don't let them convince you that you owe them....You don't! Don't give up!
Shannon
Long Beach,#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, April 10, 2006
All I was simply saying was you are on the internet, so just please be careful. I'm not saying you are foolish or anything at all like that. It's a simple mistake that can be made by anyone. So just when you're online, be more wary of what you do! That's all! Just advice or a little tip. Nothing of that was meant to be offensive, so I'm sorry if I did offend you.
Suzan
Greencastle,#4Consumer Comment
Mon, April 10, 2006
This is the LAST response that you will get from me. I DID NOT sign up for any service from you that required a fee to be paid, so therefore, I did NOT owe you a webhosting fee and you will never get me to say that I did! Your deceptive practices have not gotten you shut down as of yet, but they WILL and I promise you that! Shannon and Matthew have already shown the companies true colors by all but saying that you charge anyone who is foolish enough to give OS their credit card number. You owe me $59.90 and I WILL get it back! I guarantee you that it will be refunded! Good-bye
Shannon
Long Beach,#5UPDATE Employee
Sat, April 08, 2006
Here is the terms. As much as you want to argue with it, it is acceptable and it is a legally binding contract. It was approved as legit by the FTC. Otherwise, this company would have been in fact, shut down. I'll just shorten it down to the important part. The part that everyone should read at least if they quickly scam through the material they would see: 4.Payment of Fees <---BIGGEST CLUE EVER. If you subscribe to a service on this site that requires payment of a fee, you agree to pay all fees associated with such service, including the activation fee and the monthly web hosting fee of $29.95. For all charges for services on this site, we will bill your credit card or checking/savings account provided to us at activation. Recurring charges will be billed to the account you have provided us at the time of activation and will be billed every 30 days thereafter unless you contact customer service to cancel your membership. You agree to provide us with accurate and complete billing information, including valid credit card/checking/savings account information, your name, address and telephone number, and to provide us with any changes in such information within 10 days of the change. If, for any reason, your credit card company refuses to pay the amount billed for the service, you agree that we may, at our option, suspend or terminate your subscription to the service and require you to pay the overdue amount by other means acceptable to us. We may charge a fee for reinstatement of suspended or terminated accounts. You agree that until your subscription to the service is terminated, you will continue to accrue charges for which you remain responsible, even if you do not use the service. In the event legal action is necessary to collect on balances due, you agree to reimburse us for all expenses incurred to recover sums due, including attorney fees and other legal expenses. ------------------- I agree they aren't the most pleasent terms in the world. But you did agree to them by signing up for the kit and trial. Whether one reads them or not, that's the way it goes. It's a pretty sturdy legal leg. And also the reason you were charged twice in one month is most likely because a charge was declined and since all the billing is automatic, the computer tried at a later date and was able to go through. And then the second charge was to cover the second month.
Kelley
Goleta,#6UPDATE Employee
Sat, April 08, 2006
Here is a link to the Terms and Conditions: http://onlinesupplier.com/sign_up.php This is the section that you should read extra carefully: 4.Payment of Fees If you subscribe to a service on this site that requires payment of a fee, you agree to pay all fees associated with such service, including the activation fee and the monthly web hosting fee of $29.95. For all charges for services on this site, we will bill your credit card or checking/savings account provided to us at activation. Recurring charges will be billed to the account you have provided us at the time of activation and will be billed every 30 days thereafter unless you contact customer service to cancel your membership. You agree to provide us with accurate and complete billing information, including valid credit card/checking/savings account information, your name, address and telephone number, and to provide us with any changes in such information within 10 days of the change. If, for any reason, your credit card company refuses to pay the amount billed for the service, you agree that we may, at our option, suspend or terminate your subscription to the service and require you to pay the overdue amount by other means acceptable to us. We may charge a fee for reinstatement of suspended or terminated accounts. You agree that until your subscription to the service is terminated, you will continue to accrue charges for which you remain responsible, even if you do not use the service. In the event legal action is necessary to collect on balances due, you agree to reimburse us for all expenses incurred to recover sums due, including attorney fees and other legal expenses.
Suzan
Greencastle,#7Author of original report
Fri, April 07, 2006
First of all, Matthew, you should really learn to spell and be able to complete a sentence before you call someone else ignorant.... I DID read the terms before ordering the kit and it doesn't say anything that you claim it does and it isn't true that I had the kit in time to cancel what you claim I signed up for (which was absolutely nothing)!! Keep being obnoxious and calling ME stupid... it shows that your intelligence is lacking!
Matthew
Santa Barbara,#8UPDATE Employee
Fri, April 07, 2006
"your company doesnt have a legal leg to stand on" tell me suzan, why are you wasting time on this site when you could be talking to kenneth starr? if we dont have a legal leg to stand on then why hasnt the ftc or the bbb shut us down? and why dont people EVER take responsibility for being careless with their credit cards and not reading up on what they sign up for? its really no one's fault but your own. im sorry you didnt reaD about what our program had to offer, and im sorry you did not cancel in the time given to you (many people do, and are never charged ANYTHING) so maybe, just maybe, you should take your own ignorance into account and realize it might be your fault you were charged.
Shannon
Long Beach,#9UPDATE Employee
Thu, April 06, 2006
Everyone knows eBay. Yes, our ad does mention eBay. But all it mentions about eBay is that you can make money off eBay. We offer an AUCTION starter kit, not an eBay starter kit. If we said, "Make money with Bidmon*ey!" no one would know what the ad is talking about. Online Auction start kit refers to making money on online auctions. We could go more into fine print as well where it says: "We do not intend to offer employment, a career or job with Online Supplier or with eBay, Inc. eBay is a registered trademark of eBay, Inc and is not affiliated with or operated by Online Supplier." But we all know that people forget they're on the INTERNET and there is more to pages because sometimes scroll bars are there which shows there is more to the page. But I don't think some people are aware of that. At any rate, everything has false advertising. Fast fod restaurant food doesn't look like they show us they do. That new carpet cleaner doesn't exactly work as fast or as well as they say (Dramatization is printed at the bottom of every screen on those kinds of commericals.) You can't expect companies to NOT be somewhat false with everything. And like I said before, there are unhappy customers and happy customers with EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS THAT WAS EVER CREATED. By the way, you entered YOUR credit card on your own. No one forced you to continue and this company can't be held responsible because you didn't know fully what you were agreeing to. I guess I just grew up doubting every commerical and everything that was on the internet. I used to give my e-mail address out and then it got overloaded with spam, so I didn't do that again! So take it as a lesson, if anything, to not be so trusting of ANYTHING. Especially if they say it's free but want your card and especially if it's on the internet. I mean, what if you did that again and it really was a scam? And then you end up losing ALL your money instead of only 60 dollars. One more thing, off the subject of this company or anything... You're NOT going to remember nor miss that 60 bucks in a few years anyway so it really shouldn't be something that's stressing you out so bad. I'm sorry that this has happened, I can see diffently why you'd be upset because you thought something and something different happened. But seriously, out side of principle and everything, it's just money, and not just that, it was only 60 bucks. I don't know how many times I've messed up and had to spend more than I should have. I mean, my gas company was having problems with their payment systems and so I couldn't pay my bill when I tried so I was late and had to pay 50 more bucks because of it. BUT OH WELL! C'est la vie!
Suzan
Greencastle,#10Consumer Comment
Thu, April 06, 2006
If you recommend other sites and say that ebay isn't for beginners,(which I'm not, I've been on ebay for almost 2 years. I was just looking for products on your site) then why is the kit geared towards getting beginners to set up an ebay store? Your ad is all about how much money you can make on ebay. Why are you misleading all these poor people who don't know any better? By the way, you don't have a legal leg to stand on and my credit card company ISN'T going to pay you for your BOGUS charges!!
Shannon
Long Beach,#11UPDATE Employee
Wed, April 05, 2006
I've talked to many people who don't wanna pay money, like everyone else! So, instead of using ebay, I recommend other auction websites like Yahoo! or Amazon or Bidmonkey. Free ones. I refer them to free website submission websites. Ebay isn't the best market out there for beginners anyway... in my opinion. But what I've learned, everyone likes to complain. In every business you have your happy customers and your unhappy customers. This website is just a collection of unhappy customers.
Suzan
Greencastle,#12Consumer Comment
Wed, April 05, 2006
For someone who is supposed to be helping people do business on ebay, you sure don't know a heck of alot about it..... Paypal is 2.9%+ 30 cents per transaction and you still didn't mention any of the other fees you would have to pay ebay for store and listing fees! You still had no right to charge my credit card twice....even if the transactions were legit(which they are NOT), I ordered the kit on 1/17 and you charged me twice before 60 days were up(on the 6th and 10th of March)! Whether you post your terms of membership on the opening page or not, the FTC wants to know about deceptive practices as well....and I have told them (along with some other places like the BBB in your area) about yours!
Kelley
Goleta,#13UPDATE Employee
Wed, April 05, 2006
Terms and Conditions are displayed on almost every single website out there. In fact, even posting this rebuttal I see small print next to the submit button. FTC regulations require any internet businesses to disclose these terms to the potential customer; not to have it in large, bold lettering, or to make sure that you actually read them. The terms are disclosed on our sign up, and are actually labeled Terms of MEMBERSHIP, which imply something right there, that you are registering for a membership. These terms are a legally binding contract, and are meant to be read in their entirety, and also meant to be taken literally. As far as attempting to call, I admit and understand that lately we have been experiencing some high call volume. However, we are not the ones who decided not to wait on the line. You chose not to wait. Paypal doesn't actually charge you anything, they simply take a mere 2.9% transaction fee which actually comes from the payment. That means that for every $100 you are being paid, they are taking a whole $2.90. This is very inexpensive, especially considering a real merchant account will run you anywhere from $50-$150 upfront. Additionally, if you had been charged twice in one month, it was because your card had declined when the payment of $29.95 was first scheduled for processing. There is actually a profit potential with the service. It is not, of course, a garauntee, but the potential is there. The upfront costs are actually very minumal. Think of it this way, if you wanted to start your own online business, you would have to: pay for a product line (probably out of pocket); arrange for warehousing or storage of some kind; purchase online space for webhosting; if you don't know anything at all in regards to designing a website (ie HTML, PHP, or CSS), you'd have to pay a designer (which costs hundreds of dollars an hour); find and purchase some sort of merchant account; and you would also have to spend time and money advertising the store. If it didn't work out, you would be out a lot of money. If your Online Supplier store doesn't work out, you lose a whole $29.95/month for each month you were trying this. For that $29.95, you had access to EVERYTHING that I have listed above, as well as the support and assistance behind you. I really don't think $29.95 is all too much to ask for everything you actually get with the service.
Suzan
Greencastle,#14Author of original report
Tue, April 04, 2006
My, my, I guess I hit that nail right on the head! First of all, I know that products on the sight are being drop shipped from somewhere else because they said they weren't responsible for and couldn't guarantee the first ones I looked at because they weren't even on the same sight....I didn't look much farther than that. Secondly, there was no "SIGN ME UP FOR A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL" on the sign up page that I got in on...It had a 14 day free trial webstore as a bonus with your free kit..It said nothing more about how to take advantage of it or when it started or anything. The terms of membership said that there would be a web hosting charge only if I subscribed to any service that warrants a fee.Which I didn't! The page I printed out had an offer for a free trial of Actionline (for $59.95 a month) and I never took it. I was charged the web hosting fee (twice in the same month, 4 days apart)of $29.95 (which is supposed to be on a 30 day billing cycle) when I didn't even open a web store! Last, but not least, Paypal is only free for the buyer and NOT the seller! What about all the other fees on ebay? Huh? By the way, you are a very obnoxious person! I'm also sure that you DO deal with several irate people a day! People get MAD when they are being ripped off!
Suzan
Greencastle,#15Author of original report
Tue, April 04, 2006
My, my, I guess I hit that nail right on the head! First of all, I know that products on the sight are being drop shipped from somewhere else because they said they weren't responsible for and couldn't guarantee the first ones I looked at because they weren't even on the same sight....I didn't look much farther than that. Secondly, there was no "SIGN ME UP FOR A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL" on the sign up page that I got in on...It had a 14 day free trial webstore as a bonus with your free kit..It said nothing more about how to take advantage of it or when it started or anything. The terms of membership said that there would be a web hosting charge only if I subscribed to any service that warrants a fee.Which I didn't! The page I printed out had an offer for a free trial of Actionline (for $59.95 a month) and I never took it. I was charged the web hosting fee (twice in the same month, 4 days apart)of $29.95 (which is supposed to be on a 30 day billing cycle) when I didn't even open a web store! Last, but not least, Paypal is only free for the buyer and NOT the seller! What about all the other fees on ebay? Huh? By the way, you are a very obnoxious person! I'm also sure that you DO deal with several irate people a day! People get MAD when they are being ripped off!
Suzan
Greencastle,#16Author of original report
Tue, April 04, 2006
My, my, I guess I hit that nail right on the head! First of all, I know that products on the sight are being drop shipped from somewhere else because they said they weren't responsible for and couldn't guarantee the first ones I looked at because they weren't even on the same sight....I didn't look much farther than that. Secondly, there was no "SIGN ME UP FOR A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL" on the sign up page that I got in on...It had a 14 day free trial webstore as a bonus with your free kit..It said nothing more about how to take advantage of it or when it started or anything. The terms of membership said that there would be a web hosting charge only if I subscribed to any service that warrants a fee.Which I didn't! The page I printed out had an offer for a free trial of Actionline (for $59.95 a month) and I never took it. I was charged the web hosting fee (twice in the same month, 4 days apart)of $29.95 (which is supposed to be on a 30 day billing cycle) when I didn't even open a web store! Last, but not least, Paypal is only free for the buyer and NOT the seller! What about all the other fees on ebay? Huh? By the way, you are a very obnoxious person! I'm also sure that you DO deal with several irate people a day! People get MAD when they are being ripped off!
Suzan
Greencastle,#17Author of original report
Tue, April 04, 2006
My, my, I guess I hit that nail right on the head! First of all, I know that products on the sight are being drop shipped from somewhere else because they said they weren't responsible for and couldn't guarantee the first ones I looked at because they weren't even on the same sight....I didn't look much farther than that. Secondly, there was no "SIGN ME UP FOR A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL" on the sign up page that I got in on...It had a 14 day free trial webstore as a bonus with your free kit..It said nothing more about how to take advantage of it or when it started or anything. The terms of membership said that there would be a web hosting charge only if I subscribed to any service that warrants a fee.Which I didn't! The page I printed out had an offer for a free trial of Actionline (for $59.95 a month) and I never took it. I was charged the web hosting fee (twice in the same month, 4 days apart)of $29.95 (which is supposed to be on a 30 day billing cycle) when I didn't even open a web store! Last, but not least, Paypal is only free for the buyer and NOT the seller! What about all the other fees on ebay? Huh? By the way, you are a very obnoxious person! I'm also sure that you DO deal with several irate people a day! People get MAD when they are being ripped off!
Matthew
Santa Barbara,#18UPDATE Employee
Fri, March 31, 2006
i would just like to say as an employee of OS, i deal with a few of you each day. i would just like to re-clarify whats ALREADY stated on our website, you ARE signing up for a free trial...maybe the big purple "SIGN ME UP FOR MY FREE 14 DAY TRIAL" might clue you in, but since i spent 30 minutes trying to get someone to spell out our web address about an hour ago, i can understand what kind of customer base we're working with. second, your statements at the bottom of your letter about paypal are false...paypal is free, on top of that WE ARE THE DROP SHIPPERS! so if you're not paying attention to what you're doing with your credit card, maybe someone should take it away from you before you end up bankrupt. PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU SIGN UP FOR! the only false statements i se are YOURS
Suzan
Greencastle,#19Author of original report
Thu, March 30, 2006
I was finally contacted by them today to offer an apololgy and say that they wouldn't charge my credit card any further for the "misunderstanding" that we seemed to have about the 14 day free trial that comes with the auction kit according to the terms of service agreement for "web hosting" that costs $29.95 a month..... It is never stated quite this plainly and most people don't pick up on it.... All that this company is doing is using the poor people that don't know any better to sell drop shipped products from other companies FOR THEM and pay the ebay listing fees, ebay monthly store fees, the paypal/credit card fees, plus deal with all the customers on top of paying the monthly consulting fees to them of $29.95 plus another $59.95 a month if you chose to use the Actionline! I almost wish that I had been unethical enough to come up with such a scam! You do all the work, pay all the fees to them, the drop shippers, ebay and paypal and they make all the profits..... Does that sound like such a sweet deal to you? Please do Not let them get away with trying to scam people out of their blood, sweat and money! I won't!