Georgina
Reno,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, September 05, 2006
You may want to contact the Better Business Bureau in the state of California for Specialty Merchandise Corporation and in the state of Arizona at 602-264-1721 or phoenix.bb.org for SMC Promotions to complete a complaint form online against them. I don't think most people know that they dba as SMC Promotions in Arizona. You also may try consumer affairs division in your state or put in consumer affairs in a search engine and download a complaint form, they will need SMC's address at 13230 San Bernardino, CA 92335 and SMC Promotions at 4041 North Central Avenue Ste B100, Phoenix, AZ 85012 and EMerchant Club at 996 Flower Glen Street, Simi Valley, CA 93065. They advised me to cancel my credit card and any other accounts that I had given them information. Also, dispute the charges if you were not given what you ordered with the credit card company. Wish me luck. I feel very taken advantage of because these guys sale you a website and then promise all these goodies that come with it and they never came. Good Luck to you.
Georgina
Reno,#3Consumer Comment
Tue, September 05, 2006
Thank you for all your comments regarding SMC, Specialty Merchandise Corporation or also its sister company E-Merchant Club. I really wish I had been a person to read these comments prior to getting involved. Normally I am not so gullable, but with a guy like Tom Bosley behind them who played in Father Dowling Mysteries and Murder She Wrote, not to mention Happy Days, I thought for sure I had a winner. I too paid the $300+ fee for a lifetime membership and thought well, I have 30 days to look over everything. By the way the thirty days starts the day you order your kit, so depending upon mail time holidays and such, your time is narrowed. I went into it whole heartedly. Started with my "business coach" (hindsight being 20/20 he should be called a slime ball salesman) I thought that if I was successful, than he would be successful so he would advise me appropriately. My advise is: Do not do business with these people. But, if you have or think you have to....Insist on everything they promise you is in writing prior to you paying them a penny. This man promised me one thing and when I finally received what I thought I ordered it was something entirely different... they promise you these Gift Cards with your website... first order $500 short in retail value... second upgrade, which was done the next day... $5700 short in Gift Cards. I spent over $7500 with them, ordering catalogs, a website, lists of names, business license, stamps with my business name. Calling the company was to no avail. Leaving messages with Customer Service and with Supervisors, with no response. I was lied to and scammed by Specialty Merchandise Corporation. It has been over one month and I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and I have requested a dispute on my credit card. I also recommend that you close out any credit cards or accounts that you have given SMC or EMerchant Club your accounts. It seems to me that anyone that is satisfied has not gotten in over their heads as of yet. The products do not seem of high quality, but they are reasonable to what is on the market these days. Most of the products are Made in China and it seems difficult to find quality US products these days anyhow. So, in closing my main complaint is to the unethical and dishonest practices of the SMC employees that I dealt with. If you have any other suggestions or would like to start a complaint with SMC with me please contact me at (((email ROR redacted))) Thank you CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
D
Houston,#4UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sun, January 25, 2004
I too saw the late night infomercials and tried out the company. I signed up for 199.00 and I did think that there would be no other fees as well. But I did make money on my first day after receiving the catalogs. I made quite a bit of money as a matter of fact. The only reason that I am no longer using them, for right now anyway... is because I didn't like the monthly fee payment. Plus I hadn't sold anything in about 3 or 4 months since I had my baby I just am not as into that right now. Anyway, tech support has always been good for me. Mainly everyone That I show the products to say that they are priced really well, plus you know that you have the option of setting you own sales, or just giving whatever discount if you think the products are marked really high. I mean the product may be marked for retail at $40.00 and you're only paying $6.99, you can stand to knock off a dollar here and there. The biggest complaint that I had was that people thought the items would be bigger. How do you solve this?...either order samples or make sure you tell your people the dimensions. But overall I give SMC a 8 out of 10 for a great money making oppurtunity. Plus you can hire subs under to you to boost your profits. Maybe you just needed to get a little boost to help with your sales. Now they do have a lot of discontinued items, which seem to be alot of the good ones, but if you keep up with your newsletters, they have all of that listed. ANYWAY... I'd say try it! The money back guarantee is good and you can easily tell in those 30 days if SMC is for you.