Florida

From StoresOnlineExposed

STATE OF FLORIDA OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Plaintiff, v IMERGENT, INC., STORESONLINE, INC. AND GALAXY MALL, INC. Defendants, filed in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit in and for Leon County, Florida, with a case number of 2007CA1665. The complaint alleges violations of the deceptive and unfair trade practices act and seeks to require the Company to register as a seller of business opportunity. The complaint does not name any allegedly aggrieved purchasers or any parties who may have allegedly been defrauded.

Previously, the Office of the Attorney General issued a press release relating to what it described as an "active public-consumer related investigation" indicating that the office was investigating iMergent, Inc. (the "Company") for "alleged deception of would-be entrepreneurs who buy StoresOnline business services (websites, etc.) at promotional seminars." At that time, the Company had received requests for information relating to only fourteen customers over the last three years from the Attorney General of Florida. Nine of those cases had been resolved at that time and the Company was waiting for responses from the Office of the Attorney General on the other five.

[edit] Economics Crime Division, Florida

Case Number: L07-3-1007 Subject of investigation: iMergent, Inc., dba, Storesonline, Inc., fka Galaxy Mall

Allegation or issue being investigated:

Alleged deception of would-be entrepreneurs who buy "Storesonline" business services (websites, etc.) at promotional seminars.

AG unit handling case: Economic Crimes Division in Tallahassee, Florida

For more information about this case and listing your site as an unresolved complaint, contact:

Economic Crimes Division
Office of the Attorney General
The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050
Citizen Services: 850-414-3990
Main number: 850-414-3300
Fax: 850-488-4483

The person handling this case is Claudia Johns, 850-414-3832 (direct line).

Office of the Attorney General

Bill McCollum 
The Capitol, PL 01
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Phone: (850) 414-3300
http://myfloridalegal.com/

Some Comments from Dissatisfied Florida StoresOnline Customers

jacksonvillle: they don't tell you that they are charing you for the call for support they say that you get free support and as long as you call it no charge but it not a toll free number and it designed to where you have to call sommetimes then op outs you on hold and say let me ook into that for while you're on hold the minute are ticking a way [more]
Tampa: I purchase 6 websites from stores on line. I tryed to make one website up. I had learn that the only why to make any money was to pay another company 1000's of dollars to boost my website to the top of the search engines. These websites cost me over 6, 000.00 and I can't use them..plus the cost of finding merchandise to sell on other website. Some of these website wanting 25 to 35 dollars a month. So, I decided not to continue paying for these websites, (purchase product) because i wasn't selling anything. [more]
Clearwater: I bought 6 rights to websites back on 2005 after attending one of their seminars. I have only one website up as it has been very difficult to get just this one up and running. It was a very difficult thing to do - mind you I have been around computers since the late 80's. Their help desk is very limited. I'm still having issues with their cart system. They were never able to setup the cart system to accept deposits and later for the customer to pay the balance. [more]
West Palm Beach: I bought three websites (approximately $4000) and felt that I was sure to be successful in this endeavor. I even paid over $12, 000 more to go to Salt Lake City in July 2006 to a three day workshop to learn first hand how to be successful in my efforts. To date (Sept. 15, 2007) I have not made one penny from all of the money that I have paid out to set up, maintain and seek advice about just one site that I developed. [more]
Melbourne: My husband and I bought six storefronts in June of 2005. We got our first storefronts are up and running by November of 2005. That's store front made very little money and has since been shut down. We got a second storefront up and running in 2006. We have had absolutely no sales on this site. We are considering giving the other sites to her children. The seminar stated that we should have six storefronts in order to be able to make money so we went for all six. [more]
Clearwater: I am dissatisfied with my StoresOnline experience. I purchased six websites in
May 2006 and I have been trying to make an income from just the first site that I setup. It has been a tremendous amount of work to get one site up and functional and a whole lot more work to get the first 100 visitors to my site. I have put alot of money and time into this first site and it has been a losing proposition. I cannot even cover the
monthly expenses for my merchant account and web hosting fees. [more]
Miami: It looked very good in the semminar but when I tried to do it it was different. Very tough. [more]
Jacksonville: Since signing my contract over a year ago, I have been continually frustrated by the lack of response from StoresOnline from my requests for help. Although I have over 25 years' experience in computer graphics, their "intuitive" website design software has been a mystery to me. Each time I have tried to make changes, or attempted to get my site online, I have had to pay them to do it. In spite of actually getting my site active, I have received no response. [more]
Orlando: I have purchased 6 websites a few years ago, use only two, one more was built, never had any single sale, and was closed later. I was denied to get a refund for unused sites. For one website I have a dropshipper, the profit from that probably just covered the cost of websites by now, 3 years later. But not covered 1000's of hours of work. The other website I would not count profit, because it is built for our printing company, we do all work ourselves. [more]
MIAMI: AFTER PURCHASE I TRIED TO LET THEM KNOW THAT I HAD DECIDED THAT IT WAS NOT FOR ME. I WAS TOLD THAT I HAD SIGNED A PURCHASE AGREEMENT AND THAT I HAD TO PAY FOR THE SITES. THIS WAS ALL WITHIN 7 DAYS OF PURCHASE. I WISH NOW I HAD DONE SOME INVESTIGATING. I WOULD NEVER HAVE SIGNED UP WITH THIS COMPANY. I HAVE KNOW COMPLAINTS ABOUT THEIR SUPPORT ANYTIME I CALLED AND ASKED FOR HELP WITH SOMETHING THEY WERE THERE WITH AN ANSWER. [more]
Gainesville: In May of 2006 my wife and I attended a StoresOnline seminar in Gainesville, Fl At this seminar we were told that the web sites sell themselves. Once you get a product and create the website the products sell themselves “after hours, while you are sleeping”, we would not have to do any soliciting for sales. All the seminar personnel claimed to have 7 websites up and working, they said “it was so easy”. [more]
Marianna: I have had Store's OnLine for 9 months. My husband and I have put many hours into getting a website up. When we went to publish it on Google the sites never were even in the 800's. We put up another site and it has been several months and we are not on Google yet either. They said the site was fine for publishing on both sites. When we signed up we had the impression they would at least get us on the search engines but they sent up other consultants for thousands of dollars they would help us. [more]
Boca Raton: Although I went in with my eyes wide open I can see where their high pressure tactics could easy trapped some of the older folks into spending a lot more money than they should have. The part I didn't like was after I spent over $6000.00 dollars they were not satisfied and came back with a program to try to get me to spend a lot more even befor I earned one cent with their program. I don't think they did anything illegal but their tatics were far from ethical. [more]
Ft. Myers: We fell for it just like everyone else. We went to the seminar, were convinced we needed six sites and how easy it would be, even for non-computer literate people. I work on a computer every day and although I am no expert, it was not easy at all to build these websites. We also went to the training seminar in Utah after being convinced by EMS that it would put us far ahead and give us all we needed to be successful. Once again, very high energy tactics and promises that anybody could do it. [more]
Fort Lauderdale: The sales pitch pretended that it is very easy to get the website into important web search engines on a top position without paid ad. That's not true. At the same time, the sites are very limited in your own crativity, you cannot set up everything as you would like to. [more]
Orlando: We attended a StoresOnline introductory free luncheon and were presented an enthusiastic overview of their organization. At this presentation we were invited to attend an all day in-depth presentation. The event was well organized and the presenters were very articulate and persuasive. The basic message was that the average person could be successful with a website, generating thousands of dollars a month by following their methods. We were swept up in the hype. [more]
NAPLES: At the seminars the speakers made every sound as if you could not fail.I felt they were going to help me make some money. I paid over $5, 000 dollars for 5 websites.Before I even started my first one, I get a call about training and helping me build my website, Well I was talked into laying out another $5, 000 dollars for a 10 week, i/2 hr phone call every monday nite. [more]
miami: no sales and no help [more]
Daytona beach: I thought it sounded so great when i went to the workshop and decided to give it a try, i bought 6 sites. It has been very hard to try and build a website and once i finally did get one up and running i only had one sale and that was because it was a friend. I have lost over $8000.00 in this investment that i thought would be making me money. I am a single mom working hard and wanted to earn extra money to get out of debt but just ended up with more. [more]
Tampa: I bought 6 stores because the "trainer" made it sound so easy to do. Yeah, right. I put off building the stores for over a year and then purchased an $8000 coaching program from an affiliate, EMS Coaching. Yes, I stayed on track and built two stores (www.classypawsboutiqe.com and a nutritional supplement store that has not gone live, and I built a website for my new business (www.happyhearthypnosis.com). [more]
Ft Myers: I went to the first introduction and was made to feel that I could be as sucsessful as the people depicted in the videos shown to me. After the first go around we wnt to the second sales presentation and again the moderators told us that they were sucsessful with stores online and were having fantastic sales. They explained by using stores online tolls that we all could have our websites featured on the first page of google. The website was very diffacult to construct. [more]
st. pete: Sounded real good at the seminar, bought 6 sites. Stores on line turned me on to PMI to help me with building web site, they helped me get one store front built but didn't really help me the way I understood that they would, also stores on line didn't help me the way I was made to beleave they would eather. Now I have 5 web sites and one store front and I don't know what to do with them. [more]
West :Palm Beach: I was deceived into purchasing 6 websites and access to a secure credit card service by Stores on Line. I was told that I would receive free assistance, and that finding companies willing to let me sell their product would be as easy as asking. I was contacted shortly after purchasing my websites, and was offered services to make one successful for about $3000 more in fees. I declined, as I didn't have the funds or the desire to give Stores on Line more money. [more]
Panama city and Tallahassee : We recieved a mail solicitation with a free dinner and seminar on how to get rich on line with just a few hours a week don't even have to own a computer, use the local library computer. We attended the dog and pony show, with a rosy picture on how much money we could make, and even carry a computer with you and have all vacations expensed off on incometax. Didn't have to have computer skills. Only $20.00 for the 8 hour school in Tallahassee Fl.(only 100 miles away) We signed up and attended. [more]
Clearwater: This product was advertised as easy to use and that you could have a storefront within just a few hours. The rep who sold me on the product even said, "You may have it done by this weekend" and that was Friday. In their presentation they filmed a Venezuelan woman who just keep pushing buttons and all of a sudden she had a site. This software is not friendly and requires a daily query to customer service, issue by issue. I am really discouraged and kick myself for buying into this scheme. [more]
Miami: In March of 2007 we attended the seminar held at the Miami Airport Marriott. We purchased the six store package and were promised a world of traffic and that due to their unlimited access to meta and beta tags our response would be much better then our previous webmaster. After working on the conversion from our old store to their new store (4 months and 660 products) incorporating the use of these Meta and Beta Tags it became apparent that this was definitely not the case. [more]
Jacksonville: I attended their semminar here jcaksonville florida and was sucked into the trap. I bought 1 storefront with the finance option. But then after trying to work on my site only to find out it is not as easy the way these scum bags mke it sound, I got frustrated and left it off. [more]